
Pass b Ty 162 . 
Book L_X1^ / 



tlar'per^s Stereotype Edition. 

HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, 



THE EARLIEST AGES 



TO 



THE REFORMATION. 



BY THE REV. GEORGE WADDINGTON, M.A. 

FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, AND PREBENDARY OF 
FERihNG, IN THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF CHICHESTER. 



NEW-YORK. 

PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, ^ 

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AND SOLD BY THE PRINCIPAL BOOKSELLERS THROUGHOUT THE 

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ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



INTKODUCTION. 

Page 
The Author's reasons for abandoning in this work 

the usual method of division by centuries 25 

This history is divided into five parts or periods, 
ending respectively at the establishment of the 
Church by Constantine ; at the death of Charle- 
magne ; at the death of Gregory VII.; attheseces- 
sion of the Popes to Avignon 3 at the beginning of 
the Eeformation 26 

The study of ecclesiastical history teaches religious 
moderation 27 

PART I. 

Chapter!. — The Propagation of Christianity. 
A.D. 
60 The Church of Jerusalem. James the Just its 

first President or Bishop 29 

65 Secession of the Christian Church to Pella 30 

No tabularies or public acts preserved by the 

primitive Christians 30 

134 Foundation of iElia Capitolina by Adrian 30 

40 Church of Antioch, founded by St. Paul and 

Barnabas 31 

There the converts first assumed the name of 
Christian 31 

107 Ignatius, the second Bishop, suffered martyr- 
dom in the persecution of Trajan 31 
The pretended correspondence between Jesus 
Christ and Abgarus, Prince of Edessa, in 
Mesopotamia, proves the early introduction 
of the faith into that country 31 
The Church of Ephesus, founded by St. Paul, 
and governed by St. John 31 
166 The Church of Smyrna governed by Polycarp, 
till his martyrdom under Marcus Antoni- 
nus 32 
The Churches of Sardis and Hierapolls. Meli- 
toandPapias. Conversion of Bithynia 32 
107 The testimony of Pliny the Younger, contained 

in his Epistle to Trajan 33 

The difficulty of establishing the Church at 
Athens may be ascribed to the speculative 
character of the people 34 

D5 Greater facility in the conversion of the Corin- 
thians. The dissensions of the converts 
were censured by St. Clement, Bishop of 
Rome 34 

165 The seven Catholic Epistles of the Bishop Dio- 

nysius 35 

64 The persecution at Rome by Nero is related by 
Tacitus, with little humanity. St. Peter and 
St. Paul are believed to have su^fFered on that 
occasion. Testimony to the numerical im- 
portance of the Converts 35 
196 Victor, Bishop of Rome, addressed an order to 
the Asiatic Bishops respecting the celebra- 
tion of Easter, which they refused to obey. 
A Schism was the consequence 36 
177 A persecution in Gaul by Marcus Antoninus 37 
Irenaus was subsequently Bishop of Lyons 37 
Some reasons why the Church of Alexandria 

was probably numerous at an early period 37 

St. Mark, the first Bishop 37 

134 Testimony of the Emperor Adrian, respecting 

the religious character of the Alexandrians 37 
Establishment there of the Catechetical School, 
and subsequent labors of Panteenus, Cle- 
mens, and Origen 38 

Chapter II. — On the J\''iimhers, Discipline, Doctrine, 
and Morality of the Primitive Church. 

SCO The gi-eat extent over which Christianity was 

spread before the end of the second century 38 

The earliest converts were chiefly of the mid- 
dle or lower classes ; the cause of their ob- 
scurity 39 

The great facility of intercourse throughout the 
Roman Empire, the zeal of the missionaries, 
&c. • 39 

On the mkacxilous powers claimed by the 



I A. D. Paga 

Church, and the period to which they were 
most probably confined 4ft 

They appear to have ceased with the immedi- 
ate successors of the Apostles 40 

The episcopal government generally establish- 
ed after the death of the Apostles ... A 
perpetual succession of Bishops traced up to 
that time in most- of the Eastern Churches 
and in Rome 41,42 

On the temporary ministry of the prophets 42 

On the subordinate office of deacon, and the 
extent of the spiritual duties assigned to it 42 

Very early origin of the distinction between 
clergy and laity, established by the Act of 
Ordination 42 

The Bishop co-operated with the Council of 
Presbyters in the government of his Church, 
and was elected by the whole body of the 
clergy and people 43 

Ib^etseq. Origin and composition of the first pro- 
vincial assemldies or synods j they rose in 
Greece 43 

From these synods proceeded the title and dig- 
nity of the Metropolitan, and the general ag- 
grandizement of the episcopal order 44 

Excommunication the oldest weapon of the 
Church 44 

Community of property had not universal prev- 
alence 45 

The primitive institution of the Lord's day 45 

The two most ancient festivals were those of 
the resurrection and of the descent of the 
Holy Spirit - 45 

The only public fast on the day of the cruci- 
fixion 45 

The variety of early creeds, and primitive use 
of the Apostles' creed. The sacraments of 
Baptism and the Eucharist 45 

— Nature and use of the Agapae, or feasts of 

Charity 46 

Exemplary morality of the early Christians, 
proved from the writings of St. Clement, 
Origen, the younger Pliny, Bardesanes, Lu- 
cian, and Justin Martyr 47-49 

, Charity the corner stone of the moral edifipe 47-49 

Chapter III. — Progress of Christianity from 200 
till Constantine^ s Accession. 

The first appearances of corruption in the 
Church necessarily proceeded from the in- 
creased numbers and more varied character 
of the converts 49 

313 Before the time of Constantine, Christianity 
was deeply rooted in all the eastern provin- 
ces of the ilouuin empire it had also spread 
among the northern and western nations 50 

Some vague pretensions of Rome advanced 
and resisted 50 

251 The Roman Synod against Novatian was at- 
tended by sixty Bishops 50 

203 Origen was made President of the Catechetical 
School, and remained so for nearly th'rty 
years. His great diligence and erroneous 
principles in the interpretation of Scripture. 
He was successful in converting some Arabi- 
an Heretics 51 

192 Tertuliian was made Presbyter of the Church 

of Cartilage. He fell into Montanism about . 
seven years afterwards. He was of a vio- 
lent, inconsistent, and powerful character 52 

250 Cyprian was raised to the See of Carthage 52 

The dignity of the Metropolitans was exalted, 
and the general distinction between Bishops 
and Presbyters widened during the third 
century. Cyprian instrumentalin this 52,53 

Some inferior classes in the ministry were in- 
stituted ; the distinction between the faithful 
and the Catechumens became prevalent in 
this age; and some mistaken notions were 
encouraged respecting the nature of baptism, 
as well as of the Eucharist 53,54 

The sign of the Cross was employed in the 
office of exorcism 53,54 



ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



The connexion of religion with philosophy oc- 
casioned the origin of pious frauds and for- 
geries 54 

The sect of the Eclectics, founded by Ammo- 
nias Saccas, tended to the injury and corrup- 
tion of Christianity. His successor, Plotinus, 
made a compromise with his religion 55 

The Millennarian opinions prevalent in the 
early Church should probably be ascribed to 
the error of Papias 56 



Chapter IV.- 



-Persecutions of several Roman 
Emperors. 



The theory of pure Polytheism permits an un- 
limited reception of divinities, and, as such, 
is tolerant ; but the Polytheism of Rome was 
apolitical engine ; the laws were rigid in ex- 
cluding foreign Gods ; and the practice of the 
Republic was continued in the empire 57,58 

The number of Ten Persecutions became pop- 
ular after the fifth century. The name of 
persecution should be confined to four or five 5S 
§4 Whether the persecution of Nero was general 
or con.fined to Rome, and whether his laws 
against the Christians were more than an ap- 
plication to them of the standing statutes of 
the empire &9,60 

94 or 95 The grandsons of St. Jude were brought 

before Domitian, and dismissed in security 60 
The Rescript of Trajan enjoined death as the 
punishment of aconvicted Christian; forbid- 
ding, however, inquisition 60 

138 — 161 Tbe Christians suffered, during the reign 
of Antoninus Pins, through popular violence, 
rather than legal oppression 61 

163—181 The first systematic persecution was that 

of Marcus Antoninus, and it lasted during . 
his whole reign. He encouraged inquiry af- 
ter the suspected and inflicted every punish- 
ment'. He censured the enthusiasm of the 
martyrs, yet not himself free from the charge 
©f superstition, though adorned by many vir- 
tues 61,62 

202—211 The Edict of Severus against the Chris- 
tians remained in force j it was most de- 
structive in Egypt 62^ 

250 Decius pretended to constrain all his subjects 
to return to the religion of their ancestors ; 
many perished ; and many fell away from 
the faith 63 

258 Cyprian suffered martyrdom in the reign of 

Valerian, on his refusal to sacrifice 64 

303 The teachers of philosophy were instrumental 
in bringing Diocletian to begin his persecu- 
tion. It was continued for ten years, with a 
severity comprehending every form of oppres- 
sion ; and ceased not till the accession of 
Constantine 64 

313 The early unpopularity of the Christians is ac- 
counted for by ancestral prejudices, the fame 
of peculiar sanctity, converting zeal, Jewish 
hostility, and various calumnies ; the exclu- 
sive character of the religion, aversion for 
idolatry, &:c. 65,66 

The Church learned from her sufferings the 
lesson of persecution, which she practised 
in after ages 67 

Cbntumatjy the pretext for these Pagan inflic- 
tions 63 
Various false notions respectin-g the characters 
and ends of the emperors v/ho persecuted 
and who tolerated 68 
These persecutions were not, upon the whole, 
unfavorable to the progress of religion 69' 

\Fh'apter V. — On the Heresies of the First Tliree 
Centuries. 

The original meaning of the word heresy is 
choice; it passed from philosophy into relig- 
ion ; and various senses, no longer indiffer- 
ent, were then attached to it 69 

The earliest fathers strongly opposed erroneous 
opinions ; yet permitted no personal severi- 
ties 70 

The names of dissent were in no age more nu- 
merous than the earliest — proving the num- 
bers of the early converts 71 

Some errors probably older than. the apostolic 
preaching 71 

The Church suffered from the absurd opinions 
of some of the heretics who were confounded 
with it 71 

Mosheim distinguishes the early heretics into 
three classes 72 

A different view is ta^a by Dr. Burton,, who- 



A. D, Page 

traces all the most ancient heresies to the 
Gnostic philosophy - 73 

The division of heresies here given is rather in 
reference to their subject than their supposed 
origin 73 

The vain inquiry respecting the origin of evil ; 
it is ascribed to matter : hence the eternity 
of matter, and supposition of an evil principle 73 
The association of this philosophy with Chris- 
tianity occasioned many gross errors, as the 
rejection of the Old Testament as the work 
of the evil spirit, and the denial of the hu- 
manity of Christ ; these were held by the 
Gnostics 73 

Simon Magus was classed among these ; and 
bis disciples are thought to have been very 
numerous at Rome 74 

120-1 Saturninus introduced the opinions into the 
Asiatic, Rasilides into the Egyptian, School; 
and Carpocrates ami Valentin us further ex- 
tended or refined them. Cerdo and Marcion 
introduced them into Rome 74 

172 Tatian, disciple of Justin Martyr, founded on 
them the heresy of the Encratites, who pro- 
fessed meditation and bodily austerities 74 
The Docetffi (Phantastics) were of very early 
origin ; they had a system of emanations from 
the Divinity, caljed .^ons, of which Christ 
was one ; while Jesus was the mere man, 
into whom the ^on descended. They disbe- 
lieved, in consequence, the atonement 75 
72 The Ebionites, who denied the divinity of 
Christ, were of very early origin ; they were 
chiefly confined to the Jewish converts, and 
were disclaimed by the Church 75,76 

200 Theodotus was expelled from the Church of 
Rome, while Victor was bishop, for assertiag 
the mere humanity of Christ 76 

269 Paul of Samosata was deposed, and removed 

by Aurelian 76 

The creed of Tertullian in his answer to 
Praxeas 76 

250 Sabellius denied the distinct personality of the 
second and third persons, considering them 
as energies, or portions of the first: hence 
his followers were called Patripassians 77 

170' Montanus began to prophesy in Phrygia, in 
company with Maximilla and Priscill'a. Ter- 
tullian became a convert and advocate 78 

257 A controversy arose about the baptism of here- 
tics, in which Stephen, Bishop of Rome, dis- 
played some violence 78 

— The Novatians,^ the earliest ecclesiastical re- 

formers, were condemned by the Church ; 
they subsisted till the fifth century 79 

Observations on the character of the early her- 
esies, and the manner in which they were 
opposed by churclircen 79 

The degree of respect due to the early Fathers 79' 
On the epistle of Barnabas, the Shepherd of 
Hermas, the epistles of Igiiatius, and that of 
Polycarp 80 

140 The two Apologies of Justin Martyr and his 

dialogue with the Jew Trypho 81 

178 Irenffius was made Bishop of Lyons. He wrote 

five books "Against Heresies " 81,82 

PART IL 

CiTAPTER Vr. — Constantine tkt Cheat'. 

312" An inquiry into the miracle of the luminous 

cross ; it rests on very insufficient evidence 82';83 
313 Publication of the edict of Milan — an edict of 

universal toleration 83 

The suspicions of Constantine's sincerity are 
founded on the inadequacy of his morality to 
his profession ; and are counteracted by ma- 
ny particulars of his conduct and character 83 

Before Constantine, neither the authority of 
synods or bishops, nor the property of the 
Church, was recognised by law. Here is ths 
earliest vestige of distinction between spirit- 
ual and temporal power 85" 

In what the strength of the Antenicene Church 
consisted. That strengtli, as well as the 
peculiar qualities of Christians, influenced 
Constantine to legalize Christianity 86 

— He received the Church into strict alliance 

with the State; investing the Crown with 
the highest ecclesiastical authority, with 
great mutual advantage 85 

321 The internal administration of the Church re- 
mained in the hands of the Prelates. Per- 
mission was granted to bequeath property to 
the Church ; also exemption from civil offi- 
ces, and independent jurisdictiou '87 



ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



A. D. Page A. D. 

The Emperor assumed the control of the ex- 
ternal administration ; the right of calling 
general councils, &;c. 88 

This right was the creation of a new power, 
not an usurpation on the Church 88 

-Constantinejin the ecclesiastical, followed the 
civil, divisions of the empire. To the three 
leading prelates of Rome, Antioch, and Alex- 
andria, he added the Patriarch of Constan- 
tinople 89 

A thousand Bishops administered the Eastern, 
and eight hundred the Western, Church 89 

The establishment of the Church was, upon 
the whole, favorable to the concord of 
Christians. The persecutions which have 
followed it were not its necessary conse- 
quence 89 

Various sources of the Romish corruptions 90 

J\rote. On the historical respectability of Euse- 
bios ; to what his professions are confined, 
and how far he fulfils them 90-91 

Chapter VII. — On the Arian Controversy. 

Those metaphysical controversies, which ex- 
ercised only the wit of philosophers, engaged 
the passions of Christians. They were pro- 
longed by the neglect of Scripture, and in- 
flamed by the national characteristics of the 
disputants 92 

Constantino presently published laws against 
various heretics 93 

319 Arius promulgated his opinions at Alexandria, 
and had many followers in Asia and Egypt. 
He was excommunicated by Alexander, Bish- 
op of Alexandria 93 

325 Constantino reluctantly convoked the Council 

of Nice 94 

The variety of motives by which its members 
were profeably influenced. The dissensions 
of the Bishops, who finally pronounced the 
Son consubstantial with the Father 94 

Gibbon's account examined (note) 95 

Temporal penalties were inflicted on the contu- 
iHacious, but revoked, as soon as their ineffi- 
cacy was discovered 96 

The character of Arius, according to Epiphanius 96 
336 Constantius encouraged Arianisra in the East 96 

326 Athanasius succeeded Alexander in the See of 

Alexandria. He was degraded ; restored ; 
and again degraded j and passed his exile at 
Rome 97 

S49 He was again restored to his throne ; and, is 

seven years, deposed for the third time 98 

The difficulty with which Constantius accom- 
plished his deposition, proves the diminution 
of the imperial despotism, through the rise 
of the Church 98 

362 Athanasius was again restored, on the death 
of Constantius, and, after eleven years, died 
in his See 98 

Difference among the Arians as to the likeness 
between the two persons ; leading to divis- 
ions 98 



The Semiarians, Honaoiousians, Anomoians, 
or Eunomians 

358-9 Synods of Ancyra and Seleucia 

360 The Council of Rimini established Arianism 
(or rather Semiarianism) in the West 

S70 Yalens persecuted the Catholics throughout the 
East 

383 Theodosius the Great generally restored the 
Catholic belief 

381 The Council General of Constantinople estab- 
lished the divinity of the Third Person 

- - Damasus, at Rome, and Ambrose, at Milan, 
zealously defended the Consubstantialist doc- 
trine 

870 triphilas converted the Goths to Arianism ; 
other barbarians subsequently adopted the 
same opinion ; and in the fifth century it 
again became general in the West 

527 et seq. Justinian sustained the Catholics 

589 The Council of Toledo extirpated Arianism 
from Spain ; and the Lombards soon after- 
wards embraced the Catholic doctrine 
The Arians may have been free from some of 
the superstitious corruptions of the Catho- 
lics ; but the merit of tolerance cannot be 
ascribed to either party 
JVote on Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret, and 
other ecclesiastical writers 103-4 



100 



100 



100 



102 



102 



Page 
105 



Chapter VIII. — The Decline and Fall of Paganism, 

The overthrow of Paganism contemporary with 
the Arian dissenaions 104 



321 Constantine published an edict in favor of 

divination 
333 He began to attack the temples and idols, and 
generally condemned the rights of Paganism. 
Constantius, the Arian, followed his example 105 
The supposed motives of Julian, and his char- 
acter, as compared to that of Marcus Anto- 
ninus 106 
The policy of Constantine contrasted with that 

of Julian 105 

The successive penalties and disabilities by 
which Julian attacked the Christians, and 
the great knowledge which he showed of the 
theory of persecution 107 

His endeavors to reform Paganism were direct- 
ed to three points ; in a great measure bor- 
rowed from the ecclesiastical system of the 
Christians 107 

353 He made his celebrated attempt to rebuild the 
Temple of Jerusalem. The historical facts 
of this attempt are founded on the combined 
evidence of four contemporary authors, one of 
whom, Ammianus JJarcellinus, was a Pagan 108 
The question whether the phEenomenon which 
interrupted the w*ork was natural or miracu- 
lous 108 
A recent explanation of it is attended v/ith 
some difficulties, and still leaves room for 
uncertainty 109 
Valentinian I. practised universal toleration IW 
392 Theodosius published his famous edict against 
polytheism. It was effectual in diminishing 
the numbers of the Pagans, and confining 
them chiefly to the villages 3 whence the 
name 110 
The religion may be considered as extinct from 

this time 111 

Some heathen superstitions were communicat- 
ed to Christianity. The veneration for mar- 
tyrs encouraged by the Fathers, and carried 
to excess by the people 111 

404 Honorius abolished the gladiatorial games 112 

388 Christianity was established by the Roman 

Senate 113 

J\rote on the writings of Julian, Ammianus Mar- 
cellinus, and Zosimus. Julian's hatred of 
Christianity was not the contempt of a philos- 
1, opher, but the passion of a rival ; a passage m 
the Misopogon proves his own superstitious- 
ness or hypocrisy ; his charitable edicts were 
derived from the Christian practices 113-14-15 

Chapter IX. — J^owt the Fall of Paganism to the 
Death of Justinian. 

370 — 600 The various barbarian tribes were coh- 
verted, some before, some after, their inva- 
sion of the empire 

496 The probable account and consequences of the 
conversion of Clovis. The first connexion 
between France and Rome 
The natural causes which facilitated the con- 
version of the barbarians ; their respect for 
the grandeur of the empire, for the sacerdotal 
character, for the imposing ceremonies of the 
Church 116-17 

The opinion of Mosheim as to the probability 
of supernatural interposition in aid of this 
work 
The internal condition of the Church was still 
further corrupted by the admixture of anotli- 
er superstition 

427 Symeon the Stylite, a Syrian monk, commenc- 
ed his method of penitential devotion, and 
obtained the admiration of the people and the 
respect of the Emperors 118-19 

440 Leo the Great was raised to the See of Rome ; 
zealous in the repression of error both in tke 
East and West 
And in the aggrandizement of the Roman See 
Leo encouraged, or instituted, the practice of 
private confession, — so useful to sacerdotal 
power 

451 The substance of the 29th canon of the Council 
of Chalcedon respecting the relative rank of 
the Sees of Rome and Constantinople 120-1 

527 Justinian ascended the throne, and held it for 
nearly forty years. He assailed various he- 
retics, Arians, Nestorians, Eutychians ; re- 
ceived from the fifth General Council the title 
of 'Most Christian,' and died in the heresy 
of the Incorruptibles, or Phantastics 
On the system of persecution adopted by the 
Christian Emperors. Theadosius II. embodi- 
ed the various barbarous edicts in the The- 
odosian Code, and instituted inquisitions for ^ 
tlie detection of lieresy 



115 



116 



118 



iia 



119 



120 



121 



131-2 



6 



ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



A. D, I'age 

The decline of the Roman literature was previ- 
ous to any influence of the Christian religion, 
and chiefly caused by despolism 122-3 

350 — 430 Many eminent Christian writers flourish- 
ed, and were the best of that age 122-3 
398 The Council of Carthage prohibited the study 
of secular books by Bishops ; <:i-eat ignorance 
followed, though not in consequence of this 
decree 124 
The ' Seven Liberal Arts,' ' Books of xMartyrs,' 
' Lives of Saints,' &:c. 124 
529 Justinian published the edict which closed the 

School of x\thens 125 

Religion in its purity had been connected with 

philosophy in its corruption and abuse 125 

The effect of Justinian's edict has probably 

been much exaggerated 125 

The moral delinquences of the clergy were not 

so great as some have represented them 126 

The miseries of the age were ascribed by many 
to the overthrow of the idols ; and Augustine 
combats this notion in his ' City of God ' 126-7 
JVute on certain ecclesiastical writers 127 

S10,&c. The ' Divine Institutions,' and ' Deaths of 

the Persecutors,' the works of Lactantius 127 

362,&;c. Gregory Nazianzen wrote some Discourses 
against the Emperor Julian ; lie exalts in 
lofty language the authority of the Church 128 
374 Ambrose raised by the people to the See of Mi- 
lan ; he was not then baptized. In 390 he 
imposed an act of humiliation on Theodosius 
the Great 128 

Chrysostom combined great eloquence, zeal, 
and piety, with some extravagance ; lie died 
in exile on Mount Taurus. His opinions on 
the Eucharist, on Grace and Original Sin, 
and on Confession, have been the occasion of 
much controversy 130-31 

390 Jerome, in his convent at Bethlehem, exalted 
monastic excellence, and attacked the re- 
formers and heretics, Jovinian, Vigilantius, 
Pelagius, &c. Ilis Latin translation of the 
Old Testament less favorably received at the 
time than his polemical philippics 131-2 

Chapter X.—From the Death of Justinian, to that 
of Charlemagne, 567 — 814. 

596 St. Austin, with forty Benedictines, introduc- 
ed Christianity into Britain. His miraculous 
claims may be rejected ; but the work was 
accomplished without violence. Gregory tlie 
Great was Bishop of Rome 133-4 

Some of the original Christians remaining in 
Wales retained the Eastern error as to the 
celebration of Easter 133-4 

715—723 Winfred (Boniface), an Englishman, call- 
ed the Apostle of Germany. He was raised 
to the see of Mayence, and (755) murdered 
by the Frieselanders " 134-5 

622—732 The Mahometans conquered Bersia, Sy- 
ria, Egypt, (through tlie co-operation of the 
Jacobites) the northern parts of Africa, and 
Spain. They invaded France, and were de- 
feated by Charles Martel 135-6 

772 Charlemagne converted the Saxons by the 
sword ; and had reason to complain of their 
contumacy 137 

590—604 Gregory the Great was raised to the Ro- 
man See ; he possessed some good and great 
qualities, and applied himself to reform some 
abuses. He was charitable, zealous for the 
propagation of Christianity, and the unity of 
the Church 138-9 

The charge against him of having burned the 
Palatine Library is probably unfounded 139 

— He encouraged the use, and prohibited the 

worship, of images 139 

He irjciilcated purgatory, and pilgrimage to 

holy places 140 

His extravagant letter to the Empress Constan- 
tina on the bodies of the Saints and the sanc- 
tity of their relics 140-1 

^ Worship was still celebrated by every nation 

in its own language " 141 

Gregory instituted the canon of the Mass, and 
added splendor to the ceremonies of the 
Church . 14] 

588 The title of CEcumenic was conferred by the 
Emperor Maurice upon the Patriarch of Con- 
stantinople. Gregory velienientlv disputed 
the propriety of the title, without "claiming it 
for himself 142 

Gregory first claimed the power of the Keys for 
the successor of St. Peter, rather than the I 

body of the Bishops 142 

The use of papal envoys and advocates, and i 



A. D. Page 

the practice of appeal to Rome, became more 
common during the pontificate of Gregory 143 
— Of his claim to the title of Great, and the mis- 
chief occasioned by the superstitions encour- 
aged by him 143 
604 — 770 No character of ecclesiastical eminence 
from Gregory to Charlemagne. But many 
clianges were silently introduced into the 
Western Church, through the barbarian con- 
quests. The East remained unaltered 144 
The lower orders of tiie clergy were greatly 
debased in the West. The office of priest- 
hood was commonly conferred on the serfs 
of the Church 145 
A number of laymen were connected with the 

Church by the giving of the tonsure 145 

The principle of the Unity of the Church, now 
useful in associating the barbarians, prepared 
the way for the papal despotism. On some 
Councils held in Spain 145 

The process by which the Popes usurped the 

authority of the Metropolitans 146 

Princes usurped the appointment to vacant 
Sees, with great detriment to the Church, in 
those ages 147 

The power and corruption of the episcopal or- 
der. The military character commonly as- 
sumed 147 
635 Pope Martin was carried away to Constantino- 
pie, and died in exile in the Chersonesus 148 
754-5 Pope Zachary, having contributed to raise 
Pepin to the throne of France, was rewarded 
by the donation of the Exarchate of Ravenna 148-9 
800 Charlemagne was proclaimed Emperor of the 
West. He exerted great munificence towards 
the Church ; still, however, retaining Rome 
as a part of the empire. His object was to 
civilize his subjects by means of the clergy 149 
789 The Councils of Aix-la-Chapelle and (794) 
Frankfort assembled for the reformation of 
the clergy 150 

Chapter XI. — On the Dissensions of the Church 
from Constantine to Charlemagne. 

311 The principal cause of the schism of the Dona- 
tists was a disrespect shown to the Numidian 
Bishops. The principle which it pleaded 
was the invalidity of the ministry of the 
Traditors 152 

Constantine interfered, by synods, first at 
Rome, then at Aries ; lastly, by personal in- 
vestigation. He decided against the Dona- 
tists, and used the secular power 152 

But he presently repealed the laws against 
them. They were pex-secuted by Constans ; 
restored by Julian ; they then flourished, and 
quarrelled. Presently Augustin assailed 
them ; and they were condemned by the 
Council of Carthage, and persecuted. Great 
ravages were committed by the Circumcel- 
lions 153 

354 — 430 Augustin, a Numidian, embraced the 
Manichean opinions. He returned to the 
Church 3 was made Bishop of Hippo ; re- 
formed the abuse of the Agapae ; and became 
celebrated by his Catholic zeal, and his 
writings 154-5 

Erasmus had drawn a parallel between Augus- 
tin and Jerome 155 
Some particulars relating to his private life 156 
380 Prisciilian was condemned on the charge of 
Maniclieism by the Council of Saragossa, and 
executed at Treves, by Maximus, four years 
afterwards. He is generally considered as 
the first martyr to religious dissent. It ig 
disputed what his opinions were 156-7 
390 Jovinian was condemned by a Council held by 
Ambrose, at Milan, and banished by the em- 
peror. He wrote against celibacy, and relig- 
ious seclusion 158 
405 Vigilantius wrote against the temples of mar- 
tyrs, prodigies, vigils, prayers to saints, fast- 
ing, &:c. 159 
412 The opinions of Celestinus were condemned 
by a Council at Carthage. Augustin then 
accused Pelagius before two Councils, in Sy- 
ria ; but he was acquitted in both. Zosimus, 
Bishop of Rome, at first declared in his favor. 
But an imperial edict was obtained against 
the heresy, &c. 159-60-61 
What is the substance of the Pelagian opinions ; 
and what seem to have been the real senti- 
ments of Augustin 161 
428 The Semipelagian doctrines began to spread 
in France, and seem to have had earlier 
prevalence in the East ; but they were equal 



ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



A. D. Pa 

ly condemned by the Church of Rome 1( 

The doctrine of the 'One Incarnate Nature' 
was first avowed in Egypt by Apollinaris, 
Bishop of Laodicea, the friend of Athanasi- 
us ; but condemned in Asia and Syria 162 

428 Nestorius was raised to the See of Constanti- 
nople. He maintained that the Virgin Mary 
should be called the ' Mother of Christ,' or 
even ' Mother of Man j' not ' Mother of God.' 
Cyril of Alexandria opposed him 163-4 

431 He was condemned by the General Council of 
Ephesus, and died in the deserts of Upper 
Egypt. But his opinions spread throughout 
Asia 164 

The doctrine of the Nestorians, according to the 
Councils of Seleucia 164 

449 The Monophysite opinions of Eutyches were 
confirmed in a Council held at Ephesus ; but 
rejected by that of Chalcedon (451), which 
established the doctrine of Christ in one per- 
son and two natures 165 

482 Zeno published his Henoticon, or edict of Union 166 

629 Heraclius proposed the question of the single 
or double will of Christ ; and the latter was 
established by the sixth General Council at 
Constantinople, held in 680 166 

Some remarks favorable to the parties engaged 
in these cor^troversies 166 

726 Leo the Isaurian attacked the worship of ima- 
ges, established in the East before 600 167 
And was resisted both in tlie East, and in Ita- 
ly, and by Gregory II. 168 

754 An assembly near Constantinople decreed the 
destruction of images (hence the name Ico- 
noclasts) ; but Irene restored them by the 
General Council of Nice, in 787 ; the seventh, 
and last, of the Greek Church. Some re- 
marks on those Councils 168-69 
Tlie Iconoclast heresy was renewed by some 
following emperors ; but finally repressed 
(842) by the Empress Theodora 170 

754 John Damascenus, the last of the Greek Fa- 
thers 171 

— The miracles in this contest were chiefly 
claimed by the friends of the idols, who, in 
the East, were for the most part the monks 
and lower people. In the West, the Papal 
Chair zealously supported the same cause 171 

794 But the Council of Francfort, under Charle- 
magne, was much more moderate 171-2 

Chapter XII. — On the Schism between the Greek 
and Latin Churches. 

Some political causes which accelerated the 
division between the Churches 172-3 

320 — 451 The extent and authority of the See of 
Constantinople increased widely, and its ju- 
risdiction was confirmed by the Council of 
Chalcedon, in spite of the Legates of Leo the 
Great 172-3 

588 After continued disputes, John the Faster as- 
sumed the title of Universal Patriarch, which 
led to fresh quarrels. The internal dissen- 
sions of the Greek Church always gave Rome 
an influence in its aff'airs 173-4 

767 The doctrine of the double procession, having 
been previously agitated in Spain, was re- 
ceived by the French clergy at the Council 
of Gentilli, and advocated by Charlemagne 
at Aix-la-Chapelle, in 809 174 

1 853 Photius was raised to the See of Constantino- 
ple, and then he and Nicholas I. excommu- 
nicated each other 175 
Photius charged the Roman Church with five 

errors 175 

There were, besides, differences about the lim- 
its of their respective jurisdiction. Photius 
was deposed, and the act confirmed by a 
Council held at Constantinople, in 869 ; but 
this had no effect in healing the schism 175 

1054 Another dispute between Michael Cerularius 
and Leo IX. completed the division ; and the 
Latin Act of Excommunication was placed 
oa the grand altar of St. Sophia 176 

Chapter XIII. — The condition of the Church at 
the Death of Charlemagne. 

The subjects of this chapter are chiefly retro- 
spective 176 
1—313 The nature of the primitive ecclesiasticrri 
government. The elements of three forms 
of government may be discovered in it — 
the Episcopal, the Presbyterian, and the In- 
dependent ; but they immediately resolved 
themselves into a limited epiacopaey 177 



A. D. pa„ 

The rise of synods ; their co-operation for the 
union of the various churches 177 

The principal bond of union was the catalogue 
of the Sacred Books ; and perhaps the salva- 
tion of the Church may be ascribed to that 
union 173 

An opinion of Semler considered, JVote 178 

The writings of the Antenicene Fathers con- 
tain the most important doctrines, but no 
theological system 173 

Miraculous powers falsely attributed to the 
early Church, at least after the middle of the 
second age J79 

The nature of those which it asserted 179 

On exorcists and Daemoniacs. The words of 
Cyprian 189 

Several literary forgeries disgraced tlie Anteai- 
cene Church 181 

The distinction of the converts into Catechu- 
mens and Faithful, was as early as Tertul- 
lian. Its motive two-fold 181 

There were two original sacraments or myste- 
ries ; but the ceremonies of penitential abso- 
lution, ordination, &c., were concealed from 
the uninitiated ; and even baptism and the 
eucharist were surrounded with some super- 
stitious reverence 181 

The birthdays of the martyrs were of early in- 
stitution 3 and honors were offered at their 
tombs 182 

The use of prayers and oflferings for the dead, 
and the practice of occasional fasting, was 
very early 182 

Some of the forms of the external economy of 
the Church are tf» be so«ight in Jewish, some 
in Pagan practices. On the distinction be- 
tween clergy and laity, the power of the 
presbytery, liturgies, the sacrifice, votive dch- 
nations, &c. 183 

Two conclusions may be drawn, (1.) That 
the Antenicene Church was not a perfect 
model of a Christian society. (2.) That the 
fundamental doctrines of Christianity are 
steadily perceptible from the beginning. The 
corruptions, which were even then in exist- 
ence, might have been easily corrected on 
the estabtishment of the Church 183-4-5 

320 — 604 A great progress in abuse during this period 185 

The Monastic system took root in the 4th and 
5th ages 185 

The celibacy of the clergy was treated in the 
Councils of Ancyra and Nice, and in that of 
Constantinople in Trullo 185 

The exertions of Pope Siricius and Gregory the 
Great 185 

The penitential system was maintained in full 
vigor, till the institution of private confession 
by Leo the Great 186 

The doctrine of purgatory was first expressly 
laid down to the Church by Gregory the 
Great 186 

A great number of Pagan ceremonies found 
their way iuto the Church in the 5th and 6th 
centuries ; and, among other evils, the use 
and abuse of images 187 

The origin of the spiritual power of the Chris- 
tian clergy ; a power unknown to the Pagan 
priesthood. To what objects it was directed 
before Constantine. The popular influence 
which it conferred 187 

Other motives afterwards combined to raise 
the authority and influence of the hierarchy 188 

The great number (1800) of the Bishops increas- 
ed their weight in the commonwealth ; but 
this was diminished by their intestine dis- 
sensions 189 

The ill and wicked policy, which led the 
Church to appeal to the temporal sword 189 

The influence of the Presbytery in the govern- 
ment of the diocese gradually decayed ; and 
the authority of the Bishop rose far "above the 
inferior clergy 190 

The Bishop of Rome was exalted as the Bishop 
of the Imperial city, as the only Patriarch of 
the West, by the absence of the Imperial 
Government, by the especial claim of St. Pe- 
ter's protection, and of the Keys; hence he 
derived respect, which he converted into au- 
thority 190-1 
600—800 A vast field for ecclesiastical exertion, for 
good as well as for evil, was opened by the 
barbarian conquests ; the inordinate growth 
of episcopal power was another characteris- 
tic of this period ; another was the establish- 
ment of the Pope's temporal monarchy by the 
donation of Pepin 19La 

The Athanasian Creed, originally written in 



8 



ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



A. D, Page 

Latin, is commonly attributed to Vigiliua 
Tapsenais, who lived at the end of the fifth 
century ; the principle of this creed is the 
exclusive salvation of those within the 
Church. The truths which it contains are 
not expressed in the words of Scripture ; it 
was composed many ages after the apostoli- 
cal times, when evangelical purity was in no 
prevalence 192-3 

Constantine instructed the magistrates to exe- 
cute the episcopal sentence, but he restrain- 
ed their power within narrow limits. Some 
decrees of subsequent emperors on the same 
subject and with the same view 193-4 

Justinian enlarged the jurisdiction of the Bish- 
ops, and entirely exempted them from the 
lay courts, and there the matter rested in the 
Eastern Church ; in the West, Charlemagne 
increased their privileges to an inordinate 
extent, whicli their territorial possessions 
stretched still farther 195 

The foundations of the Papal omnipotence 
were laid by the forgeries of the donation of 
Constantine, and the false Decretals ; how 
far Charlemagne may have been influenced 
by the former 195 

1 — 325 The Antenicene clergy were supported by 
voluntary oblations. Constantine opened a 
variety of new sources 196 

What exemptions the clergy soon afterwards 
enjoyed 197 

The ancient manner of dispensing the Church 
funds 197 

470 (about.) A law for the quadripartite division of 

the funds was enacted in the West 198 

Changes introduced by the system of feudali- 
ties 198 

Foundation of benefices and right of patronage 198 

The territorial and other possessions of the 
clergy were very considerable, even before 
Charlemagne, and not always acquired by 
wortiiy means 199 

Much on the other hand was derived from fair 
and honorable sources ; and all was liable to 
plunder 199 

No tithes were paid to the Antenicene Church ; 
but both Ambrose and Augustin inculcated 
the payment vehemently, and pressed the 
divine obligation. Chrysostom and Jerome 
were more moderate 200 

Some special endowments may have been 
made before the end of the seventh century : 
but the first legislative act which conferred 
778 the right was that of Charlemagne. Other 
constitutions followed, but the payment does 
not seem to have been commanded ' as a 
1215 duty of common right,' till the fourth Later- 
an Council, under Innocent III. (Canon 
54*) 201-2 

The power and influence of the Church, at the 
period of the barbarian conquests, were the 
instruments by which the religion was pre- 
served 203 

It afterwards conferred great benefits on soci- 
ety by the general exercise of charity, by the 
severity of its penitential discipline, by its 
more civilized principles of legislation, by 
attempts to abolish slavery, and to diminish 
civil outrage and international warfare, by 
preserving the ancient writings, and dissem- 
inating the imperfect education of the age 203-4 



PART in. 

Chapter XIV. — TTie Oovemment and Projncls 
of the Church during the JVinth and Tenth Cen- 
turies. 

The contents of this chapter are divided under 

three separate heads : — 205 

I. The original law of Papal election continued 
to the time of Charlemagne, and was not dis- 
turbed by him. It became, in two respects, 
offensive to the Popes ; they began to dis- 
pense with the Imperial confirmation under 
the Carlovingian princes, and Charles the 
Bald (875) resigned his right 205 

960 Otho the Great, after a long prevalence of dis- 
order in the pontifical elections, resumed the 
privilege of the empire, and extended it so 
far as to appoint Popes by his own authority 206 

£047 — 59 The liberty of the See was gradually recov- 
ered, and the appointment vested in the Col- 
lege of Cardinals by Nicholas II. 206 



* ' Quod Decimae ante Tiibuta solvantur.' 



A. D. Page 

Remarks on the fluctuations of the contest, 
and the causes which produced them 206 

II. The encroachments of e'cclesiastical on 
civil authority were of various descriptions 207 

Evils proceeding from the indistinct limits of 
spiritual and secular jurisdiction ; yet these 
were not very perceptible till after the death 
of Charlemagne 207 

On the increase of power and privilege confer- 
red on the higher clergy, by the establish- 
ment of the feudal system. They became 
an Order in the State, &c. 208 

They gradually assumed the military character 209 

The superstitious method of trials was useful 
to priestly authority, yet, on many occasions, 
it was opposed by the clergy 209 

The intellectual superiority of the clergy natu- 
rally and necessarily enlarged their influence 
and power 209 

The property of the church was liable to per- 
petual spoliation 210 
833 et seq. On the deposition, penance, and tempo- 
rary humiliation of Lewis the Meek, by the 
episcopal authority. This act had a prece- 
dent in the deposition of Vamba, King of the 
Visigoths, in Spain, at the twelfth Council 
of Toledo (682) 2U 

These were episcopal, not papal, usurpations 211 
842—859 Other instances 'of the power of the Bish- 
ops and the weakness and dependence of the 
Crown, in the reign of Charles the Bald 211-13 

Pope Nicholas I. interfered respecting the mar- 
riage (870) of Lothaire, King of Lorraine, and 
Adrian II. in the succession to that throne 213 
880 Hincmar, of Rheims, employed strong expres- 
sions and a fortunate prophecy against Lew- 
is III. 213 

Charles the Bald accepted the vacant empire 
as the donation of John VIII. This prece- 
dent was of great value to the Popes in after 
ages 213-T4 

Further progress of ecclesiastical usurpation 214 
978 Robert of France put away his wife and per- 
formed penance in obedience to the interdict 
of Gregory V 214 

III. The progress of papal authority was not 
rapid until the forgery of the False Decretals ; 
and even these were not brought into full op- 
eration before the time of Gregory VII. 215 

Some French Prelates retorted the threat of ex- 
communication against Pope Gregory IV. 215-16 

862,&c. Pope Nicholas I. restored to his see, by his 
own authority, a Bishop v^'ho had been de- 
posed by Hincmar of Rheims, and had ap- 
pealed to Rome 216 
Five years afterwards the Pope gained another 
triumph over the Archbishop 216 

845^882 Hincmar occupied the See of Rheims — 

the great churchman of the ninth century 217 

A vague notion of the Pope's omnipotence was 
gaining ground among the laity in this age 217 

876 John VIII. appointed the Archbishop of Sens 
his permanent vicar and legate in France, in 
spite of Hincmar and the clergy. The pon- 
tifical power was further advanced by ex- 
emptions of monasteries, by the principle that 
Bishops derived their power from the Pope, 
by the exclusive convocation of councils 218-19 

Chapter XV. — On the Opinions, Literature, Dis- 
cipline, and external Fortunes of the Church. 
The vicissitudes of religion, during these ages, 
in the different countries of the West, gen- 
erally corresponded with their literary revo- 
lutions 219 
A half-enlightened age is more fertile in contro- 
versies than one of perfect darkness 219 
It is a question whether the bodily presence 
was universally received in the beginning of 
the ninth age 219 
831 — 846 Paschasius Radbertus originated the con- 
troversy concerning the body and blood of 
Christ 220 
His doctrine is expressed in two propositions. 
Ratramn and John Scotus were ordered by 
Charles the Bald to write on the same sub- 
ject. The controversy died away before the 
end of this century, without any result, and 
-' reposed during the tenth 220 
848 Godeschalcus advanced predestinarian opin- 
ions, which were condemned by the council 
of Mayence, convoked by Rahanus Maurus. 
Next year he was again condemned by Hinc- 
mar, deposed, flagellated, imprisoned for life, 
and deprived of Christian sepulture 221-2-3 
960—1000 Bernard, a Thuringian hermit, preached 



ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



9 



A. D' Page 

the approaching end of the world ; the opin- 
ion generally spread and produced great com- 
motion and mischief to society 223 

800 — 999 Letters, somewhat revived by Charle- 
magne, partially flourished during the ninth 
century ; they then expired. In the mean- 
time, the Arabians diffused them in Spain ; 
thence they passed into France, and ascend- 
ed, with Sylvester II., into the Papal Chair 224-5 
The prostrate discipline of the Church, raised 
by Charlemagne, was supported by numerous 
councils during the ninth age, especially in 
France, and through Hincmar. In the mean- 
time, the False Decretals were making silent 
progress 225-6 

817 Benedict of Aniane reformed the monastic 

order 226-7 

The election of bishops was nominally restor- 
ed to the chapters, and their translations vain- 
ly prohibited 227 

896 A posthumous insult was offered to Pope For- 
mosus, who had been promoted from the See 
of Porto to that of Rome 227 

956 John XII. introduced the custom of assuming 

a new name on elevation to the Papal Chair 228 

830 Claudius, Bishop of Turin, the Protestant of 
the ninth century, opposed the use of relics 
and other corruptions 828 

Christianity was generally introduced into the 
north of Europe before the middle of the 
eleventh age ^9 

830 — 854 Ansgarius attempted the conversion of 
Sweden ; that of Russia may be assigned to 
the end of the tenth century ; that of Poland 
was somewhat earlier ; that of Hungary 
somewhat later 229-30 

On the contemporaneous progress of the Nor- 
mans and the Turks 231 

Chapter XYI.—TJie Life of Gregory VII. 
Skction I. 
1049 Leo IX., appointed to the see by the Emperor, 
is recorded to have taken Hildebrand with 
him to Rome, from his monastery at Cluni 231 
1054 Victor II. succeeded, on the recommendation 

of Hildebrand 232 

1059 Papal election was confided to the Cardinals 

by Nicholas II. Of whom that body then 

consisted 232 

The consent of the rest of the clergy and people 

. was required ; but Alexander III. afterwards 

removed that restraint 233 

The original method of popular election had 

gi-adually fallen every where into disuse 233 

The necessity of imperial confirmation was vir- 
tually abolished by Nicholas II. at the same 
time 233 

The Norman Duke of Apulia received his ter- 
ritories as a fief of the Roman See 234 
lOGl Hildebrand succeeded in placing Alexander II. 
in the Chair, ruled the Church under his 
name, and developed, during this Pontificate, 
the leading schemes of his own ambition 234-5 
J073 Himself was raised to the See, and took the 

name of Gregory VII. 234-5 

Section II.— Pontificate of Gregory. 

1074 The Pope assembled a council against the con- 
cubinage of the clergy and simony 235 

A great relaxation in the morals of the clergy 
during the tenth century; the Popes, from 
Leo IX., had attempted to correct it, but 
with no effect 236 

Gregory endeavored to enforce his decree, and 
great confusion ensued 236 

The princes, long before Charlemagne, had 
gradually usurped the most valuable Church 
patronage, and frequently abused it 236 

It was Gregory's object to recover it from them ; 
the question about investitures was only the 
means to do so 236 

From the time of Otho I. the sovereigns had 
performed the office of investiture with the 
ring and crosier, symbols of a spiritual office ; 
this was the point ostensibly disputed 237 

Henry IV. resisted Gregory's demands, and the 
Pope deposed some German prelates, and 
menaced anathemas 237 

Gregory summoned Henry to Rome, to clear 
himself from certain charges alleged by his 
subjects 238 

Henrv assembled a Synod at Worms to depose 
the Pope 233 

The Pope excommunicated and deposed Henry 238 

A civil war in Germany followed, and a coun- 
2 



A. D. Pag, 

cil was appointed, in which the claims of 
both parties were to be referred to the decis- 
ion of the Pope 239 

Henry crossed the Alps, and made submission 
to the Pope at Canossa, and was restored to 
communion 239 

The civil wars were then renewed, and three 
years afterwards (1080) Gregory bestowed the 
crown on Rodolphus 339 

Gregory extended his claims of temporal su- 
premacy to the crowns of France, England, 
Naples, and many inferior dukedoms and 
principalities 240 

He designed to regulate the affairs of Christ- 
endom by a council of bishops periodically 
assembled at Rome. Some circumstances 
which ought to be considered in passing an 
opinion on that project ~ 240 

What were the grounds on which Gregory 
founded his pretensions to this universal do- 
minion 241 

The power ' to bind and to loose' extended to 
the oath of allegiance 241 

Matilda, Countess of Tuscany, consented to hold 
her domains on feudal tenure from the Pope 242 

It was the object of Gregory to destroy the in- 
dependence of the national churches, and 
lead the whole hierarchy to look to Rome only 
as its head 249 

The objects and some of the contents of the 
False Decretals 249 

1082 Henry adv^anced to Rome, and after two re- 
pulses, in two successive years, obtained pos- 
session of the city. Gregory retired to the 
Castle of St. Angelo, and was relieved by the 
Normans, under Robert Guiscard 243 

1085 Gregory, having retired with the Normans, 
died at Salerno. An examination of his 
character as a churchman and as a Christian 244-5 

His private morality was marked by the auste- 
rity of the cloister 246 

Section III. 
1045 Berenger, Scholastic at Tours, published his 
opposition to the doctrine afterwards called 
Transubstantiation ; he was condemned at 
Rome five years afterwards, and again by 
some French councils, especially that of 
Tours; he retracted, and immediately return- 
ed to his opinion 247 

He was summoned to Rome by Nicholas II.. 
when he again retracted, and again abjured 
his retractation 248 

1078 Gregory VII. required his subscription to a pro- 
fession, admitting the real presence, without 
mention of the change of substance, and he 
subscribed. In the year following he sub- 
scribed to the whole doctrine, without any 
reservation ; and then, returning to France, 
taught as before 248 

1088 He died in peace, at an advanced age 248 

Gregory's moderation has occasioned a suspi- 
cion that he shared the opinions 249 

The use of the Latin Liturgy was imposed gen- 
erally upon the Church by Gregory VII. In 
a letter to Vratislaus, Duke of Bohemia, he 
declared the policy of closing the Scriptures 
against the people. Both were contrary to 
the practice of the early Church 249-50 

J\rote respecting the reputed inscription to Si- 
mon Magus, discovered at Rome in 1574 250 

Misrepresentation by Mosheim of a sermon of 
Eligius, Bishop of Noyon 251-2 



PART IV. 

From Gregory VII. to Boniface VIII. 
Chapter X VII.— FroTn Gregory VII. to Innocent III. 
1087 — 99 Urban II. pursued the schemes of Gregory, 
and in 1095, he held the councils of Placentia 
and Clermont, and seton foot the first crusade 252-3 
The notion of a crusade was first started by 
Sylvester II., and taken up by Gregory VII. 253 
1099—1118 Pascal II. (like Gregory and^Urban, a 
monk of Cluni), revived the contest with the 
empire 254 

Henry died under the sentence of excommuni- 
cation, with his son in arms against him, and 
his body was kept for five years in unhallow- 
ed ground 254 
The contest continued with Henry V. 255 
The regalia were grants conferred on the bish- 
ops by Charlemagne, partaking of the privi- 
leges of royalty, and the emoerors claimed 
the right of confirming thera 253 



10 



ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



A. D. Page 

Pascal II. agreed to cede them, on the Empe- 
ror's ceding the right of investiture. The 
1110 ceremony of coronation was to follow ; but a 
dispute arose in St. Peter's, and the Pope was 
carried away prisoner to Viterbo, where he 
made every concession 255 

A Lateran council was assembled, and cancel- 
led the treaty 256 

A disputed succession was still usual at the 
death of almost every Pope 256 

1122 The Investiture question was reasonably ar- 

ranged in a council or diet held at Worms, 
under Calixtus fl., a relative of the Emperor 256 
Some remarks on the arrangement thus adopted 257 

1123 The first Lateran (ninth Latin General) was 

held for the General regulation of ecclesiasti- 
cal matters 257 
1*24 — 1154 Rome was disturbed by uninterrupted 
discord and convulsion. Arnold of Brescia 
was distinguished during this period 258 
1555 Adrian IV. placed the city under an interdict, 
and so effected the expulsion of Arnold, who 
was presently delivered up to him by Fred- 
eric Barbarossa, and burnt alive. The pro- 
bable character of Arnold 258 

Baibarossa held the stirrup of Adrian 259 

Alexander IIL, after a long conflict, reduced 
Frederic Barbarossa to terms favorable to the 
Church. In 1179, he held the third Lateran 
Council, and enacted the final regulations re- 
specting Papal election. He was a zealous 
patron of letters 260-1 

Three descriptions of disputes distracted this 
period : those between the Popedom and the 
empire; those between rivals for the See 3 
those in various states between the ecclesias- 
tical and civil authorities 261 

The general correspondence between religion 
and literature, in their progress and decay, 
admits of many particular exceptions 262 

After the first barbarian conquests, the whole 
office of public instruction fell into the hands 
of the clergy ; and no subjects were treated, 
or iessotis delivered, except with a view to 
theology. The invasion of the Lombards 
was destructive to all learning in Italy 263 

The exertions of Charlemagne had much more 
fruit in France than in Italy during the ninth 
age 263 

In the tenth, every thing degenerated in both 
countries; literature and morality ; laity and 
clergy. Yet the literary condition of France 
was not lower at the accession of Sylvester 
II., than at that of Charlemagne 264 

On the other hand, the ecclesiastical composi- 
tions of those ages had commonly a practical 
tendency, and were directed to moral im- 
provement 265 

From the Saracenic conquest of Egypt, papy- 
rus began to be disused in Europe, and parch- 
ment was the substitute ; so that MSS. could 
not multiply or spread with any rapidity. An 
instance of their scarcity 266 

This evil was removed in the eleventh centu- 
ry by the invention of paper 266 

About eighty councils were held in France 
during that age. On the three characters or 
asras of theological literature ; that of the ec- 
clesiastical Fathers ; that of the collectors 
and compilers ; that of the Schoolmen 267 

On the Trivium and Q.uadrivium 268 

lOSl-1153 JVote on St. Bernard. He founded Clair- 
val, and, in the course of his life, about a hun- 
dred and sixty other monasteries 269 

He was very influential in establishing Inno- 
cent II. in the disputed See ; and through 
his numerous ecclesiastical merits, he is de- 
nominated the last of the fathers 269 

In his opinion respecting grace, he followed St. 
August in 270 

1140 He entered the lists in public disputation against 
Abelard, at Sens ; but the latter declined the 
controversy, and appealed to the Pope 271 

He was a zealous supporter of papal authority 
and adversary of heresy. Various expres- 
sions from his writings on both these subjects 272-3 

He likewise denounced, with great indignation, 
the numerous abuses prevalent in the Church 
at that period 274-5 

On his mingled good and dangerous qualities, 
and the wide extent of his personal influence 275 

Chapter XVIII.— rAe Povtificate of Innocent III. 
(1198-1216.) 
1083-1198 Considerable improvement had been ef- 
fected in the Cburch system between Grego- 



A. D. 



Pagd 
276 



276 



277 



277 



278 
278 



278 
279 



281 



ry VII. and Innocent. Tlw-ee Lateran coun- 
cils assembled in the twelfth century 
1151 Gratian published his famous collection of ca- 
non law 

The possessions of the clergy were greatly 
increased daring the same period ; and the 
ecclesiastical jurisdiction had made wide 
encroachments on the secular 

Various instances of the persons and causes 
which had been insensibly drawn into the 
former courts 

Thus the clergy exercised, at Innocent's acces- 
sion, a greater control over society than at 
any former period 

His designs may be classed under four heads 

I. The character of the Roman people, accord- 
ing to the expressions of Luitprand, a Lom- 
bard of the tenth age 

According to those of St. Bernard, addressed 
to Eugenius III. 

The turbulence of the Romans was excused by 
the weakness, capriciousness, and uncertain 
character of their government. Some vicis- 
situdes in its form, from Charlemagne to In- 
nocent. The latter at length entirely shook 
off the imperial claims, and deprived the 
Prefect of his power. 279-80 

Yet other changes .and tumults succeeded, and 
were not appeased till the middle of the fif- 
teenth century 280 

The circumstances of the empire were favora- 
ble to the project of Innocent. He obtained 
from Frederic a confirmation of the donation 
of Matilda 281 

II. Innocent exercised his temporal authority 
in the disposal of the empire. Through 
what causes that authority ever acquired any 
strength, or received any obedience 

Many imagined that the ceremony of corona- 
lion by the Pope was necessary for the legiti- 
macy of the emperor 282 

In a contest vvith Philippe Auguste of France, 
Innocent threw an interdict over the whole 
country, and the king made his submission 282 

He published some general assertions of his 
power over thrones ; and interfered in Arra- 
gon, Navarre, Bohemia, Wallachia, Bulgaria, 
and Armenia 283 

The resistance and final humiliation of John 
of England 283-4 

III. It was necessary for the success of Inno- 
cent, to hold the hierarchy in subservience. 
He endeavored to usurp all important patron- 
age 283 4 

He imposed a regular tax (the Saladin tax) on 
ecclesiastical property. The power, which 
the Bishops, as a collective body, had lost, 
passed into the possession of the Pope 
1215 The fourth Lateran Council met for the recov- 
ery of the Holy Land, and the reformation 
of the Church 

The name of transubstantiation was introduc- 
ed into the vocabulary of the Church 

Sacramental confession generally imposed 

Reformation in the faith of the Church only 
meant extirpation of heresy. The substance 
of the third canon of this council on that sub- 
ject 

IV. From the controversy about images, till the 
twelfth century, the Church had not been 
stained by any rigorous persecution 

1110 Pierre de Bruys originated the sect of Petro- 
brussians, who rejected some superstitions, 
and advanced some errors. He was burnt in 
a popular tumult 

1148 Henry, from whom the Henricians were named, 
was opposed by St. Bernard, and died in prison 
Both these heresies prevailed chiefly in the 
South of France, as well as some others of 
no name, and perhaps of no very definite 
tenets, but professing an apostolical character 
and origin 288 

The Cathari, or Gazari, &c., may probably have 
descended from the Paulicians of the East, 
and may thus have been Semi-ManichcEans ; 
but it would be absurd to charge this error 
upon all the heretics of the twelfth centtiry 288-89 

1160 Peter Waldus commenced his preaching, and 
caused some part of the Scriptures to be trans- 
lated into the vulgar tongue: but the Vau- 
dois, or Waldenses, were of earlier and im- 
memorial origin, though it is impossible to 
trace them to the apostolical times. The 
opinions ascribed to them 289-90 

Albigeois, or AlbJgenses, was the common 
name for the various heretics of the South of 
France at the end of the twelfth century 291 



285 



287 



287 
287 



ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



11 



A. D. ^^Se 

1017 Some persons of good condition, charged with 
Manicheism, and probably guilty of mysti- 
cism, were condemned by a synod at Or- 
leans, and burnt to death 291 

1163 Alexander III. published, in a Council at 
Tours, an edict against the heretics of Tou- 
louse and Gascony, and afterwards attacked 
the Cathari in his Lateran Council 29-2 

1198-1207 Innocent III. attempted to reduce the Al- 
bigeois, first by legates, and then by missiona 
ry preachers, under the name of Inquisitors, 
of whom Dominic was one : but failing, he 
appealed to the sword of Louis Philippe 293 

Simon de Montfort then led the crusade against 
them, with barbarous success 293 

1229 A system of inquisition was permanently estab- 
lished at Toulouse, by a council there assem- 
bled. The Scriptures were strictly prohibit- 
ed to all laymen 294 

1216 The circumstances of the death of Innocent 
are variously recounted. His private char- 
acter should be distinguished from his eccle- 
siastical ; the former had many good quali- 
ties, the latter abounded with crimes 294 
His policy was strictly temporal. The taxation 
of the clergy was the principal change which 
he introduced into the economy of the Church 295 
A comparison drawn between his public char- 
acter and that of Gregory VII. is to the ad- 
vantage of the latter 296 

Chapter XIX. — The History of Monachism. 

For what reasons any general notice of the Mo- 
nastic Orders has been deferred till this pe- 
riod of the history 296 



Section I. 
250 The practice of seclusion was indigenous in 
the East ; the testimony of Pliny the philo- 
sopher 

The original Therapeuta? or Essenes were pro- 
bably Jews ; but in assuming Christianity 
they may have retained their eremitical habits 

The Ascetics were Christians ; they were the 
most rigid among the converts, but were not 
recluses. Their origin ascribed by Mosheim 
to the double doctrine of morals 
250 et seq. Many flying from the persecutions of De- 
cius and Diocletian adopted the anachoretical 
life 

The first institution of Coenobites is attributed 
to St. Anthony, the contemporary of Atha- 
nasius ; and Egypt was the country wherein 
it rose 
395 Cassian made his visit to the monks of Egypt. 
They were divided into Anchorets, Cceno- 
bites, and Sarabaites. A passage respecting 
the first of these 

The numerous establishments and moderate 
discipline of the Ccenobites. The times and 
manner of their devotion. The four objects 
comprehended by their profession. A great 
portion of their time was devoted to manual 
labor 

The Sarabaites are probably calumniated both 
by Cassian and Jerome ; what they seem re- 
ally to have been 
360 et seq. Basil, the patriarch of Monachism, is be- 
lieved to have delivered a Rule, and estab- 
lished the obligation of a vow ; yet this is 
not certain 

All the Fathers of that age encouraged the 
growth of Monachism ; yet their motives 
were not selfish nor sordid, nor such as are 
commonly ascribed to them 

The earliest form of Monachism was subject to 
many wholesome restraints, which were first 
weakened by Justinian 

The original monks were laymen 

Monastic austerity was not carried to greater 
excess in the East than in the West, since a 
variety of motives, derived from Papal prin- 
ciples, gained influence in the latter, which 
had no existence in the former 

The institution of nunneries is also attributed 
to St. Anthony ; but it never attained such 
prosperity in the East as in the West 



300 



303 



Section II. 
341 — 430 Monachism, said to have been introduc- 
ed into Rome by Athanasius, was diffused 
through the North of Italy and the South of 
Prance 304 

The love for insular retirement, which prevail- 
ed among the recluses of the East, was imi- 



A. D. Page 

tated in the Adriatic, and on the western 
coasts of Italy 304 

The general spreading of Monachism was con- 
temporaneous with the barbarian conquests ; 
and those establishments were of use in pre- 
serving religion, and relieving individual 
misery 305 

The Rule of St. Basil was that first professed 
in the West 305 

529 Benedict of Nursia instituted a new order 305 

His object was excellent, and the principle of 

his establishment beneficial in those ages 306 

Some account of the ' Rule of St. Benedict : ' 
the times of public worship; duty of mental 
prayer ; of manual labor ; of reading; of rigid 
temperance, rather than abstinence ; of si- 
lence, seriousness, and obedience; difliculties 
offered to the introduction of novices 306-7 

The Monastery of Monte Cassino was founded 
by Benedict, and his Rule spread into France, 
and elsewhere, though it may not have been 
universally received in the West before the 
ninth century 307 

817 Benedict of Aniane reformed the Benedictine 
Order, and his regulations were confirmed by 
the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle 308 

900,&c. The order of Cluni, in Burgundy, was es- 
tablished, and was very celebrated for about 
two centuries. It then became wealthy and 
corrupt. Gregory VII., Urban II. and Pascal 
II. were educated there 309 

1098 The Cistertian Order was founded in its neigh- 
borhood, and honored and advanced by St. 
Bernard 310 

1178 The Order of the Chartreuse, which had been 
founded by St. Bruno in 1084, was sanction- 
ed by Alexander III. 310-11 
The rivalry among these and other orders, all 
Benedictines, was of advantage to the disci- 
pline of them all 311 
1040 The distinction between monks and lay breth- 
ren was first introduced at Vallombrosa ; and 
it secured the corruption of the former 311 
The Abbot was originally subject to the Bish- 
op of the Diocese ; the practice of Papal ex- 
emption occasioned extreme relaxation of 
discipline 311 
The prevalence of monastic corruption was 
acknowledged by councils held early in the 
thirteenth century 312 

Section III. 
The order of Canons Regular, professing the 
institution of St. Augustin, is of uncertain 
origin. A general rule was imposed on them 
by the Councils of Mayence and Aix-la-Cha- 
pelte, early in the ninth age 312 

1059 They were subsequently reformed by Nicholas 
II., and were first subjected to a vow by In- 
nocent II. 313 

Section IV. 
The Monastic Orders were powerful instru- 
ments of pontifical ambition, through their 
wealth, their obedience, and their popular 
influence 313 

The confusion of the military and ecclesiastical 
characters had preceded the foundation of 
the Military Orders 313 

1050 Four merchants erected a hospital at Jerusa- 
lem, which was endowed by Godfrey of 
Bouillon ; and then rose the Knights of the 
Hospital, afterwards known as the Knights 
of Rhodes and Malta 314 

1118 The Knights Templars were founded. Their 
Rule was written by St. Bernard ; their office 
and corruption 314 

1192 The Teutonic Order received its Rule from 
Celestine III. Afterwards (1230), those 
knights converted Prussia by the sword ; and 
joined the Reformers in the sixteenth age 315 

Section V. 
1217,&c. The number and variety of heresies made 
a new order necessary for their extirpation. 
St. Dominic instituted that of the Preachers, 
and it was sanctioned by the bull of Honori- 
us III. 315 

1210 Innocent Til. established the order of St. Fran- 
cis, which was originally founded in poverty 
only 315 

The Testament of St. Francis did not enjoin 

mendicity 316 

These two orders adopted each otlier's charac- 
teristics, and presently became both Preach- 
ers and both Mendicants 316 



12 



ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



A. D. Page 

The severity of the Riil« of St. Francis occasion- 
ed many dissensions among his disciples, and 
great insubordination in the Church 317 

The Dominicans were more orderly and obe- 
dient 317 

St. Dominic was not the founder of the Inqui- 
sition 317 
1228-1259 The Dominicans became learned scholas- 
tics, and contested tlie theological chairs 
with the University of Paris 318 

The good proceeding from this struggle. The 
prophecy concerning the ' perils of the latter 
times' was applied to the Mendicants by a 
doctor at Paris. A general remark on Mil- 
lennarians 318 

1274 Gregory X. suppressed several Mendicants, 
and distributed the sect into four societies : 
Dominicans, Franciscans, Carmelites, and 
Hermits of St. Augustin 318 

i209 Albert, Patriarch of Jerusalem, gave a Rule to 
the Carmelites, confirmed in 1^6 by Hono- 
rius III., and afterwards interpreted by In- 
nocent IV. 319 

Alexander IV. collected various Hermits into 
one order, called the'Hermitsof St. Augustin' 319 

The earliest Dominicans were distinguished by 
great talents and merits, and professional zeal 320 

Great jealousy was occasioned among the An- 
cient Orders and Secular Clergy, and violent 
disputes followed 320 

The influence of the Mendicants depended al- 
most entirely on their merits and activity 320 

Yet they soon became liable to many reproaches 321 

Section VI. 

On the ' Holy Virgins ' who existed in the An- 
tenicene Church 321 

350 St. Syncletica is said to have founded the first 

nunnery 322 

In Egypt, Marcella, a Roman lady, introduced 
the institution into the West, and it spread 
rapidly 322 

The Rule of the Nuns was formed upon those 
of the Monasteries 322 

The necessity of a ' Vow of Chastity ' strongly 
urged by St. Basil 323 

The Canon of Chalcedon was moderate in the 
penalty denounced against its violation ; but 
Innocent I. increased its severity, and subse- 
quent ages still more so 323 

The imposition of the Veil was earlier than St. 
Ambrose 323 

The age of taking it varied at different times 
and places 323 

The order of the Nuns of St. Benedict was in- 
stituted at the same time with his first monas- 
teries, and rose in importance and pride 323 

There were also Canonesses. Nuns of the 
Hospital, Nuns of St. Dominic, following the 
various monastic denominations 324 

1537 The Ursulines were a truly ascetic and char- 
itable institution ; indeed the Nuns were 
generally free from any of the vices charged 
against their Monastic brethren. The Pro- 
testants have imitated those virtues 325 

The Benedictine, the Military, and the Mendi- 
cant orders, were all peculiarly adapted to 
the age and circumstances in which they 
flourished, and the qualities required for the 
support of Papacy ; as were the Jesuits at a 
later period 325-6-7 

The Monastic system was only perpetuated by 
a succession of reformations and regenera- 
tions 325-6-7 

Such was the history of every order, and none 
could have long subsisted otherwise 327-8 

Many advantages were conferred on society by 
Monachism. Tracts of land were brought 
into cultivation ; hospitality and refuge af- 
forded to the wretched ; charity largely dis- 
tributed ; spiritual consolation commonly 
administered to the lower orders; and an 
example set of piety and humanity. Educa- 
tion was intrusted to the Monks ; and man- 
uscripts, profane and sacred, were preserved 
and multiplied by them ; so that, if they were 
only useful in bad ages, then at least they 
were seemingly the best members of society 328-32 

Yet th«y were the steady defenders of every 
superstitious abuse, and the sworn enemies 
of all general reform. The system of exemp- 
tion made them firm supporters of the Papal 
system ; and in recompense, indulgences, 
private masses, and many of the worst abuses 
of the Church were sustained, chiefly for 
their profit, by Pontifical autliority 332-34 



A. D. Paga 

Chapter XX. — From the Death of Innocent to 
that of Boniface VIII. 

The interests of the Church of Rome were be- 
coming at variance with the peace of Chris- 
tendom 334 

Frederic II. long deferred his promised depart- 
ure to the Holy Land 335 
1227 Gregory IX. was elected ; the ceremony of his 

coronation 335 

He excommunicated the Emperor. Frederic 
wrote to the King of England in reprobation 
of the Church 336 

He proceeded to Palestine ; he made an advan- 
tageous treaty with the Infidels, in spite of 
the Pope's persecutions, and returned to re- 
pel an invasion of his territories 336 
1243-1245 Innocent IV. continued the quarrel with 
Frederic, and assembled the first council of 
Lyons. It professed three objects. The Em- 
peror was summoned before it, and on his 
non-appearance, deprived of his crown 337 

Innocent vainly attempted to seduce the Em- 
peror's son into an alliance against his father 337 
1250 Frederic died in adversity, having been virtu- 
ally deposed by the sentence of Innocent 338 

The real merits of this quarrel ; in what re- 
spects Frederic justly offended the Church ; 
the fierce edicts .against heresy, by which he 
aimed to support it, and by which he deserv- 
ed his future misfortunes 339 

Some points by which this dispute between the 
Church and the Empire is distinguished from 
that commenced by Gregory VII. 340 

Taxes were rigidly levied by the Pope upon 
the clergy, and a crusade was preactued 
against the Emperor 340 

Innocent returned to Italy, and after some suc- 
cesses against the kingdom of Naples, died 
in 1254 341 

His temporal ambition and policy, and trium- 
phant pontificate 341 

Alexander IV. continued the struggle for Na- 
ples 342 
1261-1268 Urban IV. and Clement IV., two French- 
men, introduced the French into that king- 
dom 342 

1273 Gregory X., a pious enthusiast, was raised to 

the See ; and labored earnestly, and with 
promise of success, to excite a grand crusade 343 

1274 He convoked the second Council of Lyons for 

that purpose, and for the reformation of the 
Church. The canon was then enacted, which 
imposed severe restraints upon the conclave 344 
The Pope died before the expedition set sail, 

and it immediately dispersed 344 

Martin IV., a Frenchman, accepted the ofiice 
of senator, and held it for life 345 

1294 The circumstfinces of the election of Pietro Mo- 
rone, Celestine V.; his utter incapacity ; his 
simplicity, piety, humility, and good inten- 
tions ; his resignation and the pontificate ; 
and imprisonment by his successor Boniface 
VIII. 346-7-8 

The lofty and various pretensions of Boniface ; 
in whose reign the Papal supremacy proba- 
bly attained its highest elevation. His au- 
thority recognised by Albert of Austria 348-9 
The condition of the Galilean Church at that 
moment 349 

1296 Boniface published the bull Clericis Laicos, 
against all who should exact contributions 
from the clergy 350 

It was chiefly levelled against Philip of France. 
A dispute was the consequence, but it was 
soon suspended 350 

1301 Philip arrested the Bishop of Pamiers. Boni- 
face published the bull Ausculta, Fill, de- 
manding his liberation, &c.c.; and it was pub- 
licly burnt by the King 351 
Philip was supported by his barons. Some of 
the clergy attended the Pope's summons to 
assemble at Rome ; and under the name of 
this Council, he published the bull Unam 
Sanctam, asserting the unity of the Church, 
and the use of the double sword 351 

1303 William of Nogaret and Sciarra Colonna sur- 
prised the Pope at Anagni ; but offered him 
no bodily injury. He returned to Rome and 
died. The circumstances of his intrepidity, 
and of his death 353-4 

Chapter XXI. 

Section I. 
1215-1270 Lonis IX. of France was one of the few 
monarchs, who founded his policy on relig- 
ious considerations, and whose life is thus 



ANALYTICAL -TABLE OF CQNTENTS. 



13 



A. tJ. Page 

closely connected with ecclesiastical history. 
The excellence of his private morality 355 

In what language he is characterized by Hume 356 

His various legislative attempts to extend the 
civilization of his subjects 356 

Much superstition was mixed with his piety ; 
exemplified in his acquisition and reception 
of the Crown of Thorns. He instituted fes- 
tivals in its honor, &c. 356 

He died before Tunis, and was canonized 
twenty-seven years afterwards by Boniface 
VIII. The Bull of Canonization 357 

Section II, 

St. Louis confirmed the institution of the In- 
quisition in his dominions 358 

What was the extent of the commission of the 
first Inquisitors ; all trials were still con- 
ducted in tiie Episcopal Courts 358 
1229 The council of Toulouse established a sort of 
committee of Inquisition, the foundation of 
the court 358 

The court was still episcopal ; but Gregory XI. 
transferred the power to the Dominicans, 
who acted more immediately under Papal 
authority 359 

1244 The edicts of Frederic II. assisted the progress 
of the Inquisition. Innocent IV. established 
it in the north of Italy, and it spread to some 
other countries 359 

Section III. 
1263 The general contempt of excommunication 
then prevalent is instanced in a conference 
between Louis and his prelates 360 

1244 Innocent IV. requested a refuge in France, 

and Louis eluded his solicitation 361 

Before he set otf on his last crusade, Louis pub- 
lished his Pragmatic Sanction. It consisted 
of six articles, which were chiefly directed 
against the usurpations of patronage by Rome 
and its pecuniary exactions 362 

A spirit of opposition to the See was occasion- 
ally exhibited by the French clergy 362-3 

Section IV. 

The character of the first crusade ; the battle 
of Doryleum ; the capture of Antioch ; and 
cruelties committed at the storming of Jeru- 
salem 363 

St. Bernard preached the second crusade with 
success ; his prophecy; its falsification ; and 
the authority which he pleaded in his de- 
fence 363-4 
1189-1291 The third crusade was that of Richard of 
England ; the fifth and sixth were projected 
by Innocent III.; the disastrous expedition 
and captivity of Louis in Egypt: his second 
against Tunis may be considered as conclu- 
ding the history of the crusades 365-6 

Among the causes of the crusades, the earliest 
was the practice of pilgrimage ; the Saracens 
tolerated the visits of the Christians to the 
Holy Sepulchre, and they were multiplied by 
the fanaticism of the tenth century ; but 
towards the close of the eleventh, the Turks 
got possession of Jerusalem, and persecuted 
the pilgrims 366-7 

Warlike spirit and superstitious zeal were char- 
acteristics of the same ages, and co-operated 
to the same end, so that the minds of men 
were prepared for the preaching of Peter the 
Hermit 367-8 

The object of the first crusade was wholly un- 
connected with reason, ambition, or policy 369 

The objects of those which followed became 
diversified by new circumstances ; the Latin 
kingdom was then to be defended ; the in- 
terest of princes became engaged ; enid^ne- 
ral views of conquest were formed 369-70 

Innocent III. preached a crusade against Here- 
tics ; Innocent IV. against the "Emperor of 
Germany * 370-71 

It does not seem that the crusades produced 
any one general advantage to Europe or to 
Christendom, either in promoting commerce 
or advancing the arts 371-2 

But they introduced new barbarities into war, 
and inflamed the character of religious perse- 
cution 373 

They ruined the discipline of the Church by the 
introduction of the plenary indulgence, and 
the subsequent sale of it 373 

The possessions of the clergy may have been 
augmented, but the imposition of a tax more 
tlian counterbalaaced that gain 374 



A.D. Page 

J^ote A. On the first Decretals of the Pope 374 

1151 The collection of Gratian was published ; di- 
vided into three parts ; abounding in errors 375 

1210 The Roman collection was published under 
Innocent III.; the Liber Sextus under Bo- 
niface VIII. ; the Clementines under John 
XXIL; and the Extravagants presently fol- 
lowed 375-6 
J\rote B. The Academy of Paris first took the 
name of University ; its classes and lectures ; 
the four faculties 375 
The institution of four degrees 376 
Paris was chiefly eminent for its theological 
proficiency, while law and medicine were 
more successfully cultivated in Italy 376 

1250 Robert of Sorbonne founded the college known 

by his name 375 

JVote C. On the Character of the Philosophy 
adopted by the early Theologians ; in the 
eleventh century Aristotle took possession of 
the Western Schools, and introduced endless 
perplexity and absurdity 377 

1150 Pet«r the Lombard was raised to the See of 
Paris — the object of his Book of the Senten- 
ces, and the end to which it was turned 378 

1224-1274 Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican, carried 

the system to its utmost perfection 378 

Contemporary was Bonaventura, a Franciscan, 
a man of great piety as well as learning, and 
more inclined to Mysticism than Scholastic 
subtlety 379 

1320 5&c. John Duns Scotus and William of Occam 
were Franciscans, and headed the faction of 
the Nominalists or Scotists ; the Realists, the 
supporters of Aquinas, were called Thomists. 
Some points on which they differed, the Im- 
maculate Conception, &;c. 380' 



PART V. 

Chapter XXII. — Residence at Avignon, 
Section I. 

1305 On what conditions, made with Philip of 
France, Clement V. is believed to have ac- 
cepted the pontificate 3 how far he fulfilled 
them 381 

The Pope took up his residence in France, and 
finally at Avignon ; he revoked the decree of 
Boniface 381 

1311 A general council was assembled at Vienne, 

with three professed objects 333; 

It condemned the Templars, and there is every 
reason to believe unjustly; it refused to in- 
sult the memory of Boniface VIII. 382-3 
Many ecclesiastical abuses were exposed to the 
council, and some insufficient attempts were 
made to restrain them 383f- 

1315 John XXII. was chiefly characterized by his 

avarice ; he extended the rule of the Aposto- . 
lical Chancery, and abused the patronage of 
the Church 334 

1323 The contest between Louis of Bavaria and 
John was not marked by any decisive advan- 
tage on either side; Louis profited by the 
divisions of the Church, and John by those 
of the Empire 385-6^ 

The Pope was formally accused of heresy by 
an imperial Council at Milan, though without 
result ; but afterwards he expressed some 
erroneous opinions about the Beatific Vision, 
which produced a great sensation in Church 
and State ; he retracted, not very satisfacto- 
rily, and is supposed to have died in error 386-'/ 
Benedict XII. made some attempts to reform 
the Church abuses, but with no great effect 388 

1343 Clement VI. published a bull to institute the 
Jubilee on the fiftieth year, and laid down 
the doctrine of supererogation and the treas- 
ure of the Church 388 
Account of the Jubilee from Matteo Villani 389' 
Clement renewed the disputes with Louis, and 
bought the city of Avignon of the Q,ueen of 
Naples 389 

1352 The first instance of an obligation undertaken 
in Conclave by the future Pontiff; it was im- 
mediately violated by Innocent VI. 390^ 
That Pope's transactions with the German 
clergy 39(J 

1367 Urban V. removed his residence to Rome, but 
after three years returned to Avignon and 
died there 391 

1376 Gregory XI. finally restored the papal residence 
to Rome ; Catharine of Sienna made an em- 
bassy to the Court of Avignon j her siivgular 
fanaticism" 391-3^ 



14 



ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



A. D. Page 

Section II. 

I. Oti the decline of Papal power ; the Popes 
were engaged in continual and fruitless wars 
in Italy ; their rapacity and the profligacy of 
the court surpassed all former excesses, and 
diminished the force of the prejudices which 
supported them : they forfeited their inde- 
pendence by residence in a foreign kingdom ; 
there were some violent dissensions within 

the Church 393-6 

II. The attempts which were made to remove 
the acknowledged abuses were sometimes 
insincere, and always feeble 396 

III. The principles of the rigid Franciscans 
scandalized the luxury of the Hierarchy, and 
some Popes tried to persuade them to relax 
their Rule ; but no one persecuted them be- 
fore John XXII. His famous bull Gloriosam 
Ecclesiam. The Spirituals became more ob- 
stinate, and sought the protection of Louis 
of Bavaria ; the Dominicans supported the 
Pope, and the contest continued until Charles 
IV. made peace with the Popedom, and the 
heretics were delivered up to its mercy ; after 
much bloodshed the dispute ended by an au- 
thorized division of the Order into Conven- 
tual Brethren and Brethren of the Observ- 
ance 396-399 

The Beghards and Lollards ; their mystical 
opinions were distorted and exaggerated by 
the Churchmen 3 some Church superstitions 
of this age 400-401 

The imputed opinions and savage persecution 
of Dulcinus 401 

1340 The Flagellants re-appeared in Italy ; their dis- 
cipline, practices, alleged opinions, arid per- 
secution 402-3 

Some comparison of the above heresies with 
those of the earlier ages of Christianity 403 

In what light ecclesiastical abuses ought to be 
^^ regarded by Churchmen 403 

JVotes (1.) On the Franciscans and other Men- 
dicants ; the Fratricelli disclaimed any right 
even to the use of property 403 

1210 The Eternal Gospel propounded the doctrine of 
three dispensations; it was republished by 
the Franciscans in 1250, and was probably a 
Franciscan fabrication 404 

1290 Pierre Jean d 'Olive, a spiritual reformer 404 

(2.) A contest arose between the Mendicants 
and the parochial clergy respecting the receiv- 
ing of confessions, and occasioned a number 
of contradictory bulls during the thirteenth 
and fourteenth centuries 404 

Chapter XXIII. — ' Grand Schism of the Roman 
Catholic Church. 

A representation was made by the magistrates 
to the Cardinals, of the evils suffered by 
Rome through the absence of the Popes, with 
a petition to them to elect an Italian for Pope 405 

A certain deirree of intimidation was unques- 
tionably exercised by the populace over the 
Conclave 406 

It is not, upon the whole, probable that the Con- 
cla.e, uninfluenced, would have chosen an 
Italian 407 

A Neapolitan, the archbishop of Bari, was at 
last elected, and took the name of Urban VI. 407 

A man of exalted reputation and severe temper ; 
he began his reign by some harsh censures 
on the disorders of his court; the cardinals 
soon afterwards withdrew to Anagni, and 
annulled the election of Urban 408 

1378 Thence retiring to Fondi, they there chose 

(Sept. 20) Robert of Geneva, Clement VII. 409 

As the cardinals had previously confirmed the 
election of Urban, a great part of Europe con- 
tinued in obedience to him ; France declar- 
ed, on the other hand, for Clement; the 
kings of Scotland, Castile, and Arragon, the 
counts of Savoy and Geneva, the duke of 
Austria, and others, finally joined the same 
party 409-10 

Clement established his residence at Avignon 410 
1386 The cruelty of Urban towards some cardinals 

suspected of having conspired against him 411 
1389 Boniface IX. succeeded Urban ; he appointed 
a Jubilee at Rome for the year following, and 
granted the same privilege to certain cities 
and towns in Germany 412 

1394 The University of Paris began to take serious 

measures for the healing of the Sciiism 413 

And proposed, as most likely to be effectual, the 
method of Cession 413 

Clement was succeeded by Peter of Luna, 



A. D. ^ Pae« 

Benedict XIII., who swore in Conclave to 
make every exertion to restore the union of 
the Church 414 

A solemn embassy was sent from Paris to 
Avignon, and its demands were refused or 
eluded by Benedict 414 

1398 The French published the Subtraction of Obe- 
dience, and blockaded Avignon ; in 1403 Be- 
nedict contrived to escape ; he found many 
adherents, and the Subtraction was repeal- 
ed 415-16 
The government of Boniface, the Roman rival, 
was directed by one principle only, — to raise 
as much money as possible, by any means 
whatsoever, within the limits of his obedi- 
ence ; thus he held a second Jubilee in the 
year 1400 416-17 

1406 Election of Angelo Corrario, Gregory XII., and 

his previously unsullied reputation 418 

1407 A conference was agreed upon at Savona, be- 

tween the two parties for the extinction of 
the Schism ; Benedict presented himself 
there, but not Gregory ; their collusion was 
now obvious to all the world 419 

Benedict was then compelled by the French 
king to take refuge at Perpignan in Spain, 
and the cardinals convoked the Council of 
Pisa, (1409) ,, ■ 4!9 

The Council deposed both rivals, and elected 
Alexander V.; but the former still retained 
all their claims, and some of their adherents 420 
1410 Baltazar Cossa (John XXIII.) succeeded to the 
See, and Sigismond to the empire; it was 
agreed that a new Council should be sum- 
moned, and Constance was selected as the 
place ; that spot had some general advanta- 
ges, but was wholly unfavorable to the Pope's 
interests 421-22 

1414 The objects of the Council were the extinction 
of the Schism and the reformation of the 
Church 422-23 

The different principles on which the Pope and 
the most distinguished doctors proposed to 
accomplish the first ; soon after the arrival of 
Sigismond the Council declared for the meth- 
od of Cession, and the Pope was compelled 
to abdicate 423-24 

Presently he escaped from the Council, and 
fled, first to Schaffhausen, afterwards to 
Brisac ; but was then restored to Sigismond 
by the treachery of the Duke of Austria 425-26 

He was then accused of several enormous 
crimes, deposed and placed in rigorous con- 
finement 426-27 

Gregory had also resigned : Benedict now re- 
mained the only obstacle to the unity of the 
Church, and Sigismond went in person to 
Perpignan, there to terminate the affair 427-28 

Benedict clung to his dignity with extraordi- 
nary tenacity ; at length he fled to Panisco- 
la, and was then formally deposed 428-29 

1417 Nov. 11, Martin V. was elected Pope, with 

very general approbation 429 

Benedict lived six years longer at Paniscola, 
and anathematized every day the rival pon- 
tiffs. John XXI [I. was presently released 
from confinement, and threw himself at the 
feet of Martin, who treated him with gen- 
erosity and raised him to dignity. John, 
though stained by many vices, has still been 
much calumniated by party historians 429-32 

JVote on the White Penitents, &c. Account of 
three descriptions of Enthusiasts, who rose 
in the fourteenth century 432-33 



Chapter XKIY .—Mtempts of the Church at Self- 
Reformation. 

Many Roman Catholic divines were anxious 
for a partial Reformation of their Church ; in 
fact, the principle of Reformation had ev- 
er been acknowledged, and even practised 
by Churchmen. Very general complaints 
against ecclesiastical abuses had been in- 
cessantly repeated in all countries, from the 
days of St. Bernard to those of Gerson ; but 
they were directed against the Clergy, rather 
than against the system, which was still 
held sacred 434-37 

They attacked the scandals even of the Vati- 
can • but did not question the inherent pow- 
er and infallibility of the Church 434-37 

The attempts of the Council of Pisa were nu- 
gatory ; but some Anti-papal principles were 
broached, if not established there 438 

In that of Constance, Papal delinquences were 
denounced iu very strong language 438 



ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



15 



A.V. Page 

1415 June 15. A committee of Reform was appoint- 
ed for the consideration of all remediable 
abuses. Some expressions of Gerson — ' De 
signis Ruinae Ecclesise' 439 

14 17 On the vacancy of the See, the question rose, 
whether the election of a new Pope, or the 
Reformation of the Church, should be first 
entered upon ; and in this, the whole ques- 
tion of a real or false Reform was involved. 
After many disputes, the anti-reform party, 
in spite of the influence of Sigismond, pre- 
vailed, and Martin was elected 439-40 

The Italian Clergy, as well as the Cardinals, 
were almost unanimously opposed to reform 442 

A project of Reformation was broached, con- 
taining eighteen articles, regarding respect- 
ively the Pope, the Court of Rome, and the 
Secular Clergy. By what limits this Reform- 
ation was confined 442-4 

In what manner it was eluded by Martin ; and 
what was the substance of the Eight Articles 
and the separate concordats which he pub- 
lished in its place 444-5 
1417 The bull by which he dissolved the Council 445 

Some disputes respecting Annates, particularly 
between the French and the Pope 446 

— A decree for the Decennial Meetings of Gen- 

eral Councils was promulgated at Constance 446-7 
1431 The Council of Basle assembled 447 

Circumstances ander which Eugenius IV. was 
elected, and his incapacity 447 

After a vain attempt to crush the council, he 
appointed Julian, Cardinal of St. Angelo, as 
the president. The three purposes for which 
it was convoked 448 

The first two years of its session were spent in 
disputes with Eugenius 448 

The prophetical warnings respecting the dan- 
gers of the Church, which were addressed 
by Cardinal Julian to the Pope, and the dis- 
regard with which they were received 450 
1435 Jan. 23. Some edicts were at length published 
for the reformation of abuses ; and others 
were added during the fourteen following 
months, in spite of the struggles of the Papal 
party to prevent them. They respected mat- 
ters of very secondary importance ; and were 
interrupted by a second and final breach be- 
tween the Council and the Pope 451-2 
1438 Jan. 10. After having been cited oefore the 
Council, and condemned for contumacy on 
his non-appearance, Eugenius annulled all 
its future acts, and opened the Council of 
Ferrara. He was joined by Cardinal Julian 453 

(Questions on the legitimacy of the Council of 
Basle 453 

The Council then deposed Eugenius and elect- 
ed Felix v., and presently dissolved itself. 
But Eugenius retained almost all his power 
till his death; and on the accession of Nich- 
olas v., Felix abdicated in his favor 454 

— On the diet of Mayence assembled for the ar- 

rangement of the affairs of Germany. On 
the Council of Bourges, for the establishment 
of the Pragmatic Sanction in France. 7'he 
two great principles on which the Sanction 
rested 455-6 

On the question whether the Decennial Meet- 
ings of Councils, as decreed at Constance, 
would have conferred any great benefits on 
the Church 457 

On the general principles of the Councils of 
Constance and Basle. The decree of the 
former, on the violation of faith with here- 
tics. Discoveryof the art of Printing 457-8 

Chapter "KXV .—History of the Hussites. 

1324-1384 (I.) The early reputation of Wiclif, his 
advancement, opposition to Papacy, persecu- 
tion and death 460-1 

His opinions at direct variance with some of 
the innovations of Rome ; not so with others ; 
his abhorrence of the Court of Anti-Christ ,• 
objection to ecclesiastical endowments ; 
translation and circulation of the Bible 461-2 

(11.) The opinions of Wiclif were introduced 
into Bohemia, and propagated by John Huss ; 
his character and early preaching at Prague 462-3 

Disputes in the University of Prague 462-3 

Huss preached against the crusade- of John 
i XXIII., and some disorders followed. John 
cited him to Rome in vain 463-4 

The tenets imputed to Huss, and for the most 

part disclaimed by him ; his opinion on the 

nature of tithes. The demand for the resto- 

i ration of the Cup to the laity did not origrn- 



A. D. Pago 

ate wjth Huss, but with anothei- preacher, 
named Jacobellus of Misnia 464 

1414 The nature of the safe conduct, in faith of 

which Huss presented himself at Constance 465 
His own confidence and enthusiasm 466 

He was presently placed under confinement, 
accused of various heresies, and brought to 
trial : his appeals to Scripture were disre- 
garded, his reasonable arguments derided, 
and he was finally condemned to death 466-7-8 
His conduct from the timeof his condemnation 
to that of his execution ; attempt of Sigis- 
mond fo induce him to retract ; interview 
with his friend, John of Chlum 469 

1415 July 6. The sentence passed on him ; his deg- 

radation and execution 469-70 

What were the two heads under which his real 
differences with the Church were compre- 
hended 470 

(HI.) Jerome of Prague, after being condemned 
by the same Council for nearly the same of- 
fences, retracted (Sept. 11, 1415), but in the 
course of a few months recalled his retracta- 
tion, and was likewise consigned to the 
flames ; testimony of Poggio, the Florentine, 
and ^neas Sylvius, to the constancy of both 
these martyrs in their last moments 470-1 

(IV.) Insurrection of the Bohemians ; the ne- 
cessity of the Double Communion was the 
point round which they united ; their milita- 
ry triumphs under Zisca 472-3 

The Adamites, the Ovebites, and Orphans 473 

The grand division into Thaborites and Calix- 
tines 473-4 

1433 Their fruitless embassy to Basle, and the four 
points in dispute with the Council ; the latter 
then sent an embassy to Prague, which led 
to the renewal of hostilities ; several thou- 
sand Thaborites and Orphans were destroy- 
ed by the treachery of the Catholics 474 
1436 The compact of Iglau between Sigismond and 
the Hussites ; the description of the Thabo- 
rites By -(Eneas Sylvius 475 

Continued disputes between the Popes and the 
Calixtines ; the attempt of Paul II. to transfer 
the crown to John Huniades 476 

Many of the Hussite opinions were preserved, 
and published by the Bohemian Brotliers in 
the following century 476* 

Chapter XXVI. — History of the Oreek Church 
after its separation from the Latin. 

On the origin, progress, and sufferings of the 
Paulicians ; on the opinions usually ascribed 
to them, and those which they seem really to 
have professed 477-8 

How early the use of the Bible was prohibited 
to the Laity in the East 479 

The disposition to Mysticism generally preva- 
lent in the East was never quenched in any 
age of that Church ; the Euchites^or Messa- 
lians, were an early sect of Mystics : in the 
fourteenth century arose the Hesychasts or 
Cluietists (Umbilicani), and occasioned an 
important controversy 480 

The Bogomiles combined Paulician with mys- 
tical tenets 481 

The controversy concerning the God of Ma- 
homet 483 

On some of the essential differences between 
the Greek and Latin Churches. The former 
always subject to the state; absence of feu- 
dal institutions ; education more extensively 
prevalent in the East ; the Decretals never 
received there ; greater consistency in the 
reverence for antiquity 483 

The foundation of the Latin kingdom of Jeru- 
salem and introduction of the Roman Church 
into those provinces ; the dissensions thus 
occasioned 484 

Latin conquest of Constantinople, and conse- 
quent establishment and endowment of a 
Latin Church there ; various disputes and 
other evils, which seem to have been occa- 
sioned by it 485-6' 
1232 Mission from Rome to Nice for the reconcilia- 
tion of the Churches ; some particulars of the 
negotiation and its entire failure 487-8 

The attempt was repeated by Innocent IV. and 
other Pontiffs, with the same result, till the 
second Council (1274) of Lyons, when an in- 
sincere accommodation was effected and soon 
afterwards broken off" 488-9 

The same negotiations continued under the 
Avignon Popes, and were at length renewed 
by Eugenius IV.j who summoned the Coua- 



16 



ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



A. D. Page 

cil of Perrara for the termination of the 
schism 489-90 

The principal parties there present ; the points 
chiefly debated ; the nature of those debates ; 
the respective opinions of the Churches on 
purgatory ; conduct of Bessarion of Nice, and 
Marc of Ephesus 490 

1439 The Council was removed to Florence, and 
after great debates a common confession of 
faith was agreed upon 491 

Treaties of union followed ; according to one 
of which the Pope was bound to furnish 
succors against the Infidels 492 

Among the controverted points transubstantia- 
tion was not one ; but it led to an incidental 
discussion, and Bessarion made an affirma- 
tion on the subject satisfactory to the Latins ; 
the Decree of the Union was then finally rati- 
fied 492-3 

The concluding history of the Cardinal of St. 
Angelo 493 

Violent dissensions arose in the East on the re- 
turn of the Deputies ; the very great major- 
ity of the clergy and people declared against 
the Union 494 

Fortunate prediction of Nicholas V. 494 

The violence of the Greeks continued to in- 
crease ; they opened negotiations with the 
Bohemians 494 

Closed the Churches against all who were pol- 
luted with Romanism ; and were thus dis- 
posed, when Mahomet II. assaulted Constan- 
tinople and overthrew the empire 495 

JsTots (1) on the Armenians 495 

1145 A mission of Armenians, with a view to an 
union with Rome, seems to have been with- 
out result 495 
1170 Negotiations were opened between the Arme- 
nian and Greek Churches ; what were the 
principal points of difference between them 495 
1199 Overture of X.eo, king of Armenia, for a recon- 
ciliation with Innocent III., and seeming 
reconciliation 496 
1341-51 Renewed negotiations and correspondence 
between Armenia and Rome ; the errors then 
charged upon the former and the extravagant 
demands of the latter 497 

JVofe (2) on the MaroniteS 498 

On their name and origin, and the circumstan- 
ces of their connexion with the Roman 
Church 498 

Chapter XXVIT. — FTom the Council of Basle to 
the beginning of the Reformation. 

During the remainder of the fifteenth century, 
the Popes invariably eluded the duty of sum- 
moning a General Council, and ruled as 
despots 499 

Nicholas V. was distinguished by his learning, 
and several excellent qualities ; but in the 
great object of his policy, the preservation of 
the Eastern Empire, he wholly failed : his 
death was by some attributed to disappoint- 
ment proceeding from that cause 500-1 
1455 Calixtus III. (Alphonso Borgia) succeeded, and 
may perhaps be considered as the introducer 
of the system of Nepotism, which thencefor- 
ward prevailed in the Vatican 502 

1458 .^neas Sylvius, after having been engaged in 

the service both of the Emperor and the Holy 
See, was at length raised to the pontificate ; 
the recorded circumstances of his elevation j 
he took the name of Pius II. 503 

1459 June 1st. He opened the Council of Mantua, 

and exerted himself to raise a confederacy 
against the Turks, but without any perma- 
nent success 504 

1460 A deputation from the Princes of the East ar- 

rived at Rome 504 

Catharine of Sienna was canonized by Pius II. 505 
1463 Pius II., originally the advocate of the Council 
of Basle, after having gradually adopted all 
the High-Papal principles, published his cele- 
brated Bull of Retractation, condemning his 
former acts and expressions 5 his professed 
and his probable motives 505-6 

He then prepared to conduct in person an ex- 
pedition against the Turks 5 proceeded to 
Ancona, and there died 506 

He had some points of resemblance, both with 
Nicholas V. and Cardinal Julian 507 

After confirming on oath the Capitulation 
drawn up in Conclave, Paul II. was conse- 
crated to the See, and immediately violated 
his oath ; remarks on those Capituiations 507 

Paul il. turned the arms of Corvinus, son of 



A. D. - ■ PtigS 

Huniades, from the Turkish war against the 
Bohemian Schismatics,.and after seven years 
of warfare, failed in his purpose 508 

He persecuted a literary society established at 
Rome, and tortured several of its members 508 

He reduced the intervals between the Jubilees, 
from thirty-three to twenty-five years 508 

1471 Sixtus IV. succeeded. The circumstances of 
his dispute with Florence, and the obstinacy 
with which he persisted, till Otranto was ta- 
ken by the Turks 509 

He surpassed his predecessors in the practice 
of Nepotism 509 

His vigorous, though unprincipled character ; 
and some works of art which he accomplished 510 
1484 Elevation and character of Innocent VIII. 510 

1492 Circumstances of the elevation of Alexander 

VI. 510-11 

Some of the earliest acts of his Pontificate 512 

His overtures of alliance against Charles VIII. 

to the Sultan Bajazet 513 

1493 He bestowed the newly- discovered regions on 

the Crown of Spain. The donation was con- 
tested by the Portuguese : on what ground 513 
l4S4 He concluded a treaty at Rome with Charles 

VIII., and received his homage 514 

Zizim, brother of Bajazet, who had been the 
Pope's prisoner, was given uptoChailts,and 
died immediately afterwards 514 

The Duke Valentino 5 his character and pro- 
jects 514 
1503 The circumstances of the death of Alexander 
VI., as they are variously related, with dif- 
ferent degrees of authority 515-16 

Some expressions of Guicciardini respecting 
his character 516 

Pius III. was elected as his successor, and died 
in twenty-six days 516 

Julius II. was then raised to the See 516 

A proof that the spiritual authority of the Pope 
was not yet by any means disregarded, in 
the conduct of Louis XII. of France 517 

Success of Julius in recovering possession of 
the States of the Church ; by what methods 
he accomplished this ; the power and versa- 
tility of his character 517-18 

1511 The Cardinals summoned a Council against 

Julius, which met at Florence, and adjourn- 
ed to Milan, and thence to Lyons. It pub- 
lished no edicts of importance 518-19 

1512 But Julius in defence was obliged to convoke 

the Fifth Lateran Council; and died the year 
following 519 

Leo X. continued to direct the Council. It 
then issued some decrees to alleviate the 
least important abuses of the Church, and 
some general declarations against the immo- 
rality of the Court of Rome ; it restrained the 
license of the Press ; it abolished the Prag- 
matic Sanction ; and renewed the Constitu- 
tion Unam Sanctam, of Boniface VIII. 519 
1517 It was then dissolved, as having done all that 
was necessary for the perpetuity of the 
Church. Luther began his preaching the 
very same year 521 

Gradual depravation of the See during the last 
fifty years ; the increase of Nepotism ; the 
scandals of the Conclave and the Palace ; 
literary Popes ; the great use which the Pon- 
tiffs made of the terror of the Turks to sup- 
port Ecclesiastical Abuses, and avoid a Gen- 
eral Council 521-2-3 

They succeeded, and through their success they 
fell 524 

Chapter XXVIII. — Preliminaries of the 
Reformation. 
Section 1. — On the Power and Constitution of 
the Roman Catholic Church. 525 

I. The temporal sovereignty of the Pope was 
never before so extensive and firm, as in the 
beginning of the tenth century, to which re- 
sult Julius II, chiefly contributed 525-6 

The argument, by which the possession of such 
power by the Spiritual Chief is defended; 
yet it led to great and necessary evils, which 
were reflected back upon the See itself 526 

II. The progress of the Spiritual Supremacy of 
Rome, and the full extent to which it finally 
advanced. The usurpation of the Church 
patronage was one of the chief instruments 
for its support 527-8 

On the Pope's pretensions to personal infalli- 
bility 529 

On the command he acquired over the morality 
of the Faithful 3 yet his spiritual power had 



ANALYTICAL TABLE OF COx^TENTS. 



17 



A. D. Page 

aomewhat decayed before the time of Lu- 
ther, though still strong 529 

III. Attempts of the Popes, from Gregoiy VIT., 
to usurp authority over Civil Governments. 
How far they were aided by the dissensions 
and weakness of the Princes themselves 530 

Their political interference has been sometimes 
used for a good purpo-:e, though their princi- 
ples were frequently worse than the ordinary 
principles of the age 530-31 

IV. On the Constitution of the Church. The 
origin and gradual growth of the dignity and 
power of the Cardinals. The attempts made 
in Conclave to impose obligations upon the 
future Pontiff, which were invariably violat- 
ed or eluded 531 

The relative situation and mutual influence of 
the Pope and the College. What were the 
means by which the Pope maintained his au- 
thority over tlie Consistory 533 

The place which General Councils held in the 
economy of the Ciiurch 533 

The dignities of the Roman Catholic Church 
were accessible to all ranks : a circumstance 
of immense advantage, as long as they were 
obtained through personal merit, and no 
longer 533-4 

Legates a laUre ; Mendicants. The extremes 
permitted in the discipline of the Church ; 
some maxims of Papal policy 534 

A JVote on the nature of one branch of spiritual 
jurisdiction, as exercised in England 535-6 

On the vicarious character assumed by the 
Priesthood of the Greek and Roman Church- 
es, and the temporary reverence with which 
it surrounded them 537 

On the advantages conferred on the Church by 
the humble origin and conversation of a 
branch of the Clergy ; and the close and firm 
connexion thus established between the Hi- 
erarchy and the People. The spiritual des- 
potism of the Pope rested at the bottom on a 
popular ground 537-8 

Section II. — On the (1.) Spiritual Character, {2.) 
Discipline, and Morals of the Church, 

I. The essential doctrines have been preserved 
by the Roman, and also by the Greek Church, 
with some variation in the manner 538 

On the original system of Penance 538 

680 Penitential of Theodore of Tarsus, and various 
abuses which grew up soon after its introduc- 
tion into the West 539 

The early origin and gradual perversion of the 
indulgence 539 

The professed doctrine of the Roman Catholic 
Church respecting purgatory 540 

Several changes in the object of the Plenary 
Indulgence 540 

Translation of that which was sold by Tetzel 540 

The origin and abuse of Private Masses 541 

On the practices flowing from the doctrine of 
Transubslantiation. The elevation of the 
Host was introduced by the Latins into the 
East 541-2 

On the retrenchment of the Cup, probably the 
least politic among all the innovations of 
Rome 542 

The practice of prohibiting the general use of 
the Bible was of very early origin, both in 
the East and in the West. False Miracles. 
Abuse of Images, &c. On various Festivals, 
and childish Dissensions. The Stigmata of 
St. Catharine. The Feast of the Immaculate 
Conception. Difference respecting the kind 
of worship due to the blood of Christ. The 
original inscription on the Cross. The head 
of the True Lance, &c. 542-5 

Reciprocal influence of the superstitions and 
the power of Rome 545 

II. The general demoralization of the Roman 
Catholic Clergy admitted and deplored by 
the Catholics themselves, from St. Bernard 
downwards 545-6 



A. D, Page 

A seeming exception in favor of Cardinal Xi- 
menes, and the Spanish Clergy 546 

Yet the Church in different ages has forwarded 
in various manners the ends of morality 546-7 

The original principles of Blonachism promised 
great advantages to society in its early ages, 
and no doubt produced them. The Mendi- 
cants have done good service both as Cler- 
gymen and as Missionaries, especially during 
the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries 547-8 

Even at the beginning of the reformation, the 
Church was not wholly destitute of piety 
(1.) the principles of Mysticism were perpet- 
uated through all ages of the Church, and 
this tendency upon the whole was greatly 
favorable to religious excellence ; (2.) the 
lower orders of the Clergy, where the great 
mass of the piety of the Church doubtless re- 
sided, are necessarily condemned to obscuri- 
ty, while the more ambitious and less spirit- 
ual part of the Ministry is that which alone 
meets the observation of the historian 548-9 

Section III. — On various attempts to reform or 
subvert the Church. 

I. On those which were made by the Church 
itself in the Councils of Pisa, Constance, 
Basle, and the Fifth Lateran. To what a 
narrow field they were confined — how feebly 
they touched even that which they designed 
to heal — how they were arrested and eluded 

by the Papal party 550-1 

That resistance occasioned the Reformation, 
since which event many great improvements 
have taken place in the Roman Catholic sys- 
tem 552 

II. Many attempts have been made to trace the 
continuity of the Protestant principles to the 
Apostolical times, principally through the 
Vaudois ; yet the existence of these cannot 
be ascertained with any historical confidence 
before the twelfth century 552-3 

If any connexion with the earliest times could 
be made out through the Albigeois, or through 
the Mystics, still this would not be a connex- 
ion with the Apostolical Church 554-5 

A JVote on the Eleventh Bookof Bossuet's Va- 
riations 552 

III. On the treatment of Heretics by the Church 555 
The third Canon of the fourth Lateran Coun- 
cil received the sanction of the Civil Author- 
ities, and thus united thena in the same con- 
spiracy. On the principle of the necessary 

' Unity of the Church,' persecution could not 
be avoided ; the Laity co-operated ; and the 
spirit was never more decided than in the 
fifteenth age 555-6 

IV. Some individual reformers of the fifteenth 
century. John of Wesalia was condemned 
and imprisoned. John Wesselus of Gronin- 
gen is mentioned with very high respect by 
Luther. An instance of his disinterestedness 557-3 

John Laillier published at Paris some opinions 
which were censured by the Faculty. He 
was condemned, and subsequently retracted, 
Jerome Savonarola obtained extraordinary 

- influence as a prophet and a demagogue at 
Florence. His interview with Charles VIII. 
of France, and address to that Monarch. 
The circumstances of his overthrow, con- 
demnation and execution 559-61 

John Reuchlin and his admirer Erasmus 561-2 

V. The abuses of the Church were particularly 
felt and detested in Germany. The political 
interests of the Empire and Popedom had 
been almost always at variance. The Con- 
cordats had been violated or eluded by the 
Popes. The people of Germany had become 
more generally enlightened, and thirsted for 
the Scriptures. The Church reposed in in- 
dolent security. Leo X. had not the charac- 
ter which the exigences of his establishment 
required ; and the moment for the Reforma- 
tion was arrived 562=4 



INTRODUCTION, 



An attempt to compress into the following pages the ecclesiastical history of fifteen centu« 
ries, requires some previous explanation, lest any should imagine that this undertaking has 
been entered upon rashly, and without due consideration of its difficulty. This is not the case ; 
I am not blind to the various and even opposite dang-ers which beset it ; and leasi of all am I 
insensible to the peculiar and most solemn importance of the subject. But I approach it 
with deliberation as well as reverence, willing to consecrate to God's service the fruits of an 
insufficient, but not careless diligence, and also trusting, by His divine aid, to preserve the 
straight path which leads tlu'ough truth unto wisdom. 

The principles by which I have been guided require no preface; they will readily develope 
themselves, as they are the simplest in human nature. But, respecting the general plan 
which has been followed in the conduct of this work, a few words appear to be necessary. 
In the first place I have abandoned the method of division by centuries, which has too long 
perplexed ecclesiastical history, and have endeavoured to regulate the partition by the de- 
pendence of connected events, and the momentous revolutions which have arisen from it. 
It is one advantage in this plan, that it .has very frequently enabled me to collect under one 
head, to digest by a single effiart, and present, in one uninterrupted view, materials bearing 
in reality upon the same point, but which, by the more usual method, arc separated and dis- 
tracted. It is impossible to ascertain the proportions or to estimate the real weiglit of any 
single subject amidst the events which surround it — it is impossible to draw from it those 
sober and applicable conclusions which alone distinguish history from romance, unless we 
bring the corresponding portions into contact, in spite of the interval which time may have 
thi'own between them : for time has scattered his lessons over the records of humanity with a 
profuse but careless hand, and both the diligence and the judgment of irian must be exercised 
to collect and arrange them, so as to extract from their combined qualities the true odor of 
wisdom. 

It is another advantage in the method which I have adopted, that it affords greater facility 
to bring into relief and illustrate matters which are really important and have had lasting 
effects; since it is chiefly by fixing attention and awakening reflection on those great phenom- 
ena which have not only stamped a character on the age to which they belong, but have 
influenced the conduct and happiness of after ages, that history asserts her prerogative above 
a journal or an index, not permitting thought to be dispersed nor memory wasted upon a 
minute narration of detached incidents and transient and inconsequential details. And, in 
this matter, I admit that my judgment has been very freely exercised in proportioning the 
degree of notice to the permanent weight and magnitude of events. 

As regards the treatment of particular branches of this subject, all readers are aware how 
zealously the facts of ecclesiastical history have been disputed, and how frequently those 
differences have been occasioned or widened by the peculiar opinions of the disputants. Re- 
specting the former, it is sufficient to say that the limits of this work obviously prevent the 
author from pursuing and unfolding all the intricate perplexities of critical controversy. I 
have, therefore, generally contented myself, in questions of ordinary moment, with following, 
sometimes even without comment, what has appeared to me to be the more pr-ob able conclu- 
sion, and of signifying it as probable only. Respecting the latter, I have found it the most 
difficult, as it is certainly among the weightiest of my duties, to trace the opinions which 
have divided Christians in every age regarding matters of high import both in doctrine and 
discipline. But it seems needless to say that I have scarcely, in any case, entered into the 
arguments by which those opinions have been contested. It is no easy task, through hostile 
misrepresentation, and the more dangerous distortions of friendly enthusiasm, to penetrate 
their real character, and delineate their true history. For the demonstration of their reason- 
ableness or absurdity I must refer to the voluminous writings consecrated to their explanation. 

This history, extending to the beginning of the Reformation, Avill be divided into five Parts 
or Periods. The first will terminate with the accession of Constantine. It will trace the 
propagation of Christianity ; it will comprehend the persecutions which afflicted, the heresies 
which disturbed, the abuses which stained the early Church, and describe its final triumph 



j^Q LNTRODUCTION. 

over external hostility. The second will carry us through the age of Charlemagne. We 
shall watch the fell of the Polytheistic system of Greece and Rome ; w'e shall examine with 
painful interest the controversies which distracted the Church, and which were not suspend- 
ed even while the scourge from Arabia was hanging over it, and that especially hy which 
the East was finally alienated from Rome. In the West, we shall observe the influx of the 
Northern barbarians, and the gradual conquest accomplished by our religion over a second 
form of Paganism. We shall notice the influence of feudal institutions on the character of 
that Church, the commencement of its temporal authority, and its increasing corruption. 
Our third period will conduct us to the death of Gregory VII. And here I must obsei-ve, 
that, from the eighth century downwards, our attention will, for the most part, be occupied 
by the Church of Rome, and follow the fluctuations of its history. About 270 years compose 
this period — the most curious, though by no m.eans the most celebrated, in the papal annals. 
From the foundations established by Charlemagne, the amazing pretensions of that See 
gradually grew up; in despite of the crimes and disasters of the tenth century, they made 
progress during those gloomy ages, and finally received developement and consistency from 
the extraordinary genius of Gregory. Charlemagne left behind him the radiments of the 
system, without any foresight of the strange character which it was destined to assume; Gre- 
gory grasped the materials which he found lying before him, and put thei^j together with a 
giant's hand, and bequeathed the mighty spiritual edifice, to be enlarged and defended by his 
successors. The fourth part will describe the conduct of those successors, as far as the death 
of Boniface VIII., and the removal of the seat of government to Avignon. This is the era 
of papal extravagance and exultation. It was during this space (of about 220 years) that all 
the energies of the system were in full action, and exhibited the extent of good and of evil 
of which it was capable. It was then especially that the spirit of Monachism burst its 
ancient boundaries, and threatened to quench the reviving sparks of knowledge, and to repel 
the advancing tide of reason. The concussion was indeed fearful ; the face of the Church 
was again darkened by the blood of her martyrs, and the rage of bigotry was found to be 
more destructive than the malice of Paganism. The last division will follow the decline of 
papal power, and the general decay of papal principles ; and in this more grateful office, it 
will be my most diligent, perhaps most profitable, task, to examine the various attem})ts 
which were made by the Roman Chiu-ch to reform and regenerate itself, and to observe the 
perverse infatuation by which they were thwarted ; until the motives and habits which at- 
tached men to their ancestral superstitions at length gave way, and the banners of reason 
were openly unfurled in holy allegiance to the Gospel of Christ. 

There is a sober disposition to religious moderation and warm but dispassionate piefy^ 
with which the book of Ecclesiastical History must ever inspire the minds of those who 
approach it without prejudice, and meditate on it calmly and thoughtfully. May some 
portion of that spirit be communicated to the readers of the following pages! May they 
leam to distinguish the substance of Christianity from its corruptions — to perceive that the 
religion is not contaminated by the errors or crimes of its professors and ministers, and that 
all the evils which have ever been inflicted upon the v/orld in tbe name of Christ, have inva- 
riably proceeded from its abuse ! The vain appendages which man has superadded to the 
truth of God, as they are human so are they perishable ; some have fallen, and all will grad- 
ually fall, by their own weight and weakness. This reflection will serve^ perhaps, to allay 
eertain apprehensions. From the multitude of others which suggest themselves, I shall 
select one only. The readers of this work will observe, from the experience of every age of 
Christianity, that, through the failings and variety of our nature, diversity in religious opin- 
ion is inseparable from religious belief; they will observe the fruitlessness of every forcible 
attempt to repress it ; and they wifl also remark, that it has seldom proved dangerous to the 
happiness of society, unless when civil authority has interfered to restrain it. The moral 
eflfect of this great historical lesson can be one only — uncontentious, unlimited moderation — 
a temperate zeal to soften the diversities vt^hich we cannot possibly prevent — a fei-v^ent dispo- 
sition to conciliate the passions where we fail to convince the reason ; to exercise that for- 
bearance which we surely require ourselves, and constantly to bear in mind that in our 
common pursuit of the same eternal object, we are alike impeded by the same human and 
irremediable imperfections. 

George Waddington, 

Ttdnily College^ Cambridge. 



CONTENTS. 



PART I. 

FROM THE TIMES OF THE APOSTLES TO THE ACCESSIOxN OF CONSTANTiNE. 

Chapter I. — The Propagation of Christianity. 

Method of treating the subject. (1.) Church of Jerusalem — Its earliest members — Death of St. 
James — Succession of Symeon — Destruction of the city by Titus— Succession to Pella — Bishops 
of the Circumcision — Destruction of the city by Adrian — ^lia C^itolina — Second succession of 
Bishops — Conclusion. (2.) Church of Antioch — Its foundation and progress — Ignatius — Theo- 
philus — Mesopotaiuia — Pretended correspondence between the Saviour and Abgarus, Prince of 
Edessa. (3.) Church of Ephesus — The Seven Churches of Asia — The latest years of St. John — 
Piety and progress of the Church of Ephesus — Polycrates — His opposition to Rome. (4.) Church 
of Smyrna — Polycarp — His Martyrdom — Sardis — Mehto — Hierapolis — Papias — Apolhnaris— Bith- 
ynia — Testimony of the younger Pliny. (5.) Church of Athens — Character of the people — Quad- 
ratus — Aristides — Athenagoras — Their apologies — Other Grecian Churches. (6.) Church of 
Corinth — Character of the peopk — Nature of their dissensions — Clemens Romanus — His Epistle 
-^Form of Government — Dionysius of Corinth — Seven general Epistles — Remarks. (7.) Church 
of Rome — The persecution of Nero described by Tacitus — Martyrdom of St. Paul and St. Peter — 
Probable effect of this persecution — Extent of Romish superiority over other Churches — Contro- 
versy respecting Easter — Conduct of Victor, Bishop of Rome — Irenteus — France — Church of 
Lyons. (8.) Church of Alexandria — St. Marc— Its increase and importance — Epistle of Hadrian 
— Remarks on it — Education of the first Christians — Pantasnus — Clemens Alexandrinus — The 
Church of Carthage. ... . ... Page 29 

Chapter II. — On the JS^umbers, Discipline, Doctrine, and Morality oftlie 
Primitive Church. 

(1.) General view of the extent of the Church — Facility of intercourse favourable to Christianity — •■ 
Other circumstances — Miraculous claims of the Church — To what limits they ought to be con- 
fined. (2.) Gx)vernment of the Primitive Church — During the time of the Apostles — After their 
Death — Deacons — Distinction of Clergy and Laity — Earliest form of Episcopal Government — 
Independence of the first Churches — Institution of Synods — Their character and uses — The evil 
supposed to have arisen frojn them — Metropolitans — Excommunication — Supposed community of 
property — Ceremonies of religion — Feasts and fasts — Schools. (3.) Creeds — The Apostles' 
Creed — Baptism — The Eucharist — The Agapae. (4.) Morality of the first Christians— Testimonies 
of St. Clement — Pliny — Bardeanes — Chastity — Exposure of infants — Charity — The earliest con- 
verts among the lower orders — The progress of the faith was upwards — Testimony of Lucian in 
history of Peregrinus — Suffering courage. ------ 38 

Chapter III. — The Progress of Christianity from the year 200 a.d. till the 
Accession of Constantine, a.d. 313. 

Incipient corruption of the Church — Reasons for it — Its extent — External progress of religion in 
Asia and in Europe — Claims, character, and prosperity of the Church of Rome' — That of Alex- 
andria. — Origen — his character — Industry — Success — Defect — The Church of Carthage — Tertul- 
lian— His character— Heresy — Merits. — Cyprian — Government of the Church — Increase of epis- 
copal power, or, rather, influence — Degeneracy of the Ministers of Religion exaggerated — Insti- 
tution of inferior orders — Division of the people into Faithful and Catechumens — Corruption of 
the sacrament of Baptism — Effect of this — The Eucharist — Daemons— Exorcism — Alliance with 
philosophy — Its consequences. — Pious frauds — Their origin — Excuses for such corruptions- 
Eclectic philosophy — Ammonius Saccas — Plotinus — Porphyry — Compromise with certain philoso- 
phers — The Millennium — The writings of the early Fathers — Apologies. - - 49 

Chapter IV. — On the Persecutions of several Roman Emperors. 

Claims of Roman Paganism to the character of tolerance examined — Theory of pure Polytheism — ■ 
Roman policy— Various laws of tlie Republic — continued under the emperors — Mecccnas — Re- 
marks—The ten persecutions — how many general — That of Nero — its character — Of Domitian — 
The grandsons of St. Jude — The epistle of Pliny to Trajan — His answer — Real object of Trajan 
-^Letter of Serenius Granianus to Hadrian — Antoninus Pius. — Marcus Antoninus — Gibbon's par- 
tiality — Real character of this persecution compared with those preceding it — His principles and 
knowledge, and superstition — His talents and virtues — Connection of his philosophy and his 
intolerance — Commodus — Decius— His persecution — accoauted for— its nature — Valerian — Mar- 



22 CONTENTS. 

tyrdom of Cyprian — Persecution of Diocletian — Its origin and motives — Influence of Pagan 
priesthood — -Progress of the persecution — Its mitigation by Constantius, and final cessation at the 
accession of Constantine. General remarks — Unpopularity of the Christians — accounted for — 
Calumnies by which they suffered — Their contempt of all false gods — Change in the character of 
their adversaries — Philosophy — Excuses advanced for the persecutors — their futility — General 
character of persecuting emperors — Absurd opinions on this subject — Effect of the persecutions — 
upon the whole favourable — For what reasons. » - -'-*- - 57 

Chapter V. — On the Heresies of the three first Centuries. 

Meaning of the word Heresy — Charges of immorality brought against Heretics — Their treatment by 
early Church — Number of early Heresies— Moderation of the primitive Church — Three classes of 
Heretics. (1.) Two kinds of Philosophy — Gnosticism — Origin and nature of that doctrine — its 
association with Christianity — Moral practice of the Gnostics — Their martyrs — Various forms of 
Gnosticism — Basilides. — Carpocrates — Valentinus — Cerdo and Marcion — Tatian and the Encra- 
tites. {2.) The Ebionites — Eusebius's account of them — Conclusions from it — The Heresy of 
Artemon — revived by Paul of Samosata — his sentence and expulsion — how finally enforced — He- 
resy of Praseas— Doctrines of the Church stated by Tertullian — Sabellius — his opinions — Patro- 
passians. (3.) Simon Magus — Montanus — his preaching and success — Controversy on the Baptism 
of Heretics — The Novatians — their schism and opinions — Conclusions respecting the general 
character of the early Heresie^ and the manner of opposing them — On the Fathers of the primi- 
tive Church — Real importance of their writings — Shepherd of Hermas — Epistle of St. Barna^ 
bas — Ignatius — Polycarp — Clement of Rome — Respecting their doctrine — Ireneeus. - 69 

PART II. 

FROM THE ACCESSION OF CONSTANTINE TO THE DEATH OF CHARLEMAGNE. 

Chapter VI. — Constantine the Great. 

The Luminous Cross — Edict of Milan— Character, Conversion, Policy of Constantine — Changes in 
the Constitution of the Church — Imperial Supremacy — Rights of the Church — Its internal Ad- 
ministration — External — Conclusion. ...----82 

Chapter VII. — The Arian Controversy. 

Controversies among Christians accounted for — Conduct of Constantine — Alexander — Arius — 
Council of Nice — Constantius — Athanasius — Council of Rimini — Theodosius — Council of Con- 
stantinople — Arianism of the Barbarians— Justinian — Spain — Council of Toledo — Termination of 
the Controversy — Observations. - - - -,- - - . 92 

Chapter VIII. — The Decline and Fall of Paganism, 

folicy of Constantine — of Julian — Designed Reformation of Paganism — Attempt to restore the Tem- 
ple of Jerusalem — Gradual Decline of the Superstition and virtual overthrow by Tliedosius 104 

Chapter IX. — From the Fall of Paganism to the Death of Justinian. 

Conversion of the Northern Barbarians — Superstitions of the Church — Leo the Great — Papal Ag- 
grandizement — Justinian — his Ecclesiastical Policy — Established Laws against Heresy — Litera- 
ture, Profane and Christian — Causes and Periods of the Decay of either— Moral Condition of the 
Clergy and People — Note on certain Fathers of the Fourth and Fifth Centuries. - 115 

Chapter X. — From the Death of Justinian to that of Charlemagne. 

1. Mission of St. Austin to England — of St. Boniface to Germany — Mahomet and his Successors-:- 
Victory of Charles Martel — Charlemagne. 2. Gregory the Great — his Character — Policy — its per- 
manent Results — Council of Francfort — Depositioii of Childeric — Donation of Pepin — Charle- 
magne's Liberality to the Church. , . . , . ^ . 133 

Chapter XI. — The Dissensions of the Church from Constantine to Charlemagne. 

1, Schism of the Donatists — St. Augustin. 2. Priscillian — his Opinions, and Death. 3. Jovinian — 
Vigilantius — St. Jerome. 4. Pelagian Controversy — Councils of Jerusalem and Diospolis — St. 
Augustin. 5. Controversy respecting the Incarnation — Apollinaris — Nestorius — Council of Eph- 
esus — Eutyches — Second Council of Ephesus — Council of Chalcedon — The Monothelites — 
Council of C. P. 6. Worship of Images — Leo the Isaurian — The Empress Irene — Seventh General 
Council — Empress Theodora — Observations. - .... ^51 

Chapter XII.— Schism hetxveen the Greek and Latin Churches. 

Origin of the Dispute — Council of Chalcedon — Title of GEcumenical Bishop — John the Faster-v- 
Gregory the Great — Procession of the Holy Spirit— Photius— -his Fortunes — Michael Ceralarius 
srrr-Anathema by the Legates of Leo IX . - - - - - - 17^ 



CONTENTS. 23 

Chapter XIII. — The Constitution of the Church as fixed by Charlemagne. 

Retrospect of the Condition of the Church at preceding Periods — at the Accession of Constantine — 
the Death of St. Gregory — the Accession of Charlemagne — The Judicial Rights of the Clergy 
under Constantine — Justinian — Charlemagne — The false Decretals — Donation of Constantine — 
The Revenues of the Church — their Sources and Objects. - - - 176 

PART 111. 

FROM THE DEATH OF CHARLEMAGNE TO THAT OF POPE GREGORY VII. 814—1085. 

Chapter XIV. — On the Government and Projects of the Church during the 
JYinth and Tenth Centuries, 

Division of the Subject into Three Parts. (I.) Independence of Papal Election — Original Law and 
Practice — First Violation — Posterity of Charlemagne — Charles the Bald — Otho the Great — Henry 
HI. — Alterations under Nicholas 11. — Reflections. (II.) — Encroachment of Ecclesiastical on Civil 
Authority — Indistinct Limits of Temporal and Spiritual Power — Till the time of Charlemagne — 
After that time — Influence of Feudal System — Kind of Authority conferred by it on the Clergy — 
Military Service — of Church Vassals — of Clergy — latter forbidden by Charlemagne — Supersti- 
tious Methods of Trial — by Hot Iron — the Cross — the Eucharist — Political offices of the Clergy — ■ 
Influence from Intellectual Superiority — Plunder of Church Property — Lay Impropriators — 
Advocates — Louis le Debonnaire — his Penance — Council at Paris in 820 — Charles the Bald — Coun- 
cil of Aixla Chapelle — Lothaire, King of Lorraine — his Excommunication — Hincmar, Archbishop 
of Rheims — his Conduct on two occasions — Charles the Bald accepts the Empire from the Pope — 
General Reflections — Robert, King of France — his Excommunication and Submission — Episcopal 
distinct from Papal Encroachment. (III.) Internal Usurpation of the Roman See — Its Original 
Dignity — Metropolitan Privileges — Appellant Jurisdiction of Pope — The False Decretals — Contest 
between Gregory IV. and the French Bishops — between Adrian II. and Hincmar — Character of 
Hincmar — Consequence of regular Appeals to the Pope — Vicars of the Roman See — Exemption 
of Monasteries from Episcopal Superintendence — Remarks. - - - . 205 

Chapter XV. — On the Opinions, Literature, Discipline, and External 
Fortunes of the Church. 

(I.) On the Eucharist — Original Opinions of the Church — Doctrine of Paschasius Radbert — Com- 
bated by Ratram and John Scotus — Conclusion of the Controversy — Predestination — Opinions and 
Peisecution of Gotteschalcus — Millennarianism in the Tenth Century — Its strange and genexaJ 
Effect. (II.) Literature — Rabanus Maurus, John Scotus, Alfred — its Progress among the Saracens 
— Spain — South of Italy — France— Rome— Pope Sylvester II. (HL) Disciphne— Conduct of 
Charlemagne and his Successors — St. Benedict of Aniane. Institution of Canons Regular — Epis- 
copal election — Translations of Bishops prohibited. Pope Stephen VI. — Claudius Bishop of Turin 
—Penitential System. (IV.) Conversion of the North of Europe — of Denmark, Sweden, Russia — of 
Poland and Hungary — how accomplished and to what Extent — The Normans— The Turks. 219 

Chapter XVI.— T/ie Life of Gregory VIT. 

Division of the Subject. — Section I. From Leo IX. to the Accession of Gregory. Section IL 
The Pontificate of Gregory. Section HI. Controversy respecting Transubstantiation and Estab- 
lishment of the Latin Liturgy. 

Section I.— Pope Leo IX.— Early History of Hildebrand— Succession of Victor II. — of Stephen 
IX. — of Nicholas II.— his Measure respecting Papal Election— the College of Cardinals— imper- 
fection of that Measure— Subsequent and final Regulation — Inconveniences of popular Suffrage — 
Restriction of the Imperial Right of Confirmation— Homage of Robert Guiscard and the Normans 
—Dissensions on the Death of Nicholas— Succession of Alexander II.— actual Supremacy of 
Hildebrand— Measures taken during that Pontificate— Alexander is succeeded by Hildebrand, 
under the title of Gregory VII. 

Section II. — Gregory's First Council— its two objects— to prevent (I.) Marriage or Concubinage of 
the Clergy— (2.) Simoniacal Sale of Benefices— On the Cehbacy of the Clergy — why encouraged 
by Popes— LeO IX. — Severity and Consequence of Gregory's Edict— Original Method of appoint- 
ment to Benefices— Usurpations of Princes— how abused— -the Question of Investiture---Ex- 
plained— Pretext for Royal Encroachments— Original form of Consecration by the King and 
Crown— Right usurped by Otho— State of the Question at the Accession of Gregory — Conduct of 
Henry— further measures of the Pope — IndiflTerence of Henry— Summoned before a Council at 
Rome— Council of Worms— Excommunication of the Emperor and Absolution of his Subjects 
from their Allegiance— Consequence of this Edict— Dissensions in Germany — how suspended — 
Henry does Penance at Canossa— restored to the Communion of the Church— again takes the 
field— Rodolphus declared Emperor — Gregory's Neutrality— Remarks on the course of Gregory's 
Measures — Universality of his temporal Claims— his probable project— Considerations in excuse 
of his Schemes — partial admission of his Claims— Ground on which he founded them— power to 
bind and to loose — Means by which he supported them — Excommunication — Interdict— Legates 
k Latere— Alliance with Matilda— his Norman allies German Rebels — Internal Administration 
—Effect of his rigorous Measures of Reform— his grand scheme of Supremacy within the Church 
—False Decretals — Power conferred by them on the Pope— brought into action by Gregory— Ap- 
peals to Pope— Generally encouraged and practised— their pernicious Effects— Gregory's Double 



24 CONTENTS. 

Scheme of Universal Dominion— Return to Narrative— Clement III. anti-Pope — Death of Rodol- 
phus— Henry twice repulsed from before Rome— finally succeeds — his Coronation by Clement— 
the Normans restore Gregory— he follows them to Salerno and there dies— hris Historical impor- 
tance—his Character— Public— his grand principle in the Administration of the Church — Private 
— as to Morality— as to Religion. 
Section HI. — (I.) Controversy respecting Transubstantiation — suspended in the Ninth, renewed 
in the Eleventh Century— Character of Berenger— Council of Leo IX.— of Victor II. at Tours 
in 1054 — Condemnation and conduct of Berenger— Council of Nicholas II. — repeated Retractation 
and relapse of Berenger— Alexander II. — Council at Rome under Gregory VII.— Extent of the 
Concession then required from Berenger— further Requisition of the Bishops- -a Second Council 
assembled'-Conduct of Gregory— Berenger again solemnly assents to the Catholic Doctrine, and 
again returns to his own — his old Age, Remorse, and Death— Remarks on his Conduct— on the 
Moderation of Gregory. (2.) Latin Liturgy— Gradual Disuse of Latin Language throughout Eu- 
rope — Adoption of Gothic Missal in Spain — Alfonso proposes to substitute the Roman — Decision 
by the Judgment of God—by Combat— by Fire— doubtful Result— final Adoption of the Latin 
Liturgy— Its introduction among the Bohemians by Gregory— Motives of the Popes — other instan- 
ces of Liturgies not performed in the Vulgar Tongue— Usage of the early Christian Church. 231 

PART IV. 

FROM THE DEATH OF GREGORY VII. TO THAT OF BONIFACE VIII. 

Chapter XVIII. From Gregorij VII. to Innocent III. 

(T.) Papal history — Urban 11. — Council of Placentia — that of Clermont — their principal acts — The 
Crusades — their origin and possible advantage — Pascal II. — Pv,enewed disputes with Henry — his 
misfortunes, private and public — his death and exhumation — Henry, his son, marches to Rome — 
Convention with Pascal respecting the regalia — its violation — Imprisonment of the Pope — his 
concessions — annulled by subsequent Council' — Henry again at Rome — Death and character of 
Pascal — Final arrangement of the investiture question by Calixtus II. — Observations — The first 
Lateran (ninth general) Council — Death of Calixtus — Subsequent confusion and its causes — 
Arnold of Brescia — his opinions, fate, and character — Adrian IV. — Frederic Barbarossa — Disputes 
between them, and final success of the Pope — Alexander III.' — his quarrel with Frederic, and 
advantages — his talents and merits — Celestine III. — The differences between Rome and the 
Empire — The internal dissensions at Rome on papal election — National contentions between 
Church and State. (II.) Education and theological learning — Review of preceding ages — in Italy 
and France — Parochial schools — Deficiency in the material — Papyrus — Parchment — Consequent 
scarcity of MSS. — Invention of paper — Three periods of theological literature — the characteristics 
of each — Gradual improvement in the eleventh century. . - _ . 252 

Chapter XVIII. — Pontificate of Innocent III. 

Prefatory facts and observations — Circumstances under which Innocent ascended the chair — Col- 
lection of Canons — Condition of the clergy — Ecclesiastical jurisdiction — by what means extended 
— Innocent's four leading objects — (I.) to establish and enlarge his temporal power in the city and 
ecclesiastical states — Office of the Prefect — Favorable circumstance, of which Innocent avails 
himself — his work completed by Nicholas IV. — (2.) to establish the universal pre-eminence of 
papal over royal authority — His claims to the Empire — His dispute with Philippe Auguste of 
France — he places the kingdom under interdict — submission of Philippe — His general assertions 
of supremacy — particular applications of them— to England and France, Navarre, Wallachia and 
Bulgaria, Arragon and Armenia—His contest with John of England- — Interdict — the Legate Pan- 
dulph — Humiliation of the King — (3.) to extend his authority within the church — Italian clergy 
in England — his general success in influencing the priesthood — Power of the Episcopal Order~~ 
The fourth Lateran Council. Canons on transubstantiation — on private confession — against all 
heretics — (4.) to extinguish heresy. The Petrobrussians — their author and tenets. Various other 
sects, how resisted. The Cathari — supposition of Mosheim and Gibbon the more probable opin- 
ion — The Waldenses — their history and character — error of Mosheim — Peter Waldus — his perse- 
cution. The Albigeois or Albigenses — their residence and opinions — attacked by Innocent — St. 
Dominic — title of Inquisitor — Raymond of Toulouse — holy war preached against them — Simon de 
Montfort — resistance and massacre of the heretics. The crusade of children — Continued perse- 
cution of the Albigeois — Death of Innocent, ...... 276 

Chapter XIX. — The History of Monacliism. 

(I.) Early instance of the monastic spirit in the east — Pliny the philosopher — The Therapeutae or 
Essenes — The Ascetics — their real character and origin — The earliest Christian hermits — dated 
from the Decian or Diocletian persecutions — CtEnobites. Pachomius and St. Anthony — originated 
in Egypt — Basilius of Caesarea — his order and rule — his institution of a vow questionable — Mo- 
nasteries encouraged by the fathers of the fourth and fifteenth ages — from what motives — Vow 
of celibacy — Restrictions of admission into monastic order — Original monks were laymen — Com- 
parative fanaticism of the east" and west — Severity and discipline in the west — motives and 
inducements to it — contrasted with the Oriental practice — Establishment of nunneries in\he 
east. (II.) Introduction of monachism into the west — St. Athanasius — Martin of Tours — Most 
ancient rule of the western monasteries — their probable paucity and poverty — Benedict of Nursia 
— his order, and reasonable rule, and object — Foundation of Monte Cassino — France — St. Co- 



CONTENTS, 25 

lumban — Ravages of the Lombards and Danes — Reform by Benedict of Aniane — The order of 
Cluni — its origin, rise, and reputation — its attachment to papacy and its prosperity^ — The order of 
Citeaux — date of its foundation — Dependent Abbey of Clairvaux — St. Bernard — its progress and 
decline — Order of the Chartreux. (HI.) Order of St. Augustin — Rule of Chrodegangus — Rule of 
Aix-la-Chapelle — subsequent reforms. (IV.) Connexion between the monasteries and the Pope — 
mutual services — The military orders— (1.) The Knights of the Hospital — origin of their institu- 
tion — their discipline and character — (2.) Knights Templar — their origin and object — (3.) The 
Teutonic order — its establishment and prosperity. (V.) The mendicant orders — causes of their 
rise and great progress — (1.) St. Dominic — his exertions and designs — (2.) St. Francis and his 
followers — compared with the Dominicans — apparent assimilation — essential differences — disputes 
of the Franciscans with the Popes, and among themselves — Inquisitorial office of the Dominicans, 
their learning and influence — quarrels with the Doctors of Paris — Austerity of the Franciscans— 
The Fratricilli — (3.) The Carmelites — their professed origin — (4.) Hermits of St. Augustin — Privi- 
leges of these four orders. (VI.) Various establishments of Nuns — their usual offices and char- 
acter — General remarks — The three grand orders of the Western Church (suited to the ages in 
which they severally appeared and flourished) — The Jesuits — The Monastic system one of perpet- 
ual reformation — thus alone it survived so long — its merits and advantages — The bodily labor of 
the Monks — their charitable and hospitable offices — real piety to be found among them — super- 
intendence of education, and means of learning preserved by them — limits to their utility — their 
frequent alliance with superstition — their early dependence on the Bishops — gradual exemption, 
and final subjection to the Pope — Their profits and opulence, and means of amassing it — Luther a 
mendicant. .-.--.-.-- 296 

Chapter XX. — History of the Popes from the Death of Innocent III. to that of 

Boniface VIII. 

The ardor of the Popes for Crusades — its motives and policy — Honorius III. — Frederic's vow to 
take the cross, and procrastination — Gregory IX. — his Coronation — he excommunicates the 
Emperor — who thus departs for Palestine — Gregory impedes his success, and invades his domin- 
ions— their subsequent disputes — Innocent IV. — his previous friendship with Frederic — Council 
of Lyons — Various charges urged against Frederic — Innocent deposes Frederic and appoints his 
successor — on his own papal authority — Civil war in Germany — in Italy — death of Frederic — his 
character and conduct — his rigorous Decree against Heretics — Observations — Other reasons 
alleged to justify his deposition — this dispute compared with that between Gregory VII. and 
Henry — Taxes levied by the Pope on the Clergy — Crusade against the Emperor — Exaltation of 
Innocent — his visit to Italy and intrigues — his death — his qualities as a statesman — as a churchman 

— expression of the Sultan of iEgypt — Alexander IV. — Urban IV. — Clement IV. — Introduction 
of Charles d'Anjou to the throne of Naples — Gregory X. — his piety, and other merits — Second 
Council of Lyons — Vain preparations for another Crusade — Death of Gregory — Objects of Nicho- 
las II. — Martin IV. — Senator of Rome — Nicholas IV. dihgent against Heresy — Pietro di Morone 
or Celestine V. — circumstances of his elevation — his previous life and habits — his singular inca- 
pacity — disaffection among the higher Clergy — his discontent and meditations — his resignation — - 
Boniface VIII. — his excessive ambition and insolence — on the decline of the papal power — his 
temporal pretensions — Sardinia, Corsica, Scotland, Hungary — Recognition of Albert King of the 
Romans — and act of his submission — Philip the Fair — The Galilean Church — origin of its liberties 

—St. Louis and the Pragmatic Sanction — Differences between Boniface and Philip — Bull Clericia 

Laicos — its substance and subsequent interpretation — Affairs of the Bishop of Parmiers — Bull 

Ausculta Fill — burnt by Philip — Conduct of the French Nobles — of the Clergy — of Boniface. Bull 

• Unam Sanctam — other violent proceedings — Moderation of Philip — further insolence of the Popo 

— Philip's appeal to a General Council — William of Nogaret — Personal assault on Boniface — his 
behavior and the circumstances of his death. - - - - - - 334 

Chapter XXI. 

On Louis IX. of France — his religious and ecclesiastical acts and projects — On the origin and estab- 
lishment of the Inquisition — On some of the principal effects of the Crusades — The Pragmatic 
Sanction, and the Liberties of the Galilean Church. . . . . . 354 

PART V. 

Chapter XXII. — Residence of the Po^oes at Avignon. 

(I.) History of the Popes — Clement V. — Council of Vienne — Condemnation of the Templars — John 
XXII. — his contest with Lewis of Bavaria — supposed heresy — Benedict XII. — Clement VI. — the 
Jubilee— Innocent VI. — Urban V. — goes to Pv-ome but returns to Avignon — Gregory XI. — dies at 
Rome. (II.) General history of the Church — Decline of papal power — Rapacity and profligacy of 
the Court of Avignon — Attempts at Reform — Schism among the Franciscans — their disputes with 
John XXII. and other Popes — Change in the Imperial- policy — The Beghards — The Lolhards — 
Heresy and fate of Dulcinus— The Flagellants— Conclusion. - - - - 381 

Chapter XXIII.— T/ie Grand Schism of the Roman Catholic Church. 

Turbulent election of Urban VI. — his harshness — secession of the college to Anagni.and election of 
Clement VII. — his retreat to Avignon — division of Europe — Boniface IX. succeeds Urban — his 
extraordinary avarice— Pietro di Luna (Benedict XIII.) succeeds Clement— Attempts to heal the 

4 



26 CONTENTS. 

schism — Boniface succeeded by Innocent VII. — he by Angelo Corrario (Gregory XII.) — his repu- 
tation—Collusion of the two pretenders — Council of Pisa — their deposition and election of Alex- 
ander v., who is succeeded by John XXIII. — Council of Constance — escape and deposition of 
John — Abdication of Gregory — Conference of Perpignan and deposition of Luna — Election of 
Martin V. — Fate and character of Gregory — Benedict and John. . - . 405 

Chapter XXIV. — Attempts of the Church at Self-Reformation. 

Spirit manifested at the Council of Pisa — Testimonies of Churchmen against ecclesiastical corrup- 
tion — extent of their complaints — Conduct of Alexander V. — Council of Constance — Gerson — The 
Committee of Reform — their labors — nature of the opposition — how their exertions are eluded — 
Election of Martin V. — who succeeds in evading all efficient Reform — Real objects of the Refor- 
mers — Remarks — Assembly of the Council of Basle — Eugenius IV. — Three objects of the Council 
— Cardinal Julian Cesarini — Struggle between the Council and the Pope — Substance of the enact- 
ments of the Council for Church Reform — New differences with Eugenius — Council of Ferrara 
and Florence — Cardinal of Aries — Deposition of Eugenius — Felix V. — Confirmation of the liberties 
of the Galilean Church — Conclusion. ------- 434 

Chapter XXV. — History of the Hussites. 

Wiclif — his opinions — introduced into Bohemia — John Huss — his proceedings — arrival at Constance 
— Safe-conduct of Sigismond — Various charges and processes of the Council against him — His 
firmness and execution — Jerome of Prague — his persecution — vascjllation and final execution — 
Remarks — Insurrection of the Bohemians — their sanguinary and prolonged contest with the 
Church. - - - - - - - . . . 559 

Chapter XXVI. — History of the Greek Church after its Separation from, the Latin. 

The Paulicians — their history and opinions — Various mystics — Messalians, Quietists and others — 
Dispute on the God of Mahomet — Attempts to re-unite the two Churches — System of the Greek 
Church — distinguished from Latin — The Latin kingdom of Jerusalem — duration and consequences 
—Latin conquest of Constantinople — Establishment of a Roman Catholic Church in Greece — 
its endowments — Embassy to Nice for the re-union — its failure — other similar endeavors — faith- 
less reconciliation at Lyons — attempts renewed in the fourteenth century — Negotiations with 
Eugenius IV. — Council of Ferrara — removed to Florence — its deliberations — Conditions and decree 
of union — Reception of the Greek deputies on their return to Constantinople — Violence of the 
Greeks — unabated — till the taking of Constantinople by Mahomet II. - - - 477 

Chapter XXVII. — History of the Popes, from JVicholas V. to Leo X. 

Nicholas V. — his popular character — CallixtusIII. — yEneas Sylvius or Pius II. — his election — exer- 
tions against the Turks — Paul 11. — Sixtus IV. — his literary pretensions — Innocent VIII. — Ro- 
derigo Borgia or Alexander VI. — consummation of papal iniquity — Pius III. — Julius II. — his war- 
like talents, enterprise and success — Leo X. — The Lateran Council convoked by Julius and carried 
to its conclusion by Leo. -------- 493 

Chapter XXVIII. — Preliminaries of the Reformation. 

(1.) A review of the decline of the papal system — in respect to its temporal power and pretensions — 
its internal constitution — ■ its discipline, and moral instruction and practice — its spiritual innova- 
tions — Festivals, controversies, &c. — the mystics. (2.) On the endeavors of the Church to 
remove its own abuses — to what limits they were confined — On the exertions of Sectarians or 
Separatists — how early they began, and to what objects they tended — the treatment which they 
received from the Church — Some distinguished Reformers of the fifteenth century — A particular 
reference to the German Church — The conclusion of this history. - - - 524 



27 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 

PART I. 



FROM THE TIMES OF THE APOSTLES TO THE ACCESSION 
OF CONSTANTINE. 



CHAPTER I. 

The propagation of Chnstianity. 

Method of treating the subject. 1. Church of Jerusalem 
— Its earliest meiiiljers— Death of St. James — Succes- 
sion of Symeon— Destruction of the city by Titus— Suc- 
cession to Pella— Bishops of the Circumcision— Destruc- 
tion of the city by Adrian— iElia Capitolina— Second 
succession of Bishops — Conclusion. 2. Church of An- 
tioch — Its foundation and progress — Ignatius — Theophi- 
lu3 — Jlesopotaniia — Pretended correspondence between 
the Saviour and Abgarus, Prince of Edessa. 3. Church 
of Ephesus — The Seven Churches of Asia — The latest 
years of St. John — Piety and progress of the Church 
of Ephesus— Polycrates— His opposition to Rome. 4. 
Church of Smyrna — Polycarp — His Martyrdom — Sardis 
— Melito — Hierapolis — Papias — Apollinaris — Bithynia- 
Testimony of the younger Pliny. 5. Church of Athens 
—Character of the people— Gluadratus—Aristides—Athen- 
agoras — Their apologies — Other Grecian Churches. 6. 
Church of Corinth — Character of the people — Nature 
of their dissensions — Clemens Romanus — His Epistle — 
form of Goveinment — Dionysius of Corinth — Seven 
General Epistles — Remarks. 7. Church of Rome — The 
persecution of Nero described by Tacitus — Martyrdom 
of St. Paul and St. Peter— Probable effect of this per- 
.secution — Extent of Romish supenority over other 
Churches — Controversy respecting Easter — Conduct of 
Victor, Bishop of Rome — Irenseus — France — Church of 
Lyons. 8. Church of Alexandria — St. Marc — Its in- 
crease and importance. — Epistle of Hadrian — Remarks 
on it— Education of the first Cliristians— Pantaenus- 
Clemens Alexandrinus — The Church of Caithage. 



It is our object in this chapter to state what 
is material in the early history of such of the 
Churches of Christ, Avhether founded by the 
apostles themselves, or their couipanions, or 
their immediate successors, as were permit- 
ted to attain importance and stability during 
the first two centuries. For this purpose we 
have not thought it necessary to describe the 
circumstances which are detailed in the sa- 
cred writings, and are familiar to all our 
readers. The Cliurches which seem to claitii 
our principal attention are eight in number, 
and shall be treated in the following order : 
Jerusalem and Antioch, Ephesus and Smyr- 
na, Athens and Corinth, Rome and Alex- 
andria ; but our notice will be extended to 
some others, according to tlieu* connexion 
with these, their consequence^ or local situa- 



tion. It is thus that we shall gain our clear^ 
est view of the progress made by infant Chris- 
tianity, and the limits within which it was 
restrained. 

1. The converts of Jerusalem naturally 
formed the earliest Christian society, and for 
a short period probably the most numerous ; 
but the Mosaic jealousy which repelled the 
communion of the gentile world, and thus 
occasioned some internal dissensions, as well 
as the increasing hostility of the Jewish peo- 
ple and government, no doubt impeded their 
subsequent increase. The same causes ope- 
rated, though not to the same extent, on the 
Churches established in other parts of Pa- 
lestine, as in Galilee and Caesarea, and even 
on those of Tyre, Ptolemais, and Caesarea. 
About the year 60 a. d., James, surnamed 
the Just, brother of tlie Saviour, who was the 
first President or Bishop of the Church of 
Jerusalem, perished by a violent death ; * 
and when its members f subsequently as- 

*Le Clevc, H. E. (vol. i. p. 415) ad ann. 62, in" 
A^hich j'ear he places the death of St. James, and af^ 
firms that nothing is known respecting its manner^ 
The state of the question is this: Eusebius (lib. jiy 
cap. 23), on the authority of Hegisippus (a Jewish 
convert who ^Tote under the Antonines), gives a very 
long and circumstantial narration of tlie Bishop's mar^ 
tyrdorn ; of the circumstances many are clearly fabu' 
lous, and all may be suspected; but the leading fact,- 
that St. James was killed in a tumult of the Jews, it 
would not be safe to reject. His violent end, with 
some variation in particulars, is confirmed by Jose* 
phus, Antiq. p. xx. chap. 9. 

f Eusebius (lib. iv. cap. 11) places the election of 
Symeon after the destruction of Jerusalem, which he 
makes immediately subsequent to St. James's mar- 
tyrdom; the Jewish rebellion probably was so. lu 
the same book (cap. 32) he relates the martyrdom of 
Symeon during the reign of Trajan, at the age of 120 
— again on tlie authority of Hegisippus. This author 
wrote five books of ecclesiastical history. Such a 
work, by a judicious writer of that age, would have 
been invaluable ; but the fragments preserved to us by 
Eusebius persu3.de us that Hegisippus was not so. , 



30 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



sembled for the purpose of electing his suc- 
cessor, their choice fell on Symeon, who is 
also said to have been a kinsman of Jesus. 
Shortly after the death of St. James, an in- 
surrection of the Jews broke out, which was 
followed by the mvasion of the Roman ar- 
mies, and was not finally suppressed until 
the year 70, when the city was overwhelmed 
by Titus, and utterly destroyed. During the 
continuance of this war,_ as well as through 
the events which concluded it, the Holy Land 
was subjected to a variety and intensity of 
suffering, to which no parallel can be found 
ill the records of any people.^ 

A short time before the Roman invasion, 
we are informed f that the Christian Church 
seceded from a spot which prophecy had 
taught to hold devoted, and retired to Pella, 
beyond the Jordan. From this circumstance 
it becomes at least probable, that the Chris- 
tians did not sustain their full share of the 
calamities of their country ; but though their 
proportion to the whole population may thus 
have been increased, their actual numbers 
could not fail to be somewhat diminished, 
smce they could not wholly withdraw them- 
selves from a tempest directed indiscrimi- 
nately against the whole nation. 

During the next sixty years we read little 
respecting the Church of Jerusalem, except 
the names of fifteen successive presidents, 
called ' Bishops of the Circumcision ; ' four- 
teen of these only belong to the period in 
question, since they begin with James : and 
they appear to end at the second destruction 
of the city by the emperor Adrian.:]: But 
the times of these successions are extremely 
uncertain, as the first Christians had little 
thought of posterity, § nor were any tabula- 
laries preserved in their Churches, nor any 
public acts or monuments of their proceed- 
ings. The Church over which they presided 



* It is sufficient to refer to the history of Josephus. 

f Euseb. lib. iv. c. 5. Le Clerc places this seces- 
sion in tlie year 66. Semler (sect. 1) fixes the begin- 
ning of the Jewish war in 64. The Christians proba- 
bly retired, as the war became more obstinate, and 
advanced nearer to .Jerusalem. 

I Euseb. lib. iv. c. 5. 

§ This is the complaint of Le Clerc, ad ann. 135. 
And in fact the two most prominent features in the 
histories of Christians, during the three first centuries, 
are their divisions and their persecutions. These sub- 
jects we shall examine in separate chapters, and all 
that can be confidently asserted on other points we are 
contented to glean from Eusebius and some writers of 
ambiguous authority who are quoted by him, from the 
apologies, epistles, and treatises of the early fathers, 
and from a few fragments of profane antiquity. 



seems to have perished with them 5 but 
there is still reason to believe that it was not 
numerous, and we may attribute its weak- 
ness partly to the continued action of the 
two causes above mentioned, and partly to 
the absolute depopulation of the country* 
Yet it would appear from Scripture that 
some sort of authority was at first exercised 
by the Mother Church over her Gentile 
children; and that 'the decrees ordained by 
the aposdes and elders which were at Jeru- 
salem ' found obedience even among distant 
converts. 

On the summit of the sacred hill, out of 
the ruins which deformed it, Adrian erected 
a new city, to which he gave the new and 
Roman title of ::^lia Capitolina, * thinking 
perhaps that he should erase from all future 
history the hateful name of Jerusalem, or 
that a city with a more civilized appellation 
would be inhabited by less rebellious sub- 
jects, or that the contumacy of the Jews was 
associated with the name of their capital. A 
new Church was then established, composed 
no longer of Jews, but of Gentiles only, and 
was governed by a new succession of bish- 
ops, as obscure and as rapid as that which 
we have mentioned. Their names are also 
transmitted to us by the diligence of Euse- 
bius (H. E. lib. V. c. 12), but none with any 
distinction except Narcissus, the fifteenth in 
order, who flourished about the year 180, 
and of whom some traditionary miracles are 
recorded (Euseb. H. E. lib. vi. c. 9). 

Such are the imperfect accounts which re- 
main to us respecting the early history of 
the Church in Palestine ; but, imperfect as 
they are, we are enabled to collect from 
them that the progress of Christianity in 
that stubborn soil was slow, and its condi- 
tion uncertain and fluctuating. And this 
conclusion is confirmed by the direct asser- 
tion of Justin Martyr, a Samaritan prose- 
lyte of the second century, our besi authori- 

* Ecclesiastical writers differ about the date of this 
event. Semler (cent, ii.) places it in the year 119. 
Fleury (liv. iii. sect. 24.) mentions JEIia Capitolina 
as existing previous to the rebellion of Barcochabas, 
but still as the work of Adrian. Le Clerc (ad ann. 
119) seems to waver^ — (ad. ann. 134) decidedly fixes 
tlie foundation for that year, and attributes the com- 
motions of the Jews to that cause. Those commotions 
certainly broke out in 132, and were soon quelled ; but 
both Mosheim andBasnage (Ann. Polit. Eccles. A. D. 
132, vol. ii. ]). 72) consider the foundation of the new 
city to have been immediately subsequent to the rebel- 
lion. Piobably Le Clerc is right as he admits too that 
the city was finally established in 174, after the insur- 
rection (ad ana. 174)— See Euseb. H. E. lib vi. c. 6. 



CHURCH OF ANTIOCH. 



31 



ty for that age and country, who expressly 
assures us that the converts in Judaea and 
Samaria were inferior, both in number and 
fidehty, to those of tlie Gentiles. ' We beliold 
the desolation of Judaea, and some from every 
race of men who believe the teaching of 
Christ's Aposdes, and have abandoned their 
ancient customs in which they fell astray. 
We behold ourselves, too, and we perceive 
that the Christians among the Gentiles are 
more numerous and more faithful than among 
the Jews and Samaritans.' He then proceeds 
to account for the fact, 'that none of these 
have believed excepting some few,' by appeal 
to the prophetic writers.* 

2, From the spectacle of the infidelity and 
devastation of Palestine, foretold by so many 
prophecies, and truly designated by Jortin as 
an 'event on which the fate and credit of 
Christianity depended,' we turn to the more 
grateful office of tracmg its advance, and 
celebrating its success. We may consider 
the neighboring Church of Antioch to have 
been founded about 40 a. n.f by St. Paul 
and St. Barnabas. It was there that the con- 
verts first assumed the name of Christian, and 
the first act which is recorded respecting them 
was one of charity to their suffering brethren 
in Judaea. In a mixed population of Greeks, 
and natives unfettered by the prejudices of 
Judaism, our holy faith made a rapid and 
steady progress. In the residence of the Pre- 
fect of Syria, under the very eye of the civil 
government, it is probable that the infant soci- 
ety was protected against the active hatred of 
the Jews ; and there can be no doubt that its 
early prosperity was greatly promoted by the 
zeal of its second bishop, Ignatius. This 
ardent supporter of the faith, the contempo- 
rary, and, as we are informed, the friend 
of some of the Apostles, presided over the 
Church of Antioch for above thirty years, and 
at length was led away to Rome, and perished 
there, a willing and exulting martyr. He fell 
in the prosecution of Trajan, in the. year 107| 



* Apol. i., ch. 53. 

tLe Clerc, Hist. Eccl. t. i., p. 347 (ann. 40). 
Semler places the foundation of the Church in 39. In 
spite of Scripture (Acts xi. 21, 22, &c.) Baronius 
claims the honor for St. Peter, and is confuted by Bas- 
nage, vol. i., p. 502. (ad ann. 40). 

^Le Clerc (Soec. Sec. ann. 116) fixes this event 
after the earthquake in 116, which destroyed a great 
part of the city, and was attributed by the heathen 
priesthood to the « impiety ' of the Christians. Pear- 
son, Pagi, and Fabricius are of the same opinion. 
But that of Tillemont, Du Pin and Cave, whicli we 
follow, is more probable^, and is confirmed by Lardner 



During his journey through Asia to Rome he 
addressed epistles to some of the Christian 
Churches, in which we may still discover the 
animated piety of the author, through the in- 
terpolations with which the party zealots of 
after times have disfigured them. 

The fourth bishop in succession fi-om 
Ignatius was Theophilus, a learned convert 
from paganism, more justly celebrated for his 
books to Autolycus in defence of Christianity, 
than for his attack on the heresies of Marcion 
and Hermogenes. Under such guidance the 
Church of Antioch became numerous and re-^ 
spectable j and from the ordinary course of 
events we may reasonably infer, that the re- 
ligion which was popular in the capital of 
Syria obtained an easy and general reception 
throughout the province.* 

A correspondence between our Saviour 
liimself and Abgarus, a prince of Edessa in 
Mesopotamia, is delivered to us at the end of 
the first book of Eusebius, as copied from the 
public records of the city. The genuineness 
of the correspondence has long ceased to find 
any advocate, and this is probably among the 
earliest of the many pious frauds which have 
disgraced the history of our Church; but th-s 
existence of the forged record in the archives 
of Edessa has never been disputed ; and, as 
it is clearly the work of a Christian intending 
to do honor to the founder of his religion, it 
proves at least how early was the introduction 
of that religion into the province of Mesopo^ 
tamia. 

8. The seven Churches of Asia mentioned 
in the Revelation are, Ephesus, Smyrna, Per- 
gamus and Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, 
Laodicea. Of Pergamus and Thyatira little 
subsequent mention is made in history ; the 
other five, and especially the two first, are 
distinguished among the most fruitful af the 
primitive communities. The Church of 
Ephesus, which was founded by St. Paul and 
governed by Timothy, was blessed by the 
presence of St. John during the latest years 
of his long life. Of him it is related, on suf- 
ficient authority, that when his infirmities no 
longer allowed him to perform the offices of 
religion, he continued ever to dismiss the 
society v/ith the parting benediction. 'My 



(p. ii., c. V.) But Basnage, after all, is right, when 
he candidly places ' the year of Ignatius's death 
among the obscurities of Chronology.' — Hist. Polit, 
Eccles., ann. 107, sect. 6. 

* Even before his journey to Macedonia we read 
that ' Paul went tln'ough Syria, and Cilicia, confirm- 
in" the churches.' — Acts xv» 41v 



S2 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



children, love one another!' and there is 
nothing in the early history of this Church to 
persuade us that the exhortation was in vain. 
In fact, Ignatius, during his residence at 
Smyrna, addressed an Epistle to the Epliesi- 
ans, bearing testimony to their evangelical 
purity, and to the virtues of their bishop 
Onesimus. And it is important to add, that 
two other Epistles addressed at the same pe- 
riod to churches at Magnesia and Tralles (or 
Trallium), of more recent foundation, prove 
the continued progress of our faith in those 
regions, even after the last of the apostles had 
been removed from it. At the end of the 
second century we find that Ephesus still re- 
mained at the head of the Asiatic churches, 
and we observe its bishop. Poly crates, con- 
ducting them in firm but temperate opposi- 
tion to the first aggression of the Church of 
Rome. 

4. It would appear from the Epistle 
of Ignatius to the Smyrnceans, that some in 
that communion were tainted with heresies, 
which appeared unpardonable to that zealous 
bishop, and which perhaps might be attend- 
ed with some danger to an infant society. 
But when he designates those schismatics as 
* beasts ir^ the shape of men,' * we may doubt 
whether his exertions in this matter were 
calculated to restore the union of the Church. 
A pious bishop named Polycarp at that time 
presided over the Church of Smyrna: he had 
been appointed to his ofiice by St. John, and 
continued faithfully to discharge it until his 
aged limbs were affixed to the stake by the 
brutality of Marcus Antoninus. 'Eighty and 
six years have I served Christ, and he hath 
never wronged me,' v/as his reply to the in- 
quisitorial interrogations of the Roman pro- 
consul ; and it will not be out of place here 
to transcribe his last beautiful prayer, which 
has reached us from the pen of those who 
witnessed his martyrdom, f 

' Father of thy beloved and blessed Son 
Jesus Christ, through whom we have know- 
ledge of thee ; God of angels and powers and 
of all creation, and of the whole family of the 
just who live in thy presence ! I thank thee 
that thou hast thought me worthy of this day 
and this hour, that I may take part in the 
number of the martyrs in the cup of Christ 
for the resurrection of eternal life, soul and 
body, in the incorruptibility of the Holy Spir- 



* Ignat. Epist. Smyrn. sect. 4. 
t Epistle of the Church of Smyrna to that of Phil- 
omel ium. Euseb. iv. 15. 



it — among whom may I be received in thy 
presence to-day in full and acceptable sacri- 
fice, as thou hast prepared, foreshown, and 
fulfilled, the faithful and true God. For this, 
and for everything, I praise thee, I bless 
thee, I glorify thee, through the eternal High 
Priest, Jesus Christ, thy beloved Son.' The 
martyrdom of Polycarp took place about 166 

A. D* 

The Church of Sardis, whose imperfect 
faith is rebuked by St. John, may have profit- 
ed by the reproaches of its founder, for about 
the year 177 a. d. , we again discover it un- 
der the government of a learned and eloquent 
bishop, named Melito. To this writer we are 
indebted for the first catalogue of the books 
of the Old Testament compiled by any Chris- 
tian author, f and it may be useful as well as 
curious to quote from Eusebius the titles of 
some of his works : — ' Two Books concern- 
ing Easter — Rules of Life of the Prophets— 
A Discourse of the Lord's Day — Of the Na- 
ture of Man — Of the Obedience of the Sen- 
ses to Faith — Of Baptism — Of Truth and 
of Faith, and the Generation of Jesus Christ 
— Of Prophecy — Of Hospitality — Of the 
Devil — Of the Revelation of St. Jolin.' And 
least of all should we omit to mention the 
Apology for Christianity,' J which he ad- 
dressed to M. Antoninus. 

Before we take leave of the Asiatic Church- 
es, we must remark that the early establish- 
ment of Christianity was not confined to the 
shore of the ^Egean, § or to places little re- 
moved from it. Hierapolis, an important 
city of Phrygia, contained a Christian society, 
over which Papias presided in the beginning 
of the second century. Papias was an indus- 

* This is the opinion of Du Pin, Tillemont, Arch 
bishop Usher, Lardner (p. ii. 1. 6.) and others. Eu 
sebius and Jerome also place the event in the time o 
M. Antoninus. Bishop Pearson (Op. Post Diss. 2. 
c. 15, 16, 17,) however, aigiies that it took place mi- 
der Antoninus Pius in 148. Le Clerc advocates as 
late a year as 169, vol i. p. 724—730. 

t Fleui-y, lib. iv. sect. 3, xi. Blelito was, by many 
ancient Christians, accounted a prophet — in the 
sense, no doubt, of an inspired teacher. See Jortin. 
Rem. Eccl. Hist, book ii. part i. end. 

:j: Fragments of this are preserved by Eusebius. H. 
E. lib. iv. c. 26. He boldly censured the Emperor's 
decree against the Christians, as one ' which ought 
not to liave been promulgated even against barbarous 
enemies.' And, therefore, he expressed a loyal doubt 
whether it really proceeded from the councils of the 
Emperor. Le Clerc supposes the A})ology to have 
been published in 169 : Fleury (1. iv. 1.) , in 170. . 

§ ' We know from certain documents that the 
Christian religion was firmly established among the 
Arabs, in the second century. Semler, sect, ii. c. ii. 



;i' 



CHURCH OF SMYRNA. 



33 



trious collector of all reported acts and say- 
ings of the Apostles, and has been justly de- 
signated the Father of Traditions ; he may 
have been a feeble and credulous man, but it 
is enough that his mere existence" as Bishop 
of Hierapolis proves the very early progress 
of our religion towards the interior of Asia. 
Claudius Apollinaris was bishop of the same 
church, in the reign of M. Antoninus, ' a 
man of great reputation,' as says Eusebius, 
and celebrated for his 'Apology for Christiau- 
ity,' * and his ' Books against Jews and Pa- 
gans.' 

The province of Bithynia was situated at 
the south-western extremity of the Euxine 
Sea. We have no record of any x'\postolical 
Church here founded ; but we are accident- 
ally furnished with proof that, in the very be- 
ginnmg of die second century, a great por- 
tion of the population were Christians — proof 
which has never been disputed, because it is 
derived fi'om the annals of Pagan history. 

Pliny the younger, a humane and accom- 
plished Roman, was governor of Pontus and 
Bithynia for about eighteen months, during 
the persecution of Trajan ; and on that sub- 
ject, in the year 107, f a. d., he addressed to 
the Emperor his celebrated Epistle. This 
being justly considered as the most impor- 
tant document remaining to us in early 
Christian histoiy, we shall here transcribe 
some portion of it, the more willingly as we 
shall have occasion hereafter to refer to it. 

After mentioning the difficulty of his own 
situation, and his perplexity in what manner 
to proceed against men charged with no other 
crime than the name of Christian, the writer 
proceeds as follows: — ' Others were named 
by an informer, who at first confessed them- 
selves Christians, and afterwards denied it ; 
the rest said they had been Christians, but 
had left them, some three years ago, some 
longer, and one or more above twenty years. 
They all worshipped your image, and the 
statues of the gods ; these also reviled Christ. 
They affirmed that tlie whole of their fault 
or error lay in this — that they were wont to 
meet together on a stated day before it was 
light, and sing among themselves alternately 
a hymn to Christ, as to God, and bind them- 
selves by an oath, not to the commission of 
any wickedness, but not to be guilty of theft, 
or robbery, or adultery, never to falsify then- 
word, nor to deny a pledge committed to 
them when called upon to return it. When 

* Fleiiry, H. E. 1. iv. sect. 4. 
fLaidnei', Test, of Anc. Heathen. 
5 



these things were performed, it was their 
custom to separate, and then to come together 
again to a meal, which they ate in common 
without any disorder ; but this they had for- 
borne since the pubhcation of my edict, by 
which, according to your commands, I pro- 
hibited assemblies. 

'After receiving this account, I judged it 
the more necessary to examine, and that by 
torture, two maid servants, which were call- 
ed ministers ; but I have discovered nothing 
beside a bad and excessive superstition. Sus- 
pending, therefore, all judicial proceedings, I 
have recourse. to you for advice, for it has ap- 
peared to me matter highly deserving consid- 
eration, especially upon account of the great 
number of persons who are in danger of suf- 
fering, for many of all ages, and every rank, 
of both sexes likewise, are accused, and will 
be accused. Nor has the contagion of this 
superstition seized cities only, but the lesser 
towns also, and the open country ; neverthe- 
less, it seems to me that it may be restrained 
and corrected. It is certain that the temples 
which were almost forsaken begin to be more 
fi-equented ; and the sacred solemnities, after 
a long intermission, are revived. Victims 
likewise are every where bought up, where- 
as for a time there were few purchasers. 
Whence it is easy to imagine what numbers 
of men might be reclaimed if pardon were 
granted to those who repent.' 

So few * and uncertain are tlie records left 
to guide our inquiries through the obscure 
period which immediately followed the con- 
clusion of the labors of the Apostles, that the 
above testimony to the numbers and vutues 
of our forefathers in faith becomes indeed in- 
valuable. No history of our Church can be 
perfect without it ; and its clear and unsus- 
pected voice will be listened to by every can- 
did inquirer in every age of truth and histo- 
ry. At present our only concern is wdth the 
concluding paragraphs, which show us how 
extensively our religion was disseminated 
within seventy-five years from the death of 
its founder, in a province very distant from 
its buthplace, and where no apostle had ever 
penetrated ; and certainly it is not unfau* to 
infer that in other provinces more favorably 
situated, and more industriously cultivated, 
as rich a harvest may have gi'own up of faith 
and piety, though unnoticed by the pen of 



* Ecclesiastical history discovers lo us no impor- 
tant event between the death of St. Peter and St. 
Paul, and that of St. John, excepting the rise of the 
Gnostic heresy, -which Le Clerc places in the year 76. 



HISTORY OF THE CHCTRCH. 



Ihe Roraan officers, whose mere duty requir- 
ed nothing more from them than its extirpa- 
tion. 

5. From the churches of Asia we proceed 
to the description of those of Greece, and 
among these our first notice shall be directed 
to Athens. A vain, and light, and learned 
city, the theatre of lively wit and loose and 
careless ridicule, the school of intellectual 
subtlety and disputation sness, the very Pan- 
theon of Polytheism, where the utmost efforts 
of human genius had been exhausted to cele- 
brate a baseless and gaudy superstition — such, 
assuredly, was not a place where the homeli- 
ness of the Gospel could hope to find favor. 
More curious in the pursuit of theories than 
in the investigation of facts, the Athenian 
philosopher (of whatever sect) would not 
readily embrace a faith which required him 
to believe so much and allowed him to specu- 
late so little ; and, we may add, that he would 
bring to the inquiry a mind either hardened 
by previous habits of universal skepticism, or 
fraught with some sort of theistical notions 
inconsistent with the truths he was called 
upon to receive. For these, and similar rea- 
sons, Christianity made, for some years, very 
trifling progress at Athens. We read, indeed, 
of a succession of bishops, beginning with Di- 
onysius the Areopagite, the convert of St. Paul. 
But it appears that Quadratus, on his acces- 
sion in Adrian's time, found the church in a 
state verging on apostacy,* and to him, per- 
haps, may belong the honor of restoring, if 
we should not rather say, of establishing it. 
After that period we find it more flourishing ; 
and we have the authority of Origen, in his 
second book against Celsus, for believing that, 
about the middle of the second century, the 
Christians of Athens were eminent for their 
piety; and their industry, if not learning, 
is attested by the publication of three apolo- 
gies for their faith. Two were written by 
Quadratus f and a contemporary philoso- 



* Dionys. apud Euseb. iv. 23. The age of Quad- 
ratus is well discussed by Le Clerc, H. E. ad aim. 124. 

f These Apologies, certaiuly that of Aristides, were 
extant in the time of Eusebius (1. iv. c. 3) and St. 
Jei'ome (Catal. Script. Eccles.) — See Fleury, lib. iii. 
sect. 22. Athenagoras dedicated his Apology to M. 
Aurelius and L. Verus, in tlie year 166, calling it an 
* Embassy for the Christians.' See Le Clerc, ad ann. 
166 (vol. i. p. 702—710), and Fleury, lib. iii. sect. 47. 
Bayle (vie Athenag.) mentions with surprise that that 
writer \vas unknown to Eusebius," Jerome, and most 
of the ancient fathers. He appears to have held 
some erroneous opinions, and is noticed by Epipha- 
nius. Adv. Hser. num. 64, p. 544, t. !► 



pher named Aristides, and were pres^ented or 
dedicated to Adrian. The third was publish- 
ed several years afterwards, by another philo- 
sopher, named Athenagoras, and is still extant. 
To the Philippians an epistle was address- 
ed by Polycarp, about 108, a. d., attesting, 
at least, the permanency of that apostolical 
Church ; and that that of Thessalonica had 
also been perpetuated, and another subse- 
quently established at Larissa, is proved by the 
circumstance that Antoninus Pius addressed 
copies of his 'Order of Toleration' to the 
governors of those cities. 

6. Tracing the footsteps of the apostle of 
the Gentiles from Athens, we proceed to 
Corinth. We still find ourselves surrounded 
by graceful temples and statues, consecrated 
to the deities of Paganism. We observe the 
same elegance of opulence, the same aban- 
donment to fastidious luxury, but there is this 
difference, that the character of the people, 
with less renown for wit, vanity, and ambi- 
tious pretension, is even more distinguished 
for immorality. Not so warmly attached to 
the keen and fruitless contests of the schools, 
the Corinthians ratfier sought their happiness 
in the vulgar excitements of sensuality. It is 
easier to remove many moral imperfections, 
than to convince the self-sufficiency of wit. 
And this may have been one of the reasons 
which decided St. Paul to select Corinth as 
his principal residence in Greece. The early 
years of this Church are not free from re- 
proach ; but we observe that they are distin- 
guished rather by the spirit of dissension and 
contumacy than by that of innnorality — it 
retained the vices* of the Greek character 
after it had thrown off those of the Corinthian. 
Cephas and Apollos divided the very converts 
of the aposde, and, about fifty years after- 
wards, the disunion had so far increased as 
to call for the friendly interference of the 
Church of Rome. About 95, a. D,,f St. Cle- 
ment, the bishop, addressed to them his first 
and genuine Epistle, which has fortunately 
been preserved to us, and is probably the most 
ancient of uninspired Christian writings.]: The 



* They are thus enumerated by St. Clement, c. 35, 
udtyJa, u)'OiUa,7ileove^la, igeig, xa'/or^d-eiai, 
je y.(d doloi, ipid-voiafioi, xal yajaluXtai, 
d-soaivyla, v7iEqi]Cfuvla, u.Xu'ZpvGia xul 
xsvodo^lu. 

f There are very wide differences among historians 
respecting this date. Lardner (parti, ch. 2.) appears 
to us to have selected the most probable opinion. 

t Perhaps -we should except the Epistle ascribed to 
St. Barnabas. 



CHURCH OF ROME 



35 



author is related to be the same Clement 
whom St. Paul mentious as one ' of his fellow 
laborers whose names are in the Book of 
Life.' * The dissensions of the Corinthians 
seem to have entirely regarded the discipline, 
not the doctrine of the Church ; they had dis- 
missed from the ministry certain presbyters, 
as St. Clement asserts, undeservedly, and 
much confusion was thus introduced. For the 
purpose of composing it, five deputies were 
sent from Rome, the bearers of the Epistle. 
We should hei'e observe, that the epistle is 
written in the name of ' the Church sojourn- 
ing at Rome,' not in that of the Roman bishop ; 
that its character is of exhortation, not of 
authority ; and that it is an answer to a com- 
munication originally made by the Church 
of Corinth. The episcopal form of govern- 
ment was clearly not yet here established, 
probably as being adverse to the republican 
spirit of Greece. This spirit, naturally ex- 
tending from political to i-eligious affairs, may 
have acted most strongly in the most numer- 
ous society; and to its influence, so dangerous 
to the concord of an infant community, we 
may, perhaps, attribute the evils of which we 
have spoken. At what precise moment the 
converts of Corinth had the wisdom to dis- 
cover that their unity in love would be better 
secured by a stricter form of Church govern- 
ment, we are not informed, but, about seventy 
years after these dissensions, we find them 
flourishing under the direction of a pious and 
learned bishop, Dionysius. This venerable 
person is chiefly celebrated for his seven 
Epistles called, by Eusebius,f Catholic, — two 
of these were addressed to the Churches of 
Rome and Athens, two other to those in Pon- 
tus and Bithynia, two to those of Gortyna and 
Gnossos in Crete, and one to that at Lacedae- 
mon. It is thus, incidentally, that we are 
fiirnished with our best evidence of the grad- 
ual growth of Christianity. From Athens 
we proceed to Corinth, from Corinth to 
Lacedsemon ; established in the capital, we 
advance into the towns and villages ; and we 
doubt not that, at that early period, the wild 
mountaineers of Taygetus received that faith 
which they have through so many centuries 
so devotedly preserved, and which is, at 
length, confirmed to them forever. 

7. In the Annals of the historian Tacitus 
(xv. 44), after the description of a terrible fire 
at Rome, we read with sorrow and indigna- 

* ' Ancient writers, without any doubt or scruple,' 
assert this. Lard. Cred. G. H. p. ii. 1. 2. 
tH. E. 1. iv. C.23. 



tion the following passage : — ' To suppress the 
common rumor, that he had himself set fire 
to the city, Nero procured others to be accus- 
ed, and inflicted exquisite punishments upon 
those people who were held in abhorrence 
for their crimes, and were commonly known 
by the name of Christians. They had their 
denomination from Christus, who, in the 
reign of Tiberius, was put to death as a crimi- 
nal by the procurator Pontius Pilate. This 
pernicious superstition, though checked for 
awhile, broke out again, and spread not 
only over Judsea, the source of this evil, but 
reached the city also, whither flow from all 
quarters all things vile and shameful, and 
where they find shelter and encouragement. 
At first those only were apprehended who 
confessed themselves of that sect ; afterwards 
a vast multitude was discovered by them, all 
of whom were condemned, not so much for 
the crime of burning the city, as for their en- 
mity to mankind. Their executions were so 
contrived as to expose them to derision and 
contempt. Some were covered over with the 
skins of wild beasts, and torn to pieces by 
dogs ; some were crucified ; and others 
having been daubed over with combustible 
materials, were set up as lights in the night 
time, and thus burnt to death. Nero made 
use of his own gardens as the theatre upon 
this occasion, and also exhibited the diversions 
of the Cuxus, sometimes standing in the 
crowd as a spectator, in the habit of a char- 
rioteer, at others driving a chariot himself^ 
till at length these men, though really crimi- 
nal and deserving exemplary punishment, 
began to be commiserated, as people who 
were destroyed, not out of regard to the 
public welfare, but only to gratify the cruelty 
of one man.' This passage, which will scarce- 
ly be deemed creditable to the philosophy of 
its author even by those who most extol it, 
and which is most deeply disgraceful to his 
historical accuracy, to his political know- 
ledge, and to his common humanity, way 
written at the end of the first century, about 
thirty-six years after the persecution* which 
it so vividly describes. It was in the midst 



* That event is placed in the year 64, by a general 
consent of Christian antiquity. It is also commonly 
agreed, that St. Peter, as well as St. Paul, suffered mar- 
tyrdom under Nero. (Euseb. 1. ii. c. 25, ou the au- 
thority of Caius an Ecclesiastic, and Dionys, Epist. 
to Romans.) But there are differences as to the exact 
time of that suffering. Le Clerc (vol. i. p. 447. A. D. 
6S) places it at the end of Nero's reign in the year 68 ; 
but the general opinion refers it to the persecution. 
The doubt as to fact rests rather on the martjTdoia 



m 



HISTORY OF THE CMURCH. 



©f this awful scene, that St. Peter and St. 
Paul* are believed to have suffered. We 
shall not patise to investigate very deeply the 
truth of this opinion, but rather confine our 
attention to the testimony here afforded as to 
the number of Christians existing at Rome 
even at that very early period. 'A vast mul-' 
iitude was discovered' by the eye of persecu- 
tion, and the compassion excited by their suf- 
ferings would naturally awaken an attention, 
which had never before been directed to 
them. The assault of Nero was furious and 
probably transient ; and such is precisely the 
method of aggression, which fails not in the 
end to multiply its objects ; and if it be thus 
probaHe that, before the end of the first cen- 
tury, the Church of Rome surpassed every 
ether in power and consideration, we may 
rest assured that these were rather augment- 
ed than diminished during the century fol- 
lowing. To this belief we are persuaded, 
partly by the greater facility of conversion of- 
fered by the size of the city, and the number 
of the inhabitants ; partly by consideration 
that the force of opinion would naturally lead 
the. feeble Christian societies throughout the 
empire to look for counsel and protection to 
the capital, as we know the Church of Co- 
rinth to have done ; and partly by the fact, 
that frequent pecuniary contributions were 
transmitted by the faithful at Rome, to their 
less fortunate brethren in the provinces.-f In 
this, then, consisted the original superiority 
of Rome ; in numbers, in opinion, in w^ealth r 
to these limits it was entirely confined, and 



©f St. Peter than of St. Paul, but the authority appears 
to us sufficient historically to establish the violent end 
of both. 

*Eusebius asserts that these two apostles were /<nni? 
founders of the chmxh of Rome, and thus the order 
of their three immediate successors has been most 
warmly disputed. Tl>e difficulty is not removed by 
the supposition that the Church was originally divided, 
- — one apostle (or bishop) presiding over the Jewish, 
the other over the Gentile converts. According to 
this distribution, St. Peter, of course, had the charge 
of the former. 

t Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth, thus addresses tlie 
Roman Church, about the year 156 : — ' This is your 
custom from the beginnmg to confer benefits on all 
brethren, and to send relief to various churches in 
every city. By which means, while you assist the indi- 
gent, and sustain the brethren who are in the mines, 
?ad while you continually persist in such donations, 
you preserve the national custom of Romans — that 
which your excellent Bishop S.oter has even carried 
further than usual by making generous donations to the 
Saints, and edifying by excellent discourse (as a lov- 
ing father his children) the brethren, who visit him 
from abroad.' — Euseb. lib. iv. , c. 23. 



it was not until quite the conclusion of the 
second century that we hear of any claim to 
authority. 

The circumstances of that claim arose from 
a very early difference in the Church respect- 
ing the celebration of Easter. It was short- 
ly this : the Christians of Lesser Asia observ- 
ed the feast at which the Paschal lamb wag 
distributed, in memory of the Last Supper, at 
the same time at which the Jews celebrated 
then- passover ; that is, on the 14th day of the 
first Jewish month; and three days afterwards 
they commemorated the resurrection, with- 
out regard to the day of the week. The 
western churches confined the anniversary of 
the resurrection to the first day of the week, 
and kept thek Paschal feast on the night 
preceding it. Hence arose some inconveni- 
ences ; and we find that Polycarp had visited 
Rome about lOG, a. n. for the purpose of ar- 
ranging the controversy.* He was not per- 
manently successful ; and about ninety years 
afterwards (a. n. 196, Fleury, 1. iv. c, 44), Vic- 
tor, Bishop of Rome, addressed to the Asiat- 
ics an express order to conform to the practice 
of Rome. They convoked a numerous synod, 
whose feelings of independence, and disdain 
of the assumed authority of the Roman, were 
temperately expressed in the answer of Poly- 
crates, Bishop of Ephesus.f The insolence 
of Victor was irritated by the refiisal, and 
he published an edict of excommunication 
against the churches of Asia. This was the 
first aggression of a Roman bishop on the 
tranquillity of the Church of Christ; and we 
may reasonably believe that it was disapprov- 
ed by the best Christians of the West, since 
we know that it provoked the remonstrance 
of Irensetis, Bishop of Lyons. The churches 
of Palestine and Alexandria \ appear to have 
united with those of Asia in an affair so high- 
ly inflamed by the arrogance of Victor, that 
it advanced from a controversy to a schism, 
which was not finally healed till the Council 
ofNicein325. 



* Euseb. H. E. lib. v., c. 23. See Tillem. vol 
iii. p. 102, &c. 

f It contains these words : — 'I, my brethren, who 
have lived five and sixty years in the Lord, who have 
conversed with my brethren dispersed over the whole 
world, who had read tlirough the whole Scriptures, am 
nothing moved by the terrors (of excommunication) 
which are held over us. For I know that it has been 
said by those who are far my superiors, that it is better 
to obey God than man.' — See LeClerc, vol. i. p. 800. 

X Euseb. v., 23 and 25. The church of AJexand- 
ria agreed with that of Rome on the rights of the 
question, but opposed the overbearing insolence with 
which they were asserted. 



CHURCH OF ALEXANDRIA, 



37 



Ouf earBest knowledge of the existence of 
Christianity in France is derived from its ca- 
lamities. During the persecution of Marcus 
Antoninus, the churches of Vienne and Ly- 
ons sent a relation of their sufferings to those 
of Asia and Phrygia, which is by some as- 
cribed to the pen of Irenseus, It is v/i'itten 
with simplicity and beauty, and is one of the 
most affecting passages in the ancient history 
of Christianity. Pothmus, the bishop, with 
several others, underwent the last mfliction ; 
still we have not reason to believe that the 
religion was at that time, (a. d. 177,) * widely 
diffused in the country; probably, indeed, 
the same Pothinus first introduced it from 
the East, f Irenseus, the learned and zeal- 
ous combatant of heresy, succeeded to the 
dangerous eminence of Pothinus, and under 
his prolonged and vigilant protection Chris- 
tianity took deep root, and finally fixed itself 
in the soil of France. According to the best 
authorities, he died in the year 202. :j: 

8. It was an eai-ly belief that St. Mark first 
preached his gospel at Alexandria, and found- 
ed churches there ; and he is expressly men- 
tioned by Eusebius, § as the first bishop of 
that city. The same writer asserts that a 
multitude of converts, both men and women, 
listened to his instructions, from their very 
first delivery. The evidence which he brings 
for this fact is not quite conclusive, but other 
circumstances render it highly probable. The 
population of Alexandria was very numerous, 
and composed of every variety of race and 
superstition — so that no general prejudice 
against the introduction of a new religion 
■could exist there; it was commercial, and 
therefore enlightened; and it was also re- 
markable for the ardor with which it culti- 
vated every branch of hterature, || the facility 



* Le Clerc places that event seven years earlier. 

tDupin, H. E., vol. i. p. 32. 

% That he died a martyr is the common belief; but 
as the fact is not mentioned either by TertuUian oi- 
Eusebius, we may be allowed to suspect It-, though as- 
serted by Tillemont, vol. iii. p. 94. 

§ H. E. I. ii. c. 16 and 24. St. Luke is also be- 
lieved to have visited this city, and the Acts of the 
Apostles to ha^e been written and thence diffused oiver 
the Christian world. Sender, c. i. ch. 5. 

II Le Clerc, (H. E. ann. 1^,) thinks it possible that 
Adrian was deceived by informers, who mistook the 
Gnostics, many sects of whom were then found at 
Alexandria, for the Orthodox Christians. But this 
supposition is not necessary ; the very style of the pas- 
sage argues inaccuracy and exaggeration, if not indif- 
ference. The Emperor erected a number of temples, 
ieithaut ^tatues^ which he intended, no doubt, to be 



with which it admitted and reconciled philo- 
sophical tenets the most dissimilar, and the 
freedom which it indulged to every novelty 
of truth or speculation. Again, through the 
number of Jews originally established there 
at the foundation of the city, and continu- 
ally increased by their domestic calamities; 
through the moderation * and even liberality 
of those Jews, as compared to their brethren 
in other countries, and especially through the 
Septuagint translation of the Old Testament, 
which was there chiefly circulated, an^ 
studied by the learned of every sect, the 
knowledge of the true God was more gener- 
ally diffused in Alexandria than m any other 
Gentile city, and the minds of men in some 
degree prepared to receive the second Cove- 
nant. We do not pretend to assert that they 
received it in entire purity, or with a perfect 
comprehension of its true character and ines- 
timable advantages; but we doubt not that 
a vast number believed and were baptised, 
and constituted, under the holy guidance of 
the Evangelist and his successors, a respecta- 
ble and powerful community. St. Mark was 
succeeded by Anianus, and the Latin names 
of many of the following bishops persuade 
us that the same alliance and continued in- 
tercourse subsisted between the ecclesiastical, 
as between the civil, governments of Rome 
and Alexandria. 

Vopiscus, an historian who flourished about 
300, A. D., has preserved a letter, written by 
the Emperor Adrian in the year 134, unme- 
diately after his visit to Alexandria. Its con- 
tents are nearly as follows : — ' I have found 
Egypt in every quarter fickle and inconstant 
— the worshippers of Serapis are Christians, 
and those are devoted to Serapis who call 
themselves Christian Bishops. There is no 
ruler of the synagogue, no Samaritan, no 
presbyter of the Christians, no mathematician, 
no soothsayer, no anointer; even the patri- 
arch himself, should he come into Egypt, is 
compelled by some to worship Serapis, by 
others Christ — a most seditious and turbulent 
sort of men. However, the city is rich and 
populous. . . . They have one God : him 
the Christians, him the Jews, him all the Gen- 
tile people worship.' We need not be sur- 
prised or offended by the insolent levity with 

consecrated to himself. Hence, some afterwards 
imagined that they were built for the Christians, but 
with little reason. Lampridius, Vit. Alex. Ser. ch. 
xliii. Eusebius, however, (Prep. lib. iv. c. 17,) as- 
sures us that it was particularly in the reign of Adi'ian 
that Revelation made progress* 
* See note IT, p. 17. 



S8 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



■which the profligate imperial philosopher 
places the religion of Serapis on a level with 
that of Christ, while, through the numerous 
misrepresentations so obvious in these sen- 
tences, one important truth may be descried. 
They manifestly prove, that, within a hundred 
years from the resurrection of Christ, his 
worshippers formed at least an important part 
of the inhabitants of the second city of the 
empire ; and, perhaps, it is not unfair from 
this record to conchide, that they were as 
numerous as those who remained attached to 
the indigenous superstitions. 

There is another circumstance which in- 
creases the importance we should attach to 
the early prosperity of the Alexandrian 
Church. Before the birth of Christ, a very 
great proportion of the learning of the East- 
ern world had been transferred from the 
schools of Greece to those of Alexandria. 
Not that Athens was entirely abandoned by 
disputants, or even by philosophers ; but the 
uncertain renown which it still maintained 
was surpassed by the splendid institutions of 
a city, whose literary triumph was preceded, 
and perhaps occasioned, by its commercial 
superiority. The early Christians felt the ne- 
cessity of education, though they differed as 
to its proper limits and object. We are told 
that St. John erected a school at Ephesus, 
and Polycarp at Smyrna, and even that St. 
Mark originally established the Catechetical 
School at Alexandria.* There can be no 
doubt that these schools, by whomsoever 
established, were useful in the propagation 
of religion ; but it was long before any of 
them produced any persons of great literary 
merit. Pantsenus a convert from stoicism, 
who flourished about 180, a. d., directed and 
adorned for several years that of Alexandria. 
He resigned his office in 190, in order more ef- 
fectually to serve his religion as a missionary. 
His exertions were directed, with what success 
we know not, to the higher regions of the 
Nile.f He was succeeded by Clemens, com- 
monly called the Alexandrian, and Clemens 



* Schraidius de Schol. Catech. Alex: Jeroin. de Vir. 
illust. c. 36. 

t From Euseb. H. E. 1. v. c. 10, and Orig. Epist. 
1. vi. c. 19, Le Clerc infers that Pantaenus resumed 
his scholastic office after his return from Ethiopia, 
(India,) vol. i. p. 757, (ad ann. 179.) Lardner fixes 
the earliest date of his return in 192, (p. ii. c. 21.) 
St. Jerome, (de Vir. Ill.c. 36,) relates that Pantaenus 
found, ' that the Apostle Bartholomew had already 
preached in those regions the coming of Jesus Christ, 
according to the Gospel of St. Matthew, wiiich he 
brought back to Alexandiia, written ia Hebrew.' 



by the celebrated Origen, whose fame, howev- 
er, belongs to the third' century. It is only 
necessary here to observe, that these learned 
Christians being tinctured with certain phi- 
losophical notions which they were desirous 
to reconcile with the Gospel, and influenced 
by the society of those professing them, have 
very frequently distorted and discolored the 
features of their religion. 

At the end of the second century, the 
Church of Carthage was already growing in- 
to eminence ; but we shall not at present do 
more than notice its existence. 



CHAPTER n. 

On the Numbe7's, Discipline, Doctrine, and 
Morality of the Primitive Church. 

1. General view of the extent of the Church— Facility of 
intercourse favorable to Christianity — Other circum- 
stances — Miraculous claims of the Church— To what 
limits they ought to be confined. 2. Government of 
the Primitive Church — During the time of the Apostles 
— After their Death — Deacons — Distinction of Clergy 
and Laity — Earliest form of Episcopal Government — 
Independence of the first Churches — Institution of 
Synods — Their character and uses — The evil supposed 
to have arisen from them — Metropolitans — Excommu- 
nication — Supposed community of property — Ceremo- 
nies of religion — Feasts and Fasts — Schools. 3. Creeds 
— The Apostles' Creed — Baptism — The Eucharist — The 
Agapse. 4. Morality of the first Christians — Testimo- 
nies of St. Clement — Pliny — Bardesanes — Chastity — 
Exposure of infants — Charity — The earliest converts 
among the lower orders — The progress of the faith was 
upwards — Testimony of Lucian in history of Peregri- 
nus — Suffering courage. 

1. From a review of the preceding chapter, 
we find that before the year 200, a. d., the 
religion of Christ had penetrated into most 
of the provinces of the Roman empire, and 
was very widely diffused m many. By one 
of those dispositions in the scheme of Divine 
Providence, which it is not given us perfectly 
to comprehend, the people to which the faith 
was immediately addressed, was that which . 
was most reluctant to receive it ; indeed, its 
earliest and bitterest enemies,* wherever it 

* Less so, however, at Alexandria than in Greece 
and Asia, which we may attribute, not so much to 
any general disposition in that people to engraft for- 
eign superstitious on their national worship, (See Dr. 
Burton, Bamp. Lect. iii.,) as to the fact, that the 
Alexandrian Jews were much more enlightened by 
Greek literature and Platonic philosophy tlian the 
rest of their race. It was also another and principal 
cause of their greater moderation, that they had been 
allowed to build for themselves a temple at Leontopo- 
I lis, near Alexandria, which tended to disconnect them 
11 from J.erusaleni, and tJius to soften their prejudice. 



EXTENT OF THE CHURCH. 



39 



presented kself, were Jews ; * but heaven pro- 
tected its weakness, and proved its legitima- 
cy, and avenged its sufferings, by executing 
on its first persecutor the severest chastise- 
ment ever inflicted on any nation. 

During the few fii-st years of Christianity, 
the most flourishing Church was, undoubted- 
ly, that of Antioch ; until, in the wider pro- 
gress of the Gospel, it was surpassed by the 
superior populousness of Rome and Alexan- 
dria. 

From Syria to the shores of the Black Sea, 
throughout the rich provinces of Asia Minor, 
Cihcia, Phrygia, Galatia, Pontus, Bithynia, 
and albng the whole coast of the JEgean Sea". 
a considerable proportion of the mhabitants 
were Christians, and we find their establish- 
ment ill all the leading cities of Greece. 
From the cities, in each instance, the religion 
was silently derived and distributed among 
the surrounding towns and villages and ham- 
lets, pm-ifying morality, and infusing hope 
and happiness ; and thus every Church was 
surrounded by a little circle of believers, 
which gi-adually enlarged, according to the 
zeal and wisdom which animated tlie centre. 

The earliest converts were to be found 
chiefly among the middling and lower class- 
es, which will account as well for their num- 
bers as for their obscurity, and the little men- 
tion that is made of them by contemporary 
writers. 

We shall not enter into any elaborate con- 
sideration of the various human causes which 
may have facilitated the progress of our reli- 
gion,f nor of the many impediments which 
have been opposed to it. Instances of both 
will frequently present themselves in the 
course of this histoiy, and some of the former 
in the present chapter. It would neither be 
wise nor consistent to deny their existence, or 
to assert that Providence, which condescends 
to effect its other eai'thly purposes by the 
agency of man, has wholly neglected such 
means in effecting its great purpose, the pro- 
pagation of Christianity. 

A very general facility of intercourse, ren- 
dered still easier by the diffusion of the 
Greek language through the Eastern provin- 

*Mosh. Gen. Hist. cent. i. p. i. ch. 5. 

f Le Clerc, (ad ann. 102-3,) ascribes the rapid pro- 
pagation of Christianity during the second century to 
four causes : (1.) some remaining miracles performed 
by the last disciples of the Apostles : (2.) open con- 
futation of heathenism by Christian apologists ; (.3.) 
the constancy of the martyrs ; (4.) the morals of the 
Christians. Others might be added, but these were 
unquestionably among the principal. 



ce.s, and by the knowledge of the Latin, 
v/hich was universal in the West, prevailed 
throughout the Roman Empire ; for the con- 
querors well knew that without great rapidi- 
ty of communication by sea and by land, so 
vast a compound of discordant materials 
could not long be held together in one mass. 
This was the most beneficial result of then- 
political speculations ; and hence proceeded 
their great diligence in the formation of 
roads and the construction of bridges. The 
means which were intended to advance the 
progress of ai'mies, and perpetuate the dura- 
tion of slavery, were also converted to the 
more honorable purposes of commerce and 
civilisation; and more than that, they were 
made serviceable to an end which was least 
of all contemplated by their authors, when 
they became instrumental in the dissemina- 
tion of Christianity. But they speedily be- 
came so ; and it was thus that the weak were 
enabled to obtain support from the more pow- 
erful, the poor from the more wealthy, the ig- 
norant from the more enlightened brethren ; 
that the churches in distant provinces could 
maintain an easy and rapid intercourse ; that 
the East could send missionaries to the 
West ; and the more recent converts hold 
fearless correspondence with the establish- 
ments of the Apostles.* The devoted zeal of 
the primitive missionaries, the pure and aus- 
tere morals of their converts, and the union 
and discipline of the Church, are universally 
admitted. By these and similar considera- 
tions we are led to believe, that, at least 
throughout the Eastern provinces of the em- 
pire, in Syria, Egypt, Asia Minor, and Greece, 
a respectable proportion of the people were 
Christians, even before the end of the second 
century ; f and there is strong reason for sup- 
posing our religion to have been already so 
firmly rooted in those parts, that its extirpa- 
tion by any domestic persecutor would even 
then have been wholly impossible. This, at 
least, is our opinion ; if true, it is an impor- 
tant service to have established it fi'om the 
fair examination of such imperfect records as 

* As in the case of the Church of Lyons, which 
seems to have been established by a Greek missionary, 
Pothinus, and continued in correspondence with the 
Churches of Asia. 

t The great number of councils assembled about 
the j'ears 195 and 196, on the controversy about 
Easter, proves, as Tillemont, (vol. iii. p. 114,) ob- 
serves, the tranquillity of the Church ; it proves also 
its prosperity ; and the authority of TertuUian has 
persuaded that historian that the Christians formed 
at that time almost the majority of ti;e inhabitaatsu . 



40 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, 



remain to us ; for infidel writers are fond of 
insinuating that Christianity emanated from 
the court of ConstantinCy and had nowhere 
assumed any permanent or consistent form 
until its character was fixed and its stabihty 
decided by the poUcy of an emperor. 

Miraculous claims. In order to rest on 
ground which will not be disputed^ we have 
been contented to seek our proofs of the early 
strength and security of Christianity in the 
ordinary records of history, made probable 
by natural circumstances and human opera- 
tion. But we should treat the subject imper- 
fecdy if we were to make no mention of those 
higher powers which have been so generally 
claimed for the primitive Church, not mere- 
ly through the interposition of Divine Provi- 
dence at such moments as seemed fit to His 
omniscience, but as a gift confided by the 
Most High to the uncertain discretion of his 
ministers on earth, and placed through a 
succession of ages, at their uncontrolled dis- 
position. The chain of historical evidence 
on which this claim rests is continued from 
the days of St. Irenseus to those of St. Ber- 
nard, (and even much later,) with much uni- 
formity of confident assertion and glaring 
improbability; it is interwoven in insepara- 
ble folds throughout the whole mass of eccle- 
siastical records, and the links which compose 
it so strongly resemble each other both in 
material and manufacture, that it appears 
absolutely impossible to break the succession, 
or to distinguish which of the portions were 
fabricated by the wisdom of God, which by 
the impiety of man.* Various writers have 
assigned various periods to the cessation of 
supernatural aids; but they appear for the 
most part to have been rather guided by their 
own views of probability, than by critical ex- 
amination of evidence ; which would have 
led them equally to receive or equally to re- 
ject the claims of every age, excepting the 
first. The powers which were undoubtedly 



* The performance of a pretended miracle for the 
purpose of delusion is the highest imaginable impiet}', 
and the deliberate propagation of accomits of such 
performances, with knowledge of their character, is 
not far short of it. But we do not intend to impute 
this guilt to all tlie ancient Christian retailers of mir- 
aculous stories, — far from it; — credulity is the weak- 
ness of some minds, as mendacity is the vice of 
others; and the former of these qualities, perhaps 
even more than the latter, has characterized some 
Eastern nations in every age. And we should recol- 
lect that to them we are indebted for the fabrication 
of most of the tales which stain ecclesiastical history, 
and for the example which led to them all. 



communicated by the Apostles to some of 
their immediate successors probably contin- 
ued to enlighten and distinguish those holy 
persons to the end of their ministry, and 
were eminently serviceable in the foundation 
of the faith ; * but it is a reasonable opinion,! 
that after their departure the possession of 
miraculous aids was no longer vouchsafed to 
the Church as a community, or to any indi- 
viduals as its ministers. All miracles which 
are related to have taken place after that pe- 
riod must be separately subjected to the usual 
tests,! ^nd must stand or fall on their owa 
merits, according to the degrees of evidence 
and probability. On the other hand, we are 
far from intending to assert that Providence, 



* Mosh. Hist. Gen. c. i. p. i. eh. 4. 

t On such a question as this it is vain to appeal to 
authorities ; and unhappily we have here no space for 
full deveioperaent of our reasons We must be con- 
tented, then, to say, that the argument by which 
we are principally moved is this : miracles become 
improbable in proportion as they seem to be not ab- 
solutely necessary ; and we consider that through the 
wonders wrought by the Apostles, and those, their 
contemporaries, to whom similar power was vouch- 
safed, some of whom may have survived them forty or 
fifty 3'ears, the foundation of the Christian Church was 
so firmly established as to remove the necessity of the 
further continuance of that power to it. The facts 
which have chiefly decided us are the following : — In 
tlie writings of the Apostolical Fathers and those im- 
mediately succeeding, we read nothing respecting 
apostles, prophets, interpreters, or otlier inspired and 
extraordinarily gifted ministers : we have no record 
of the perpetuation of any office in the ministry which 
in its nature and name included the certainty of in- 
spiration and miraculous powers. Again, the fathers 
who succeeded them, those of the second and third 
centuries, when they speak of the existence of such 
powers, confine themselves to the use of general lan- 
guage; they seldom specify an instance of their ap- 
plication; and when they do so, it may usually be 
classed in that description of miracles which is most 
liable to misrepresentation or mistake ; such as the 
healing of diseases, or the expulsion of demons. Add 
to these and similar considerations that which Ave do 
not hesitate to call the historical impossibility of 
assigning any period for the cessation of such gifts in 
the Church, if we once exceed the barrier which the 
infallibility of the inspired writers has, in our opinion, 
clearly marked out. — See Bishop Kaye on Tertullian, 
xcvi. 102. In the meantime there is one most im- 
portant consideration which we should always bear in 
mind — that the truth of Christianity is not at all in- 
terested in the decision of this question. 

X Thus, when fairly tried by these tests, the once 
popular miracle of the Thundering Legion appears at 
length to have fallen into universal discredit. One or 
two others will be discussed in the course of this 
work. — Mosh. Gen. Hist. c. ii. p. i. ch. 1. 



DISCIPLINE OF THE CHURCH. 



41 



Bistance from His faithful and aflaicted ser- 
vants ; and, perhaps^ we may observe gener- 
ally, that the accounts of His interposition 
which we should receive with the least sus- 
picion are those which describe the super- 
natural support afforded to missionaries in the 
prosecution of their holy labors. 

2. Church government. We must now pro- 
ceed to examine the discipline and govern- 
ment of the primitive Church, and, in this m- 
quiry, we shall discover no marks of a loose 
and passing superstition, but, on the contrary, 
the surest prognostics of vigor and immortal- 
ity. There are many reasons which make it 
necessary, in the treatment of this subject, to 
distinguish clearly between what is historical- 
ly known and what is plausibly conjectured ; 
for it is from the confusion of facts with prob- 
abilities that most of the difficulties of this 
question have arisen. In the first place it is 
certain, that, from the moment in which the 
early Churches attained a definite shape and 
consistency, and assumed a permanent form 
of discipline ; as soon as the death of the last 
of the Apostles had deprived them of the 
more immediate guidance of the Holy Spirit, 
and left them, under God's especial care and 
providence, to the uninspired direction of 
mere men ; so soon had evei^ Church, res- 
pecting which we possess any distinct infor- 
mation, adopted the Episcopal form of govern- 
ment. The probable nature of that govern- 
ment we shall describe presently ; but here it 
is sufficient to mention the undisputed fact, 
that the religious communities of the Christ- 
ian world universally admitted the superin- 
tendence of ministers, called bishops, before 
the conclusion of the first centuiy.* In the 
next place it is equally true, that neither our 
Saviour nor his Apostles have left any ex- 
press and positive ordinances for the admin- 
istration of the Church ;t desiring, perhaps, 
that that which was intended for every age 

* To save the space which would be occupied by 
an accumulation of authorities, it will be sufiicient, 
perhaps, to remind our readers, that this fact is ad- 
mitted by Gibbon in his 15th chapter. 

t See Mosh. Gen. Hist., c. i. p. ii. ch. 2 and the 
translator's impartial note. Also Disnage, tom. i. 
liv. i. c. 8. Principles are given, but no specific 
rules (Hinds' Early Church, vol. ii. p. 100). After 
all, no form of Church govei-nment now exists, or 
could exist, accurately framed on the model of the 
earliest, since that was regulated by an inspired min- 
istry, and enlightened by extraordinary gifts. The 
government which immediately followed that earliest 
was episcopal 

6 



and condition of man, to be the associate and 
guardian of every form of civil government, 
should have the means of accommodating its 
external and earthly shape to the various 
modifications of human polity. It is also 
true that in the earliest government of the 
first Christian society, that of Jerusalem, not 
the elders only, but the ' whole Church' * 
were associated with the Apostles : and it is 
even certain that the terms bishop and elder 
or presbyter were, in the first instance, and 
for a short period, sometimes used synony- 
mously,* and indiscriminately applied to the 
same order in the ministiy. From the com- 
parison of these facts it seems natural to draw 
the following conclusions, — that during the 
lifetime of the apostles they were themselves 
the directors, or at least the presidents of the 
Church; that, as long as they remained on 
earth, it was not necessary, in all cases, to 
subject the infant societies to the delegated 
authority of a single superintendent, though 
the instances of Titus and Timothy cieai-ly 
prove that it was sometimes done ; and that, 
as they were severally removed from the 



* Acts XV. 2, 4, 22, 23, &c.— still, of course, with 
some degree of subjection to apostolical authority. 
This, according to Mosheim (c. i. p. i. ch. 2.), vi^as 
the model of all the primitive churches. 

f Theodoret, (Com. on 1 Tim. iii. 1.), a father 
of the fourtli century, admits and explains that cir- 
cumstance as follows : — ' The same persons were an- 
ciently called botia bishops and presbyters, while those 
which are now called bishops were called apostles; 
but, shortly afterwards, the name of apostles waff 
appropriated to those who were apostles indeed, and 
then the name bishop was given to those before called 
apostles.' (See also a passage from St. Ambrose, 
cited by Araalarius and Bingham.) Whatever value 
we may attach to this explanation, it is quite certain 
that bishops began very early to assume the title of 
' successors of the apostles,' which we find to have 
been done by Firmilian, Cyprian, and other bishops 
of Carthage. See Bingham's Church Antiquities, b. 
ii. c. 2. Le Clerc, ad ann. 44. (vol. i. p. 358), and 
ann. 47. (vol. i. p. 449), places the general institution 
of elders in the year 47. Bingham (b. ii. c. 19.) and 
others, admitting the confusion of names, would still 
persuade us daat there was no identity of ofiice. Bishop 
Pearson (Vindic. Ignatianse) is of opinion that, in 
some churches, ther-e were bishops and not presby- 
ters ; in others, presbyters and not bishops — a plausi- 
ble opinion, strongly confirmed by the assertions of 
Clemens aaid Epiphanius, that in some churches there 
wei'e bishops and deacons, in others only presbyters 
and deacons; but that the larger communities had 
all the three orders. Mosheim, however, considers 
' the two terms as undoubtedly applied to the same 
order of m.en,' (c. i. p. i. ch. 2.) ; and such is the 
plain interpretation of the Scripture passages. — See 
Hinds' Early Prog. Christ., vol. i. p. 349, &c. ^- 



45> 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



world, some distinguished brother was in 
each instance appointed to succeed, not in- 
deed to the name and inspiration, but to the 
ecclesiastical duties of the blessed Teacher 
who had founded the Cluirch. The concur- 
rence of ancient records confirms this last 
conclusion ; the earliest Church historians* 
enumerate the first bishops of the Churches 
of Jerusalem, Antioch, Ephesus, Smyrna, Al- 
exandria and Rome, and trace them in each 
case from the Aposdes. And thus it came to 
pass that, for more than twenty years before 
the death of St. John, most of the considera- 
ble Churches had gradually fallen under the 
presidency of a single person entitled Bishop ; 
and that, after that event, there were certainly 
none which did not speedily follow the same 
name and system of administration. 

Prophets. Again, for the first thirty years, 
perhaps somewhat longer, after the ascension 
of Christ, the labors of the apostles were 
aided by certain ministers entitled Prophets,f 
who were gifted with occasional inspiration, 
and taught under the influence of the Holy 
Spirit. This order of teachers was with- 
drawn from the Church when their ofiice be- 
came no longer necessary for its advance- 
ment, and it appears wholly to have ceased 
before the end of the century, at which peri- 
od, as we have already observed, ecclesiasti- 
cal government universally assumed that du- 
rable shape which has been perpetuated, and, 
with certain variations, generally adopted 
through every age of Christianity. 

Deacons. We have yet made no mention 
of the deacons, who were the third order in 
the Episcopal Church. The word deacon 
(diuy.ovog^ means minister, and in that sense 
is sometimes applied to the office of the 
Apostles ; but in a general sense only, since 
we are assured (Acts vi.) that the diaconal 

* Hegesippus and Eusebius. ' It is highly probable,' 
says Mosheim, (c. l.p. ii. ch. 2.) 'that the Church 
of Jerusalem, grown coiisidei-ably numerous, and de- 
prived of the ministers and the apostles, who were 
gone to instruct other nations, was the first which 
chose a president or bishop : and it is no less proba- 
ble that the other churches followed, by degrees, such 
a respectable example.' And it is certain that, in at 
least two instances, such presidents were appointed 
by an apostle. The Church of Corinth seems, indeed, 
to have been the only exception. Till the date of St. 
Clement's Epistle, (ch. 47.) its government had been 
clearly presbyterial, and we do not learn die exact mo- 
ment of the change. — See Hinds' Early Church, vol. 
ii. p. 163, and Bingham, b. ii. c. 1. 

fSt. Paul, 1 Cor. xii. 20, &c. ; Ephes. iv. 11. 
Mosheim de Rebus Christ, ante Const. Sosc. 1. s. xl. 
and Gen. Hist, c, i. p. ii. ch. 2. 



order was distinct, and instituted for a speci- 
fic pui-pose. However it seems certain that, 
in the very beginning, the office of the dea- 
cons was not confined to the mere ministry 
of the table, since we read that Stephen dis- 
puted publicly on the Christian truth with 
irresistible wisdom and spu'it ; and, moreover, 
that 'he did great wonders and miracles 
among the people.' It is equally clear that 
attendance on the poor was for several centu- 
ries attached to it ; even after the office of 
treasurer was held by the bishop, the portion 
destined to charitable relief continued to pass 
through the hands of the deacon. It is not 
so easy to ascertain the extent of their spirit- 
ual duties in the earliest Church. Ignatius 
speaks of them, with high respect, and, in one 
place,* calls them ' ministers of the mysteries 
of Christ.' Tertullian distinguishes them from 
the laity, together with bishops and presby- 
ters. Cyprian asserts that the Apostles ap- 
pointed them as ' ministers of their episco- 
pacy and Church.' By the Nicene Council 
they are designated as servants (j$7r?/^£T«t) 
of the bishop. It is certain that they were or- 
dained by the bishop alone, without any im- 
position of hands by presbyters ; that in some 
Churches they were admitted to read the 
gospel, and that they universally assisted in 
the distribution of the Eucharist, without any 
share in its consecration. Their early ac- 
knowledgment as members of the ministry is 
proved by their occasional presence in the 
origmal synods of the clergy .f 

Clergy and Laity. The origin of the dis- 
tinction between the clergy and the laity has 
given rise to much controversy. Bingham % 
is of opinion that it was derived fi'om the 
Jewish into the Christian Church in its earli- 
est days. And Clemens Alexandrinus § has 
expressly declared, ' that St. John, after his 
return from Patmos, ordained bishops, and 
appointed such men for clerical ministers as 
were signified by the Holy Spirit.' If the 
persons here mentioned were actually set 



* Ignat. Ep., ad Trale. Tertullian de Juge, c. 11. 
CjTprian Epist. 65. (ad Rogatian) Cone. Nic. c. 18. 

t On this subject consult Bingham, Ch. Antiq., b. 
ii. ch. 20. The deaconesses, of whom we read in 
early Church History, may probably have been wid- 
ows appointed, for the better preservation of the min- 
istry from scandal and calumny, to superintend the 
charitable distribution made to the female portion of 
the poor. 

\ Eccles. Antiq., b. i. ch. 5. 

§ Ap. Euseb. H. E. lib. iii., c. 23. ^l^Qfa evayi 
Tiva iilr/g(h(T(x)v 7(hv inb lov nrev(iiaTog 
Uij^aivoi-iiroiV, 



DISCIPLINE OP THE CHURCH. 



43 



apart and consecrated to the ministry, the 
reality as well as the name of the distinction 
might with greater assurance plead apostolic 
authority ; but this does not positively appear. 
On the other hand, the separation of the sa- 
cred order is so commonly mentioned by the 
early Fathers, not by Cyprian only, but by 
his predecessors* Tertullian and Origen, and 
so invariably treated as a necessaiy part of 
the Christian system, that if its origin was not 
coeval with the foundation of the system, it 
was at least unrecorded and immemorial. 
The fairest supposition respecting this ques- 
tion appears to be, that the Jirst converts, those 
who spread the earhest tidings of redemption 
before the Apostles themselves had quitted 
Judaea, were commissioned to preach the 
name, and diffuse the knowledge of Christ 
indiscriminately. But it seems equally cer- 
tain, that this commission was of very short 
duration ; and that as soon as in any place 
converts wer& found sufficient to form a soci- 
ety or church, a bishop or presbyter f was 
ordained for life to minister to them. The 
act of ordination established the distinction of 
which we are treating. 

According to the earliest form of Episcopal 
government it would appear that the bishop 
possessed little, if any, power in matters of 
discipline, except with the consent of the 
council of presbyters ; that the council pos- 
sessed no sort of power except in conjunction 
with him; I and that, in affairs strictly spirit- 
ual, as the ordination § of the inferior clergy 



* Thia writer goes so far as severely to censure cer- 
taii heretics for following the contrary practice. 

tiSee Epiphan. Haeres. 75; ^rian. n. 5, as refer- 
red to by Bingham. 

t We refer to the passages from the Councils of 
Laodicea, Aries, and Toledo, from Ignatius's Epis- 
tles and the Apostolical Canons, and the writings of 
Tertullian, Jerome, and Ambrose, collected by Bing- 
ham, b. ii. ch. 3. 

§ It appears probable (notwithstanding the silence 
of St. Paul on this subject in his commission to Titus, 
i. 5.) that, in the ceremony of ordination, even in the 
earliest church, the imposition of hands was perform- 
ed by certain presbyters, in conjunction with the 
bishop ; but the consecration to the ministry was the 
act of the bishop only, through tlie power derived in 
the first instance from the apostles, and at no time 
claimed by any inferior order in the church. When 
Jerome (Dissert. 85 ad Evagr.) and Chrysostom, in 
the fourth century (Hom. 2 in 1 Tim. iii. 8), are en- 
deavoring to exalt presbyterial almost to the level of 
episcopal authority, they agree in considering the 
power of ordination as constituting the grand, and, as 
they assert, the only distinction. It has been argued 
that the power of preaching was originally confined to 
tlie bishops, and from them derived, and by their per- 



and the administration of the sacraments, 
especially that of baptism,* he acted as some 
think with original, and certainly with inde- 
pendent authority. His office was for life, 
and the funds of the society were committed 
to his care and dispensation. Of most of the 
apostolical churches, the first bishops were 
appointed by the apostles ; of those not apos- 
tolical, the first presidents were probably the 
missionaries who founded them ; but, on their 
death, the choice of a successor devolved on 
the members of the society. In this election 
the people had an equal share with the pres- 
byters and inferior clergy, without exception 
or distinction ; and it is clear that their right 
in this matter was not barely testimonial, but 
judicial and elective, f This appointment 
was final, requiring no confirmation from the 
civil power or any superior prelate ; and 
thus, in the management of its internal affairs, 
every church was essentially independent of 
every other. 

The Churches, thus constituted and regu- 
lated, formed a sort of federative body of in- 
dependent religious communities, dispersed 
through the greater part of the empire, in 
continual communication, and in constant 
harmony with each other. It is towa/ds mid- 
dle of the second century that the first change 
is perhaps perceptible: as the numbers of the 
believers and the limits of the faith were ex- 
tended, some diversities in doctrine or disci- 
pline would naturally grow up, which it was 
not found easy to reconcile except by some 
description of general assembly. Accord- 
ingly we find the first instances of such as- 



mission exercised, by the inferior clergy ; the reasons 
adduced for this opinion are plausible, though not, 
perhaps, conclusive. — Bingham's Church Antiq., b. 
ii. ch. 3. 

* Mosh. Gen. Hist. (c. i. p. ii. ch. 4. sec. 7 and 
8.) When the bishop extended tlie right of baptism 
to pi-esbyters and suftVagan bishops (Chorepiscopi), 
he still reserved to himself the exclusive power of 
confirmation. — Bingham's Church Antiq. c. ii. p. ii. 
ch. 4. 

•j- This is made very clear, from the comparison of 
much contradictory evidence, by Bingham, Ch. Hist., 
b. iv. ch. 2. sec. 2, 3, 4, &c. There were some vari- 
ations in the mode of election, according to times and 
circumstances, since no rule is laid down in Scripture 
on the subject; but there is a great concun-ence of 
evidence to show that no bishop was ever obtruded on 
an orthodox people without their consent. Mosheim 
(c. i. p. ii. ch. 2.) attributes a great extent of general 
power to the people, not only in the election of their 
teachers, but in the control of their conduct, and 
even extends it to decision on controverted points and 
excommunication of unwortliy members. We are not 
aware on what authority he advances these assertions. 



44 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



sembiies * (unless that which was summoned 
by the Apostles may be so called) at this pe- 
riod. They were composed, either of the 
bishops only, or of these associated with a 
party of the priesthood ; those ministers pre- 
sented themselves as the representatives of 
their respective societies ; nor was any supe- 
riority claimed by any of them in virtue of 
the supposed pre-eminence of particular 
Churches. These councils were called by 
the Greek name Synods, and seem at first to 
have been provincial, following in some man- 
ner the political division of the empire. They 
had their origin in Greece — the land of pub- 
lic assemblies and popular institutions, of 
which the memory was fondly cherished 
there, after the reality had been lost in Ro- 
man despotism. Their character was essen- 
tially popular ; the representatives of equal 
Churches, elected to their sacred offices by 
the whole body over which they presided, 
assembled to deliberate as equals ; and we 
may reasonably indulge the belief, since the 
exertion of freedom in any one direction 
makes it more ready to act in every other, 
that the political emancipation of mankind 
was promoted, even thus early, by the free 
and advancing spirit of Christianity. 

Such were the principles on which the 
affairs of the Churches were conducted for 
some time after the period mentioned by us ; 
and none can be conceived more favorable to 
the progress of the faith. The government of 
a single person protected each society from in- 
ternal dissension — the electiveness of that gov- 
ernor rendered probable his merit — the meet- 
ing together of the deputies of the Church- 
es, in occasional assemblies, on equal terms, 
taught the scattered members of the faith that 
they were animated by one soul, and inform- 
ed and dignified by one spirit. Some evil 
will be expected to arise out of much good ; 
and evils of some importance have been at- 
tributed to the necessary frequency of synods. 
The first was an early addition to the orders 
and gradations of the hierarchy; for, as it was 
soon discovered that these provincial Coun- 
cils required the control of a President, the 
Bishop of the capital of the province was 
usually appointed to that office, under the 
lofty title of the Metropolitan ; f from an oc- 
casional office he presently assumed a per- 
manent dignity, and his dignity was insuf- 
ficient until it was attended by authority. 

* We believe die view of Mosheim upon this sub- 
ject to be very nearly correct. C. 1. p. i. ch. 2. 
t Mosh. Gen. Hist. c. iL p. ii. ch. 2. 



Again, the ecclesiastics who composed them 
properly appeared there in no other charac 
ter, than as the deputies of their Churches , 
but it may sometimes have happened, that on 
their return home they individually assumed 
some part of the poiver which they had pos- 
sessed collectively ; at least, it is certain that 
many notions respecting the exalted and irre- 
sistible nature of episcopal authority,* were 
already floating about the Christian world, 
and the Bishop was not likely to disclaim the 
homage which would occasionally be offered 
to him. But it was not until the habit of 
acting in bodies made them sensible of their 
common interest and real power, that they 
ventured to assert such claims, and assumed 
a loftier manner in the government of their 
dioceses ; so that, though these synods were 
doubtless indispensable to the well-being of 
Christianity, they seem to have been the 
means of corrupting the original humility of 
its ministers ; and the method which was in- 
tended to promote only the eternal interests 
of the Church, promoted, in some degree, the 
worldly consideration of the order which 
governed it. This change began to show 
itself towards the end of the second century ; 
and it is certain that, at this period, we find 
the first complaints of the incipient corruption 
of the clergy .f On the other hand, there can 
be little doubt that the increased authority 
and influence of the hierarchy was highly 
sei-viceable to the whole body in periods of 
danger and persecution, and that in those 
times it was generally exerted to excite the 
courage, and sustain the constancy of the 
faithful. 

Excommunication was the oldest weapon 
of ecclesiastical authority. Doubtless, every 
society has the right to expel its unworthy 
members ; and this right was of extreme use 
to the first Christians, as it gave them frequent 
opportunities of exhibiting to the heathen 
world the scrupulousness of their moral pu- 
rity. But afterwards we know how danger- 
ous an engine it became when wielded by 



* The Epistles attributed to Ignatius are the earli- 
est writings which countenance such claims ; and they 
were afterwards more boldly advocated by Cyprian, 
Bishop of Carthage. In fact, we should remark that 
Ignatius exalts the presbyterial with almost as much 
zeal as the episcopal order, and that his object was 
rather to increase the authority of the whole ministry 
than to elevate any branch of it. 

t From the moment that the interests of the minis- 
ters became at all distinguished from the interests of 
the religion, the corruption of Christianity may be 
considered to have begun. 



DOCTRINES OF THE CHURCH 



4& 



weak or passionate individuals, and directed 
by caprice, or interest, or ambition. 

The question has been greatly controvert- 
ed, vsrhether an absolute community of prop- 
erty ever subsisted in the Church. That it 
did so, is a favorite opinion of some Roman 
Catholic writers, who would willingly dis- 
cover, in the first apostolical society, the 
model of the monastic system ; and the same, 
to its utmost extent, has been partly asserted, 
and pardy insinuated by Gibbon. The learn- 
ed argument of Mosheim*^ disposes us to the 
contrary belief; and if the words of Scrip- 
ture in one placef should seem to prove that 
such community did actually exist among the 
original converts in the Church of Jerusalem, 
we are obliged to infer from other passages,! 
not only that it did not universally prevail as 
one law of the whole Church, but that it 
gained no favor or footing in the several 
Churches which were founded elsewhere. 
This inference is generally confirmed by the 
uninspired records of Christianity ; and it is 
indeed obvious that a society of both sexes, 
constituted on that principle, could not pos- 
sibly have had a permanent existence. The 
truth appears to be this, that the ministers of 
religion, and the poorer brethren, were main- 
tained by contributions perfectly voluntary, 
and that a great and general intercourse of 
mutual support and charity prevailed, as well 
among the various Churches, as among the 
members of each. 

It is probable that the ceremonies of relig- 
ion had somewhat outstripped their primitive 
simplicity, even before the conclusion of the 
second centuiy. Some additions were intro- 
duced even thus early, out of a spirit of con- 
ciliation with the various forms of Paganism 
which were beginning gradually to melt into 
Christianity ; but they were seemingly diflfer- 
ent in different countries ; and it is not easy, 
or perhaps very important, to detect them 
with certainty, or to enumerate them with 
confidence. We shall, probably, recur to 
this subject at some future period, when we 
shall have stronger light to guide us. 

The first Christians were unanimous § in 
setting apart the fii-st day of the week, as be- 
ing that on which our Saviour rose from the 

* Dissertationes ad Hist. Eccl. pertinentes, vol. ii. 
Mosheim's object is to prove that St. Luke means 
community of use, not of possession. Some sup- 
pose the passage in Acts v. 4, to be at variance with 
that opinion. 

t Acts iv. 32, 34, 35. 

t Acts v. 4. 'After it was sold, was it not in 
thine own power 1 ' 

§ Mosb. Gen, Hist., 1. i. p. ii. c. 4. 



dead, for the solemn celebratioil of public 
worship. This pious custom was derived 
from the example of the Church of Jerusa- 
lem, on the express appointment of the Apos- 
tles. On these occasions, portions of Scrip- 
ture were publicly read to the people from 
the earliest age. 

The two most ancient feasts of the Church 
were in honor of the resurrection of Christ, 
and of the descent of the Holy Spirit. At a 
period when belief must almost have amount- 
ed to knowledge, the first Christians, the 
companions of the Apostles, perhaps the dis- 
ciples of our Saviour himself, were so seri- 
ously and practically earnest in their belief, 
and so satisfied of the generality of that 
belief, in the truth of those two mighty mi- 
racles, which have presented, perhaps, the 
gi'eatest difficulties to the skeptical inquir- 
ers of after ages, as to establish their two 
fii'st festivals in solemn commemoration of 
them. 

We find no mention of any public fast, 
except on the day of the crucifixion. The 
superstitious multiplication of such acts of 
mistaken devotion was the work of a later 
age. 

Christian schools existed in the second 
century, as well at Rome, Ephesus, and 
Smyrna,* as at Alexandria ; they were con- 
ducted on the model of the schools of phi- 
losophy, and even the terms, by which the 
different classes of the faithful were designat- 
ed, were borrowed from these latter. There 
appears to have been as yet no costume pecu- 
liai' to the ministers of religion. The bishops 
usually adopted the garb of the heathen phi- 
losophers. 

3. Creeds. The first Christians used no 
written Creed ; the Confession of Faith, 
which was held necessary for salvation, was 
delivered to children or converts by word 
of mouth, and entrusted to their memory. 
Moreover, in the several independent Church- 
es, the rule of faith was liable to some slight 
changes, according to the opinion and discre- 
tion of the Bishop presiding in each. Hence 
it arose, that when the creeds of those nume- 
rous communities came at length to be writ- 
ten and compared together, they were found 
to contain some variations ; this was natural 
and necessary ; but when we add that those 
variations were for the most part merely ver- 
bal, and in no instance involved any question 
of essential importance, we advance a truth 

* Iren. ad Florinum, ap. Euseb. 1. v. c. 20, 
Mosh. Gen. Hist.,c. i. p. ii. ck« B. 



46 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



which will seem strange to those who are 
familiar with the angry disputations of later 
ages. But the fact is easily accounted for, — 
the earliest pastors of the Church drew their 
belief from the Scripture itself, as delivered 
to them by writing or preaching,* and they 
were contented to express that belief in the 
language of Scripture. They were not cu- 
rious to investigate that which is not clearly 
revealed, but they adhered firmly and faith- 
fully to that which they knew to be true ; 
therefore their variations were without schism 
and their diflferences without acrimony. The 
creed which was first adopted, and that per- 
haps in the very earliest age, by the Church 
of Rome, was that which is now called the 
Apostles' Creed, and it was the general opin- 
ion, from the fourth century downwards, that 
it was actually the production of those bless- 
ed persons assembled for that purpose ; our 
evidence f is not sufiEicient to establish that 
fact, and some winters | very confidently re- 
ject it. But there is reasonable ground for 
our assurance that the form of faith which 
we still repeat and inculcate was in use and 
honor in the very early propagation of our re- 
ligion. 

The sacraments of the primitive Church 
were two — those of Baptism and the Lord's 
Supper. The ceremony of immersion (the 
oldest form of baptism) was performed in the 
name of the three Persons of the Trinity ; 
it was believed to be attended by the remis- 
sion of original sin, and the entire regenera- 
tion of the infant or convert, by the passage 
from the land of bondage into the kingdom 
of salvation. A gi*eat proportion of those 
baptized in the first ages were, of course, 
adults, and since the Church was then scru- 
pulous to admit none among its members, 
excepting those whose sincere repentance 

* It is expressly affirmed by Eusebius (E. H. book 
ill. c. 24) that the four gospels were collected during 
the life of St. John, and that the three received the 
approbation of that apostle: And though there is 
great difficulty in ascertaining the precise period in 
which all the books of the New Testament were col- 
lected into one volume, it is unquestionable that be- 
fore the middle of the second century the greatest 
part of them were received as the rule of faith m eve- 
ry Christian society. Mosh. c. 1. p. ii. ch. 2. 

•f Ignatius, Justin, and Irenseus make no mention 
of it, but they occasionally rei:>eat some words con- 
tained in it, which is held as proof that they knew it 
by heai-t. — See Cent. 3Iagdeb., cent. i. lib. ii. c. 4. 

X As Mosheim, cent. i. p. ii. ch. 3; admitting 
however, (c. ii. p. ii. ch. 3) that the first teachers in- 
culcated no other doctrines than those contained in 
what is commonly called the Apostles' Creed. 



gave promise of a holy life,* the administra- 
tion of that sacrament was in some sense 
accompanied by the remission, not only of 
the sin from Adam, but of all sin that had 
been previously committed by the proselyte 
— that is to say, such absolution was given to 
the repentance necessary for admission into 
Christ's Church. In after ages, by an error 
common in the growth of superstition, the 
efficacy inherent in the repentance was at- 
tributed to the ceremony, and the act which 
washed away the inherited corruption of na- 
ture was supposed to secure a general impu- 
nity, even for unrepented offences. But this 
double delusion gained very little ground 
during the two first centuries. 

The celebration of the sacrament of the 
Eucharist was originally accompanied by 
meetings which somewhat partook of a hos- 
pitable, or at least of a charitable character, 
and were called Agapse or Feasts of Love. 
Every Christian, according to his circumstan- 
ces, brought to the assembly portions of bread, 
wine, and other things, as gifts, as it were, or 
oblations to the Lord. Of the bread and 
wine such as was required for the adminis- 
tration of the sacrament was separated from 
the rest, and consecrated by the bishop alone ;f 
its distribution was followed by a frugal and 
serious repast. Undoubtedly, those assem- 
blies acted not only as excitements to ardent 
piety, but also as bonds of strict religious 
union and mutual devotion, during the dark 
days of terror and persecution. It was pro- 
bably on those occasions, more than any oth- 
er, that the sufferers rallied their scattered 
ranks, and encouraged each other, by one 
solemn act of brotherly communion, to con- 
stancy in one faith and association in the 
same afflictions. We observe, moreover, that 
as the dangers passed away from the Church, 
that more social form (if we may so express 
it) of eucharjstical administration gradually 
fell into disuse. 

4. Morality. The morality of the primi- 

* « Whosoever are persuaded that those things are 
true M'hich are taught and inculcated by us, and en- 
gage to live according to them, are taught to pray to 
God, fasting, for the remission of their former sins, 
while we pray and fast with them. Then they are 
led by us to some place where water is, and are re- 
generated even as we ourselves were regenerated ; for 
they are then immersed in the water, in the name of 
the Father of all, the Lord God, and of our Saviour 
Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Ghost.'— Justin Martyr, 
Apol. i. ch. 61. 

t Mosh., c. i. p. ii. ch. 4. Justin. Mart. Ap. 2. 
p. 98. 



MORALITY OF THE FIRST CHRISTIANS. 



47 



tive Church is the subject to which we pro- 
ceed with high confidence and unalloyed sat- 
isfaction — for since, in the various history on 
which we are entering, our admiration of the 
excellence of Christianity will be sometimes 
interrupted by sighs for the degeneracy of its 
professors, it is delightful to pause on that 
period when the faith, yet fresh from heaven, 
did really carry practice and devotion along 
with it — a period which preceded the birth 
of intestine persecution, and was unstained 
by the furious contests of sectaries ; which 
did not witness the superstitious debasement 
of the Church, or the vulgar vices of its 
ministers, or the burning passions of its ru- 
lers. We are taught, indeed, humbly to be- 
lieve that at some future, and probably distant 
period, the whole world will be united in the 
irue spirit and practice of Christianity ; but 
"n reviewing the history of the past, we are 
compelled to confess that the only model at 
all approaching to that perfection is confined 
to the two first centuries of our faith, and 
that it began to fall off in excellence even 
before the conclusion of that period. But 
transient as it was, we still recur to it with 
pious satisfaction, and we rejoice both as men 
and as Christians that our nature has been 
found capable of such holy exaltation, and 
that our religion was the instrument which 
exalted it. 

Certainly the character of the first Christ- 
ians, and we are not without guides who 
make us acquainted with it, presents to us a 
singular spectacle of virtue and piety, the 
more splendid as it was surrounded by very 
mournful and very general depravity. We 
cannot read either St. Clement's description 
of the early condition of the Church of Co- 
rinth, or Origen's panegyric on that of Athens, 
without recognising a state of society and 
morality such as all the annals of paganism 
do not discover to us, and such as its princi- 
ples (if it had any fixed principles) could not 
ever have created. The following lines are 
a quotation from the former. ' You were all 
humble in spirit, nothing boasting, subject 
rather than subjecting, giving rather than re- 
ceiving. Contented with the food of God, 
and carefully embracing his words, your feel- 
ings were expanded, and his sufferings were 
before your eyes — so profound and beautiful 
the peace that was given to you, and so insa- 
tiable the desire of beneficence. Every di- 
vision, every schism was detestable to you ; 
you wept over the failings of your neighbors ; 
you thought their defects your own, and were 
impatient after every good work,' &c. 



It is true that soon after the period cele- 
brated by this glowing description, some dis- 
sensions disturbed the peace, and probably 
the morality, of the Church of Corinth — ^but 
we have no reason to believe that they were 
of long duration, or left any lasting conse- 
quences behind them. 

The above passage refers to the Christians 
of Greece ; and there is a sentence in the 
letter of Pliny to Trajan, already quoted, 
giving still stronger testimony to the vktues 
of the Asiatics. ' They bind themselves by 
an oath, not to the commission of any wick- 
edness, but not to be guilty of theft, or rob- 
bery, or adultery, — never to falsify their word, 
nor to deny a pledge committed to them 
when called upon to return it.' 

Bardesanes,* a learned Christian of Meso- 
potamia, who lived in the time of Marcus 
Antoninus, has the following passage, pre- 
served to us by Eusebius. ' Neither do Christ- 
ians in Parthia indulge in polygamy, though 
they be Parthians ; nor do they marry their 
own daughters in Persia, though Persiansv 
Among the Bactrians and the Gauls^ they do 
not commit adulteiy ; but, wheresoever they 
are, they rise above the evil laws and cus- 
toms of the country.' This is not only a 
very powerful, but almost an universal tes- 
timony in favor of Christian morality ; and 
there are some to whom its truth will appear 
the less questionable, because it comes from 
the pen of a heretic. 

The virtue of chastity, which however it 
may have been celebrated in the heroic ages 
of paganism, was certainly little reputed in 
the east, during the more enlightened rule 
of philosophy, was very rigidly cultivated by 
the primitive converts. This truth, which 
is generally attested by the passages above 
quoted, is made the subject of peculiar exult- 
ation by Justin Martyr.f But the continence 
of the first Christians did not degenerate into 
any superstitious practice ; yet it seems cer- 
tain that, in the ages immediately subsequent, 
the simple principle of the Gospel began to 
be unreasonably exaggerated ; and somewhat 
later the progress of monasticism was for- 
warded by the exalted value placed on that 
virtue. So that excess of admiration blinded 
enthusiasts as to its real nature and character, 
and led them to invest it with perfections and 
pretensions which were at variance with the 
advancement and happiness of human so- 
ciety. 

The heathen governments, even the Ro- 

* Euseb. H. E., 1. iv.,c. 30. 
t C. 15. Apol. A. 



48 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, 



man, in its highest civilisation, tolerated, and 
perhaps encouraged, the unnatural practice 
of exposing infants — who in that condition 
were left, as it might happen, to perish fi-om 
cold or starvation, or preserved for the more 
dreadful fate of public prostitution. This 
practice w^as held in deserved detestation by 
the followers of Christ.* 

Charity was the corner-stone of the moral 
edifice of Christianity, and its earliest char- 
acteristic ; and as this is still the vu*tue by 
which it is most distinguished, both publicly 
and privately, from every false religion, so 
we need not hesitate to avow that this of all 
its excellences was the most efficient under 
Divine providence in its original establishment. 
Every Christian society provided fbr the 
maintenance of its poorer members; and 
when the funds were not suflScient for this 
purpose, they were aided by the superfluities 
of more wealthy brethren.f The same spirit 
which 'preached the Gospel to the poor,' 
extended its provisions to their temporal ne- 
cessities ; and so far from thinking it any 
reproach to our faith that it first addressed 
itself, by its peculiar virtues as well as pre- 
cepts, to the lower orders of mankind, we 
derive from this very fact our strongest argu- 
ment against those who would persuade us 
that the patronage of kings was necessary for 
its establishment : it rather becomes to us 
matter of pious exultation that its progress 
was precisely in the opposite direction. By 
far the majority of the early converts were 
men of low rank ; and their numbers w^ere 
concealed by their obscurity, until they be- 
came too powerful to dread persecution. 
Every step which they took was upwards. 
Until the middle of the second century, they 
could scarcely discover among theii' thou- 
sands one learned man. From the schools 
they advanced into the senate, and from the 
senate to the throne ; and they had possessed 
themselves of eveiy other office in society, 
before they attained the highest. It is im- 
portant to attend to this fact, that we may 
not be misled ; it is important to observe, that 
the basis fi-om which the pyramid started up 
was the faith and constancy of the common 
•people — the spirit of the religion, and the ear- 
liest government of the Church, was popular; 
and it is in its earliest history that we find 
those proofs of general moral purity on which 

* Justin Martyr, Apol. A., c. 27. 

f Our readers will recollect that Dionysius of Co- 
rinth, m his Epistle to the Romans, desires them to 
continue the custom established from the beginning, 
of sending charitable contributions to all cluuxhes. 



we now dwell with the more pleasure, be 
cause, in the succeeding pages, the picture 
will never again be presented to us. 

We will make one short extract from the 
writings of a very witty pagan of the second 
century, which throws great light on the 
character of the Christians of that age. Lu- 
cian, who considered every form of worship 
as equally an object of ridicule, tells a story 
of one Peregrinus, who had been expelled 
from his country, Armenia, for the most hor- 
rible crimes ; who thence wandered into 
Palestine, became acquainted with the doc- 
trine of the Christians, and affected to em- 
brace it. Being a man of talents and educa- 
tion, he acquired gi'eat influence among their 
illiterate body ; and, in consequence, he soon 
attracted the notice of the Roman governor, 
and was thrown into prison for being a Christ- 
ian. In prison he is represented to have 
been consoled by the pious charity of the 
faithful: — 'There came Christians, deputed 
from many cities in Asia, to relieve, to en- 
courage, and to comfort him, for the care and 
dihgence which the Christians exert on these 
occasions is incredible — in a word, they spare 
nothing. They sent, therefore, large sums to 
Peregrinus, and his confinement was an oc- 
casion of amassing great riches ; for these 
poor creatures are firmly persuaded they shall 
one day enjoy eternal life ; therefore they 
despise death with wonderful courage, and 
offer themselves voluntarily to punishment. 
Their first lawgiver has taught them that they 
are all brethren, when once they have passed 
over and renounced the gods of the Greeks, 
and worship that Master of theirs who was 
crucified, and regulate their manner and con- 
duct by his laws. They despise, therefore, 
all earthly possessions, and look upon them 
as common, having received such rules with- 
out any certain grounds of faith. Therefore, 
if any juggler, or cunning fellow, who knows 
how to make his advantage of opportunity, 
happens to get into their society, he immedi- 
ately grows rich ; because it is easy to abuse 
the simplicity of these silly people.' We 
have no reason to complain of such descrip- 
tion from the pen of an adversary ; for, on 
the one hand, it attributes to our ancestors in 
faith boundless charity, zeal inexhaustible, 
brotherly love, contempt of death, and of all 
earthly possessions, and a steady adherence 
to the faith and precepts of Christ ; on the 
other hand, it lays no chai-ge against them 
except simplicity, the usual associate of in- 
nocence. 

There is one quality mentioned in the 



ITS PROGRESS. 



49 



above passage which we shall take occasion to 
notice hereafter, without entirely overlooking 
it now, the suffering courage of the persecuted. 
We consider it a strong proof of the lively faith 
of the sufferers in the atoning merits of their 
Saviour, since it could seldom proceeti from 
any other conviction than that the change 
which they were about to undergo would lead 
them to a state of recompense ; a confidence 
which seems scarcely consistent with the 
consciousness of unrepented sin. Such, at 
least, we know to have been the impression 
sometimes produced on the more enlightened, 
even among the heathen spectatoi-s. The 
ancient author of the Second Apology, attrib- 
uted to Justin Martyr, urges this proof with 
much fervor and reason ; and the conversion 
of Justin himself is, in a great degree, ascribed 
to the persuasion of Christian excellence and 
sincerity, wrought in him by those awful 
spectacles. 

We shall conclude this chapter by a quota- 
tion from his First Apology (c. xiv.) : — ' We 
who formerly rejoiced in licentiousness, now 
embrace discretion and chastity; we who 
rejoiced in magical arts, now devote oureelves 
to the unbegotten God, the God of goodness; 
we who set our affections upon wealth and 
possessions, now bring into the common 
stock all our property, and share it with the 
indigent ; we, who, owing to the diversity of 
customs, would not partake of the same hearth 
with those of a different race, now, since the 
appearance of Christ, live together, and pray 
for our enemies.^ and endeavor to persuade 
those who unjustly hate us, that, by leading 
a life conformed to the excellent precepts of 
Christianity, they may be filled -with the good 
hope of obtaining the same happiness with 
ourselves from that God, who is Lord above 
all thinsfs.' 



CHAPTER III. 

The Progress of Christianity from the year 
200, A. D. till the Accession of Constantine, 
A. D. 313. 

Incipient corruption of the Church — Reasons for it — Its 
extent — External progress of religion in Asia and in 
Europe — .Claims, character, and prosperity of the Church 
of Rome — That of Alexandria. — Origen — His charac- 
ter — Industry — Success — Defect. — The Church of 
Carthage.— TertuHian— His character — Heresy— Mer- 
its. — Cyprian. — Government of the Church — Increase 
of episcopal power, or, rather, influence — Degeneracy 
of the Ministers of Religion exaggerated — Institution 
of inferior orders — Division of the people into Faithful 
and Catechumens — Corruption of the sacrament of 
Baptism —Effect of this — The Eucharist — Demons 

7 



— Exorcism — Alliance with philosophy — Its conse- 
quences, — Pious frauds— Their origin — Excuses for 
such corruptions — Eclectic philosophy — Ammonius 
Saccas — Plotinus — Porphyry — Compromise with cer- 
tain philosophers — The Milennium— The writings of 
the early Fathers — Apologies. 

RiESERviNG for subsequent consideration the 
persecutions and the heresies by which the 
early Church was disturbed, we shall now 
pursue its more peaceful annals as far as its 
establishment by the first Christian emperor. 
We have found it almost necessary to sepa^ 
rate, and indeed widely to distinguish the 
events of the two first from those of the third 
century, for nearly at this point are we dis- 
posed to place tlie first crisis in the internal 
history of the Church. It is true that the first 
operations of corruption are slow, and gener- 
ally imperceptible, so that it is not easy to as- 
certain the precise moment of its commence- 
ment. But a candid inquirer cannot avoid 
perceiving that, about the end of the second 
and the beginning of the third century, some 
changes had taken place in the ecclesiastical 
system which indicated a departure from its 
priinitive purity. Indeed, such a state of so- 
ciety as that which we have recently described 
could scarcely hope for permanent endurance, 
unless through a fundamental alteration in 
human nature and in the necessary course of 
human affairs. In addition to this, the very 
principles of Christianity prevented it from 
remaining stationary ; the spirit of the faith is 
active, penetrating, and progressive ; and thus, 
as it expanded itself in numerical extent — as 
it rose in rank, in learning, in wealth — as it 
came in contact with the people of all nations, 
and with all classes of the people, a great 
variety of human passions and motives was 
comprehended by it, which had no place in ita 
early existence. As it increased in the num- 
ber of converts, the zeal of brotherly love and 
ardent charity became more contracted, since 
it could no longer be universally exerted. As 
it rose in rank, it lost that perfect equality 
among its members which formed the very 
essence of its original and best character — 
false learning corrupted its simplicity, and 
wealth undermined its morality. If it gain- 
ed in prosperitj^ and worldly consideration, it 
resigned the native innocence and freshness 
of childhood. 

We are far from intending to assert that 
any sudden demoralization or violent apostasy 
from its first principles took place in the 
Church during the third century — far fi-om 
it — we feel even strongly assured that it still 
continued to embrace the great proportion of 
whatever was tt'uly virtuous and excellent iu 



ba 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



the Roman empire. * But, in closely attend- 
ing to its history, we observe that it becomes 
thenceforward the history of men rather than 
of things ; the body of the Church is not so 
much in view, but the acts of its ministers 
and teachers are continually before us. We 
read little of the clergy of the two first cen- 
turies ; they appear to have discharged their 
pastoral duties with silent diligence and dis- 
interested piety. We learn their character, for 
the most part, from the effects of their labors ; 
and we find its ample and indisputable record 
in the progress of their religion, and in the 
virtues of their converts. 

The progress of religion, indeed, continued, 
under easier circumstances, with equal rapid- 
ity ; and we have reason to believe that, be- 
fore the time of Constantine, it was deeply 
rooted in all the eastern f provinces of the Ro- 
man, as well as in the Persian empire. Gib- 
bon I has candidly acknowledged his error in 
attributing the conversion of Armenia to the 
reign of that emperor ; and, perhaps, a more 
impartial reflection on the mission of Pan- 
tsenus, which we have no reason to believe 
fruitless,, would have led him to doubt his own 
accuracy when he makes a similar assertion 
respecting ^.thiopia. The light of Christian- 

* ' Who wiU not confess (says Origen to Celsus) 
that the worst members of the Church,, who are few in 
comparison with the better, are much more virtuous 
than those who compose the popular assemblies 1 
The Church of God, at Athens, if you will, is tranquil 
and peaceable, searching only to do God'^s pleasure : 
the Assembly of the Athenians is seditious, and bear- 
ing no comparison to it. The same is true of the 
Churches of Corinth and Alexandria, compared to the 
popular assemblies of tliose cities. .... So that> if 
we compare the senate of the Church with the senate 
of every city, we shall find the senators of the Church 
worthy to govern the city of God ; while the others 
have nothing in their morals which fits them for their 
rank, or places them above the ordinary qualities of 
citizens. And, if we carry the comparison further, 
we shall observe the immense moral superiority of the 
most dissolute and imperfect of the bishops and pres- 
byters over the civil magistrates.' — See Fleury, lib. 
vii., sec. 18. 

t Dionys. ap. Euseb., H, E., vii. 5. Dionysius 
was Bishop of Alexandria during the middle of the 
third century. Tillemont (vol. iii. p. 405), on the 
authority of Origen, asserts that the Christians, before 
the middle of the second century, not only had built a 
number of churches, but had ventured in some places 
an assault upon temples, altars, and idols. 

t Vindication, p. 74. We give him credit for this 
admission, because the error was of his own discovery. 
He adds, ' The seeds of the faith were deeply sown 
here during the last and greatest persecution. Tiri- 
dates may dispute with Constantine the honor of 
being the first Christian sovereign.' 



ity had certainly penetrated, with varying 
splendor, among the Bactrians, the Parthians, 
the Scythians, Germans, Gauls, and Britons ; 
the Goths of Mysiaand Thrace were convert- 
ed by missionaries from Asia, and laid aside, 
on the reception of the faith, the primeval 
barbarity o-f their mannerSr* 

While the Church of Antioch retained, 
afl;er the fall of Jerusalem, a nominal supre- 
macy among the Christians of the east, that 
of Rome continued to advance, among the 
western churches, certain vague asserliona 
of authority. Gn one occasion indeed, in the 
conviction of a heretical bishop, Paul of Sam- 
osatay its claims appear to have been indirect- 
ly encouraged f by the Emperor Aurelian ; 
but they were ^ot then acknowledged by 
any Christian Church, and were very warm- 
ly contested by Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage. 
That prelate maintained with equal zeal and 
truth the primitive equality of the churches. 
If the early Christians had for the most part 
derived the rudiments of their learning | from 
Alexandria, their charitable exertions had been 
principally animated by the wealth and mu- 
nificence of Rome. These two cities appear 
still to have maintained their respective advan- 
tages. During the suspension of persecution, 
in the reign of Commodus, many great and 
opulent families were converted ; and we learo 
fi-om an epistle of Cornelius, Bishop of Rome, 
that it was among his duties to provide for 
the maintenance of more than 1500 widows 
and mourners. § The excellences of the reli- 
gion contributed to its progress, and so rapid 
at this period was that progress, that at the 
synod assembled at Rome in the year 251 to 
pronounce upon the heresy (or schism) of 
Novatian, |[ sixty bishops, and a greater num- 
ber of presbyters and deacons were present, 
though the rustic pastors in the other districts 
held their separate meetings respecting the 



* B'losh. Gen. Hist., c. iii., p. i., ch. 1. The 
progress of Christianity in Gaul was not rapid. Even 
as late as the reign of Decrus, we observe that it was 
necessary to send fresh missionaries from Rome for 
the complete conversion of that country. 

t Euseb. H. E., 1. vii., c. 30. Pagi. ad ann. 271, 
n. 3, 4. 

I The Catechetical School there established, wag 
clearly the most important among the early literary 
institutions of Christianity. 

§ OliBof-ie.rai. See Semler, vol. i., p. QQ. The 
clergy of Rome then consisted of forty-six presbyters, 
seven deacons, seven sub-deacons, besides the inferior 
ordei's. Euseb. lib. vi., c. 43. 

II Euseb., H. E., vi. 43. Novatus originated the 
heresy ; Novatian carried it into a schism. See 
Tillem. , vol. iii., p. 433 to 493. 



ITS PROGRESS. 



Si 



same question. Under such of the emperors 
as \v€re not decidedly opposed to Christianity, 
a considerable number of its professors were 
to be found in the army and even at the court, 
since their profession did not exclude them 
from public preferment ; and then* assemblage 
for divine worship, in certain houses * set 
apart for that pui*pose, was permitted by the 
connivance of the civil magistrate, f 

Origen. The best history of the Church 
of Alexandria durmg the first half of the third 
century, is furnished by the life of Origen. 
That extraordinary person, the most eminent 
among the early fathers, was a native of 
Egypt, the son of one Leouidas, who suffered 
martyrdom in the year 202. When in prison 
he received an epistle from his son, of which 
one sentence only is preserved to us. ' Take 
heed, father, that you do not chaiige your 
mind for our sake.' Origen was then about 
seventeen years old — his religious instructions 
he had received from Clemens Alexandrinus, 
his philosophical lore from Ammonius Saccas, 
and such proficiency had he made in both 
those studies, that he was called to preside 
ever the Catechetical School of Christianity 
at the age of eighteen. He filled that office 
for nearly thirty years, and discharged its 
duties with zeal and genius so distinguished, 
with such fruitful diligence of composition, 
such persuasiveness of oral eloquence, as to 
make it a question whether our religion was 
ever so much advanced, in point of numbers, 
by the mere intellectual exertions of any other 
individual.! He merited the honor of per- 
secution, and had the double fortune to be 
expelled from his chair and country by the 
jealousy § of the Bishop Demetrius, and to 
be tortured in his old age hj the brutalitj^ of 
a Roman emperor. || The works of Origen 
exhibit the operation of a bold and compre- 

* Mosh. cent, iii., p. ii., cli. 4. 

t Mosh., c. iii., p. i., ch. 1. The emperors during 
tills age who were most favorable to Christianity were 
Caracalla, Heliogabalus, Alexander Severiis, Gordian, 
and his two successors, the Philips. Respecting the 
first of these two, a gi-eat mass of authorities is adduced 
to prove that he had actually, tliough secretly, embrac- 
ed the religion. 

4: The diligent distribution of his translation of the 
Scriptures was among the most certain means of ac- 
complishing that work. 

§ Mosheim appears to think that, because Demetrius 
patronised Origen in his youth, it is not probable that 
he was jealous of him afterwards. 

II Decius. The reader may find a satisfactory ac- 
count of the life and writings of Origen in Tiilem. 
Mem., vol. iii. p. 494, 495. 'He was followed bv 



hensive mind, burnmg with religioiis vvarmth^ 
unrestrained by any low prejudices or inter- 
ests, and sincerely bent on the attainment of 
truth. In the main plan and outline of his 
course, he seized the means best calculated to 
his object, for his principal labors v/efe di- 
rected to the collection of correct copies of 
the Holy Scriptures, to their strict and faithful 
translation, to the explanation of their numer- 
ous difficulties. In the two first of these 
objects he was singularly successful ; but in 
the accomplishment of the last part of his 
noble scheme the heat of his imagination and 
his attachment to philosophical speculation 
earned him away into en*or and absurdity ; 
fbr he applied to the explanation of the Old 
Testament the same fanciful method of alle- 
gory by which the Platonists were accustomed 
to veil the fabulous history of their gods. 
This error, so fascinating to the loose imagin- 
ation of the East, was rapidly propagated by 
numerous disciples, and became the founda- 
tion of that doubtful system of theology, called 
Philosophical or Scholastic. 

The fame of Origen was not confined to his 
native countrj^, or to the schools of philosophy, 
or to the professors of the Faith. Mammsea, 
the mother of the Emperor Alexander, sought 
a conference with him in Syria ; he was held 
in high repute at Rome ; his personal exertions 
w^ere extended to Greece, and among the most 
fortunate efforts of his genius we may be 
allowed to mention, that when a numerous 
synod was twice convoked in Arabia on two 
occasions of heresy, Origen, who was present 
by invitation^ was twice successful in convinc- 
ing his opponents. '^ His school gave birth 
to a number of learned men, Plutarch, 
Serenus, Heraclides, Heron, who proved the 
sincerity and multiplied the follov/ers of their 
religion, by the industry with which they 
adonied life, and the constancy with which 
they quitted it. 

Tertullian. The Latin Church of Carthage 
attained little celebrity till the end of the 
second century, when it was adonied by Ter^ 

the same fate (says that audior) after his death as 
during his life. The saints themselves were divided 
on that subject. Martyrs have made his defence, and 
martyrs have written his condemnation. The one 
party has regarded him as the greatest doctor possessed 
by the Church since the apostles ; the other has exe- 
crated him as the parent of Arius and every other 
heresiarch, &c.' Tillemont takes the favorable side. 
* Euseb. H. E. vi. 19 and 37. Origen had also 
the credit of converting various other heretics, espe- 
cially one Ambrose, whose errors had some celebrity 
at the moment. 



62f 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



fiiUian ; and we find tbat, about that period, 
Christianity, which had already scattered its 
blessings along the banks of the Nile, and 
into the adjacent deserts, also made great * 
progi-ess along the northern coast of Africa. 
TertuUian is described by Jerome f as 'a man 
of eager and violent temper ; ^ and he appears 
to have possessed the usual vice of such a 
temperament — inconstancy. The same is 
the character of his writings ; they contain 
some irregular eloquence, much confidence 
of assertion, and a mixture of good with very 
bad reasoning. He wrote many tracts against 
heretics, and then adopted the opinions of the 
least rational of all heretics, the Montanists. 
Bat in spite of many imperfections, his gen- 
ius, his zeal, and his industry place him at the 
head of the Latin fathers of that period ; his 
Jnoral writings must have been eminently 
serviceable to converts who had been educated 
with no fixed principles of morality ; and his 
'Apology' is among the most valuable mon- 
uments of early Christianity. He appears to 
have been made a presbyter of the Church of 
Carthage about 192 a. d., at the age of forty- 
five. His secession from the Church may 
have taken place seven years afterwards, and 
some of his most valuable works were proba- 
bly composed during the period of his heresy .J 
The fame of TertuUian was succeeded in 
the same Church, but not surpassed^ by that 
©f Cyprian, an African and a heathen, who 
was converted to Christianity late in life, and 

* TertuUian in several places indulges in somewhat 
exaggerated descriptions of the multitude and power 
of the Christians throughout the empire. But when 
hn tells Scapula, proconsul of Africa, that tlie effect 
of continuing the persecution against the Christians 
would be to decimate the inhabitants of Carthage, he 
probably does not exceed the truth. Yet Carthage 
was at that time one of the youngest among the 
Churches. See Bishop Kaye, p. 92. 

t Catalogus Script. Ecclesiast. 

:}: We acknowledge great obligations to Bishop 
Kaye for tlie manner in which he has brought within 
the reach of ordinary readers of theology the works of 
Justin and TertuUian, Whoever shall imitate his ex- 
ample in the treatment of the odier principal Fathers, 
examining with the same learning, judgment, and mo- 
deration their merits and defects, and sifting from the 
various contents of their folios what is really valuable 
to the history and right understanding of religion, will 
complete an undertaking of incalculable use in the 
study of early Clu-istianity. And at the same time he 
wdll perform a secondary, but not unworthy, office — 
that of placing those writers in "their just rank in 
literature — a rank from which they are equally far 
removed by the enthusiasm of those who reverence 
them too highly, and by the ignorance of the more ini- 
aierous party who scorn them altogether. 



presently raised to the see of Carthage about 
the year 250. It is said that he was exalted 
to that dangerous honor rather by the popular 
voice of the Church than by his own inclina- 
tion : it is certain that, after a very short and 
disturbed possession of it, he suffered mar- 
tyrdom with great fortitude in the reign of 
Valerian. An interesting and probably faithful 
account of his suiFerings will be found in a 
later page. 

Government. The government of the Chnrcb 
at the beginning of the third century was 
nearly such as we have described in the last 
chapter. The more important Churches were 
severally superintended by a bishop, possessed 
of a certain, but pot very definite degree of 
authority, who ruled in concert with the body 
of presbyters, and even consulted on matters 
of great moment the opinion of the whole 
assembly. The provincial synods, of which 
we have spoken, composed of those bishops, 
assisted by a few presbyters, now began to 
meet with great regularity* and to publish 
canons for the general ordination of ecclesi- 
astical affaii's. The Metropolitans gradually 
rose in consequence. Their dignity seems to 
have been conferred for life ; but their legiti- 
mate power was confined to the calling and 
presiding in councils, and the fi-aternal admo- 
nition of offenders. Still it was the natural 
consequence of this system, acting on human 
imperfection, that the occasional presidents 
insensibly asserted a general preeminence 
over the other bishops, which it became their 
next step to dispute with each other ; and that 
the other bishops, being now constantly dis- 
tinguished from their presbyters by these 
synodical meetings, assumed both over them 
and the people a degree of ascendency not 
originally acknowledged, but which it was not 
difficult gradually to convert into authority. 
Tf we are to bestow on any individual the 
credit of having accomplished a change so 
natural and so nearl)^ insensible, that distinc- 
tion may possibly be due to Cyprian ; certain 
it is, that he pleaded for episcopal supremacy 
with much more zeal and vehemence than 
had hitherto been employed in that cause, f 
It seems clear, indeed, from several of his 
epistles, | especially that addressed to Roga- 

* Twice every year — in the spring and autumn. 

t Mosh. Gen. Hist. c. iii. p. ii. ch. 2. 

:j: Bingham, Ch. Antiq. b. ii. ch. 3. The apostol- 
ical canons confirm these pretensions, and so do certain 
canons of the councils of Nice, Sardica, Antioch, 
Chalccdou, and others ; but, according to the first 
and second councils of Carthage, the consent of three 



ITS PROGRESS, 



53 



tian, that bishops possessed hi his time, or at 
least in his Church, the power of suspending 
or deposing delinquents among the clergy^ 
yet even this was liable to some indefinite 
restrictions as to circumstance and custom, 
and to a direct appeal to a provincial council. 
And it does not appear that such power 
was frequently exerted without the consent 
of the presbyterial college, or ' senate of tlie 
Church.' From these facts, compared with 
the assertions afterwards made by St Jerome 
and St. Chrysostora, (which we have already 
meniioned,) we infer that the actual progress 
of episcopal usurpation, during the third cen- 
tury, was much less than some have imagined 
— or at least, that the power of the bishops 
gi*ew cliiefly through the growth of their 
influence, and was not yet publicly acknow- 
ledged by the constitution of the Church. * 

We admit, however, with sorrowful reflec- 
tion, that the individual conduct of some, 
perhaps many, among the directors of the 
Church, during the course, and especially the 
conclusion, of this century, desei-ved the rep- 
rehensions of contemporary and succeeding 
writers.f Some assumption of the ensigns of 
temporal dignity — the splendid throne, the 
sumptuous garments, the parade of external 
pomp — indicated a departure from apostolical 
simplicity ; and a contentious ambition suc- 
ceeded to the devoted humility of former days. 
And though we believe this evil to have been 
exaggerated by all the writers who have dwelt 
upon it, since the abuses which w^e have 
noticed could scarcely be carried to violent 
excess by an order possessing no legally re- 
cognised rights or property, we may still be 



fcishops was necessary for the censure of a deacon, 
of six for that of a presbyter, of twelve for that of 
a bishop. * Reliquorum Clericorum causas solus Epis- 
copusloei agnoscatet fieiat.' — Cone. Carth, iii. Can. 
8^ Cyprian himself (Epist. v. p^ IL Ep. xiii. p. 
23. Ep. xxiHii. p. 29, and in many other places) 
avows tliat he cannot act M'ithout his council of pres- 
byters and deacons, and the consent of the people. 
See Mosb. (De Reb. Christ, ant. Const, sec. iii. sec. 
xxiii. xxiv.) for a full examination of the principles 
and conduct of Cyprian. The writings of that prelate 
seem to have been more effectual in exalting tlie epis- 
copal dignity in following times than during his own. 

* We are disposed to attribute much of this increase 
of influence to a cause not sufficiently attended to by 
ecclesiastical writers, — the judicial, or rather arbi- 
trative, authority originally vested in the bii^ops by 
the consent of their people, and which would naturally 
extend its limits, as it was confirmed by time and usage. 

t Origen. Coram, in Matthseum, par. i. app. p. 
420. 441, 442 ; Euseb. H. E. 1. viii. c. 1. Cyprian 
himself rates his contemporary prelates with great 
severity. (Laps. p. 239, Stc.) The language of 



convinced, by the institution of certain inferior 
classes in the ministry, such as subdeacons, 
acoluthi, readers, exorcists, and others, that 
the higher ranks had made some advances in 
luxurious indolence.* 

Catechumens, This deterioration in the 
character of the ministers was attended bj a 
coiTesponding change in the ceremonies of 
the Church. The division of the people into 
two classes, the Faithful and the Catechu- 
mens, was the practice, if not the invention, 
of the third century. It was borrowed from 
the pagan principle of initiation ; and the out- 
ward distinction between those classes was 
this : that after the performance of public 
worship the latter were dismissed, while the 
former, the true and initiated Christians, re- 
mained to celebrate the mysteries f of their 
religion ; and this term is by some thought to 
have expressed not only the administration 
of the sacraments, but the delivery of some 
doctrinal instructions. The original simpli- 
city of the office of baptism had already un- 
dergone some corruption. The symbol had 
been gradually exalted at the expense of the 
thing signified, and the spirit of the ceremony 
was beginning to be lost in its form. Hence 
a belief was gaining ground among the con- 
verts, and was inculcated among the heathen, 
that the act of baptism gave remission of all 
sins X committed previously to it. It was not 
fit, then, that so important a rite should be 
hastily performed or inconsiderately receiv- 
ed ; and, therefore, the new proselytes were, 
in tlie first instance, admitted into a proba- 
tionajy state under the name of Catechumens, 

Mosheim, who is always extremely violent OB tlids .s«l>^ 
ject, will not bear careful examination. Gren. Hist, 
cent. iii. p. ii. ch. 2. See alsoTillem. vol. iii. p. 306. 
The praise which Origen has bestowed on Christians 
generally, may be contrasted with his censures on the 
clergy, and they will serve to moderate each other. 

* Mosh. de Reb. Ch. ante Const, sec. iii. sect. 23. 

f The term mystery is in die Greek Church synon- 
ymous with sacrcment. See Semier, Cent. iii. p. 
63; and particuhiily Le Clerc, cent. ii. ann. Mil. and 
ad ann. 118. Neither were the catechumens allowed to 
use the Loi:d's Prayer, which was even denominated 
sv/T] TTidTOn' . the prayei- of the faithful. Chrysost. 
Horn. ii. in 2 Cor. p. 740, and Horn. x. in Coloss. 
For other references see Bingham, Ch. Antiq. b. i. 
ch. 4. 

X Cyprian, Epistle 73. ' It is manifest when and 
by whom the remission of sins, which is conferred in 
baptism, is administered. They who are presented to 
the rulers of the Church obtain, by our prayers and 
imposition of hands, the Holy Ghost.' See also Euseb. 
H, E. i. vii. c. 8. Mosh. c. iii. p. ii. c. 4. Compare 
Cyprian's language with tlie passage of Justia Martyr, 
on the same subject. 



M 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



whence they were chosen, according to then- 
progress in grace, into the body of the Faith- 
ful. As long as they remained in that class, 
great care was taken to instruct them in the 
important truths, and especially in the moral 
obligations, of religion ; yet doubtless there 
would be some among them in whom the 
love of sin survived the practice of supersti- 
tion,* and such would naturally defer their 
baptism and their pardon until the fear of 
death, or satiety of enjoyment, overtook them. 
It is true, that baptism was not supposed to 
bestow any impunity for future sins ; on the 
contrary, the first offence committed after it 
required the expiation of a public confession, f 
^nd the second was punished by excommuni- 
cation. But if the hope and easy condition 
of pardon for the past tended, as it may have 
done, to fill the ranks of the catechumens, 
we may reasonably indulge the belief that the 
great majority were amended and perfected 
by the religious instruction which was then 
opened to them. 

About the same time, and fi-om causes con- 
nected with this misapprehension of the real 
nature of baptism, and the division of the con- 
verts, a vague and mysterious veneration be- 
gan to attach itself to the other Sacrament ; 
its nature and merits were exaggerated by 
those who administered and partook of it ; it 
was regarded with superstitious curiosity by 
those to whom it was refused ; and reports 
were already propagated of the miraculous 
efficacy of the consecrated elements. 

An opinion at this time became prevalent 
in the Christian world, that the demons, the 
enemies of man, were, in fact, the same be- 
mgs whom the heathen worshipped as gods, 
who inhabited tlieir temples and animated 
their statues. It became, therefore, the duty 
of the soldiers of Christ to assail them under 
every form, and expel them from every resi- 
dence. That, indeed, which they are related 
most frequently to have occupied was the 
body of man, J and from this refuge they were 
perseveringly disturbed by the pious exor- 
cisms of the clergy ; and this practice was 
carried to such superstitious excess, that none 

* Origen, however, assures us, that among his con- 
verts there were more who had previously led a moral life 
than of the opposite description — a fact which may 
serve as an answer to one of Gibbon's insinuations. See 
Gels. 1. iii. p. 150, 151. TiUem. Mem. vol. iii. p. 116. 

t Called l^o/uoloyrjo-ig. 

:}: Celibacy, though under no circumstances consid- 
ered as a duty eitlier by clergy or laity, acquired some 
unmerited honor during tliis age, tlirough the absurd, 
but general persuasion, tliat tliose who had wives were 



were admitted to the ordinance of baptism 
until they had been solemnly delivered from 
the dominion of the Prince of Darkness. * 
The Sign of the Cross, which was already in 
much honor in the time of Tertullian, f was 
held to be of great effect in the expulsion of 
demons, and in other miracles. We also find 
that the use of prayers for the dead obtained 
very general pi-evalenee during this age. 

Philosophy. A dispute had divided the 
Church during the second century, as to the 
propriety of adopting, in its contests with the 
heathen, the weapons of philosophy, and it 
was finally decided by the authority of Ori- 
gen, and the superior loquacity of the phi- 
losophical party. By this condescension the 
Christians gained.,great advantages in the dis- 
play of argument, in subtlety of investigation, 
in plausibility of conclusion, in the abuse and 
even in the use of reason ; but they lost that 
manly and simple integrity of disputation 
which well became, in spite of its occasional 
rusticity, the defender of truth. It is to this 
alliance X that some are disposed to trace the 
birth of those pious frauds which cover the 
face of ecclesiastical history. The original 
source of this evil was at least free from any 
stain or shame. It had long been a practice 
among ancient philosophical writers to as- 
cribe their works to some name of undisput- 
ed authority, in order to secure attention to 
their opinions, though the opinions were well 
known to be only those of the writer ; but the 
consequences which flowed from it have in- 
fected the Church of Christ with some of 
its deepest and most dangerous pollutions. 
Books written in later ages were zealously 



peculiarly liable to the influence of malignant demons. 
At least Mosheim (cent. iii. p. ii. ch. 2) asserts this 
on the authority of Porphyry, negl ^tto/tj?- 1. iv. 
p. 417. In the time of Irenteus, (1. i c. 24.) the 
profession of celibacy was a heresy. 

* Mosh. Gen. Hist. cent. iii. p. ii. ch. 4. 

f De Corona, cap. iii. Sem.ler, Hist. Eccl. cent, 
iii. cap. 3. 

X Le Clerc adjudges to an earlier year (ann. 122) 
the celebrated forgery, under the name of Hermes 
Trismegistus, of which tlie object was to trace the 
doctrine of Christ to a much higher period than his 
incarnation, and thus to increase its sanctity. The 
interpolation of the Sibylline Books is referred by the 
same historian to the year 131. This latter impos- 
ture, as foolish as shameful, was warmly patronised by 
a host of Fathers, including Clemens Alex., Tertullian, 
Eusebius, Jerome, Augustin, &c. and thus occasioned 
much scandal to Christians in general among their ene- 
mies in that age, and no little disrepute to its ancient pa-? 
trons among candid writers of every age. See Le Cl»n-c, 
vol. i. p. 106. Jortin, Remarks, &c. vol. i. p. 188, 



ITS PPvOGHESS. 



m 



circulated as fhe writings of the Apostles, or 
of the ApostoUcal Fathers.* The wori^s of 
these last were altered or interpolated, accord- 
ing to the notions of after times or the capri- 
ces of the interpolator ; but usually for the 
purpose of proving the antiquity of some new 
opinion, some iuiTOvation in discipline, some 
usurpation in authority. The practice was 
justified by the detestable, but popular prin- 
ciple, ' that truth may be defended by false- 
hood ;' it was encouraged by the difficulties 
of detection in ignorant ages ; and it contin- 
ued for more than six centuries to disgrace 
the Roman Church. It was. the same princi- 
ple, pushed a little farther, which has stained 
the writings of so many among the early Fa- 
thers with statements at least doubtful, if not 
with palpable falsehood. But, on the other 
haaid, we should ever recollect that Christian- 
ity in those days was chiefly in the hands of 
Greeks and Africans,f men of subtle intel- 
lects and violent passions, whose habits and 
whose climate too often earned thein into the 
extreme either of metaphysical sophistry or 
wild enthusiasm — ^men who could speculate 
on their faith, or who could die for it, but 
who were little calculated for the tranquil 
esquanimity of sober and reasonable belief. 
We should recollect also, that some of our 
Sest and commonest principles of action were 
then unkno^vn or partially received ; and that, 
in fact, many of them are the result of the 
patient operation of Christianity on the human 
character, through a long succession of ages. 
We shall never do justice to the history of 
oiu- religion, unless we continually bear in 
mind the low condition of society and mor- 
als existing among the people to whom it was 
first delivered. 

During the concluding part of the second 
century, a philosophical sect arose at Alex- 
andria, who professed to form their own teu- 

♦ Such, in tlie second century, were the celebrated 
Apostolical Canons; and, afterwards, the Apostolical 
Constitutions, attributed to the diligence of Clemens 
Romanus; and such were the False Decretals in tlie 
eighth. — Mosh. G. Hist. c. i. p. ii. ch. 2. Le Clerc 
(sec. i. ad. ann. 100) supposes the Canons to be of 
the third, the Constitutions of a later age. Jortin, 
supposing that the Canons may have been forged, 
some in tlie second and some in the third centurj', 
Tefers the Constitutions to some period after Constau- 
tine, vol. i. pp. 152, 185. 

f It is certainly very I'emarkable, that for the first 
three centuries Rome produced no ecclesiastical writer 
of any merit, excepting Clement; and the westein 
provinces not one of any description: Rome was very 
fiesu'ly as barren during the tliree which followed. 



ets, by selecting and reconcirmg what was 
reasonable in the tenets of all others, and re- 
jecting what was contrary to reason — they 
w^ere called the new Platonics, or Eclectics. 
What they pi-ofessed respecting philosophy, 
they easily -extend-ed to religion, since with 
them rehgion was enti)-ely founded on philo- 
sophical principles. It is strange that the 
great founder of this sect, Ammonius Sac- 
cas,* had been educated in Christianity ; and 
he seems never to have abandoned the namef 
of the faith, while he was disparaging its doc- 
trines and its essence. A sect, which was 
founded on the seductive principle of univer- 
sal concord, soon made extraordinary pro- 
gress. In his eminent disciple Plotinus, Am- 
monius left a successor not inferior to him- 
self in subtlety of genius, and power of pro- 
foimd and abstruse investigation ; and next 
to Plotinus in age and reputation, is the cele- 
brated name of Porphyiy. i The efforts of 
these philosophers were for the most part di- 
rected against Christianity, and the contest 
was waged with gi-eat ardor during the third 
century. But as Origen and his scholars, on 
the one hand, adopted into the service of re- 
ligion some of the peculiar principles of their 
adversaries, so, on the other, certain disciples 
of Plotinus assiuned the name and professed 
the faith of Christians, at the same time 
that they retained some favorite 
opinions of then* master ; § an accession 
which was only valuable in so far as it swell- 
ed the body and mcreased the lustre of the 
church, jl 



* Mosh. Gen. Hist- c. ii> p. ii. ck 1. Meinoires 
de Tillem. tom, iii. p. 279. 

t Porphyry asserte that Ammonius deserted Cliris- 
tianity, Eissebius that he adliered to it. To these 
two opinions, variously advocated by most modera 
divines, others have added a third, that Eusebius mis- 
took a Christian wiiter of the same name for the hea- 
then philosopher ; and this is warmly maintained by 
Lardner (Collection of Heathen and Jewish Testimo- 
nies.) The question was not worth one page of con- 
troversy ; and, in our mind. Christian writers would 
act a more politic, as well as a more manly part, if 
they at once disclaim their ambiguous defenders. 

I Mosh. de Reb. Cli. ante Constant, sect. iii.. 
xxi. 

§ August. Epist. 56, ad Dioscor. — Mosh. c, iii. p 
ii. ch. 1. 

II To give some idea of the nature of Cliristian lit- 
erature in this age, it may be worth while to mention 
the subjects of some of the most celebrated productions 
— On Temptations — The Baptism of Heretics — 
Promises — Chastity— The Creation— The Origin 
of Evil — The Vanity of Idols — The Dress ofVir- 
gins — The Unity of the Chuixh— Circumcision — 



56 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Millennium. It has been too hastily assert- 
ed by some historians, and too readily admit- 
ted by others, that the expectation of the Mil- 
lennium, or presence of Christ on earth to 
reign with his elect, was the universal opinion 
of the ancient church. The fair statement 
of that much -disputed question appears to 
be this : — Eusebius * informs us that Papias, 
'among certain parables and sermons of the 
Saviour, and other seemingly fabulous records 
which he professed to have received tradition- 
ally, said, that there would be a thousand 
years after the resurrection of the dead, during 
which Christ was to reign bodily upon the 
earth ; in which I think that he misunderstood 
the apostolic narrations, not penetrating what 
was mystically spoken by them ; for he ap- 
pears to have been exceedingly limited in 
understanding (^afjixgug top voir), as one 
may conjecture from his discourses/ The 
historian then proceeds to attribute the gen- 
eral reception of this opinion among ecclesi- 
astics, and particularly by Irenseus, to their 
respect for ' the antiquity of the man.'f To 

Clean and Unclean Animals — The Lapsed, or those 
who had fallen from the Faith dm-ing Persecution — 
The Millennium ; besides numerous books against 
heretics. 

* H. E. lib. iii. c. 39. — On this important subject 
see Whitby's excellent ' Treatise on the Millevmium,' 
at the end of vol. ii. of his ' Commentaries.' This ob- 
scure doctrine was probably known to very few except 
the Fathers of the Church, and is very sparingly men- 
tioned by them during the two first centuries. And 
there is reason to believe that it scarcely attained 
much notoriety even among learned Christians until it 
was made matter of controversy by Origen, and then re- 
jected by the great niajority. In fact, we find Origen 
himself, in his Prolegomoia to the Canticles (69 B.), 
asserting that it was confined ' to those of the simpler 
sort;' and, in his Philocalia (c. xxvi. p. 99) he di- 
rectly declares that the few [rvvsq^ who held it did 
so with such secrecy, that it had not yet come to the 
ears of the heathen .... In all fairness, then, we must 
consider the opposite declarations of Origen and Euse- 
bius either to have been applied to different pans of 
Christendom, or to qualify each other ; always recol- 
lecting that the latter is confined to ecclesiastics, while 
the former extends to all classes. 

t The words are these — tiItiv y.al roTg fisr^ 
avTOv Txletarolg oaoig za)v exitlrjaiaaTixcbp 
i^g ufiolag aviG do^rig nagaijiog y^yovs, 
rriv dcgxatdTTjTa zdvdgdg TCQo8£§h]i.dvolQ' 
&a7T6Q ovv EiQ-qvam xal el' Tig cHlXog ru o^uoiu 
(f)Qov{bv dcvenicpr^vev. 



Papias, then, we may attribute the origin of 
the behef. It was fii'st adopted by Justin 
Martyr,* next by Irenseus^ and connected 
by both of them with the resurrection of the 
flesh. But the passage of the latter f plainly 
declares ' that there were some in the churchy 
in divers nations and by various works, who, 
believing, do consent with the just, who do 
yet endeavor to turn these things into meta- 
phors ;' which proves that even the orthodox 
were divided on the question at that early age^ 
though the names of the disputants have not 
reached us. The first distinguished opponent 
of the doctrine was Origen, who attacked it 
with great earnestness and ingenuity, and 
seems, in spite of some opposition, to have 
thrown it into general discredit ; and, proba- 
bly, we shall not' have occasion to notice the 
opinion again until we arrive at the tenth 
century. 

Dr. Whitby expresses his belief that the 
Fathers who adopted that doctrine 'received 
it from the traditions and notions of the 
Jews ;' and he proceeds very truly to assert 
that that error ' will not invalidate their au- 
thority in any thing delivered by them as wit- 
nesses of what they have seen, or declared to 
have been then the practice of the Church of 
Christ.' In these points, indeed, consists a 
great portion of the direct value of their works% 
But they are also greatly, i>erhaps principally, 
useful to us, as they prove, by numerous quo- 
tations, the early existence of the books of the 
New Testament as we now read them^ and 
their reception in the primitive Church. J 

* Dial, cum Tryph. 

t Adv. Haer. 1. v. c. 33. 

i The Apologies for Christianity, published by the 
early Fathers, however imperfect as specimens of 
reasoning or even as representations of i-eligion, were 
probably, at the time, the most useful of their labors, 
not only because they brought Christianity into notice, 
and challenged examination, and put forward some of 
its leading excellences, but also because they publicly 
assaulted the tottering temples of Paganism, and expos- 
ed to irresistible contempt and contumely its origin, 
its rites, its morals, and its mythology. And those 
Apologies were very numerous — to those of Justin, 
Athenagora?, Tatian, Melito, Quadratus, Aristides, 
and Tei'tuUian, already mentioned, we may add others 
by Clemens Apollinaris, and Theophilus of Antioch. 
— Mosh, G. Hist. c. ii. p. ii. chap. 3. Fleury, I. iv. 
sect. 4, &c. 



PERSECUTIONS OF THE EMPERORS. 



67 



CHAPTER IV. 

Persecutions of several Roman Emperors. 

Claims of Roman Paganism to the character of tolerance 

— examined — Theory of pure Polytheism — Roman 
policy — Various laws of the Republic — continued un- 
der the emperors — MecEcnas — Remarks — The ten 
persecutions — how many general — That of Nero — its 
character — Of Domitian — The grandsons of St. Jude 

— The epislle of Pliny to Trajan — His answer — Real 
object of Trajan — Letter of SereniusGranianus to Ha- 
drian — Antoninus Pius — Marcus Antoninus — Gib- 
bon's partiality — Real character of this persecution 
compared with those preceding it — His principles and 
knowledge, and superstition — His talents and virtues 

— Connexion of his philosophy and his intolerance — 
Commodus — Decius — His persecution — accounted for 

— its nature — Valerian — Martyrdom of Cyprian — 
Persecution of Diocletian — Its origin and motives — 
Influence of Pagan priesthood — Progress of the per- 
secution — Its mitigation by Constantius, and final 
cessation at the accession of Constantine. — General 
Remarks — Unpopularity of the Christians — accounted 
for — Calumnies by which they suffered — Their con- 
tempt of all false gods — Change in the character of 
their adversaries — Philosophy — Excuses advanced 
for the persecutors — their futility — General character 
of persecuting emperors — Absurd opinions on this sub- 
ject — Effect of the persecutions —upon the whole fa- 
vorable — For what reasons. 



CERTAiivr writers have industriously exerted 
themselves to display the mild and tolerant 
nature of the religion w^hich prevailed in the 
Roman world at the introduction of Christian- 
ity ; and then, when its seeming claims to 
this excellence have been established, they 
have placed it in contrast with the persecuting 
spirit which has occasionally broken out from' 
the corruptions of our faith ; insomuch that 
some persons may possibly have been per- 
suaded that there was some latent virtue in 
that superstition, which Christianity does not 
possess. We shall not here pause to show, 
what none can seriously deny, that the intol- 
erance of Christians, like all their other vices, 
is in spite, and not in consequence, of then- 
belief; but it is worth while shortly to ex- 
amine the pretensions of Polytheism to one 
of the virtues in which we are most disposed 
to exult, and which we are accustomed to 
consider most peculiarly our own. 

The religion called Polytheism means ' the 
worship of many gods.' Now the observation 
which first occurs to us is this — that, when 
the number of gods is not limited, the easy 
reception of an additional divinity does little 
more than satisfy the definition of the word ; 
it is not the endurance of a new religion, but 
the slight extension of that already establish- 
ed. The intrusion of one stranger would 
scarcely be noticed in the numerous synod 
of Mount Olympus ; the golden portals were 
ever open — useful virtue or splendid vice 
3 



gave an equal claim to admission ; and the 
policy or servility of Rome bowed with the 
same pliancy to the captive gods of her ene- 
mies or the manes of her imperial tyrants. 
This was not a virtue, but a part of Polythe- 
ism ; the new deities became new members 
of the same monstrous body ; they assisted 
and sustained each other ; and the whole 
mass was held together by ignorance, and an- 
imated by the gross spirit of superstition. It 
seems, indeed, that a Pagan statesman, who 
may have permitted additions to the calendar 
of his gods, deserves no higher description 
of praise than that which we should bestow 
on a pope, who has been zealous in the ca- 
nonization of saints. For one idol will pres- 
ently become as holy as another idol ; nor 
could there be any reason why Jove should 
scorn the society of Serapis, since their re- 
spective divinity was founded on the same 
evidence, and their worship conducted on the 
same principles. 

Such is the real theoiy of pure Polytheism. 
But we should be doing it much more than 
justice, if we were to confine ourselves to its 
abstract nature, without mention of the po- 
litical uses to which it was converted ; and 
which, indeed, subjected it to so much re- 
straint and limitation, that we shall be unable 
to discover in its practice even that ambiguous 
virtue which some have supposed to be in- 
herent in it. 

The belief or infidelity of the statesmen of 
antiquity, who were left to wander over the 
fields of conjecture, with no better guide than 
reason, may have varied in individuals, ac- 
cording to the understanding, or the passions, 
or the wishes of each ; but those were certain- 
ly very rare, who admitted into their closet 
the various and irrational worship which they 
encouraged in the people. They supported 
religion only as one of the easiest means of 
governing ; and valued devotion to the gods 
as they supposed it naturally connected with 
obedience to man — a just supposition, in a 
case where the gods were little removed from 
the nature, and generally tainted with the 
vices, of humanity. Our short inquiry into 
the manner in which the ancients wielded 
this engine of state shall be confined to the 
History of Rome, as being immediately con- 
nected with the subject of the present chapter. 

Cicero (de Legibus, c. ii. s. 8.) gives us the 
following exti-act from the most ancient laws 
of Rome. 'Let no one have any separate 
worship, nor hold any new gods ; neither to 
strange gods, unless they have been publicly 
adopted, let any private worship be offered ; 



68 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 



men should attend the temples erected by 
their ancestors,' &c. From Livy (b. iv. c. 
30.) we learn that about 430 years before 
Christ, orders were given to the ^diles to see 
that none except Roman gods were worship- 
ped, nor in any other than the established 
forms,' Somewhat more than 200 years af- 
ter this edict, to crush certain external rites 
which were becoming common in the city, 
the following edict was published, ' that who- 
ever possesses books of oracle, or prayer, or 
any written act of sacrifice, deliver all such 
books arid writings to the Pretor before the 
Calends of April ; and that no one sacrifice 
on public or sacred ground after new or for- 
eign rites.' But it may seem needless to pro- 
duce separate instances, when from the same 
historian (b. xxxix. c. 16.) we learo, that it 
had been customary in all the early ages of the 
republic to empower the magistrates ' to pre- 
vent all foreign worship, to expel its ministers 
from the forum, the circus, and the city, to 
search for and burn the religious books (vati- 
cinos libros), axid to abolish every form of 
sacrifice except the national and established 
form.' 

The authority of Livy is confirmed by that 
of Valerius Maximus, who wrote under the 
emperor Tiberius, and bears testimony to the 
jealousy with which all foreign religions were 
prohibited by the Roman republic (b. i. c. 3.). 
That the same principle, which had been 
consecrated by the practice of seven hundred 
years, was not discontinued by the emperors, 
is clearly attested by the historian Dio Cassi- 
us * (p. 490-2.). It appears that Blecsenas, in 
the most earnest terms, exhorted Augustus 
* to hate and punish' all foreign religions, and 
to compel all men to conform to the national 
worship ; and we are assured that the scheme 
of government thus proposed was pursued 
by Augustus and adopted by his successors. 

Now, from the first of the passages before 
us it appears that all right of private judgment 
in matters of religion was expHcitly forbidden 
by an original law of Rome — which never 
was repealed. We know not what stronger 
proof it would be possible to adduce of the 
inherent intolerance of Roman Polytheism. 
The four next references prove to us that the 
ancient law, subversive of the most obvious 
right of human nature, was strictly acted upon 
during the long continuance of the common- 
wealth. The established form of Paganism 
might not be violated by individual schism 
or dissent ; the gods whom the government 



* In the year U. C. 701 the temples of Isis and 
Osiris were destroyed by order of the Senate (B. 40.)' 



created the people were compelled to worship 
according to the forms . imposed by the gov- 
ernment. Under the early emperors the same 
was still the maxim of state ; and if the influx 
of idolaters fi-om every nation under Heaven 
made it difficult to preseiTC the punty of the 
Roman religion, that religion became more 
domestic and (let us add) more Roman by the 
successive and easy deification of some of the 
most vicious of mankind. 

These few lines may suffice for the present 
to disprove the plausible theory of the toler- 
ance of Paganism, and they may lead us, 
perhaps, to discover the true reason why the 
worship of Christ was forbidden in that city 
which acknowledged the divinity of Nero. 
At least, we shall have learnt from them, that 
the religion which Christianity supplanted 
was very far from possessing the only point 
of superiority which its admirers have ever 
claimed for it. And we shall not forget, in 
the following pages, to direct to the religious 
system of Rome some portion of the abhor- 
rence which is usually confined to the indi- 
viduals who administered it, 

JVumber of persecutions. Hitherto we have 
followed the progress of Christianity through 
nearly all the provinces of the Romar. em- 
pire, and some countries without its limits, 
as if we had been attending a triumphal pro- 
cession. The less pleasing duty remains to 
describe its difficulties and its afflictions. 
And in so doing it is not easy to ascertain the 
precise path of truth, entangled as it is, on 
one side, by the exaggerated fictions of en^ 
thusiasts, and perplexed, on the other, by the 
perversity of skepticism. 

Early, though not the most ancient, eccle- 
siastical historians, followed by many mod- 
erns, have fixed the number of persecutions 
at ten ; and if we thought proper indiscrimin- 
ately to designate by that name every partial 
outrage to which Christians were subjected 
from the reign of Nero to that of Constan- 
tine, perhaps even this number might be con- 
siderably extended. * On the other hand, 

* Mosh. Gen. Hist. Cent. i. p. i. ch. 5. Idem de 
Chr. Ant. Const. Saec. i. sect. xxvi. The number 
of ten persecutions was an invention of the fifth cen- 
tury, derived from ai-bitrary interpretation of proph- 
ecy rather than historical evidence. Lactantius, in 
the fourth age, enumerates only six. Eusebius specifies 
no number, though he appears to mention nine. The 
same number is adopted by Sulpicius Severus, in the 
fifth century, who prepares his readers, however, for 
the infliction of the tenth and last by Antichrist at the 
end of the world; from tliis time fen became the pop« 
ular computation. 



PERSECUTIONS OP THE EMPERORS. 



69 



Gibbon has so carefully palliated the guilt, 
and softened down the asperity of those suc- 
cessive inflictions, that in his representation 
not one of them wears a serious aspect, ex- 
cepting that of Diocletian ; though he admits 
that some transient excesses may be charged 
upon Nero, Domitian, Decius, and perhaps 
one or two others. 

Differing in many respects from that author 
in our view of this portion of history, and an- 
imated, perhaps, by a more general and im- 
partial humanity, we are still willing, in this 
matter, to make some concessions to his 
opinion ; and though other occasions to prove 
the sincerity and constancy of Christians were 
abundantly presented, yet we are not disposed 
to impute the shame of deliberate unrelenting 
persecution to more than four or five among 
llie emperors ; but in one important respect 
our estimate of these events will still differ 
from that of the philosophical historian, as 
we shall bestow a much gi-eater share of at- 
tention on the conduct of Marcus Antoninus. 
Our reasons will appear in the progress of 
the narrative. 

JVero. The persecution of Nero was the 
first to which the Christian name was subject- 
ed, and the best account which has reached 
us respecting it is that of the historian Tacit- 
us, which we have translated in a former 
chapter. From his description it appears, 
that the suflTerings of the Christians did not 
originate in any evil that had been committed 
by them, nor even in the general calumnies 
which blackened their character,* but in a 
specific charge, which was notoriously false, 
that they had occasioned the destructive con- 
flagration so generally attributed to the mad- 
ness of the Emperor himself The nature 
of their tortures is related, and the very spots 
particularized on which they were inflicted. 
But their duration is not mentioned, nor the 
extent to which the persecution prevailed (if 
It at all prevailed) in other parts of the empire. 
The fact, that it arose in the first instance 
from a charge which was necessarily confined 
to the inhabitants of Rome, is certainly not a 
conclusive argument that it might not after- 
wards spread beyond the boundaries of the 
city ; and yet both the words and the silence 
of Tacitus are such as indirectly persuade us, 
that the calamity, which he is describing, was 

* Suetonius, Vit. Neronis, cap. 16., mentions the 
same .event, in the midst of some trifling details of 
sumptuary restrictions, in these few words — 'Afflicti 
suppliciis Christiani, genus hominum superstitionis 
uovae et laaleficse.' But we must follow the circum- 
staDtial narrative of Tacitus. 



both local and transient. The imperfect ac^ 
count of Eusebius * throws little more lighl 
on these questions, which have in vain divid' 
ed the opinions and exercised the ingenuity 
of a multitude of critics, f For our own 
part, if that were sufiiciently proved whicU 
is continually asserted, that the persecution 
lasted for four years, until the death of Nero,:| 
we should very readily admit the probability 
that it was general. But whatever uncertain- 
ty may rest on this point, the expressions of 
the Pagan historian unhappily convey suffi- 
cient evidence that the assault was exceed- 
ingly destructive and attended by every c ir- 
cumstance of barbarity. 

Much diflTerence has also existed respecting 
the laws supposed to have been enacted by 
Nero against the Christiajis, and their contin- 
uance or repeal § by subsequent emperors. 
And this question is so far at least connected 
with the preceding, that the mere existence 
of any general edicts against Christians as 
such, proves that the particular charge on 
which the persecution was founded had been 
gradually lost in more general accusations^ 
which had been followed by general inflic- 
tions. But even in this case, it becomes a 
question, whether Nero's edicts proceeded any 
further than to enforce against Christians 
specifically the ancient statutes universally di- 
rected against religious innovation — whether 
it was not rather a precedent which that 
emperor establishe(?, than a law which he 
enacted — a precedent which would be fol- 
lowed or disregarded by his successors, as 
their character and religious policy might lead 
them to execute or suspend the standing stat- 
utes of the empire. At least it ig strange that, 
when his other laws were repealed, that 
against the Christians should alone remain in 
force, unless we conclude that that alone had 
existed before his time, and had been appUed 
or perverted, but not enacted, by him.|| 



* Euseb. H. E. lib. ii. c. 25. 

f In this question, which involves the historical ac- 
ciu-acy of Tertullian, compare the reasoning of Sem- 
ler (ssec. i. cap. 6.) with that of Mosheim(Gen. Hist. 
Cent. i. p. 1. ch. 5.) The forgery of the Lusitanian 
inscription, according to which Nero ' purged that 
province from the new superstition,' is now universal- 
ly admitted. 

4: In the year 68. Mosh. de Re. Christ, ante 
Const, saec. i. sect, xxxiv. 

§ Some declare them to have been repealed by the 
Senate (Mosh. de. R. Christ, ante Const, ssec. ii 
sect, viii.), and Tertullian (lib. i. ad Nationes, c. 7.> 
asserts that while all Nero's otlier institutes were re- 
pealed, that against the Christians alone remained. 

II Tertullian (lib. i. ad Nationes, c. 7.) calls Nero's 
edict Institiitiun Neroaianuin, and in other places (aa 



60 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Domitian. After this first affliction, tbe 
Christians passed about thirty years in the 
silent and undisturbed propagation of tlieir 
religion. In the year 94 or 95, they again at- 
tracted the attention of the civil power, by 
exciting, as it would seem, the political fears 
of the emperor. Domitian was no doubt ac- 
quainted with an ancient prophecy prevalent 
throughout the east, and probably an imper- 
fect adumbration of the prophecies of the 
Old Testament, that the imperial sceptre was 
destined one day to pass into the hands of a 
Jew. This led to some inquiries into the 
actual condition of the royal family of Jeru- 
salem ; and the grandsons of St. Jude the 
Apostle, the brother of the Saviour, are said 
to have been brought before the throne of the 
tyrant: but his jealousy was disarmed by 
their poverty and simplicity, — their hands 
were hardened * with daily labor, — and their 
whole property consisted in one small farm 
of about twenty-four acres. And when the 
emperor inquired respecting the nature of 
their prophetic hopes, and the character of 
the monarch who was to rise up from among 
them, he was informed, 'that his kingdom 
was not of earth, but heavenly and angelic- 
al ; and that in the completion of time he 
would come in glory to judge both the liv- 
ing and the dead, according to their merits.' 
They were dismissed without injury ; and 
soon after this event, some severities, which 
had lately been exercised against the Christ- 

Apol. cap. 5, and 7,) speaks of laws existing, and 
occasionally enforced against Christians ; still we sus- 
pect him of error, if he intended to attribute to Nero 
the invention of those laws — an error very naturally 
rising from the fact, that that Emperor was the first 
who applied them to Christianity. See, however. 
Bishop Kaye on this subject, (Lee. on Tertull. pp. 
115, et seq,) Certainly Gibbon is rather presumptu- 
ous in his manner of concluding, ' that the effects, as 
well as the cause, of Nero's persecution were confined 
to the walls of Rome, and that the religious tenets of 
the Christians were never made a subject of punish- 
ment or even of inquiry.' (Chap. 16.) Still we ai'e 
disposed to assent at least to the first of his conclusions, 
as we are aware of no express authority for the contra- 
ly opinion earlier than the fifth century. (Sulp. 1. ii. 
p. 146. ; Oros. 1. vii. c. 7, &c.) And if, on the one 
hand, Tillemont enumerates a great variety of martyrs 
who perished in that persecution (tom. u p. 71, et 
seq.) ; on the other, Le Clerc has anticipated Gibbon 
in both his positions, and argues very plausibly in fa- 
vor of thera. (Hist. Eccles. ad ann. 64.) 

* Hegesippus apud Euseb. iii. 20. Le Clerc, 
who is generally and justly suspicious of the authority 
of Hegesippus, is persuaded of the truth of this narra- 
tive, by its simplicity and candor. — Hist. Eccl. ad 
ann. dQ. 



iang, were suspended by the prudence * or 
the death f of the emperor. 

Trajan. The celebrated epistle of Pliny to 
Trajan was written ten or twelve years after- 
wards, and proves that the Christians in 
Bithynia (and probably in every province of 
the east) were subjected to many vexations 
and sufferings. The emperor's answer 
amounted to this — 'that the Christians are 
not to be sought for, nor molested on anony- 
mous information ; but that on conviction 
they ought to be punished.'l From a com- 
parison of these tvi^o documents, we collect, 
first, that the spirit of persecution in this in- 
stance § originated rather in their heathen 
fellow-subjects than in the character of the 
emperor; and secondly, that the laws by 
which they were punished were not any re- 
cent edicts issued by an express act of leg- 
islation against Christians, but the original 
statutes of the republic continued and applied 
to them, jj The object of Trajan, in this re- 
script, was their mitigation ; it is probable 
that he knew little respecting the nature and 
evidence of the new religion, but was desir- 
ous somewhat to soften the practical intol- 
erance of his own ; but the effect was not in 
the end favorable to the Christians, 1[ since it 
gave a sanction to legal persecution, and es- 

* Tertull. Apol. c. 5. This author is the rather to 
be believed on this point, because it does not go to 
support his favorite theory, that the only persecutors 
were the bad emperors — a fancy to which he has un- 
fortunately sacrificed many indisputable facts. See 
also Heg. ap. Euseb. loc. cit. 

t Mosheim (Gen. Hist. c. i. p. i. ch. 5.) In 
another place, after adducing the authorities of Lac- 
tantius (cap. iii. De. Hist. Persec), and Xiphjlinus 
in Nerva (De Reb. Christ, ante Const, ssec. i. sect. 
36.), he leaves the question doubtful. — Gibbon follows 
the opinion which shortens the persecution. 

X Tertull. Apol. c. ii., exposes with great vehe- 
mence and reason the injustice and inconsistency ex- 
hibited in this rescript. If Christians deserved con- 
demnation, they should be sought after; if not sought 
after, they should not be condemned. — Si daranas, cur 
non et inquiris; si non inquiris, cur non et absolvigl 

§ Euseb, H.E. lib. iii. c. 32., confirms this posi- 
tion. 

II From the moment that a precedent existed for 
the application of those statutes to the religion of the 
Christians, their condition would at all times be very 
precarious, as being dependent not only on the policy 
of the emperor, but on the caprice of the provin- 
cial governors ; since it would naturally seem to rest 
at their discretion to enforce, or not, the standing 
laws against a sect which had akeady felt their se^ 
verity. 

IF Mosh. de Reb. Chi'ist. ante Const, sgec, ii, 



PERSECUTIONS OF THE EMPERORS. 



61 



tablished on high authority the fatal maxim, 
that the mere profession of Christianity was 
a criminal offence.* 

The truth of the first of the above conclu- 
sions is confirmed by the annals of succeeding 
reigns. About the year 120, Serenius Gran- 
ianus, Proconsul of Asia, wrote to Adrian, 
*that it seemed to him unreasonable that 
Christians should be put to death merely to 
gratify the clamors of the people, without 
trial and without any crime proved against 
them.' And there is a rescript of the empe- 
ror, addressed to Minucius Fundanus, in 
which this letter is noticed, and in which it 
is enjoined that Christians should not be 
sacrificed to the clamors of the multitude. 

During the long reign of Antoninus Pius 
(from 138 to 161 a. d.), no deliberate injuries 
were inflicted upon the Christians ; and it 
appears that they suffered much more from 
the violence of popular tumult than from the 
operation of the ancient laws. It became 
common about this time to attribute national 
calamities of every description to the con- 
tempt of the national religion exhibited by 
tlie Christians. ' If the Tiber has overflowed 
its banks,' (exclaimed Tertullian in the next 
generation,) ' or the Nile has not overflowed ; 
if Jieaven has refused its rain ; if the earth 
has been shaken ; if famine or plague has 
spread its ravages, the cry is immediately 
raised — Away with the Christians to the 
hons.'f The emperor, influenced, as some 
have supposed, by the Apologies of Justin 
Martyr, published one, possibly two,:|: edicts 
for their protection against such outrage ; and 
during this reign especially they grew and 
extended in dignity as well as number, and 
became more generally known by writings 
not devoid of energy and eloquence. Pius 
was succeeded by Marcus, of whom Gibbon 
has said, that ' during the whole course of 
his reign he despised the Christians as a phi- 
losopher, and punished them as a Sovereign.'' 

Marcus Antoninus. It seems singular, that 
a historian, who makes gi-eat profession of 
candor and universal humanity, should al- 
most have excepted from the number of per- 
secutors the only name (as far at least as this 
part of our inquiry) to which that iguomin- 

* Illud solum expectatur, confessio nominis, non 
examinatio criminis. Tertull. Apol. c. ii. 

t Tertull. Apol. cap. 40. 

J That mentioned by Justin Martyr at the end of 
his 1st Apol., and by Eusebius, 1. 4, c. 13. (if it 
could establish its claims to be genuine) would, with 
much more probability, be ascribed to Pius than to 
M. Antoninus. 



ious designation appears justly and certainly 
to belong : for under all the preceding empe- 
rors, the injuries inflicted upon the Christians 
had either been occasional, as arising from 
some casual circumstance, or staining only a 
portion of their reign ; or partial, as confined 
to a few provinces, or perhaps cities of the 
empire. Moreover, they had been sometimes 
excited, and generally encouraged, by popu- 
lar uTitation ; they had been directed against 
a small and obscure and calumniated sect, 
through the operation, and according to the 
seeming intention, of the ancient statutes. 
And the efforts of individual emperors were, 
for the most part, turned rather to the suspen- 
sion or mitigation of those statutes than to 
the rigid enforcement of them. In addition 
to this, let us not forget, that those individu- 
als possessed little means or opportunity to 
inform themselves respecting the peculiar 
principles, doctrines, or habits of Christians ; 
still less to examine the foundation of their 
belief, or even to understand that it had any 
foundation : — if they permitted the work of 
destruction to proceed, it was in ignorance 
and blindness. On the other hand, Marcus 
Antoninus undertook the task of 'punish- 
ment ' or persecution among the earliest * of 
his imperial duties, and he continued to fulfil 
it with unremitting diligence throughout the 
nineteen f years of his splendid administra- 
tion. He acted on deliberate principles, and 
his principles were not of partial or local op- 
eration, but were equally applicable to every 
province of his empire. And thus he every 
where enforced the laws in their full severi- 
ty ; the lives | and the property of the con- 
victed were forfeited by the most summary 
process of justice ; and the search § which 



* Mosh. de Reb. Ch. ante Const, saec. ii. sect, xv* 
xvi. 

t From 161 A. D. to ISO. 

X Euseb. H. E. lib. v. c. 1. ' Tlie Emperor's edict 
was, that those who denied the charge of Christianity 
should be spared, but the rest put to death by torture.' 

§ Movie on Marcus Antoninus. We do not ac- 
cuse him of promulgating any new laws against the 
Christians, though Melito tells us of a violent persectr- 
tion in this reign 'by new edicts.' In fact, such a 
step was perfectly unnecessary, for the origina;! stat- 
utes, to which the Christians were made liable, con- 
tained every penalty. His letter to the Assembly of 
Asia seems indeed to be a forgery. Moyle certainly 
makes out this point, and Jortin is of the same opin- 
ion. It is attributed by Eusebius to Antoninus Pius, 
and his rescript it must be, if it be genuine at all. 
We should add, that Moyle believes Adrian's letter to 
Fundanus to be * as arrant a juggle as that of Anto- 
ninus, though the conveyance be a little more cleanly,' 
but he does not prove this opinion. 



62 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



was made after the suspected, and which the 
uninformed humanity of Trajan had so nobly 
discouraged, sufficiently proves the activity 
of the pursuit, and the earnestness of the 
pursuer.' But the most important point of 
distinction is probably this : Marcus Antoni- 
nus knew much better the nature of the evil 
which he was committing : he was acquaint- 
ed, to a certain extent at least, with the opin- 
ions of the Christians, and the innocence of 
their character ; and it is not likely that he 
had entirely neglected to examine the grounds 
of their faith. He watched the process of 
his own inflictions, and when he perceived 
the fortitude with which all endured, and the 
eagerness with which many courted them, he 
coldly reproved the unphilosophic enthusiasm 
of the Martyrs.* And yet, perhaps, his own 
philosophy was not quite devoid of enthusi- 
asm, or, at least, it was not strictly regulated 
by reason, when it led him to labor for the 
destruction of the most moral and loyal por- 
tion of his subjects, only because they dis- 
claimed the very superstitions which he 
placed his pride in despising. Nor again 
was his practice consistent with his professed 
contempt of these : for it is said, and seem- 
ingly on good foundation, that Marcus Anto- 
ninus was frequent in consultation with the 
Chaldaean sages, deeply conversant with the 
mysteries of astrology, credulously attentive 
to oracular prophecy, obedient to the pre- 
monitions of dreams, which he believed to 
descend from Heaven — assertions not in- 
credible, nor inconsistent with his studies or 
his principles ; and there is ground to hesi- 
tate whether we should not rather convict 
him of superstition than hypocrisy. But it 
is certain that his understanding was of 
the broadest and most comprehensive de- 
scription; that it was enlightened by every 
worldly knowledge, and fortified by frequent 
meditation ; that his character was founded 
in excellent dispositions, confirmed by the 
best principles which were known to the 
Pagan world. His general regard for justice 
has never been questioned ; even his human- 
ity is commonly celebrated ; and if the rep- 
resentations of history be not exaggerated, he 
reached as high a degree both of wisdom 

* B. xi., sec. iii. He asserts that men should meet 
their death, ' not through mere ostentation as do the 
Christians, but considerately and with dignity, and 
without theatrical display.' -JV/Vj xaiu ipiXriv 
nag(jcia^iv, cbg ol XqiaTiavol, d.lla Xeloyi^cf- 
fiivbig, xal aef.iv(bg, xal (xigayadrng. The 
word which we have rendered ostentation, parade 
(^nagdcra^iv^^ is in this passage usually interpreted 
obstinacy. 



and of moral excellence as is attainable by 
the unassisted faculties of man — and yet 
this prince polluted every year of a long 
reign with innocent blood. 

In our natural anxiety to honor every form 
of human excellence, we search for his ex- 
cuse in the religious policy so long established 
in the empire. But we find that those of his 
predecessors who were disposed to soften or 
suspend its operation upon Christians, pos- 
sessed the power to do so ; and we cannot 
doubt that the despotic authority of Marcus 
would have enabled him to revise or repeal 
those oppressive statutes, if he had learnt 
from the books of his philosophers the virtue 
or the meaning of Toleration. This, indeed, 
is the real ands only ground of his defence ; 
and we shall regard his conduct with less in- 
dignation, if we reflect how feeble were the 
mightiest principles of conduct with which 
he was acquainted ; on what a loose and 
shifting foundation they rested ; how large 
was the class of virtues which they did not 
comprehend, and how imperfect were the 
motives which they proposed for the practice 
of any. And thus considered, we shall dis- 
cover, perhaps, some trace of heavenly prov- 
idence in the circumstance, that the imperial 
philosopher, flourishing in the maturity of his 
science, and deficient in nothing which na- 
ture or man could bestow, was armed with 
the highest temporal authority and permitted 
to direct it against the infancy of our faith. 
From the splendid imperfection of Marcus 
Antoninus, from the perseverance of his 
powerful enmity, from its final failure, we 
may learn what narrow limits have been as- 
signed to the virtue and wisdom and power 
of unassisted man ; and we derive a new mo- 
tive of gratitude for that heavenly aid, which 
has fixed our social happiness on a certain 
and eternal foundation. 

The greatest prince of antiquity was suc- 
ceeded by a son, who neither inherited his 
virtues, nor imitated his crime ; so far from 
this, that we might almost imagine it to have 
been the object of Commodus to redeem his 
numerous vices by his humanity towards the 
Christian name. 

Severus ascended the throne in the year 
193, and is represented by Tertullian * to 

* Tertul. ad Scap., cap. iv. Sed et clarissimas 
feminas et clarissimos viros Severus sciens hujus 
sectse esse non mode non Isesit verum et testimonio 
ornavit, &c. His affection for the Christiajis is at- 
tributed to a cure formerly performed on him, by the 
application of oil, by a Christian named Proculus. 
We must be careful not to confound this medical use 



PERSECUTIONS OF THE EMPERORS. 



63 



have bestowed testimonies of approbation on 
several distinguished Christians, and openly 
to have withstood the popular fury which as- 
sailed the sect. But this account will apply 
only to the earher part of his reign ; for in 
the year 202 (about the time of the publica- 
tion of Tertullian's Apology) he issued an 
edict, which indirectly occasioned a variety 
of inflictions, the most barbarous of which 
appear to have been perpetrated in Egypt. 
The professed object of that edict was only 
to prevent conversion either to Judaism or 
Christianity; for the fears of the emperor 
began to be awakened by the extraordinary 
progress of the latter. Its effect was to op- 
press and torture the most zealous ministers 
of the faith, and to inflame the prejudices of 
the people against all believers. This enact- 
ment contmued in force for about nine years, 
until the death of Severus ; and from that 
period, if indeed we except the injuries in- 
flicted by Maximin * (from 235 to 238 a. d.), 
and directed chiefly against the instructers 
and rulers of the churches, the Christians, 
though occasionally liable to popular outrage, 
had not much reason to complain of the in- 
justice of the government until the accession 
of Decius, in the year 249. 

Deems. Decius, like Marcus Antoninus, 
is also ranked, and justly ranked, among the 
most virtuous of the emperors. The virtues 
of a pagan were usually connected with his 
philosophy, and his philosophy taught him 
to despise every form of worship. Perhaps, 
too, an imperial eye might view with natural 
distrust the free and independent principles 
of Christianity, which were now spreading 
into more general operation and notice — 
principles which acknowledged an authority 
superior to the throne of man ; and though 
they devoted the body to Csesar, yet set apart 
the soul for God. It would be observed, loo, 
with some jealousy, that the progress of that 
worship was rapid and universal, in spite of 
ancient law, popular opposition, and imperial 
edict. Its truth was seldom investigated, be- 
cause it was not yet sufficiently distinguished 
from suiTounding superstitions, which laid no 
claim to truth, nor even professed to rest on 
any evidences; and thus the prejudices of 
the schools at once assumed that the worship 
of Christ was no better founded than those 
of Jove and Serapis.f 

of oil with the practice of extreme unction, which did 
not then exist. 

* Euseb., H. E., lib. vi. c. 28. Tillem., torn. iii. 
p. 305. 

t In tlie entire pagan scheme (could we properly 



These reasons, carefully considered, wiB 
partly account for the peculiar suspicion 
which armed itself against the ' Christian su- 
perstition,' and at the same time will exhibit 
to us the motives, through the influence of 
which some of the wisest and best among 
the emperors unhappily numbered them- 
selves among our adverearies.* 

The persecution of Decius proceeded on a 
broader principle than that of Severus, as it 
pretended no less than to constrain all sub- 
jects of the empire to return to the religion 
of their ancestors;! it was also strictly uni- 
versal, as neither confined to particular prov- 
inces nor classes, but extending from the 
lowest confessors to the highest authorities 
of the Church. Several were consigned to 
exile or death : Fabienus, bishop of Rome, 
Alexander of Jerusalem, Baby las of Antioch, 
were among the latter; and the celebrated 
Origen was subjected to imprisonment and 
torture.! At Alexandria, in the year preced- 



consider it as one scheme), religion and philosophy 
together professed to furnish that, which Christianity 
supplies to us: the mysteries, which also held thg 
place of doctrines, the ceremonies, and the name were 
provided by the religion ; the ediics by philosophy. 
We need not particularize the numerous points of ad- 
vantage which both branches of the Christian system 
possess over the corresponding departments of pagan- 
ism. But the distinctions chiefly to be remarked, are, 
that the religion demanded no belief, proposed no 
creed, inculcated no faith, but was, in fact, identified 
with its ceremonies, procession and sacrifice;, and 
that the philosophy which undertook fhe whole 
charge of morals, in vain proposed an elaborate series 
of barren rules and lifeless exhortations, since it pos- 
sessed no substantial motive whereby to enforce them. 
When we reflect how essential are these distinctions, 
we shall see reason sufficient for the jealousy with 
which Christianity v/as assailed both by the one and 
the other. But their incongruity and incoherence 
with each other formed the most striking and hope- 
less deformity of the system ; for philosophy lived in 
open w^arfaie with her senseless associate, and em- 
ployed a great portion of her diligence and her wit in 
exposing the multifoi'm absurdities of polytheism. 
' Quinimo et Deos vestros palam destruunt. . . . laud- 
antibus vobis!' Tertul. Apol., c. 46. 

* Eusebius (H. E., lib. vi. c. 39.) very concisely 
attributes the persecution of Decius to the hatred 
borne by that emperor to his predecessor Philip 
Cyprian considers it as a divine chastisement for the 
sins of the Church. 

t Tillemont, vol. iii. p. 310, on the authority of 
Greg. Nyssensis, who gives a very vivid description 
of the effects of the edict. 

X Alexander and Babylas died in prison. Some 
of the sufferings of Origen are particularized in Euse- 
bius, loc. cit. ; and those of the most celebrated mar- 
tyrs who perished on this occasion occupy above a 
hundred pages in the Memoires de Tillem. vol. iii 
p. 325—428. Ed. 2. 



64 



tttSTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



ing the accession of Decius, some Christians 
had been massacred by the hatred or the ava- 
rice of the Pagan mob ; and as su(;h fatal 
outrages, in addition to authorized injustice, 
were rather tolerated than promptly repress- 
ed by the government which succeeded that 
sanguinary reign, it was much more calami- 
tous to the faith than its short duration of 
three years would lead us to apprehend. In- 
deed, the unusual number of those who fell 
away from their profession in the hour of 
trial, by which this persecution is distinguish- 
ed fi-om those preceding it, is a sufficient 
proof of its intolerable barbarity.* 

Valerian. We pass over the comparatively 
lenient inflictions of Gallus and Volusianus ; 
but the sceptre of Valerian was more darkly 
stained by the blood of Cyprian,f bishop of 
Carthage, a man of learning and eloquence 
and piety, whose blameless life and final 
calmness and constancy have escaped the 
censure and almost the sarcasm of history. 
It will be instructive, as well as interesting, 
to transcribe the simple narrative of his mar- 
tyrdom. 

On the 13th of September, 258, an officer 
with soldiers was sent to Cyprian's gardens 
by the proconsul to bring him into his pres- 
ence. Cyprian then knew his end was near ; 
and with a ready and constant mind and 
cheerful countenance he went without delay 
to Sexti, a place about six miles from Car- 
thage, where the proconsul resided. Cypri- 
an's cause was deferred for that day. He 
was therefore ordered to the house of an 
officer, where he was detained for the night, 
but was well accommodated and his friends 
had free access to him. The news of this 
having been brought to Carthage, a great 
number of people of all sorts, and the Christ- 
ians in general, flocked thence to Sexti ; and 
Cyprian's people lay all night before the door 
of the officer, thus keeping, as Pontius ex- 
presses it, the vigil of their bishop's passion. 

On the next morning, the 14th of Septem- 
ber, he was led to the proconsul's palace, 
surrounded by a mixed multitude of people 
and a strong guard of soldiers. After some 
time, the proconsul came out into the halJ, 
and Cyprian being placed before him, he 
said, ' Art thou Thascius Cyprian ? ' Cyprian 



* The fable of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus be- 
longs to this persecution ; the supposed martyrdom of 
the Theban legion to the reign of Diocletian. 

t It appears from Cyprian's Epistles that, in his 
Church at least, the full severity of the persecution 
ecarcely raged for more than one year. See Tillem., 
vol. iii. p. 324. 



the bishop answered, 'I am.' Galerius Max- 
imus the proconsul said, ' The most sacred 
emperors have commanded thee to sacrifice.' 
Cyprian the bishop answered, ' I do not sac- 
rifice.' Galerius Maximus said, 'Be well 
advised.' Cyprian the bishop answered, ' Do 
as thou art commanded ; in so just a cause 
thou needest no consultation.' The procon- 
sul having advised with his council, spoke to 
Cyprian in angry terms as being an enemy 
to the gods and a seducer of the people, and 
then read his sentence from a tablet, 'It is 
decreed that Thascius Cyprian be beheaded.' 
Cyprian the bishop said, 'God be praised;' 
and the crowd of his brethren exclaimed, 
' Let us too be beheaded with him. 

This is the account given in "the acts of 
Cyprian's passion, and that of Pontius is to 
the same purpose.* 

Diocletian. For nearly fifty years after this 
outrage, the peace and progress of religion 
were not seriously interrupted. The earliest 
portion even of the reign of Diocletian was 
favorable to its security, and it was through 
the weakness of that prince, rather than his 
wickedness, that his name is now inscribed 
on the tablets of infamy as the most savage 
among our persecutors. Two circumstances 
may be mentioned as having engaged his 
tardy consent f to the commencement of a 
plan into which he appears to have entered 
with the most considerate calmness, though 
it is also true that during its progress some 
incidents occurred which enlisted his pas- 
sions in the cause, and even so inflamed 
them that, in the height of his madness, he 
certainly proposed nothing less than the 
extermination of the Christian name. The 
influence of the Csesar, Galerius, who was 
animated, from whatsoever motive, by an 
unmitigated detestation of the worshippers 
of Christ, and who thirsted for their destruc- 
tion, was probably the most powerful of 
those circumstances. But the second must 
not be forgotten. In the disputes, now be- 
come general, between the Christian minis- 
ters and the pagan priests, the teachers of 

* Lardner, vol. iii. p. 141. The more usual date 
of Cyprian's martyrdom is 257. 

f Galerius represented to him that the permanence 
of the Roman institutions was incompatible with the 
prevalence of Christianity, which should therefore be 
extirpated. Diocletian proposed the subject to a sort 
of Council, composed of some eminent military and 
judicial officers. They assented to the opinion of 
Galerius; but the emperor still hesitated, until the 
measure was sanctioned and sanctified by the oracle 
of the Milesian Apollo. 



PERSECUTIONS OF THE EMPERORS. 



65 



philosophy are ahnost invariably found on 
the side of the latter ; and as it is not denied 
— not even by Gibbon — that those learned 
persons directed the course and suggested the 
means of persecution, we need not hesitate 
to attribute a considerable sliare in tlie guilt 
of its origin to their pernicious eloquence. 

Diocletian published his first edict in the 
February of 303. Three others of greater 
severity succeeded it ; and, during a shame- 
ful period of ten yeai-s, they were veiy gen- 
erally and rigorously enforced by himself, his 
colleagues, and successors. It is needless to 
particularize the degrees of barbarity by 
wliicli those edicts were severally distin- 
guished; the substance of the whole series is 
this.* The sacred books of the Christians 
were sought for and burnt; death was the 
punishment of all who assembled secretly 
for religious worship ; imprisonment, slavery, 
and infamy were inflicted on the dignitaries- 
and presidents of the Churches ; every art 
and method was enjoined for the conversion 
of the believers, and among those methods 
were various descriptions of torture, some of 
them fatal. During the preceding ninety 
yeai'S, the Church had availed itself of the 
consent or connivance of the civil govern- 
ment to erect numerous religious edifices, 
and to purchase some landed property ; these 
buildings were now demolished, and the 
property underwent the usual process of 
confiscation. A more degi'ading, but less 
effectual, measure attended these ; Christians 
were excluded from all pubhc honors and 
offices, and even removed Avithout the pale 
of the laws and the protection of justice ; 
liable to all accusations, and inviting them 
by their adversity, they were deprived of 
every form of legal redress. Such were the 
penalties contained in those edicts ; and 
though it be true that in some of the western 
provinces of the empire, as in Gaul and per- 
haps Britain, their asperity was somewhat 
softened by the character and influence of 
the Caesar, Constantius, we are not allowed 
to believe that their execution even there 
was generally neglected, and we have too 
much reason to be assured that it was con- 
ducted with very subservient zeal throughout 
the rest of the empire. In process of time 
Ihe sufferings of the Christians were partially 
sUeviated by the victories of Constantine ; 



* Nearly the whole of Eusebius's 8th book is de- 
Toted to this subject; on which he possesses, indeed, 
the authorit}^ of a contemporary, as he is believed to 
have been bora about the year 270 A. D. See, too, 
Lactant. de xMorte Persecut. cap. 13. 
9 



but they did not finally termmate till his 
accession. 

Accession of Constantine. That event, which 
took place in the year 313, and which marks 
the first grand epoch in ecclesiastical history, 
ended at the same time both the fears and 
the sufferings of the foUowej-s of Christ, and 
established his worship as the acknowledged 
religion of the Roman empire. 

As the account here given of the persecu- 
tions of the early Christians differs in some 
respects from the views usually taken of this 
important portion of our histoiy, it may be 
proper to close this chapter with a few addi- 
tional remarks. 

Unpopularity of Christians. 1st. Contem- 
porary evidence obliges us to admit, that the 
Christian name was for many years (so late 
at least as the reign of Decius) an object of 
decided aversion to many of those who did 
not profess it ; whether of the learned, who 
scorned the origin, were ignorant of the prin- 
ciples, and feared the progress, of the new 
religion, or of the vulgar, who believed the 
calummies so industriously propagated against 
its professors. Hence proceeded those popu- 
lar tumults, which, during the first two cen- 
turies (if we except fi-om them the reign of 
Mai-cus Antoninus), may have destroyed as 
many victims as the deliberate policy of the 
emperors, or the established system of relig- 
ious government. Still it must appear singu- 
lar that a body of persons, distinguished by 
the moral qualities which are almost univer- 
sally attributed to the first Christians, should 
have incurred the hatred of their fellow- 
subjects, rather than the admiration, or at 
least the sympathy, which was claimed by 
the character of their virtues. There are 
several reasons by which we may account 
for this strange circumstance. The prejudices 
and passions of mankind were opposed to the 
new religion ; it contradicted their received 
ways of worship, the dictates and practices 
of their forefathers, their own indulged lusts 
and evil habits. Even the fame and sem- 
blance of peculiar sanctity are ever objects 
of bitter jealousy to those who are incapable 
of its practice, and who consequently dispute 
its reahty. Again, when it was observed that 
Christians w^ere not contented with mere 
inactive profession, but were animated with 
industrious zeal for the extension of their 
faith, a disposition to suspect and resist it, as 
it were in self-defence, w-as excited among 
many ; and those who might have tolerated 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



an indifferent or merely speculative supersti- 
tion, armed themselves against the active and 
converting spirit of Christianity. Another, 
perhaps the most effective, and certainly the 
original cause of that aversion, was the perse- 
vering hostility of the Jews to the name of 
Christ^ In some of the more populous and 
commercial cities, the Jews formed no incon- 
siderable portion of the inhabitants, and they 
were scattered in smaller numbers over the 
whole face of the East. The destruction of 
then* capital increased the crowd of exiles, 
and inflamed the angry spirit by which they 
were animated. It is true that, in their at- 
tempts at open outrage, they were sometimes 
restrained by the civil power ;. but they were 
more successful in their secret endeavors to 
excite against the rising sect the contempt or 
malice of the heathen. To their malignity we 
may probably attribute those monstrous cal- 
umnies which tainted the Christian name, at 
the very period when its professors were 
farthest removed from corruption. It was 
rumored and believed that the religious meet- 
ings of the faithful were polluted by alternate 
excesses of superstition and debauchery ; the 
mysteries especially were invested with the 
most revolting character ; the Eucharist was 
said to be celebrated by the sacrifice of an 
infant, and the Feast of Charity was repre- 
sented to be a revel of cannibals.* These 
stories contained nothing incredible to a 
pagan, whom the external piety of the new 
religionists rendered still more suspicious of 
their private conversation. Without difficul- 
ty he believed in the perpetration of rites 
which bore some resemblance to the darker 
parts of his own superstition ; and his belief 
was followed by insult and outrage. 

The notorious malevolence of the Jews did 
not prevent the prevalence of another veiy 
early and very injurious opinion respecting 
Christianity — that it was merely a form, and 
a rejected form, of Judaism. This was a nat- 
ural error — since the religion proceeded from 
Jud?ea, and many among its original preach- 
ers, and all its most active enemies were Jews 
. — it was indeed gradually, though slowly, 
removed by the writings of the early fathers, 
and the progress of the faith ; but the preju- 
dice arising from it was the chief cause of 
that contempt with which the worship was 
regarded for above one hundred years both 
by philosophers and statesmen. 

Again, in the scenes of public festivity, in 
the temples, and at the sacrifices of the gods, 
the Christian was never present; he partook 



See Justin Martyr, Apul. i. So., ii. 14. 



not in triumphs and rejoicings of which relig- 
ion formed any portian, and appeared not at 
the sports of the amphitheatre, except as a 
victim. This seclusion from the amusements 
of his fellow-countrymen was mistaken for 
indifference to the happiness and interests of 
his country ; it was mistaken for disaffection 
to the government, for moroseness or misan- 
thropy ; its real motive was never estimated 
or even conceived ; for the careless temper 
of polytheism was unable to comprehend an 
exclusive religion, or to understand why the 
worship of Jupiter was not consistent with 
that of Christ. Another difficulty was cre- 
ated by the spiiitual nature of our religion. 
It was in vain that the Roman magistrate 
inquired for the .images and statues of the 
God of the Christians, for the altars and tem- 
ples consecrated to him. Unwilhng, or una- 
ble to believe that an Invisible Being could 
be the immediate object of adoration, he 
pronounced that to be atheism, which differ- 
ed so widely from the genera} appearance of 
theism ; and thus, among the ignorant at 
least, the Christians were liable to the double 
imputation, not only that they repudiated the 
national divinities, but that they substituted 
none other in their place. It was probably 
this last charge which inflamed and enven- 
omed the rest ; for the same moral enormi- 
ties which were pardonable in the devotee of 
Apollo, became infamous in those who par- 
took of no devotion, and the worshippers of 
every idol under heaven united their clamors 
against the impiety of the atheists ;; and un- 
happily, among the impassioned natives of 
the East, clamors are seldom unattended by 
violence, and violence is only satisfied with 
blood. 

There is, perhaps, no chai-acteristic by 1 
which Christianity was so early and sq f 
strongly distinguislied, as the pious horror of 
every approach to idolatry f this singularity 
would be more commonly forced on the at- 
tention of pagans than any other, and no 
doubt, in the opinion of the vast majority, 
with whom the image was in fact the object 
of worship, it would be sufficient alone to 
constitute irreligion. Again, it led them into 
a second and scarcely less dangerous impu- 
tation, that of disloyalty ; since the image 
of the emperor, which was usually exalted 
among the standards and in public places, 

* This extreme aversion from every form of idol- 
atry is ascribed to a prevalent belief, that the statues 
were actually animated Ijy those supposed bemgs 
whom the pagans \voislii})ped as gods, and whom tha 
Christians abominated as devils 



PERSECUTIONS OF THE EMPERORS. 



67 



was not honored by the devout sakitation of 
the Christian ; and this omission naturally 
gave pretext to a political ciiarge. 

As another cause of the early unpopularity 
of the Christians, we may mention the un- 
ceasing opposition of all w^hose personal in- 
terests wei-e concerned in the support of 
paganism. The magnificent temples and 
gorgeous ceremonies of that superstition were 
a source of unfailing profit, not only to a 
numerous race of priests and hierodules, of 
architects and statuaries, but to multitudes 
of citizens, who lived, like the craftsmen of 
Ephesus, on the treasury of the temple, and 
were engaged by their most immediate ne- 
cessities to maintain the worship; and not 
these only, but the whole mass of the popu- 
lace, were in some degree gainers by the 
sacrificial profusion which distinguished their 
religion; to say nothing of the share which 
they took in those splendid processions and 
rites, which converted the practice of religion 
into mere sensual eujoyment and careless 
festivity. When, in the place of this pomp- 
ous pageantry, it was proposed to substitute a 
simple spiritual worship, recommended, not 
by the display of external ceremony, which it 
scorned, but by inward purity and the sanc- 
tity of moral excellence, in opposition at the 
same time to the passions of all men, and to 
the immediate interests of many, it would 
have been strange indeed if the popular voice 
had not been raised against it. 

To the many causes of excitement already 
mentioned we may add one more — the sub- 
stantial motive of avarice ; since we invaria- 
bly find that the Christians, who were the 
objects of these popular commotions, sustain- 
ed, among other injuries, the loss of their 
property. And we must not forget that, in 
many instances,* the Roman police tolerated, 

* During the whole course of these persecutions, 
with the exception of those few in which the emperor 
pronounced his will by an express specification of the 
penalties, very much rested on the discjetion of the 
nragrstrates, and, undoubtedly, many among these 
were guided by the comrrion feelings of humanity. 
(Tcrtul. Apo].,c. 27. Ad Scapulam, c. 4. Scorpiace, 
c. 1.) But the clamors of an importunate populace 
also demand more than common firmness, to be inva- 
riably resisted. Gibbon, in his endeavor to exaggerate 
the liumanity of the Roman magistrates, has forgotten 
his own: — 'They were far from punishing with death 
all those who were convicted of an obstinate adherence 
to the new superstition; contenting themselves for the 
most part with the milder chastisements of imprison- 
ment, exale, or slavery in the mines, they left tlie 
unhappy -victims of their justice some reason to hope 
for a prosperous event — the accession, the marriage, 



perhaps encouraged, excesses which it might 
possibly consider as an innocent exercise of 
popular feeling, or as a part of a religious 
ceremony. 

The evils which we have here noticed, or 
at least, the causes which produced them, 
were most prevalent in the earliest age of the 
religion, and seem gradually to have died 
away during the third century. For they 
were chiefly founded in ignorance of the real 
principles of Christianity^, aided by contempt 
for the weakness of its professors ; circum- 
stances which were gradually removed as the 
members of the Church advanced innumbei-s 
and its ministers in learning. But this pro- 
gress of the faith (as we have had occasion to 
observe) did not immediately reconcile or 
disarm its adversaries, but rather changed 
their character and their weapons. For in- 
stance, during the first ages we do not ob- 
serve that the pagan priesthood were distin- 
guished by any systematic exertions against 
the new worship, and they may possibly have 
despised and overlooked it ; but presently 
their seeming indifi:erence was changed into 
suspicious jealousy, and then into active and 
persevering hatred ;* and we may be assured 
that the influence which they possessed over 
the people (whatsoever that may have been) 
was exerted to the prejudice of the rival re- 
ligion. In the next place, philosophy de- 
scended from the contempt with which she 
had professedly viewed the earliest efforts of 
Christianity, and proceeded to distinguish it 
from all other ' superstitions ' by her malice 
and enmity ; and slie knew not in so doing 
how honorable a distinction she had confer- 
red on it. This coalition of philosophy with 
paganism, though strange, was not unnatural ; 
nor would any evil consequences have fol- 
lowed it, had it not engaged the concurrence, 
and advanced imder the banners, of civil au- 
thority .f And if it be true that from her 
numerous chastisements and inflictions our 
religion may have somewhat profited in 
ptu'ity, we must admit that she learnt one 
hateful lesson in the school of adversity, 

or the triumph of an emperor, which might restore 
them by a general pardon to their former state.' — 
Chap. xvi. 

* See Mosh. de Reb. Christ. Ant. Const. Scec. iv. 
sec. 1. 

t There seems reason to believe that this alliance 
was fortified by the powerful addition of the Roman 
bar ; at least we are assured that the proconsuls felt 
themselves so interested in the defence of ancient laws, 
during Ulpiaa's time, as to endeavor to excite Alex- 
ander Severus against an illegal religion. This took 
place about 223. Baron. Ann. t. ii. p. 367, 369. 



68 



HISTORY OP THE CHURCH. 



which in after ages she did not forget to 
practise ; it was deeply ingrafted on her in- 
fancy by her sufferings, and it brought forth 
in her maturity the bitter fruits of crime and 
misery. However, the poisonous plant was 
not the native of her own vineyard, and it is 
now, for the most part, rooted up and cast 
away ; and she accounts it the severest 
among the wrongs of her pagan oppressors 
that they instructed her in the maxims, and 
accustomed her to the spectacle, of persecu- 
tion. 

II. As an excuse for the rigor of the Ro- 
man government, it has been argued that the 
Christians were not punished for their wor- 
ship of Christ, but for their refusal to sacrifice 
to the gods of their ancestors and their gov- 
ernment;* and that the crime for which 
they suffered was not in fact their religion, 
but their contumacy ; and some set great 
value on this argument. In our opinion it 
amounts to nothing more than this : the laws 
of Rome punished all religious dissent with 
death ; openly to oppose those laws was sedi- 
tion ; and thus the punishment was inflicted 
on the sedition, not on the dissent. This is 
foolish and unvv^orthy sophistry ; and its 
utmost consequence could go no farther than 

* The dialogue, which is supposed to have taken 
place during the reign of Severus (about 200) be- 
tween Saturninus, proconsul of Africa, and Speratus, 
one of the famous Scyllitan martyrs, whether genuine 
or not, is very ancient and perfectly consistent with 
probability. ' You may hope for the pardon of the 
emperors our masters, if you come to your senses and 
observe the ceremonies of tJ-ie gods.' ' We have never 
done any evil, nor partaken in injustice. We recol- 
lect not to have injured anyone; on the contrary, 
■when we suffer we render thanks to God: in vvhich 
respect we obey our Emperor, who has ordained that 
rule for us. ' ' We also have a very simple religion ; 
v/e swear by the genius of the emperors, and make 
vows for their health; you must do as much.' 'If 
you will listen to me calmly, I will tell you the myste- 
ry of Christian simplicity.' 'I will not thus allow 
insults to be introduced 1 Swear rather by the ge- 
nius of the emperors our masters, that you may con- 
tinue to live.' ' I recognise not the genius of the 
emperor of this world, but I serve the God of Heaven, 
whom no man hath seen or can see. I have never 
committed any crime punishable by the laws.' They 
were remanded, and on the following day brought up 
again. 'Do you persevere in being a Cluistiaul' 
* Yes, I persevere: I call you all to witness — I am a 
Christian.' All those who had lieen arrested with 
him heard him, and cried, ' We also are Christians.' 
' You will neither deliberate then nor receive pardon.' 
'We need no pardon with justice on our side; do 
what you will; we die with joy for Jesus Christ.' 
&c. &c. Art. Mart. Scyll. p. 87. Fleury, H. E., 
1 V sect. 2. 



to excuse the individual who executed the 
laws, and to throw the whole odium upon 
the system.* But to allow it even this weight 
is too much concession ; for we perceive, by 
the very different manner in which the law 
v/as enforced by different emperors, that they 
possessed, in fact, an authority superior to it, 
and power to suspend or revise it ; and that 
there was not one of whom it can be truly said 
that he was barbarous on compulsion. But 
on the other hand, if any will persist to justify 
the personal character of certain emperors at 
the expense of the religious policy of the em- 
pire, they give us only additional reason to 
rejoice at the triumph of Christian principles 
over the inherent depravity of the pagan 
system. 

Another and a very fruitless dispute has 
been raised respecting the general virtues or 
vices or fortunes of those sovereigns who are 
most remarkable for severity towards the 
Christians ; and while some have asserted 
that our persecutors are to be found only 
among the most odious and vicious of the 
emperors, and while others endeavor to es- 
tablish a sort of temporal retribution which 
overtook, by violent or untimely deaths, all 
who were hostile to our name ; there are 
again other writers who have been willing to 
insinuate that the wisest and most virtuous 
monarchs were those most sensible of the ne- 
cessity to repress the growing religion. All 
these writers are almost equally remote fi'ora 
truth. The former are obliged to qualify the 
unrelenting injustice of Marcus Antoninus 
out of respect to his various virtues and his 
natural end ; and the last must extenuate the 
outrages of Nero only, or Domitian, or Max- 
imin, but of Galerius and the stupid barbarian 
Licinius. But if the insinuation were really 
founded in fact, the only important conclu- ' 
sion which could be derived from it is one 
which we are not anxious to dispute ; that 
the noblest human wisdom was not exera})t 
from shameful folly, and that the highest 
principles of justice discoverable by man 
permitted the perpetration of revolting enor- 
mities. In the mean time, the truth appears 
to be nearly this : that, in the want of any 
fixed and substantial rule of action, the impe- 
rial character fluctuated between the extreme 



* Precisely of the same value is another excuse, 
derived from the admission that it was difficult or im- 
possible lor a pagan to comprehend even the meaning 
of toleration, according to the latitude which we give 
to it. Its only effect can be to turn away our indigna- 
tion from the individuals upon the system which made 
tliem tyrants and persecutors. 



PERSECUTIONS OF THE EMPERORS, 



69 



limits of depravity and (what was called) 
virtue; that the motives of all our enemies 
(except M. Antoninus and Diocletian) and of 
many of our protectors are to be sought either 
in accidental cii'cumstances or in their own 
caprices ; and that in both those classes we 
may number princes of the highest moral and 
mtellectual excellence and of the lowest im- 
aginable turpitude.* 

III. Without giving our universal assent 
to the popular paradox, that the effect of per- 
secution is to nourish that which it seems to 
consume, we may admit that the pagan per- 
secutions were not, perhaps, upon the whole 
mifavorable to the progress of our religion.f 
Among many reasons for this opinion, there 
are three which appear to us important. 

i. The first of these is the nature of the 
persecutions themselves ; which, in the first 
place, were usually of short duration, and re- 
lieved by longer intermissions, if not of secu- 
rity, at least of repose and hope, so that the 
survivors had space to refit theii* shattered 
vessel against the tempests which were still 
in the horizon ; and which, in the next, were 
generally signalized by such extreme barbar- 
ity, and such obvious injustice as civil pun- 
ishments, as not only to revolt whatever 
humanity might be found among the specta- 
tors, but to harden and fortify the obstinacy 

* Another question has been raised concerning tlie 
probable number of the martyrs ; and this has led to 
wider difference, as it is less capable of accurate 
determination. (Dodvvell, Dissert, in Cypr. XI. 
Ruinart, Pref. Act. Martyr.) The spirit of exag- 
geration or credulity on the one hand has excited tliat 
of disparagement or skepticism o)i the other ; and the 
truth, if it could be ascertained at all, would be found 
to lie between them. It is certain, however, that 
when Gibbon estimates the whole number of Diocle- 
tian's victims throughout the provinces of the Eastern 
empu'e according to the trifling portion who perished 
in Palestine, he infers neither very fairly nor very con- 
sistently ; for in other places he is forward enough to 
acknowledge the narrow limits and to extenuate the 
population of Palestine, and he was not ignorant that 
even the proportion of Christians in that country was 
Jess than in any other province. Sender (sec. 1. c. 6.) 
inclines to the opinion of Dodwell, admitting the dif- 
ficulty of tbe question ; and Bishop Ka3-e (Lect. on 
Tertull. p. 138.) remarks that 'though the number 
may have been greater than Dodwell was willing to 
allow, it is certain that his opinion approaches much 
nearer to truth than that of his opponents.' It has 
been one cause of the exaggeration, that the term 
martyr (witness) was in the early Church indiscrim- 
inately extended to all whose religion had exposed 
ihem to any infliction, as loss of property or liberty — 
class of sufferers now usually called confessors, 
t The same was the professed opinion even of Ter- 
tullian himself. 



of the sufferers. 2. The noble and devoted 
constancy with which martyrdom was gene- 
rally endured, excited the admiration of the 
best portion of the Gentile world; and not 
their admiration only, for those who reflected 
on what they beheld were persuaded, first, 
of the piety of the sufferers, and next of their 
sincerity 4 and this persuasion led some 
among them to examine the foundation of 
those motives and principles which seemed 
to infuse an original energy into the human 
soul. If a new crime was invented for the 
affliction of the Christians, a new virtue ap- 
peared to be sent down to them for their 
support; and it became a serious question, 
whether that virtue could otherwise have 
sustained them, than by the direct interfer 
ence of Heaven. 3. Several driven from 
their country by persecution, carried with 
them into distant and barbarous exile the 
faith of the Christian, and the zeal of the 
missionary and the martyr. And thus the 
victims of man's blind and insensate impiety 
became instruments in the scheme of Provi- 
dence for the advancement of his great 
purposes in the propagation of faith and 
knowledge. 



CHAPTER V. 

On the Heresies of the first three Centurtes, 

Meaning of the word Heresy — Charges of immoralils' 
brought against Heretics — Their treatment by early 
Church — Number of early Heresies — Moderation of 
the primitive Church — Three classes of Heretics. — 
1. Two kinds of philosophy — Gnosticism — Origin 
and nature of that doctrine — its association with 
Christianity — Moral practice of the Gnostics — Their 
martyrs — Various forms of Gnosticism — Basilides — 
Carpocrates — Valentinus — Cerdo and Marcion — Ta- 
tian and the Encratites. 2. The Ebionites — Euse- 
bius's account of them — Conclusions Svom it —The 
Heresy of Artemon — revived by Paul of Samosata — 
his sentence and expulsion — how finally enforced — 
Heresy of Praseas — Doctrines of the Church stated by 
TertuUian — Sabellius — his opinions — Patropassians, 
3. Simon Magus — Montanus — his preaching and 
success — Controversy on the Baptism of Heretics — 
The Novatians — their schism and opinions — Conclu- 
sions respecting the general character of the early Her- 
esies, and the manner of opposing them — On the 
Fathers of the primitive Church— Real importance of 
their writings — Shepherd of Hermas — Epistle of St 
Barnabas — Ignatius — Polycarp — Clenrent of Rome 
Respecting their doctrine— Irenae us 

The original meaning of the word heresy is 
choice ; it was long used by the philosophers 
to designate the preference and selection of 
some speculative opinion^ and in process of 



70 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



time * was applied without any sense of re- 
proach to every sect — a term Avith which it 
thus became nearly synonymous. From 
philosophy it passed into the service of relig- 
ion, and we find it applied both by St. Luke 
and Josephusf to the Pharisees and Saddu- 
cees, with no imputation of censure or error. 
Next we observe, that it was employed by 
the Jews to distinguish the new opinions of 
the Christians ; St, Paul is accused of being 
the 'ringleader of the heresy of the Naza- 
renes,' and confesses that he 'worships the 
God of his fathers, after the way which they 
call heresy' — an expression which indicates, 
that some reproach had been intended by the 
term. The word was then adopted by 
Christians ; and though it still continued for 
some ages to be used, in its first and most 
general sense, to designate every denomina- 
tion, not only of sects but of false rehgions,| 
yet for the most part it was employed in 
speaking of those who, professing Christiani- 
ty, had departed from the doctrine which 
was taught by the Apostles. In the mouth 
of an orthodox Christian it could not, in any 
of these senses, be a term of indifference ; 
since, according to the necessary exclusive- 
ness of our principles, the faith which was 
revealed through Christ and interpreted by 
his Apostles is alone truth ; every other be- 
lief is error. 

We next observe, that the notion of wilful- 
ness and perversity (perhaps a much worse 
notion) was very early attached to it; and 
even by the writers of the New Testament it 
is sometimes so used, that a somewhat indefi- 
nite idea of evil appears to have been affixed 
to it. Some, indeed, have supposed that it 
was understood by early Christian writers to 
contain the imputation of immorality,^ and 

* Cicero. (Paradox I. vol. vii. p. 845. Ed. Oxon.) 
Philo Judseas. (Fragtn. e lib, II. in Exod.) Burtou, 
Barapt. Lect. 1. 

t Acts of Apostl. V. 17. XV. 5. Joseph. Antiq. 
xiii. 5. 9. 

X Epiphanius, in his Book on Heresies, men- 
tions BagSaoia(j,6g, J^xvdia/iidg, "Ellrivia/Lwg, 
lovda'icrfidg, ^a^uaoeiTicrjiidg, all under the name 
of heresy. Balsanion (Comment. 14th Can. Council 
of Clialcedon) expresses himself thus: — 'Heretics are 
divided into two kinds; 1. Those who receive the 
Cin-istian i-eligion, but err in points, who, when they 
come over to the Church, are anointed with oil ; 
2. those \^•ho do not receive it at all, and are unbe- 
lievers, such as Jews and Greeks; and these we bap- 
tize.' See Burton's Bampt. Lect. I. 

§ The argument amounts to this; heresy is opposed 
by St. Paul to faith, and is commensurate Avith it; 
and as faith comprehends as its essence and sends 
forth as its emanation purity of heart and excellence 



thus we may partly account for the exceeding 
zeal with which many of them labored for 
its extirpation, and the language which they 
applied to those who bad deviated into it. 
Charges, indeed, or insinuations of the gross- 
est impurities are sometimes thrown out by 
the orthodox writers against the early here- 
tics ; but we are bound to receive them with 
great caution ; because the answers which 
njay have been given to them are lost ; and 
because they are not generally justified by 
any authentic records which we possess 
respecting the lives of those heretics. The 
truth appears to be this ; that some flagrant 
immoralities were notoriously perpetrated by 
some of the wildest among their sects, and 
that these have giyen coloring to the charges 
which have been thrown upon them too in- 
discriminately. 

But whatsoever uncertainty may rest on 
this inquiry, it cannot be disputed, first, that 
the Apostolical Fathers, following the foot- 
steps of the Apostles themselves, regarded 
with great jealousy the birth and growth of 
erroneous opinions ; and next, that they did 
not authorise, either by instruction or exam- 
ple, any severity on the persons of those in 
error. They opposed it by their reasoning 
and their eloquence, and they avoided its con- 
tagion by removing from their communion 
those who persisted in it ; but they were also 
mindful that within these limits was confined 
the power which the Church received from 
the Apostle who founded it over the spiritual 
disobedience of its members. 

The heretics or seceders from the primitive 
Church were extremely various, at least in 
name, and there is no period in ecclesiastical 
history in which dissent has appeared under so 
many denominations as the earliest. But it 
seems doubtful whetlier many of those sects 
had very niunerous adherents, or were at all 
generally dispersed over the surface of Chris- 
tendom ; some of them were merely local, 
scarcely extending beyond the spot which 
gave them birth, and others were chiefly con- 
fined to the controversial writers, as the differ- 
ence Avas on points too abstruse to create much 
interest in those days among the body of the 
i people. Many, again, have left behind them no 
traces of their existence, and their very names 
have only been preserved through the labors 
of their adversaries ; so that we may fairly 
presume, in spite of the display and parade of 
denominations, that the great majority of the 
early Christians remained attached to the 



of conduct, so heresy must contain, of necessity, the 
contrary qualities. 



THE EARLY HERESIES. 



71 



primitive faith. In the meantime, the mere 
fact of the existence of so many different 
forms of Cliristianity certainly proves, not 
only the zeal, but also the numbers of the ear- 
ly converts ^ for if these had been mconsid- 
erable- vs^e should have heard little either 
about dissenters from the orthodox body, or 
of their divisions among themselves. The 
paucity and weakness of the faithful would 
Lave been a sufficient guarantee for their una- 
nimity. 

That many of those eiTors gained footing 
at a veiy early period, long before the conclu- 
sion of the first century, has not been disputed 
with any probability ; * and the fact is attrib- 
uted with gi-eat appearance of truth to the 
twelve or perhaps fi.fteen years which inter- 
vened between the ascension of Christ and 
the departure of the Apostles from Judaea. 
During this period, partly through the disper- 
sion of the converts after the martyrdom of 
Stephen, partly through th« periodical reli- 
gious communications of foreign Jews with 
their native country, some imperfect accounts 
of the history and doctrine of the Saviour 
were spread abroad, even before the fulness 
of the truth was delivered by the Apostles. 
This circumstance will assist us in account- 
ing for the great variety of forms in which 
error present-ed itself^ especially if we consid- 
er the vast extent of country and the widely 
separated regions over which the faith was 
diffused. But the cause to which we should 
more directly ascribe the multiplicity of her- 
esies is the philosophical subdivisions of the 
heathen world, and the facility of combining 
opinions the most incongruous. Thus, while 
all parties were desirous to adapt the particu- 
lar tenets of Christianity to their own precon- 
ceived opinions, which again materially dif- 
fered in different sects, the forms created by 
such associations were necessarily very nu- 
merous, and frequently very monstrous. 

Again, the manner in which the differences 
between the Church and those at variance 
with it were conducted, was not entirely free 
from violence of feeling and invective ; the 
contrary would have been wonderful indeed, 
when we consider the situation and character 
of the parties. For, in the first place, as we 
shall presently see, a very large proportion of 

* Tittmaiij'De Vestig. Guosticorum,' &c. has, in 
our opinion, entirely failed in his learned attempt to 
fix llie origin of the Gnostic heresies in the second 
century. The passages which seena most in his favor 
are Clem. Alex. Strom. 1. vii'. p. 764. Ed. Sylburg. 
Hegisipp. ap. Euseb. 1. iii. c. 32. But the general 
voice of history is ou the other side. 



the early heresies were divided from the doc- 
trine of the Gospel, not by slight or partial 
deviations, but by delusions so extravagant 
and irrational as to place them almost in di- 
rect opposition to the true spirit of Christiani- 
ty. But this was not all ^ in themselves the/ 
were pitiable and pardonable, but in their 
effects on the Church they were fraught with 
injury and danger. Because the real charac- 
ter of the religion was not yet generally com- 
prehended, and the heathens formed their 
estimation of it according to the specimen 
which was presented to them ; and when 
they observed that absurdities were professed, 
and perhaps immoralities practised, in the 
name of Christ, they extended their contempt 
and indignation to the whole body of his fol- 
lowers.* The individual expression of those 
sentiments would naturally retard the pro- 
gress of the faith ; but neither was this the 
whole evil, for calumnies springing from that 
origin not only tainted the Christian name, 
but contributed to call down upon it, during 
the moments of its most perilous weakness, 
those visitations of populai' fury and imperial 
injustice, which threatened to crush and ex- 
terminate it. Under such circumstances we 
shall scarcely condemn some intemperance 
of expression into which the early defenders 
of the apostolical doctrine were occasionally 
betrayed. At the same time we maj^ remark, 
that as the controversies of those days were 
at least exempt from personal infliction, so 
religious dissent, being unrepressed by civil 
penalties, was less rancorous, as well as less 
consistent and less permanent. 

The great multitude of those heresies was 
not only reconcilable with the moderation of 
the primitive Church, but may, in some de- 
gree, have proceeded from it. For as the 
imperfection of human nature will not allow 
us to hope, under any circumstances, for per- 
fect unanimity in religious opinion, so the 
names of dissent will generally become more 
numerous as its expression is less discouraged. 
But as the differences of dissenters from each 
other are generally greater than their devia- 
tions from the Church, from which they 
branch out in all directions as from a common 
centre, so any lasting coalition is little to be 



* See Orig. Contr. Celsiim, lib. iii. p. 119. 1. v. p. 
271. Le Clerc, H. E., ad ann. 83. Notwithstand- 
ing, Gibbon supposes the exertions of the heretics to 
have promoted, upon the whole, tiie progress of 
Christianity; because (as he thinks) the heathen, to 
whom they communicated an imperfect knowledge of 
the faith, subsequently threw off their eiTors and melt- 
ed into the body of the Church, 



72 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



apprehended, and least so, when no temporal 
authority is exerted to chastise, and by chas- 
tisement to multiply and unite them. 

It would be tedious and unprofitable suc- 
cessively to enumerate all the heresies and 
dissensions of the early Christians ; and it is 
very difficult to classify them with accuracy ; 
for several, which were distinct in their ori- 
gin, arrived by different roads so nearly at 
the same conclusions, that they may there 
seem to be identified ; while others are so ob- 
scure in their own nature, or from defects in 
our information, as to make it neither very 
certain, nor perhaps very important, to which 
class they most properly belong. 

Mosheim distinguishes three classes of ear- 
ly heretics : 1. those who associated Christ- 
ianity with Judaism, who were the Nazarenes 
and Ebionites; 2. those who engrafted some 
of its doctrines on the system of the orien- 
tal philosophy, among whom are accounted, 
of the Asiatic school, Elxai, Simon Magus, 
Menander, Saturninus, Cerdo, and Marcion ; 
of the Alexandrian, Basilides, Carpocrates, 
and the perfecter of the system, Valentinus ; 
3. those who endeavored to explain certain 
of the Christian mysteries by the principles 
of the Grecian philosophy, among w^hom 
are placed Praxeas, Artemon, Theodotus, 
and others. It has been objected to this di- 
vision, that it is not supported by the author- 
ity of the ancient fathers, who, in no instance, 
derive the opinions which they combat from 
the oriental philosophy. Tertullian, indeed, 
expressly calls the philosophers the parents 
or ' patriarchs of the heretics,' but it is to the 
Grecian school that he intends to confine that 
charge, and especially to the sects of Pytha- 
goras and Plato, against which he constantly 
alleges it. Other writers hold the same lan- 
guage, and Irenseus goes so far as to derive 
the doctrine of the succession of JEons, pro- 
mulgated by Valentinus, from the Greek The- 
ogonies, not from the speculations of the 
eastern sages. From this circumstance we 
are at liberty to infer, either that the eastern 
philosophy had no share in the origin of the 
early heresies, or that those fathers were en- 
tirely unacquainted with its existence. 

A different view is taken of this subject by 
Dr. Burton.* He ascribes the rise of all the 
oldest heresies to the Gnostic philosophy. 
But at the same time under that coujpreheu- 
sive name, we understand him directly or 
indirectly to combine almost every form of 
philosophy which was professed throughout 

* See Bainpt. Lect. H. and HI. and note 7. 



the whole extent of the eastern and western 
empire. The three sources which contribut- 
ed to form this heterogeneous mixture, were^ 
1. the eastern doctrine of the two princi- 
ples ; 2. the Jewish Cabala ; 3. the Platonic 
philosophy : the last of these, under its vari- 
ous modifications, supplied the most abundant 
stream ; and the point of their conflux and 
commixture is naturally supposed to have 
been that vast emporium of commerce and lit- 
erature, Alexandria. In this city principally 
Gnosticism, such as it is here described, is 
believed to have been amalgamated into one 
substance, and hence distributed over the 
various provinces of the Roman empire not 
very long before the birth of Christ. 

We have no space to state the learned ar- 
guments by which that opinion is supported, 
nor those which might reasonably be urged 
against it ; but the fact is indisputable, that, 
before the period of which we are treating, 
the theological speculations of the eastern 
philosophers had been received in Europe 
with favor and attention, in so far that even 
the worship which was founded on them was 
in very common practice. But whether we 
should still continue to distinguish the Gre- 
cian from the Oriental, as peculiarly the 
Gnostical philosophy, or whether we should 
employ the term Gnosticism to designate a 
single system formed from then- union, is a 
question which it is not necessary for us to 
discuss, since it is admitted that Gnosticism, 
m its more extended sense, embraced a mul- 
titude of ill-assorted opinions, impregnated 
more or less deeply with the character of the 
soil out of which they respectively rose. 

For our own part, in the concise view 
which we are here enabled to present of the 
multiform family of heresies, we shall rather 
be directed by their subject than by their 
supposed origin — by the common character 
which runs through them, than by the source 
whence that character may have been deriv- 
ed. And with this intent, we shall ^r^f men- 
tion those wherein some of the Christian 
doctrines were corrupted by association with 
that extended philosophical system which 
took its root in the vain inquiry respecting 
the origin of evil ; secondly, we shall notice 
those which laid the foundation of the great 
controversies respecting the Trinity and In- 
carnation, which broke out in succeeding 
ages; and, lastly, we shall mention one or 
two of those which appear to have been ex- 
cited by mere individual enthusiasm or mad- 
ness. In the meantime, we readily admit 
the imperfection of this division in the light 



THE EARLY HERESIES. 



73 



of an absolute distinction, since some of the 
opinions held by those whom we shall place 
4n the second class, might be traced to the 
I)rinciples which will be treated in the first ; 
and there is so much wiidness in the ravings* 
of certain in both those classes, that they 
might perhaps, without much error, be ad- 
judged to the third. The mention of the 
Manichfeans we shall entirely defer until a 
later period in our history. 

I. The Oriental philosophy, which is com- 
monly confounded with Gnosticism,f proceed- 
ed from the hopeless inquiry into the nature 
and origin of evil. Convinced that this could 
not possibly be ascribed to the divine agen- 
cy, the speculators embraced what appear- 
ed to be the only alternative, and attributed 
it to matter; and matter must of consequence 
be eternal. And then, when they proceeded 
to consider the various forms of matter, sense- 
less and animal, exhibited in the visible 
world, and their seeming imperfections, they 
found it impossible to account for so many 
modifications of evil, except by the supposed 
agency of some being, superior indeed to 
man, but subordinate to the Author of all 
good. At this point ceased the uniformity of 
the fanciful theory, and it branched off into 
inquiries Hke the following: What was this 
mighty, though inferior, being ? — of what 
origin, power, attributes ? — one and alone, or 
assisted or served by others, equal or inferior ? 

All these points were disputed ; all how- 
ever agreed as to the independent existence of 
the two principles, good and evil ; and nearly 
all that the latter was the Creator of the 
world. Such were the philosophical notions 
of these persons ; and such was their attach- 
ment to them, that even when they became 
persuaded of the divine mission of Christ, 
they were unwilling entirely to sacrifice them, 
but rather strove to associate them with the 
doctrines and engraft them on the history of 
the Bible. The first consequence of so per- 
verse a misapplication of human reason was 
this — the monstrous conclusion that the God 
of the Jews was the evil principle, and that 
Jesus Christ was sent down by the good prin- 
ciple to put an end to his reign on earth; 



* See Ireneeiis, lib. i. c. 29, et seq. Le Clerc, H. 
E., ann. 76- 

t The word is derived from yviaaig, signifying 

merely knowledge, erudition. But its later sense 

among Christian writers implies some acquaintance 

with mysterious doctrines or occult interpretations, 

1 not possessed by ordinary persons. See Le Clerc on 

[l the subject of Gnosticism, Hist. Eccl. ad ann. 76. 

10 



that the former was the God of tlie Old, and 
the latter that of the New Testament. At 
this point the philosophy of the Gnostics end- 
ed, and their heresy began ; and the errors 
which Ave have mentioned, speedily led them 
into others: after rejecting — such was the 
necessary consequence of their opinions — the 
inspiration and authority of the Old Testa- 
ment, they applied themselves to the misrep- 
resentation of the New. They denied the 
humanity of Christ, asserting that he came 
not in the flesh ; that he suffered not, that he 
died not ; that what seemed to be material in 
his nature was a fantastic, incorporeal sub- 
stance. The same principles obliged them 
also to dispute the resuiTection of the body, 
a substance too gross for an eternal destiny. 
This opinion again variously affected their 
moral practice ; for while there were undoubt- 
edly some who mortified the sensual portion 
of our nature, for the greater pefection of the 
soul, there are also said to have been others, 
of more violent enthusiasm or fieiy tempera- 
ment, who permitted every license of impuri- 
ty to that which lay so far beneath considera- 
tion and respect. It is chiefly to the Gnostic 
heretics of Egypt (who were distinguished 
from their brethren by greater wiidness in 
their speculations) that these excesses are 
attributed ; we cannot now determine how 
truly. But on the other hand it is just to men- 
tion that, in professing the Christian name, 
those heretics did not always shrink from the 
dangers which surrounded it ; and we have 
evidence that many among them encounter- 
ed persecution with the same courage which 
distinguished their brethren of the Chiu'ch, 
and endured it with the same unbending 
constancy.* 

Among the Gnostic heretics (thus we shall 
continue to denominate those who associated, 
however variously and diversely, the Eastern 
or Persian system with some belief in Christ) 
it is usual to account the followers of Simon 
'Magus, f the first corrupter of the Christian 



* In Diocletian's persecution, Peter and Asclepias, 
the former a member of tlie Church, the latter a Mar- 
cionite Bishop, were burnt. ' Peter,' says Tille- 
mont, ' went to Heaven, and Asclepias to hell-fire.' 
That intemperate bigot might have taken a lesson of 
moderation even from the language of Eusebius :- 
' With Peter suffered Asclepias ; through a zeal, as 
he thought, for piety, but not for that which is accord- 
ing to knowledge ; however, they were consumed in 
one and the same fire.' — Jortin, Rem. Eccl. Hist., book 
ii. p. ii. 

t^ ' Simon Magus taught in Samaria that he was 
the Father, in Judaea that he was the Son, among the 



74 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



doctrine : these are said to have been miraer- 
ous, especially at Rome ; and the celebrity 
of their master has been considerably in- 
creased by an error of Justin Martyr, re- 
peated by several of the fathers, who mistook 
a statue inscribed to Semo, a Sabine deity, 
for a proof of the deification of that heresi- 
arch. * Nicolas, one of the seven deacons 
mentioned in the Acts, is asserted to have 
misled the sect called Nicolaitans ; f Menan- 
der, the pupil of Simon, perpetuated his 
teacher's errors, and through him they w^ere 
transmitted to Saturninus, who disseminated 
them in the Asiatic, and to Basilides, | who 
may have introduced them into the Egyptian 
school. In this prolific soil, equally favorable 
to the growth of evil and of good, they be- 
came, among the gross disciples of Carpocra- 
tes,§ the principles of deliberate immorality, 
while |] they received from the ingenuity of 
Valentinus such refinement, as to call on that 
writer the particular attention both of Irense- 
us and Tertullian. H Cerdo, and after him 
Marcion, the most distinguished among the 
heretics of his day, introduced the same de- 
lusion, with certain** variations, into Rome 
during the reign of Antoninus Pius. Here 

Gentiles that he was the Holy Spirit.' Iren., i. c. 
20. TertuU.de Prsescr. Her., c. 45. Simon Magus 
ausus est summam se dicere virtutem, i, e. suinmum 
Deura, post huric Menander, discipulus ipsius, eadem 
dicens quae Simon ipse. He denied that any one could 
be saved unless baptized in his name. 

* Justin asserts that a stijtue was erected in his 
honor bearing the following inscription in Latin, 
Simoni Deo Sancto. This was generally believed 
until, in the year 1574, a statue was discovered in the 
island of the Tiber having an inscription begirming 
tlius : — ' Semoni Sanco Deo Fidio Sacrum.' We 
cannot think Dr. Bm'ton successful in his attempt to 
defend Justin, 

t This appears to have been the same with the 
heresy of Cerinthns, against which St. Jolin is by 
many believed to have written his Gospel. 

X See Le Clerc, H. E., adann. 78 and 118. 

§ Iren. lib. i. c. 25. Enseb. lib. iv. c. 7. This 
reproach is shared with the Nicolaitans. Burton, 
Bampt. Lect. V., conclusion. 

II Le Clerc places Carpocrates at the year 120 A. D., 
and Valentinus in the year following — ant non inulto 
serius. 

IT Our information respecting Gnosticism is chiefly 
collected from the writers who opposed Valentinus, 
and especially from Irenaeus. 

** Cerdo and Marcion appear to have asserted the 
doctrine of the two principles with more boldness 
than the Valentinians ; but both parties agreed in 
teaching that die Father of Jesus Christ was not the 
Creator of the world nor the God of the Old Testa- 
ment. Tertull. c. Marc, lib. i. c. 15, 16. Iren., lib. 
i. C.47. Burton, Bauipt-. Lcct., p. 50. 



the doctrines * were immediately disclaimed 
by the prelates of that Church, and confuted 
by the ablest Christian writer, Justin Martyr. 
They were aftefwards made the subject of a 
separate treatise by Tertullian. It has been 
inferred from the discovery of some Gnostic 
medals in France that the heresy was at one 
time generally disseminated in the western 
provmces. But this fact, Hable as it is to 
some dispute, is not sufficient to counterbal- 
ance the silence of history confirmed by the 
certainty of the early disappearance of the 
sect. In the mean time we do not dispute 
that the philosophy of the Gnostics had some 
prevalence throughout that part of the em- 
pire during the first and second centuries, 
but it was not u;itil the end of the second that 
Christianity can be said to have made any 
progress there. 

Soon afterwards, in the year 172, Tatian, a 
man of some learning, and a disciple of Justin 
MartjT, built on the basis of Gnosticism the 
heresy of the Encratites. These sectarians 
professed the simplest principles of the mo- 
nastic life, meditation and bodily austerity. 
It may be said, perhaps, that under the names 
of Essenes and Therapeutae such enthusiasts 
existed in the very earliest age of Christian- 
ity, and even before its foundation ; but it is 
certain that it was at this period, and under 
this designation, that they first attracted seri- 
ous attention ; and it is not disputed that they 
met with utter discouragement and condem- 
nation from the Church. For the birth of 
monasticism was not destined to take place 
in an age of piety and sincere devotion ; and 
when at length it was produced by fanaticism 
infuriated by persecution, its growth was still 
slow and unequal, keeping pace with the 
corruption of religion and the degradation 
of the Church. 

It is a strong, but scarcely exaggerated ex- 
pression of St. Jerome, f that the body of 
our Lord was declared to be a phantom while 
the Apostles were still in the world, and the 
blood of Christ was still fresh in Judtea. 
The Phantastics, under the denomination of 



* It appears that one of the grounds on which 
Marcion resisted was the refusal of the Church to 
make any concession to the Jews, or conciliate them 
by any compromise of the piu'e faith. This appears 
to prove that the principal success of the Gnostic 
heresy had been among the Jewish converts. Proba- 
bly it was most prevalent in Judeea and JEgypt; but 
we also learn that the Church of Ephesus was early 
tainted by it, and probably it had gained some foot- 
ing throughout Asia Minor. Marcion was a native 
of Pontus. The work of Justin is lost. 

t Advers. Lucif. c viii. vol. ii. p. 203, 



THE EARLY HERESIES. 



75 



Docetae, were, indeed, a sect of very early 
origin, and we connect their opinions with 
one peculiarity of the Gnostic system which 
we have not yet mentioned. Certain among 
those philosophers, in order to remove the 
Author of good to an immeasurable distance 
from the contact of matter, imagined a vast 
succession of created but superhuman beings, 
as the agents of communication between the 
Supreme God and the world, or at least its 
Creator. These were emanations from the 
Deity ; and they appear, when their office was 
discharged, to have been restored to the Ple- 
roma, to the presence of Him who sent them 
— these beings were called ^ons. Among 
them a very high rank, possibly tiie highest, 
v/as assigned to Christ ; but from this point 
the Gnostics broke off into two different and 
almost opposite theories : many imagined that 
Jesus was a mere man, and maintained that 
the seou Christ descended upon the man Je- 
sus at his baptism and left him immediately 
before his crucifixion, so that Christ was not, 
in fact, subjected to pain and death ; while 
others held that the body, with which Christ 
appeared to be invested, was not really human 
and passible, but unsubstantial or sethereal, 
or at least immaterial : these last were called 
Docetse. At the same time, both parties 
alike misunderstood that which the Church 
considered to be the peculiar doctrine and 
object of Christianity; for they agreed in be- 
lieving that the mission of Christ had no fur- 
ther intention than to reveal the knowledge 
of the true God ; they denied the resurrection 
and the final judgment, and by explaining 
away the death of Christ they deprived his 
religion of the doctrine of the Atonement. 

From the above brief and very general out- 
line of the. Gnostic Heresies — which differed 
again widely from each other in many subor- 
dinate opinions — we perceive how very far 
they were removed from the precincts of rea- 
son and truth. Indeed, they retained so much 
more of Gnosticism than they assumed of 
Christianity, that it was only in the ancient 
and very broad acceptation of the term that 
they could be fairly denominated Heresies, 
and thus we are less disposed to censure the 
severity of those Fathers who refused them 
the name of Christian. For however cau- 
tious we sho4.dd be in withholding that appel- 
lation from those whose errors are founded 
on the mere perversion of reason, we may 
safely disclaim our fraternity with men, who 
substitute for the fundamental doctrines and 
the clearest truths of the Gospel, wild visions 
end theories which have not any ground or 



existence, except in vain and lawless imagi- 
nation. We shall do well to conclude this 
subject in the words of Le Clerc — one of the 
most rational and faithful among our histori- 
cal guides. ' I am weary of the Valentinians, 
(thus he begins his account of the year 145,) 
and so I imagine are my readers ; but the 
history of the second century is so crammed 
with them, and the Fathers, both of those 
and of later times, so often refer to them, that 
it is necessary to expose monstrous opinions, 
which in themselves do not merit one mo- 
ment's attention.' In truth, their principal, 
if not their only claim on our attention, is, 
that the Books of the New Testament appear 
to contain some allusions to them, which it 
is our duty to examine and understand. * 

II. We have just observed, that among the 
earliest corrupters of the Christian doctrines, 
there were some who disputed the human 
nature of Christ. It appears to us equally 
clear there Avere also others who denied his 
divinity. The oldest and perhaps the most 
numerous among these were the Ebionites. 

Ehionites. Tertullian considers them as 
a sect of Judaizing Christians, named from 
their founder Ebion, who strictly maintained 
the observance of the ceremonial law, and 
rejected the miraculous conception and the 
divine nature of the Saviour, f Eusebius, in 
his Ecclesiastical History, (book iii. c. xxvii.) 
describes them in these words :— 

'The Ebionites were so called from the 
poverty and meanness with which they dog- 
matized concerning Christ ; for they consid- 
ered him as a mere man born of the connex- 
ion of a man and Mary. And they thought 
too that the ceremonial law (^vo^i'at^ dgr)av.eia\ 
was to be followed ; as neither faith in Christ, 
nor the life led through that faith, was suf- 
ficient for salvation. But there were others 
bearing the same appellation, who escaped 
the extravagant absurdity of these former, 

* Any one desirous of more ample details respect- 
ing the Gnostic Heresies may safely consult the learn- 
ed author in the Encycl. Britan., pp. 24, 25, 26. 

t De Prescript. Heret. c. 38.; De Virgin. Veland. 
c. 6. ' Quam utique Virginem fuisse constat, licet 
Ebion resistat.' De Carne Christi, c. 14. 18, 19. 
The Ebionites are classed by Mosheim among the 
Judaizing sects ; and Ebion, if he existed at all, was 
probably a Jew: the numbers and influence of those 
sects diminished so rapidly during the second century, 
after the promulgation of Adrian's Edict, and are 
consequently so little noticed by the fathers of the 
third and following ages, that it seems unnecessary to 
bestow a separate notice on them. 



76 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



since they did not deny that the Lord was 
born of a virgin and the Holy Spirit, But 
neither did these, acknowledging his preex- 
istence, and that he was Logos and Sophia, 
(the Word and the Wisdom,) turn entirely 
away from the unrighteousnessof the former, 
chiefly because they too were careful about 
the bodily service (^aojy.aTLKriv l&iQsiav^ of 
the law. These then did not receive the 
epistles of the apostle, calling him an apostate 
from the law, and only used the gospel ac- 
cording to the Hebrews ; but they observed 
Sunday in commemoration of the resurrec- 
tion, keeping the Jewish sabbath.'* 

This description agrees in all material 
points with the account of TertuUian ; and 
without proceeding to deeper investigation, 
we may safely infer from it two historical 
truths — that the peculiar opinions of the 
Ebionites were confined (or nearly so) to the 
Jewish converts — and that they were neither 
wholly nor in part the doctrines of the ante- 
Nicene Church. 

It is well known that the high antiquity of 
the opinions of the Ebionites has been held 
by some to be an evidence of their truth ; but 
the same inference might be drawn, with the 
same reason, respecting the delusions of the 
Phantastics, which had at least as early an 
origin. The Ebionites probably arose after 
the publication of three of the gospels. The 
Gnostic errors of the Docetae may even have * 
preceded the preaching of the Apostles ; they 
were certainly contemporary with it. Again, 
if it be admitted that the Apostles were the 
interpreters of God's word, and if it be not 
proved that the sect of the Ebionites was 
founded by any one of them, and if it be 
certain that the fathers who subsequently 
directed the Church, and explained its doc- 
tiine, did invariably disclaim that sect, we 
may fairly conclude, that its opinions were 
neither favorably received, nor at all com- 
monly adopted. On the other hand, it is en- 
deavored, by confounding the Ebionites with 
the Gnostic Heretics, to make them in some 
degree accountable for all the absurdities of 
the latter ; and these, it is truly urged, had all 

* Le Cleic distinguishes the early from the more 
recent Ebionites, placing them respectively at ann. 72 
and 103. Tlie former he considers, on the authority 
of Jerome, to have been merely Jiidaizing Christians 
— who, as that Father remarks, in their wish to be 
both Jews and Christians, were neither. Le Clerc 
considers the Nazarenes to have been the same sect as 
the early Ebionites, ann. 72. Mosheim (De Reb. 
Christ, ant. Const. Sec i. sect. Iviii. and Sec, ii., 
sect, xxxix., xl. &c.) refers the rise of the Ebion- 
ites to the second century. 



a tendency to the opposite extreme, to spirit- 
ualize the body rather than to degrade the 
divine nature of Christ. And it is hence in- 
ferred, that it was Jesus alone to whom the 
Ebionites attributed a human nature, while 
they acknowledged the uncontaminated di- 
vinity of Christ. It is possible that there 
were some, calling themselves Ebionites, who 
were in fact merely Gnostics. But in the 
face of our direct authorities we cannot ad- 
mit the hypothesis in question. What Ter- 
tuUian and Eusebius* expressly tell us to 
have been the Ebionitical opinions respect- 
ing Christ, we camiot suppose to be meant 
of Jesus as opposed to Christ. And we feel 
obliged to believe, that those are as far re- 
moved from truth on the one hand, who dis- 
pute the early existence of the Unitarian opin- 
ions, as those are, on the other, who assert 
their early reception by the Church ; they 
have existed from the beginning, and from 
the beginning they have been condemned. 

Again, the doctrine of the mere humanity 
of Christ, separated from the Judaism of the 
Ebionites, w^as advanced towards the end of 
the second century by Theodotus and Arte- 
mon ; and during the episcopacy of Victor, 
the former was expelled from the Church of 
Rome for that error. Eusebius in this place 
designates him as the ^father of an impious 
apostasy,' — and in so far as he had divested 
the old opinion of its Judaism, and advanced 
it nakedly in the very face of the Church, 
the assertion is true. For any claim, which 
it may have advanced to a previous existence 
at Rome, or in any of the European Church- 
es, is sufficiently answered by reference to 
the writings of Justin, and Miltiades, and j 
Tatian, and Clement, and Irenseus, and Melito, I 
' by all of whom (says Eusebius) the divinity 
of Christ is asserted.' f 

Artemon. In the next century the heresy 
of Artemon (it became more generally known 
by his name) was revived by Paul of Samos- 
ata. Bishop of Antioch. | A synod of Bish- 
ops, Presbyters and deacons was convoked at 
Antioch in the year 269, to take cognizance 



* See also Irenseus L. iii. c. 24, and Epiphanius. 
Hjeres. 30. 

f iv olg d.Tiaai S-sqloysliav 6 Xqiuxbg. 
End. of ch. 5. 

X We follow in this statement the authority of Eu- 
sebius, and the opinion almost universally received. 
But it is fair to mention that Dr. Burton ingeniously 
argues, from a careful examination of contemporary 
evidence, compared chiefly with the assertions of 
Athanasius, that ' Paul believed Jesus to be a mere 
human being, but conceived him to become Christf 



THE EARLY HERESIES. 



77 



of the offence ; and Eusebius notices the 
eagerness with which they hurried ' from all 
directions against the defiler of Christ's flock.' 
In a numerous assembly, in his own metrop- 
olis, the Bishop found many defenders, but 
he was at length convicted and sentenced to 
expulsion from his throne. But as he resist- 
ed the execution of the sentence, and as the 
Church was not yet able to enforce its own 
judgments, application was made to the Em- 
peror Aurelian, whose authority finally re- 
moved the refractory offender. * These facts 
are sufficient to prove beyond controversy, 
that the opinion in question, whatever may 
have been the zeal or number of its indi- 
vidual supporters, was not at any period ac- 
knowledged by the Church. 

Praxeas. The controversy respecting the 
nature of Christ's existence on earth, which 
presently so branched out, as to mvolve the 
doctrine of the Trinity as well as the Incar- 
nation, may be said to have first assumed a 
tangible form under the pen of Praxeas, a 
writer of the Grecian school. He published 
his opinions about the year 200 a. d., and was 
answered very soon afterwards by the great 
champion of the church, Teitullian. The 
opinions of Praxeas (as is natural in a ques- 
tion capable of so much metaphysical sub- 
tilty) are variously represented ; f but the doc- 
trine of the Church is very clearly stated in 
Ihe following words of his antagonist.:]: ' We 

Dy being xmited to the eternal Logos of God.' — 
(Bampt. Lect. viii. notes 99. 102.) It does not ap- 
pear tliat the contemporaries of the Heretic placed 
that construction upon his doctrine. And Eusebius 
(H. E. L. vii. c. 27) expressly says — JOvrou de 
Tan&iv<k X(xl ^a^uainerri negl lov Xgiarov 
Tiaqa f^v i^nh^uiaaiLKriP dtdaaxaliav 
fgov^aaviog, (hg xoivov tt^v cpvoiv avd'oihnov 
pi'O^iBVOV, &c. &c. See Mosheim, De R. Christ, 
ante Const. Saec. iii. sect. 35. 

* Tills was the first instance of the interference of 
Ihe secular power in the internal affairs of the Church ; 
and consequently Baronius is warm in his praise of 
Aurelian— 'He was the first to point out^ that the im- 
perial authority should be called in to chastise those 
who did not acquiesce in episcopal decision.' Ad 
ann. 314. Sect. xxxv. We shall have occasion to 
recur to this subject hereafter. 

t They are chiefly to be divined from the treatise 
written against TertuUian. It should be mentioned 
also, that Praxeas had declared very strongly against 
Montanism, before TertuUian attacked him. 

X To us it is tlie great use of these controversies, 
that we learn from them the original doctrine of the 
Church. Thus during that respecting Paul of Sam- 
osata, the Council declared, (as we learn from Athan- 
asiiis,) ' that the Son existed before all things, and 



beheve in one God, but under the following 
dispensation or economy — that there is also a 
Son of God, his Word, who proceeded from 
Him ; by whom all things were made, and 
without whom nothing was made ; who was 
sent by him into the Virgin, and was born of 
her ; being both man and God, the son of 
man and the son of God, and called Jesus 
Christ ; he suffered, died and was buried, 
according to the Scriptures ; and was raised 
up again by the Father ; and was taken up 
into Heaven, there to sit at the right hand of 
the Father ; and thence to come to judge the 
quick and the dead ; who sent from Heaven, 
from his Father according to his promise, the 
Holy Ghost, the Comforter, the Sanctifier of 
the faith of all who believe in the Father, 
Son and Holy Ghost.' Such, according to 
this author, was the faith handed down in 
the Church, from the first preaching of the 
Gospel ; and we consider this to be historical 
trutli of no small importance.* 

Sahellius. The heresy of Praxeas was suc- 
ceeded, (or revived,) in the course of about 
fifty years, by that of Sabellius. Both pro- 
ceeded, in appearance, from the difficulty of 
reconciling the trinity with the unity of the 
Godhead — in reality, from our human and 
necessary incapacity to comprehend the na- 
ture of the union. But Greek philosophy 
was too vain to admit any limits to the 
human comprehension, and too disputatious 
to quit so fine a field for sophistry as was 
opened to it by an abstruse and inexplicable 
question. And certainly that philosophy lost 
nothuig either in minuteness or pertinacity, 
when it ascended to the climate, and em- 
ployed the genius of Africans, f Sabellius 
was an Afi-ican, and seemingly either Bishop, 
or Presbyter at Barce, the capital of the Cy- 
renaica ; he denied the distinct personality 
of the second and third persons of the Trin- 
ity, and mamtained that a certain energy 
only, proceeding from the supreme Parent, 



tliat he did not become God from being human, but 
that being God he took upon him the form of a ser- 
vant, and being the Logos he became flesh.' 

* It appears too from the examination of Irenaeus' 
writings against the Valentinians, that that more an- 
cient Father maintained, as far as he particularizes 
them, the same opinions. It has been observed, that 
TertuUian was the first author who used the words 
Trinitas and Persona in the theological sense. 

t See Mosheim, De R. Christ, ante Const. Saec. 
III. sect. 33. The different opinions, or rather the 
different shades of the same opinion, which have 
been ascribed to Sabellius, are there accurately 
treated. 



78 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



or a certain portion of the divine nature, was 
united to the son of God, the man Jesus. * 
And in the same manner he considered the 
Holy Ghost to be a portion of the everlasting 
Father. This error, into which he was led by 
an excessive fear of Tritheism, (the acknow- 
ledgment of three Gods.) was liable to the in- 
ference, that the Being who suffered on the 
Cross was in fact the Father ; hence his fol- 
lowers were called Patripassians. He was 
confuted by Dionysius, Bishop of Alexan- 
dria. 

in. We shall not dwell upon the varying 
shapes of mere frenzy. The deliberate er- 
rors of an informed and serious mind, how- 
ever in appearance remote from reason, al- 
ways merit some sort of consideration ; but 
the dreams of an ignorant fanatic can have 
no claims on our time or reflection. Perhaps 
we should place under this head some of the 
wilder of those heresies usually called Gnos- 
tic ; and some would refer to the same origin 
the opinions of the Manichaean sect ; but we 
shall here confine ourselves to those of the 
Montanists. About the year 170 a. d., a vain 
and superstitious enthusiast, named Montan- 
us, began to prophesy in Phrygia and other 
provinces of Asia Minor — he professed to be 
the Paraclete or Comforter, the same f who 
had descended upon the Apostles, and whose 
return on earth before the second coming of 
Christ, for the purpose of completing the di- 
vine Revelation, was expected by many of 
the faithful ; and his trances, and ecstatic 
raptures, and fanatic ravhigs, were probably 
regarded by the credulous and wondering 
multitude as the surest signs of divine inspi- 
ration. Certainly there were many in those 
regions who followed him; and his success 
was promoted by his association with two 
prophetesses, named Maxim ilia and Priscilla, 
who confirmed his mission, and shared his 
spirit. Another cause of the temporary 
fame of Montanism was the severity of the 
morality inculcated by it ; the strictest celiba- 
cy and the most rigid fasts were exacted from 
the proselytes, and this circumstance threw 
an appearance of sanctity round the sect, 
which seems to have deadened the penetra- 



* We perceive how nearly this opinion approaches 
to the old Gnostic heresy, which considered Christ as 
an JEon or Divine Emanation. united for a time to 
Jbe man Jesus — but for a time only — the Gnostics 
tvithdrew the JEon before the Crucifixion, and thus 
voided the conckislon charged against the Patripas- 
sians. 

t See Bishop Kaye on TertuUian, p. 23, et seq. 



tion of Tertullian, for jhe presendy professed 
himself its advocate. To that circumstance 
perhaps this heresy may be indebted for most 
of its celebrity; for it was condemned by 
certain Asiatic councils at the time of its 
eruption and it appears to have made very 
little progress after the second century, and at 
no time to have found general reception be- 
yond the precincts of its birth-place, though 
some remains of it subsisted there for two 
or three ages.* 

Before we quit the subject of Heresy, we 
must mention a controversy which divided 
the Chuixh during the third century, respect- 
ing the form of receiving a converted here- 
tic into the number of the orthodox. The 
Churches of the west f were, for the most 
part, of opinion, that the baptism of Here- 
tics was valid, and that the mere imposition 
of hands, attended by prayer, was form suf- 
ficient to solemnize their introduction within 
the pale: whereas the less moderate Chris- 
tians of Asia decided in council, that their 
admission must be preceded by repetition of 
baptism ; and this decision was approved and 
enforced by Cyprian in the Churches of Af- 
rica. I Stephen, Bishop of Rome, who was 
at the head of those who held the contrary 
opinion, conducted his opposition with in- 
judicious violence ; he excommunicated all 
who differed from him, and discovered, even 
thus early, the germs of papal arrogance.§ 
The mention of this controversy is impor- 
tant, at least on one account, as it gives 
us an additional proof of the very serious 
view m which Heresy was regarded by the 
Churchmen of those days, and the scrupu- 
lousness of their care to preserve the purity 
of the true faith. 

JVovatians. We may conclude with some 
notice of the sect of the Novatians, who 
were stigmatized at the time, both as schis- 

* We observe the name of Montanism among the 
heresies stigmatized in the Theodosian Code. 

t We may account for this greater moderation of 
the western Churches, by their having escaped some 
of the most extravagant and revolting among tlie eaily 
heresies — these, as they chiefly originated in the fa- 
natic imaginations of the east, were for the most part 
confined to those regions. 

^ The council of Carthage held by Cyprian, on 
this question, was in the year 256. Mosh. Gen. H. 
c. iii. p. ii. chap. iii. 

§ This controversy resembles, in two points, 
that before mentioned, respecting the celebration 
of Easter. The Roman was right peihaps in the 
principle, but overbearing and insolent in the 
manner. 



THE EARLY HERESIES. 



79 



matics and heretics ; * but who may perhaps 
be more properly considered as the earhest 
body of ecclesiastical reformers. They arose 
at Rome about the year 250 a. d. ; and sub- 
sisted until the fifth century throughout every 
part of Christendom, f Novatian, a Presby- 
ter of Rome, j: was a man of great talents 
and learning, and of character so austere, 
that he was unwilling under any circumstan- 
ces of contrition, to readmit those who had 
been once separated from the communion 
of the Church. And this severity he would 
have extended not only to those who had 
fallen by deliberate transgression, but even 
to such as had made a forced compromise 
of their faith under the terrors of perse- 
cution. He considered the Christian Church 
as a society, where virtue and innocence 
reigned universally, and refused any longer 
to acknowledge, as membei's of it, those who 
had once degenerated into unrighteousness; § 
This endeavor to revive the spotless moral 
purity of the primitive faith was found incon- 
sistent with the corruptions even of that early 
age: it was regarded with suspicion by the 
leading prelates, |1 as a vain and visionary 
scheme ; and those rigid principles, which 
had characterized and sanctified the Churchy 
in the first century, were abandoned to the 
profession of schismatic sectaries in the third. 
From a review of what has been written 
on this subject, some truths may be derived 
of considerable historical importance ; the 
following are among them : 1. In the midst 
of perpetual dissent and occasional contro- 
versy, a steady and distinguishable line, both 

* Cornel, ap. Cypr. Ep. 50 (or 48); Cyprian, 
Ep. 54. As to the latter charge, even their adversa- 
ries do not advance any point of doctrine on which 
tliey deviated from the Church. See Note 4, or p. 
33. supr. 

t (Mosh. Gen. Hist. Cent. iii. end) — Especially, as 
it would seem, in Plirygia — where their rigid prac- 
tices brought thein into danger of being confounded 
with the Montanists. Lardner, Cred. Gosp. Hist. p. 
ii. ch. 47. 

t Euseb. H. E. L. vi. c. 43.— Jerom. de Vir. lUust. 
c. 70. He is believed to have been a convert ft-om 
some sect of philosophy, probably the Stoic. Lard- 
ner perseveres in calling him Novatus; not, however, 
intending to confound him with an unworthy associate, 
presbyter of Cartilage, also named Novatus — and 
severely censured by Cyprian.— See Tillem. Mem. H. 
Eccles. vol. iii. p. 433, 435, ad. ann. 251. 

§ His followers called themselves Cathari— Puri- 
tans. 

II It should be mentioned that Cornelius, Bishop 
of Rome, the principal opponent of Novatian's opin- 
ions, had motives for personal enmity against that 
Ecclesiastic. 



in doctrine and practice, was maintained by 
the early Church, and its efforts against those, 
whom it called Heretics, were zealous and 
persevering, and for the most part consistent. 
Its contests were fought with the ' sword of 
the Spirit,' with the arms of reason and elo- 
quence ; and as they were always unattended 
by personal oppression, so were they most 
effectually successful — successful, not in es- 
tablishing a nominal unity, nor silencing the 
expression of private opinion, but in main- 
taining the purity of the faith, in preserving 
the attachment of the gi-eat majority of the 
believers, and in consigning, either to imme- 
diate disrepute, or early neglect, all the un- 
scriptural doctrines which were successively 
arrayed against it. 2. The greater part of 
the early heresies was derived from the im- 
pure mixture of profane philosophy with the 
simple revelation of the Gospel. Hence pro- 
ceeded those vain and subtle disputations 
respecting things incomprehensible, which 
would indeed have been less pernicious, had 
they only exercised the ingenuity of men, 
without engaging their passions ; their bitter 
fruits were not fully gathered until a later 
age : but they served, even in their origin, to 
perplex the faith, and disturb the harmony 
of many devout Christians. 3. No pubhc 
dispute had hitherto risen respecting the 
manner of salvation — for the conclusions de- 
ducible from the Gnostic hallucinations are 
not worthy of serious consideration ; the 
great questions respecting predestination and 
grace had not yet become matter of contro- 
versy, nor had any of the fundamental doc- 
trines Df Christianity been assailed, excepting 
the Trinity and the Incarnation. 4. There 
was yet no dissent on the subject of Church 
Government. It was universally and undis- 
putedly Episcopal ; even the reformer Nova- 
tian, after his expulsion from the Church, 
assumed the direction of his own rigid sect 
under the title of Bishop ; and if any dissatis- 
faction had existed as to the established 
method of directing the Church, it would 
certainly have displayed itself on the occa- 
sion of a schism, which entirely respected 
matters of practice and discipline. 

Early Fathers. As we have made frequent 
mention of the principal writers, commonly 
called Fathers, of the ancient Church, we 
shall subjoin to this chapter a very short ac- 
count of some of the eai-liest among them. 
We do not profess any blind veneration for 
their names, or submission to their opinions ; 
but we are very far removed from the con- 



80 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



tempt of either. For if we are to bend to 
any human authority (as in such matters some 
of us must always do, and all of us some- 
times,) those are assuredly the safest objects 
of our reverence, who stood nearest to the 
source of revelation, and received the cup of 
knowledge from the very hands of the Apos- 
tles. They were erring and feeble mortals, 
like ourselves ; much inferior in intellectual 
discipline, and vitiated by early prejudices 
necessarily proceeding from the oblique prin- 
ciples and perverse systems of their day. 
Nevertheless they were earnest and ardent 
Christians ; in respect at least to their religion 
they had access to infallible instructers, and 
the lessons which they have transmitted to 
us, howsoever imperfectly transmitted, should 
be received with attention and respect. 

The Apostolical Fathers are those who 
were contemporary with the Apostles ; some 
of whom are known, and all of whom may 
be reasonably believed, to have shared their 
conversation, and profited by their instruction. 
These are St. Barnabas, Clement of Rome, 
Hermas, Ignatius and Polycarp. They were 
all (excepting probably Clement) natives of 
the east, and all originally wrote in the Greek 
language. The works which have reached 
us under their names are not numerous ; and 
though the genuineness of some of them has 
been justly suspected, there is no reason to 
doubt the very high antiquity of all. They 
were composed with various objects, accord- 
ing to the dispositions or circumstances of 
their writers. The design of the epistle at- 
tributed to St. Barnabas was to abate the res- 
pect for the peculiar rites and institutions of 
the Jewish laws, and to show that they were 
not binding upon Christians. The ' Shepherd 
of Hermas ' consists of three books, in the 
first of which are four visions, in the second 
twelve commands, in the third ten similitudes. 
The first and third parts are of course very 
fanciful, yet were they not perhaps unsuited 
to the genius of the countries and the age to 
which they were addressed ; the second con- 
tains some excellent moral precepts ; and all 
abound with paraphrastical allusions to the 
books of the New Testament. The epistles 
of Ignatius have suffered many obvious in- 
terpolations and corruptions ; but learned 
and candid critics, who have distinguished 
and rejected these, still leave us much behind 
of undisputed origin. The author was Bish- 
op of Autioch ; he suffered martyrdom about 
the year 107 a. n., and the opinion that he 
invited, rather than shunned this fate, seems 
to l)e consistent with the ardor of his charac- 



ter. The genuineness of Polycarp's epistle 
to the Philippians has scarcely been ques- 
tioned ; * it was written (soon after the death 
of Ignatius) in the spirit of sincere piety ; it 
abounds with scriptural expressions and fre- 
quent quotations of the recorded words of 
Christ. Polycarp was Bishop of Smyrna on 
the appointment (as is asserted without any 
improbability) of the Apostle St. John : and 
he suffered martyrdom, as we have already 
described, in the reign of Marcus Antoninus. 
But the most important record of the apos- 
tolical age remaining to us is the ' Epistle of 
the Church of Borne to the Church of Co- 
rinth,' written about the year 96 a. d. by Cle- 
ment Bishop of Rome. Its object was to 
allay some internal dissensions of the Corin- 
thians, and it contains many useful and noble 
truths, flowing from a vigorous mind and 
purely Christian spirit, in language never 
feeble, and occasionally eloquent. 

Those pious persons wrote before any as- 
sociation had taken place between philosophy 
and religion, and were better instructed in 
the knowledge of Scripture than in the. les- 
sons of the Schools ; and their method of 
reasoning, no less than their style, attests the 
want of profane education ; still it possesses 
a persuasive simplicity well suited both to the 
chareCcter of the writers, and the integrity of 
their faith. The fundamental doctrines of 
Christianity are clearly and scripturally incul- 
cated by them ; and these are every where 
so interwoven with the highest precepts of 
morality, as to prove to us that the belief of 
those men was inseparable from their prac- 
tice, and that it had not ever occurred to them 
to draw any verbal distinction between these ; 
they delivered the truths which had been en- 
trusted to them, and associated their moral I 
and doctrinal instructions as uiseparable parts f ' 
of the same scheme. This perhaps is the 
most peculiar feature in their compositions, 
and that in which they most resemble the 
inspired writings. Another is the utter neg- 
lect of formal arrangement in the display 
of theu' arguments, or the delivery of their 
rules of conduct ; a neglect which unques- 
tionably exposed them to the contempt of the 
philosopher, who sought in vain for a system 
in their lore, but which well accorded with 
the plain and unpretending character of truth. 
But that merit by which they have conferred 
the most lasting advantage on Christianity, 
(at least the three last of them,) and whicJi 
will make them very valuable monuments, in 
every age, is their frequent reference to al- 

* Lardner. Cred. of Gosp. Hist. p. ii. cli vi. 



THE EARLY HERESIES. 



1 



most all the books of the New Testament, 
such as we now possess them. Thus they 
furnish us with decisive evidence of the gen- 
uineness of those books ; and their testimony 
is hable to no suspicion, because it was not 
given with any such view. 

The principal Greek writers, who imme- 
diately succeeded the apostolical Fathers, 
were Justin Martyr and Irenseus. Justin 
Martyr was a learned Samaritan, who, after 
having successively attached himself to the 
Stoics, the Peripatetics, the Pythagoreans, 
and the Platonists, discovered the insufficien- 
cy and emptiness of philosophy. His atten- 
tion was called to Christianity by the suffer- 
ings inflicted upon its profession, and the 
firmness with which he had beheld them en- 
dured. He inferred that men so contemptu- 
ous of death were far removed fi-om the 
moral degradation with which they were 
charged ; and that the faith for which they 
died so fearlessly must stand on some foun- 
dation. He examined that foundation, and 
discovered its stability.* The sincerity of 
his conversion is attested by his martyrdom. 
He was executed by the Emperor, whose 
philosophy he had deserted ; and he perhaps 
never was so strongly sensible of the superi- 
ority of that which he had preferred, as at 
the moment when he died for it.f He wrote 
two apologies for Christianity, the first proba- 
bly addressed to Antoninus Pius, the second 
to Marcus ; — and a (supposed) dialogue with 
a Jew named Trypho. This last contains 
many weak arguments, and trifling and even 
erroneous interpretations of Scripture, mixed 
up with some useful matter. The two form- 
er are more valuable compositions ; they were 
so in those days — ^l)ecause they contained the 
best defence of religion which had then been 
published, maintained by arguments veiy 
well calculated to persuade those to whom 
they were addressed ; and they are still so, 
because we find in them many quotations 
from the same four Gospels which we now 
acknowledge ; they relate many interesting 
facts, respecting the religious customs and 
ceremonies of the Christians of those times ; 
and they prove the general acceptance of all 
the fundamental articles of our belief. As 



* See Jortin — Remarks, &c. B. ii. p. i. A. D. 
150. Also supra pp. 30, 31. 

I It has been often asserted, and we believe without 
contradiction, that no man ever died in attestation of 
the truth of any philosophical tenet. But those who 
lay much stress on this fact shoiild show, tliat an op- 
^»ortunity for martyrdom has ever been afforded to any 
philosophical sect. 

11 



Justin flourished only one century after the 
preaching of Christ, (his conversion is usually 
placed at the year 133 from the birth of our 
Saviour,) we are not extending the value of 
tradition beyond its just limits, when we con- 
sider his opinions as receivmg some addition- 
al weight from their contiguity to the apos- 
tolical times ; and if it were possible to mark 
by any decided limit the extent of ti*adition- 
ary authority, we should be disposed to trace 
the line immediately after his name ; for ad- 
mitting that Irenaeus, who presently succeed- 
ed him, by his oriental birth and correspond- 
ence may have received some uncorrupted 
communications transmitted through two gen- 
erations from the divine origm, we shall still 
find it very difficult to distinguish these from 
the mere human matter with which they may 
be associated ; and this difficulty will increase, 
as we descend lower down the stream ; so 
that we may safely detach the notion of pe- 
culiar sanctity or conclusive authority * from 
the names and writings of the succeeding 
Fathers, though they contain much that may 
excite our piety, and animate our morality, 
and confirm our faith. 

Irenseus was Bishop of Lyons, about the 
year 178 a. d. He is chiefly celebrated for 
his five books ' Against Heresies ; ' containing 
confutations of most of the errors which had 
then appeared in the Church. Though the 
language which he employs in this contest is 
not always that best adapted either to per- 
suade or to conciliate, his sincere aversion 
from religious dissension is not questioned. 
It is proved indeed by the epistle which he 
addressed to Victor, Bishop of Rome, on his 
insolent demeanor in the controversy respect- 
ing Easter, and which breathes a generous 
spirit of Christian moderation. And in good 
truth the individual exertions of Churchmen 
against the progress of unscriptural opinions 
were in those days the more necessaiy, and 
then- wannth the more excusable, as there 

* We might divide the first 313 years of the Christ- 
ian tera into tliree periods, in respect to its internal 
history. The first centurj' was the age of Clirist and 
the Apostles, of miracles and inspiration inherent in 
the Church; the next fifty years we may consider as 
that of the Apostolical Fathei's, enlightened by some 
lingering rays of the departed glory, which were suc- 
cessively and insensibly withdi"awn ; the third was 
the period of severe probation and bitter anxiety, 
unalleviated by extraordinary aids, and so far removed 
from human consolation, that the powers of the earth 
might seem to have conspired with the meanest of its 
progeny, in order to oppress and desolate the Church 
of Ck'ist — yet even this was not Avithout the Spirit of 
God. 



82 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



were yet no articles of faith to trace out the 
limits of orthodoxy, nor any acknowledged 
head, nor any legally established system of 
ecclesiastical government. The unity and 
purity of the Church were chiefly preserved 
by the independent labors of its most em- 
inent and influential ministers, divided as 
they were both by language, and manners, 
and distance, and entirely unsupported by 
any temporal authority. So that, if we were 



still disposed to feel any surprise at finding 
such numerous forms of heresy, so very near 
both to the time and place where the Reve- 
lation was delivered, the above considerations 
would tend to remove it ; while they certain- 
ly teach us, that such errors cannot perma- 
nently or generally prevail against scriptural 
truth, as long as they are steadily opposed 
by temperate and reasonable argument, and 
by no other weapon than argument only. 



PART II. 



FROM THE ACCESSION OF CONSTANTINE TO, THE DEATH OF 

CHARLEMAGNE. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Constantine the Great. 

"Victory over Maxentius — supposed conversion — the 
miracle of the luminous Cross — evidence for and 
against it — the latter conclusive — The Edict of Milan 

— its nature and effects — union of the whole Empire 
under Constantine — His moral character — sincerity 
of his conversion — unjustly disputed — Remarks on 
his policy — power of the Christians — Alterations in- 
troduced into the constitution of the Church — Its na- 
ture at Constantine's accession — spiritual and tempo- 
ral power — union and strength of the early Church — 
how cemented — View of the Church probably taken 
by Constantine — he sought its alliance — Three periods 
of the ecclesiastical life of Constantine — How circum- 
stanced with regard to the state Constantine found the 
Church — He assumes the supremacy — Rights of the 
Church — Its Internal administration — little altered in 
theory — permission to bequeath property to the Church 

— Independent jurisdiction of the Bishops — on what 
founded — External — subject to the Emperor-— what 
particulars included in it — General observations — 
Constantine usurped nothing from the Church — Inde- 
terminate limits of the civil and spiritual authority — 
Alterations in the titles and gradations of the Hierarchy 

— preeminence unattended by authority — Conclusion 

— Note on Eusebius. 

During the early part of Diocletian's per- 
secution Constantius Chlorus ruled, with as 
much humanity as circumstances permitted 
him to exercise, the provinces of the West. 
On his death, at York, in the year 306, the 
army proclaimed Constantine, his son. Em- 
peror. In the meantime, the provinces 
eastward of Gaul were distracted by the 
dissensions of rival emperors which favored 
the growing strength of Constantine. In 
311, Galerius, the fiercest among the assail- 
ants of Christianity, died, and his dominions 
were divided between Maximin and Licini- 
us ; Maxentius had already usurped the 
government of Italy and Africa. Presently 
Constantine, justified, as most assert, by suf- 



ficient provocation, marched into Italy and 
overthrew Maxentius in the immediate neigh- 
borhood of Rome ; that tyrant (as all admit 
him to have been) was drowned in the Tiber, 
and his doramions were added to the posses- 
sions of the conqueror. This event took 
place in the year 312 ; and it has been usually 
assigned as marking the period of Constan- 
tine's conversion to Christianity. A mirac- 
ulous story * is connected with this epoch in 
our history. As the Emperor w^as marching 
toward Rome, at the head of his army, he 
beheld a luminous Cross, suspended about 
noonday in the air, and inscribed with the fol- 
lowing words — TovTU) viaa — ^By this conquer.^ 
The phenomenon confirmed his uncertain 
faith, and afforded him the surest omen of 
victory. But this was not ail : during the 
ensuing night the form of Christ himself 
presented itself with the same Cross, and 
directed him to frame a standard after that 
shape. And it is certain that, about that 
period, and possibly on that occasion, a 
standard v/as so framed, and continued for 
many following years to be displayed, when 
ever it became necessary to excite the en- 
thusiasm of the Christian soldiers — but the 
extraordinary appearances to whicJi its adop 
tion is ascribed demand the most rigid exam 
ination. 

In the firet place, the story which we have 
shortly given is related by no contemporary 
author, excepting Eusebius ; next, it is relat- 



* In the relation of this story we have ventured to 
omit the dream published by the uncertain author of 
the book De Mortibus Persecutorum, as well as Naz- 
arius's army of divine warriors. We confine our- 
selves to that, which appears under the more respec- 
table authority of Eusebius. See Gibbon, chap, xx. 



CONSTANTINE. 



83 



ed in his Life * of Constantine, and not in 
his Ecclesiastical Histoi-y ; it is related in the 
year 338, or six-and-twenty years after the 
supposed appearance ; it is related on the 
authority of Constantine alone, though it 
must have been witnessed by his whole army, 
and notorious tliroughout his whole empire ; 
and lastly it was published after the death 
of Constantine. In an age, wherein pious 
frauds had already acquired some honor ; by a 
wi'iter, who, respectable as he undoubtedly is, 
and faithful in most of his historical records, 
does not even profess those rigid rules of ve- 
racity which command universal credit ; f in 
a book, which rather weai'S the character of 
partial panegjaic, than of exact and scrupu- 
lous history — a flattering fable might be pub- 
lished and believed ; but it can claim no 
place among the authentic records of history, 
and by writers, whose only object is truth, it 
may very safely be consigned to contempt 
and oblivion. | 

The defeat of Maxentius was followed by 
a conference between Constantine and Licin- 
ius, which led to the pubhcation, in the 
March of 313, of the celebrated Edict of 
Milan. 

Edict of Milan. This Edict was a proc- 
lamation of universal toleration ; but its ad- 
vantages were of course chiefly or entirely 
reaped by the Christians, as theirs had been 
the only religion not already tolerated. It 
gave back to them the civil and religious 
rights of which they had been deprived ; it 
restored without dispute, delay or expense, 
the places of worship which had been de- 



* Euseb. Vit. Const. 1. l.,c. 28, 29, 80, 31. 

t Eusebius says, that Constantine related the story 
to himself on oath^ May we not believe Eusebius in 
this 1 And may we not also suppose, that the Empe- 
ror deceived him in some moment, when enthusiasm, 
or indisposition, or mere human weakness had brought 
him first to deceive himself 1 He may really have re- 
collected some uncommon appearance about the Sun, 
not strongly noticed at the moment, but which the im- 
agination of memory heated by exciting events, or 
by passion, or by feverish sickness, may have convert- 
ed into a miracle. The story of tlie vision (which 
stands indeed on rather better authority) might be 
merely the exaggeration of a dream. At least this 
supposition has nodiing in it unnatural ; and it is tlie 
only supposition which can save both the intention 
of the Emperor and the veracity of the historian. 
See Note at the end of the chapter. 

t It is somewhat singular, that on this same occasion, 
Blaxentius is related by the Pagan historian, Zosimus, 
(who makes no mention of the Christian miracle, lib. 
ii.,) to have carefully consulted the Sibylline books, 
and credulously applied to his own circumstances a 
prediction v-hich he found there. 



molished, and the lands which had been 
confiscated— and free and absolute power 
was granted to the Christians, and to all oth- 
ers, of following the religion which every 
individual might think proper to follow. 

Immediately afterwards, Liciidus, who was 
no fi-iend to Christianity, overthrew the east- 
ern Emperor IMaximin, who had been its 
savage adversary, and became master of the 
empire of the east. A war followed between 
the conqueror and Constantine, wdiich ter- 
minated, in 315, to die advantage of the 
latter, who on that occasion extended his 
empii'e to the eastern limits of Europe ; eight 
years of peace succeeded, which were em- 
ployed by the Christian Emperor in securmg 
the real interests and legislating for the hap- 
piness of his subjects. This period of rare 
tranquillity was succeeded by a second war* 
with Licinius, which terminated in 3.24 by 
his submission and death, and by the conse- 
quent union of the w^hole empire under the 
sceptre of Constantine. 

The year which followed the final success 
of Constantine was disgraced by the execu- 
tion of his eldest son ; and it is not disputed, 
that the progress of his career was marked 
by the usual excesses of intemperate and 
worldly ambition. Some of his laws f were 
severe even to cruelty, and the general pro- 
priety of his moral conduct cannot with any 
justice be maintained. Hence a suspicion 
has arisen as to the sincerity of his conver- 
sion — chiefly, as it appears to us, or entirely 
founded on the inadequacy of his chai-acter 
to his profession. But is there any page in 
Christian history, or any form of Chrisdan 
society, which does not mournfully attest the 
possibility of combining the most immoral 
conduct with the most unhesitating faith ? 
Or is this a condition of humanity, from 
which monarchs are more exempt than their 
subjects ? We should recollect, moreover, 
that the character of Constantine, notwith- 
standing its grevious stains, will bear a com- 

* This is considered by Eusebius (Vit. Constant, 
lib. ii.) almost in the light of a religious war — the 
first, if it was so, among the many by which the name 
of Clu-ist has been profaned. 

f Nevertheless, the general spirit of his laws was 
decidedly humane and favorable to the progress of 
civilisation — for instance, he made decrees tending to 
the termination of slavery; he abolished some barba- 
rous forms of punishment, as branding, for instance; 
he restrained exorbitant usury, and endeavored to 
prevent the exposure of children, by relieving the 
poor. See Jortin, Ecc. Hist, book iii. Fleurj'. 
Hist. Eccl. L. X. Sect. 21. Baronius, ad ann. 315. 
Sect. SO. 



84 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



parison with some of the best among his 
pagan predecessors ; while it was fi-ee from 
those monstrous deformities which distin- 
guished not a few of them, and which have 
indeed been rarely paralleled in Christian 
history. But even had his conduct been 
more reprehensible, than in truth it was, it 
would have furnished very insufficient evi- 
dence against the sincerity of bis belief. 
Again, it was usual in those days, in contin- 
uance of a practice of which we have men- 
tioned the cause and origin, to defer the sac- 
rament of Baptism until the approach of 
death, and then once to administer it, as the 
means of regeneration and the assurance of 
pardon and grace. In compliance with this 
custom* the emperor was not baptized (he 
did not even become a Catechumen f ) until 
his last illness ; but no argument can hence 
be drawn against his sincerity, which would 
not equally apply to a large proportion of the 
Christians in his empire. In his favor the fol- 
lowing facts should be obsei-ved. For many 
years he had publicly and consistently pro- 
fessed his belief in Christianity: in a long 
discourse, which is still extant, he even expa- 
tiated on its various proofs; he began his 
reign by protecting the believers ; in its pro- 
gress he favored and honored them ; he 
inscribed the cross on the banners of the 
empire ; he celebrated the festivals, of tlie 
Church ; he associated in the closest intima- 
cy with Christian writers I and prelates ; he 
inquired into all the particulars of their faith, 
and displayed what some have thought an 
inconsiderate zeal for its purity. By such 
reasons, according to every fair principle of 
historical inference, we are precluded from 
any reasonable doubt on this subject ; nor 



* Constantius in like manner put off his Baptism 
till his last illness, (Athanas. lib. de Synodis) so did 
Theodosius the Great, until the illness which he mis- 
took for his last. Socrat. 1. v. c. 6. 

t From Euseb. de Vit. Const, lib. iv. c. 61., it 
appears that tlie Emperor, just before his baptism, re- 
ceived for the first time the imposition of hands, usual 
in making a Catechumen. But in the same work, 
(lib. i. c. 32,) it would seem that he was yaTi]/7]delg 
on his first profession of Clu-istianity, immediately 
after the vision. We are disposed to attach greater 
credit to tlie former account. See Fleury, 1. xi. 
sect. 60. 

X Lactantius possessed his confidence, while his 
command was confined to the West, and Eusebius en- 
joyed tluroughout his life great influence at the Court 
of Constantinople. The respect which he paid to the 
festivals of the Church, his ' diligence in prayer,' the 
issuing of medals throughout the Empire, in which he 
is represented in tlie attitude of devotion, are facts 
mentioned by Euseb. Vit. Const. 1. iv. c 15 & 22. 



need we hesitate for a moment to acquit a 
wise and, in many respects', a virtuous Prince 
of the odious charge of the foulest descrip- 
tion of hypocrisy.* 

At the same time, we are willing to ad 
mit that his conduct to the Christians was 
strictly in accordance with his interests ; and 
it is very probable, that the protection with 
which he distinguished them may in the Jirsl 
instance have originated in his policy. But 
this is perfectly consistent with his subse- 
quent conversion. And we may here re- 
mark, that those who assign policy as his 
chief or only motive, bear the strongest evi- 
dence to the power and real importance 
which the Church of Christ had acquired 
before his time ; thpy attest, that its stability 
had not been shaken by the sword of Diocle- 
tian ; that by its own unassisted and increas- 
ing energy it had triumphed over the fury of 
the most determined of its persecutors, and 
that its claims on the justice and respect of 
the Throne, though only urged by perse- 
verance in suffering, could no longer be over- 

* A vain dispute has been raised as to the proba- 
ble moment of his conversion, into which we shall not 
enter, because the truth is not discoverable, and if it 
were, would still be unprofitable. Gibbon affects to 
set some value on it, because he would willingly prove 
that Constantine was no real proselyte. Two facts he 
mentions in support of his suspicion — that Constantine 
' persevered till he was near forty years of age in the 
practice of the established religion,' especially in the 
worship of Apollo; and that in the same year (321) 
he published two Edicts, the fiist of which enjoined 
the solemn observance of Sunday, (Euseb. Vit. Const. 
1. iv. c. 18,) and tlie second directed the regular con- 
sultation of aruspices. Both are literally true; but 
the inferences drawn from both are felse — Constantine 
did not profess his religion, perhaps he did not adopt 
it, until the campaign against Maxentius in 312 — he 
had previously protected and favored the Christians, 
but till then he did not proclaim, nor could he perhaps 
safely have proclaimed, his own belief; but he seized 
tlie earliest moment to do so, and during the twenty- 
five following years, he maintained his profession with 
ardent and active perseverance. By bringing for- 
ward the second facias an argument against his belief, 
the historian has forgotten that tlie Edict of Milan 
was an Edict of universal toleration, protecting al! 
Pagan, as well as all Christian, ceremonies; so that 
the two proclamations, which he is willing to expose 
as inconsistent, were only the necessary consequence 
of that generous policy, which had been so little un- 
derstood by the Pagan Emperors. Before we quit 
this subject we should mention, that Zosimus (lib. ii.) 
attributes Constantine's change of faith to the persua- 
sion, instilled into him by one ^Egyptius, a Spaniard, 
that the remission of sine attended the act of conver- 
sion to Christianity. Thus it appears, at least, that 
the Pagan Historian did not doubt the reality of the 
conversion, tliough he may have mistaken its motive. 



CONSTANTINE. 



85 



looked with safety. And this fact is of much 
greater historical importance, than the mo- 
tives or sincerity of any indiyidual can possi- 
bly be. 

Let us now proceed to ascertain what was 
the condition and constitution of the Church, 
as Constantino found it ; what were the prin- 
cipal alterations introduced by him, and in 
what form and attitude he left it. 

Constitution of the Church, We have al- 
ready described the free and independent 
constitution of the primitive Church; the 
Bishops and teachers were chosen by the 
clergy and people ; the Bishop managed the 
ecclesiastical affah's of his diocese, in council 
Avith the Presbyters, and ' with a due regard 
to the suffrages of the whole assembly of the 
people.' Again, the great ecclesiastical di- 
visions of the empire appear from the ear- 
liest period naturally to have followed the 
political ; and thus for the regulation of mat- 
ters relating to the interests of a whole Pro- 
vince, whether they were religious contro- 
versies, or the forms and rites of divine ser- 
vice, or other things of like moment, the 
Bishops of the Provmce assembled in coun- 
cil, and deliberated and legislated. 

We have also remarked, that during the 
course of the third century this constitution 
was so far changed, that the episcopal au- 
thority was somewhat advanced, at the ex- 
pense of that of the inferior ministers and 
the people. But in all other respects the 
government of the Church remained in real- 
ity the same, and perhaps even in this respect 
it was apparently so ; for the forms of the les- 
ser or diocesan councils were still preserved, 
though the relative influence of the three par- 
ties composing them had undergone a change. 

And here it will be proper to examine how 
far those are correct who consider the Church 
at that period, as a separate Republic or Bo- 
dy-politic distinguished from the empire. In 
the first place — the synods which we have 
mentioned, local as well as provincial, as- 
sumed the office and power to arrange ec- 
clesiastical affairs, and to punish ecclesiastical 
oftences. But neither was their power ac- 
knowledged by the civil Government, nor 
were their awards or censures enforced by it. 
Again, the Bishop, through an authority 
which professed to be derived from Scripture, 
and which may certainly be traced to the 
earliest age, exerted a kind of mediative in- 
terference throughout his diocese, in the civil 
disputes of the Christians, to which tliey very 
frequently appealed, and admitted his decis- 
ions as conclusive ; but no such jurisdictioii 



was recognised by the Government, nor were 
any such decisions legally valid. Bloreover, 
some of the Churches had become possessed, 
as corporate bodies, of considerable property 
in land or buildings purchased from the com- 
mon fund, and applied to the purposes of the 
society ; but the Government never formally 
acknowledged the legality of those acquisi- 
tions, and availed itself, as we have already 
seen, of the first pretext to confiscate them. 

It is in this condition of ecclesiastical af- 
fairs, that we may discover perhaps the ear- 
liest vestige of the distinction, which will 
hereafter become so famiUar to us, between 
spiritual and temporal power — though in the 
present indefinite shape and imperfect de- 
velopement of the former, we can scarcely 
trace any intimation of its future proportions 
and magnitude. We perceive also, on how 
strange and UTegiilar a foundation the secu- 
rity of the early Church was established — in 
fact, to a statesman of those days, before the 
force of religious union and the intensity of 
religious attachment were generally known 
and understood, the society or communion 
which rested not on a political basis, would 
naturally appear to possess no pi-inciple of 
stability. To the eye of a Pagan its strength 
was imperceptible, as the elements which 
composed it were concealed from him ; and 
it was this circumstance which encouraged 
Diocletian to an aggression, of which the 
barbarity indeed shocked him, but of which 
he never, perhaps, doubted the success, since 
the power which resisted it was unseen and 
incomprehensible. In the mean time, the 
public discipline, which had been made ne- 
cessary by the neglect of the civil power, was 
cemented and fortified by its opposition ; and 
the private smcerity of belief, which could 
not be understood by a Pagan, because Pa- 
ganism had nothing to do with Truth, was 
animated into contumacy by the sense of in- 
justice and injury. 

It is even probable, that the union of the 
scattered Churches was facilitated by the in- 
crease of the episcopal authority in each ; for 
they thus acquired that decision and steadi- 
ness of continuous exertion, which marks 
individual superintendence, and which would 
scarcely have been so constant and uniform, 
had the government of the dioceses retained, 
in its utmost strictness, its original popular 
character. The power of the Bishops made 
them formidable only to the persecutor ; their 
interests demanded their union and their 
union was then the only security for that of 
tlie whole Church, and thereby (without the 



86 



HISTORY OF THE CJIURCH. 



direct interposition of Providence) for its ac- 
tual preservation. 

To us, indeed, it seems nearly certain, that 
these pov^'erful but latent principles of eccle- 
siastical stability, which repelled the assault 
of Diocletian, would have preserved the 
Church through a much severer trial, if the 
genius of Constantine had not discovered its 
real strength, and courted its friendship and 
alliance. It is true, that in becoming ac- 
quainted with its strength, he also discovered 
its virtues; in the excellence of the Christian 
system, he perceived a great omen of its per- 
petuity—he saw too, that, as a rule for civil- 
ized society, it was more efficient than any 
human law, because more powerful in its 
motives to obedience; and perhaps he re- 
marked also, that the energy of Christians 
had hitherto been confined to submission and 
endurance — to unoffending, unresisting per- 
severance — and this outward display of loy- 
alty might lead him to overlook that free 
spirit, which pervaded both the principles 
of the religion and the government of the 
Church, and which in later ages was so com- 
monly found in opposition to despotism. 

Coiistantine admired the morality of the 
Christians, he loved their submission to arbi- 
trary power, and he respected that internal 
and advancing vigor, which had triumphed 
over so many persecutors. These, we doubt 
not, were the motives which induced him to 
seek the alliance of the Church, and to con- 
fer on it advantages, not more substantial, 
perhaps, than those which he received from 
it. 

'' We are disposed to divide the ecclesiastical 
life of Constantine into three periods. In 
the first of these he confined himself, at least 
ostensibly, to the impartial toleration of all 
religions, though he legally established that 
of the Christians. This extends from the 
Edict of Milan to the council of Nice in the 
year 325. His next occupation was to define 
the doctrines, and thus to preserve the unity 
of the Chnrch, which he had established. It 
was not till the third and latest period of his 
life, that he attacked the superstition of his 
forefathers, l)y edicts directly levelled against 
Paganism. The Arian controversy and the 
overthrow of Paganism will form tlie sub- 
jects of separate chapters — at present we shall 
endeavor to point out the. most important 
alterations introduced during this reign into 
the constitution of the Church, and their im- 
mediate effects upon its ministers and mem- 
bers. Constantine found the Church an in- 
ilependeiit body, a kind of self-constituted 



commonwealth, which might sometimes be 
at peace, and sometimes at variance with the 
civil government, but wliich was never ac- 
knowledged as any part of the whole body 
politic ; it had a separate administration, sep- 
arate laws, and frequently (through the per- 
versity of its persecutors) separate interests 
also. The Christian, as a citizen of the em- 
pire, was subject of course to the universal 
statutes of the empire — as a member of the 
Church, he owed a distinct allegiance to the 
spiritual directors of the Church; and though 
this allegiance was never inconsistent with 
his civil obedience, except when that obedi- 
ence would have deprived him of his relig- 
ion, it was founded on more commanding 
motives, and was one from which no earthly 
authority was sufficient to absolve him. Thus 
far, and thus far only, his ecclesiastical divid- 
ed him from his civil duties ; to this extent 
they placed him, at all times, in divergency 
from the State, and, in times of persecution, 
in actual opposition to it. And so long as 
the Church which he honored was disclaimed 
as a part, or associate, of the State ; so long 
as the space between them was broad and 
distinguishable, so long the limits of his al- 
legiance to either were very clearly marked. 
Constantine comprehended the nature, and 
perceived the inconveniences and the danger, 
of this disunion ; and he therefore employed 
the earliest exertion of his power and policy to 
acknowledge the existence, to consolidate the 
elements, to establish the authority, and to 
diminish the independence of the Church. 
To accomplish the first of these three objects, 
he received that body into strict alliance with 
the state — ^to effect the last, he so received it, 
as to constitute himself its director as well 
as its guardian, and to combine in his own 
person the highest ecclesiastical with the 
highest civil authority. His right to this 
authority (if he condescended to consider 
that point) he might derive with some plausi- 
bility from the original institutions of Rome. 
From the earliest ages of its history, the 
chief magistrate of the nation had been en- 
trusted with the superintendence of the na- 
tional religion; and it seemed fair that he 
should impose the same, as the condition of 
the establishment of Christianity. And yet a 
great distinction is to be observed even in 
this point. For, according to the principles 
of Polytheism, the most sacred functions of 
religion might be performed by the hands of 
the civil magistrates ; but the consecration 
of a separate order to those purposes by the 
Christian system excHided the Emperor froin 



CONSTANTINE. 



87 



the administration of the rites of rehgion ; 
and the Prince and the Priest became hence- 
forward characters wholly distinct, and inde- 
pendent. It was perhaps by this restriction, 
that the first avowed and legal limitation was 
imposed upon the autliority of the former ; 
and it was not a trifling triumph to have ob- 
tained from a Roman Emperor the acknow- 
ledgment of any right in a subject, or any 
restraint upon himself 

Notwithstanding this assumption of ec- 
clesiastical supremacy by the Emperor, the 
Church retained in many respects its separate 
existence, or at least the freedom of its au- 
tonomous constitution — indeed, had nottliis 
been so, the term Alliance, which is used to 
designate the union of Church and State un- 
der Constantine, as it implies a certain degree 
of independence in both parties, would be 
unmeaning and out of place. Some imme- 
diate advantages were also reaped by the 
Church ; much that it had formerly held by 
suflferance, it now possessed by law ; many 
privileges, wliich.had hitherto existed through 
the connivance only, or the ignorance, of the 
Government, were now converted into rights, 
and as such confirmed and perpetuated. 

Constantine divided the administration of 
the Church into 1. Internal, and 2. External. 

1. The former continued, as heretofore, in 
the hands of the Prelates, individually and in 
Council — little or no alteration w^as intro- 
duced into this department ; and it compre- 
hended nearly every thing which was really 
tangible and available in the power of the 
Church before its association with the State, 
now confirmed to it by that association. The 
settlement of religious controversies was re- 
commended to the wisdom of the Hierarchy;* 
the forms of Divine worship, the regulation 
of customary rites and ceremonies, or the 
institution of new ones, the ordination and 
offices of the priesthood, which included the 
unrestrained right of public preaching, and 
the formidable weapon of spiritual censure 
were left to the exclusive direction of the 
Church. The freedom of episcopal election 
was not violated ; and the Bishops retained 
theh' power to convoke legislative synods 
twice a year in every Diocese, uncontrolled 
by the civil magistrate. We have already 
mentioned, that, by the Edict of Milan, the 
possessions of the Church were restored, and 

* A rescript of Constantine to the Provincial Bish- 
ops on the disputes between Athanasius and Eusebius 
of Nicodemia, admits — Vestri est, non mei judicii, 
de ea re cognoscere. See Baronius ad aim.. 329, 
sect. 8. 



its legal right to them for the first time ac- 
knowledged ; and this act of justice was fol- 
lowed, in the year 321, by another Edict 
which permitted all subjects to bequeath 
property to that Body.* Exemption from all 
civil offices was granted to the whole body 
of the clergy ; f and, perhaps, a more impor- 
tant privilege, about the same time conferred 
on the higher orders, was that of independent 
jurisdiction, even in capital charges, over 
their own members : so that the Bishop, alone 
among the myriads of the subjects of the em- 
pire, enjoyed the right of being tried by his 
Peers. This was not granted, however, with 
ai^y intention of securing his impunity ; for, 
though degi'adation was the severest punish- 
ment which could be inflicted by a spiritual 
court, the penalty was liable to increase, afi;er 
condemnation, by the interference of the sec- 
ular authority. While we may consider the 
free trial of the Bishops, in a political light, 
as another important inroad into the pure 
despotism of the imperial system, we are also 
assured that on the Body, thus exclusively 
possessing it, it conferred no inconsiderable 
advantages. But another privilege, even 
more valuable than this, and one which will 
more constantly be present to us in the histo- 
ry of succeeding ages, is traced with equal 
certainty to the legislation of Constantine. 
The arbitration of Bishops in the civil differ- 
ences referred to them in their diocese was 
now ratified by law ; and their decisions, of 
which the validity had formerly depended on 
the consent of the parties, were henceforward 
enforced by the civil magistrate. | On this 
foundation was imperceptibly established the 
vast and durable edifice of ecclesiastical ju- 
risdiction ; from this simple legalization of 
an ancient custom, in process of time, the 
most substantial portion of sacerdotal power 
proceeded, and the most extravagant preten- 
sions of spiritual ambition. But those conse- 
quences convey no reflection on the wisdom 
of Constantine, since they were produced 
by circumstances which he could not possi- 
bly foresee ; and which, besides, never influ- 



* Constantine's personal generosity to the Church, 
as well as his deference to the Episcopal Order, is 
mentioned by Eusebius, (Vit. Const., lib. i. c. 42., 
lib. ii., and Hist. Eccles., 1. x.) and was continued 
throughout his whole reign- The Pagan Zosimus 
(lib. ii.) mentions the profusion which he wasted upon 
' useless persons.' 

I Baronius, ad ann. 319. sect. 30. 

t Fleury, Hist. Eccl. 1. x. sect. 27. on authority of 
Sozomen (1. i. c. 8 and 9) and Const. Apostol. (lib 
ii. c. 46) Baronius, ad ami. 314. sect. 38, with refer- 
ence to Cod. Theodos. 



88 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



enced, to any gi*eat extent, the eastern division 
of Christendom. 

In the separate view, which we have taken 
of the internal constitution of the Church, 
we perceive a powerful, self-regulated body, 
armed with very ample and extensive author- 
ity, and supported, when such support was 
necessary, by the secular arm. Let us pro- 
ceed to the seiiond division, or the external 
administration of the Church. 

2. Of this department tlie Emperor as- 
sumed the entire control to himself.* It 
comprehended every thing relating to the 
outward state and discipline of the Church ; 
and was understood to include a certain de- 
gree of superintendence over such contests 
and debates as might arise among the minis- 
ters, of whatsoever rank, concerning their 
possessions, their reputation, their rights and 
privileges, as well as their pohtical, or other 
offences against the laws of the Empire. 
Even the final decision of religious contro- 
versies was subjected to the discretion of 
judges appointed by the Emperor :f the 
same terminated any differences which might 
arise between the Bishops and people, fixed 
the limits of the ecclesiastical provinces, took 
cognizance of the civil causes subsisting be- 
tween ministers, and lent his power to the ex- 
ecution of the punishment due to their crim- 
inal offences. And though the right of con- 
voking local and provincial synods remained 
with the Church, that of assembling a General 
Council was exercised only by the Prince. 

When we consider in succession these ar- 
ticles of imperial supremac}^, we perceive, in 
the first place, that Constantino did not trans- 
fer to himself from the Church any power 
which had before belonged to it: most of 
the cases, there provided for, must by neces- 
sity have always fallen under civil cognizance 
— for whenever it happened, either that the 
external encroachments of the Church, or 
the differences among Christians, or their 
ministers, proceeded to endanger public tran- 
quillity, such offences fell, of course, under 
the cognizance of the secular, which was 
then the only acknowledged, jurisdiction. 

There appear, indeed, to be two cases in 
which the Emperor assumed a power not 
before belonging to the State — interference 
for the arrangement of religious controver- 
sies by the appointment of judges, and the 
convocation of General Councils. Respect- 

* The authority assumed by the Emperors appears, 
under various titles, in the 16th book of the Tlieodo- 
sian Code, as also in the Code of Justinian. 

t Mosbeim, Cent. iv. part ii. ch. ii. 



ing the Jirst of these — which proved indeed 
the least effectual part of his ecclesiastical 
authority — it was not probable that the Em- 
peror would be anxious to exert it, unless 
called upon to undertake the office by one or 
both of the parties in controversy. If invited 
to enforce the sentence of the Church against 
a condemned Heretic, he might reasonably 
plead the interference of Aurelian in the 
affair of Paul of Samosata ; if solicited to 
decide between two opinions dividing the 
Body of the Church itself, he would natural- 
ly have recourse to the second of the methods 
intrusted to him, the calling of a General 
Council. But the authority to do so was not 
the usurpation of a power before possessed 
by another, but tlte creation of a new power. 
For as a General Council of all the leading 
ministers of the Church neither had been, 
nor could have been, assembled in times 
when the Church, if haply not persecuted, 
was at least unacknowledged, so the new 
condition of its establishment gave birth to 
new circumstances, for the regulation of 
which a new authority was necessary ; and 
that authority was properly vested in the 
highest civil magistrate. 

In the next place, in comparing the privi- 
leges remaining to the Church with those 
assumed by the Emperor in his connexion 
with it, and in tracing the consequences to 
which either might be extended, we cannot 
fail to observe, that their limits are often 
vague and indeterminate ; and that, when 
they are not so, the points of contact and 
intersection are very numerous, offering fi-e- 
quent means and temptations to mutual inno- 
vation. We shall see that, in after ages, they 
led to much aggression and injustice in both 
parties ; but as matters then stood, with so 
large a portion of the population still uncon- 
verted, and even adverse to the Faith, under 
an Emperor possessed of undivided and 
seemingly unbounded authority, we should 
be suiprtsed, perhaps, to find so many privi- 
leges confirmed to a distinct religious com- 
munity, if we were not acquainted with the 
bold and vigorous character of Constantine, 
and also persuaded of his attachment to 
Christianity. 

We should not omit to mention some 
changes at that time introduced into the titles 
and gradations of the Hierarchy, in order to 
associate their administration more intimate- 
ly with that of the civil officers. To the 
three Prelates of Rome, Antioch and Alex 
andria, who enjoyed a certain degree of pre- 
eminence in the Church, was added the 



CONSTANTINE 



89 



Patriarch of Constantiuople— these four cor- 
responded with the four Praetorian Prefects 
then also created. After these followed the 
Exarchs,* who had the inspection over 
several provinces, and answered to the ap- 
pointment of certain civil officers of the same 
name. The Metropolitans had the govern- 
ment of one province only, and under them 
were the Archbishops, whose inspection was 
confined to certain districts. The Bishops 
were the lowest in this gi*adation, but many 
of them possessed ample extent of authority 
and jurisdiction. Their number at this time 
was. one thousand eight hundred, of whom 
a thousand administered the Eastern, eight 
hundred the Western Church. In this whole 
Body, the Bishop pf Rome possessed a cer- 
tain indeterminate precedence, or preemi- 
nence, unattended by any authority ; and this 
precedence is attributed, first, to the Imperial 
name of Rome, and next to the superiority 
in wealth, which he seems to have acquired 
at a veiy early period ; to the splendor and 
extent of his religious administration, and the 
influence naturally rising from these causes. 

The simple establishment of the Church, 
such as we have now described it without 
anticipating the measures of State afterwards 
applied, or misapplied, to the support of it, 
was favoi-able not only to the progi-ess of 
Christianity, but also to the concord of Chris- 
tians; the former has never been disputed; 
as to the latter, we have seen by what a 
cloud of heresies the religion was overshad- 
owed before its establishment; and no one 
can reasonably doubt, that the additional 
sanction given to the gospel by imperial 
adoption, and the greater dignity and influ- 
ence and actual power thus acquired by its 
regular ministers in every province of the 
Empire, would conduce to dissolve and dis- 
perse them. They did so — but while the 
numerous forms of error, of which we have 
treated, fell for the most part into silence 
and disrepute, there was one, of which we 
have yet made no mention, which grew up 
into such vigor and attained so much consis- 
tency, that there seemed to be danger lest it 
should possess itself of the high places, and 
occupy the sanctuary itself. Its progi-ess, 
and the means adopted to oppose it, form the 
subject of the following chapter. We shall 
conclude the present with one or two obser- 
vations. 

It is one favorite opinion of most skep- 
tical writers, that Christianity is entirely in- 
debted for its general propagation and stability 



* Mosheim, loc. cit. 

12 



to the Imperial patronage of Constantine ; 
it is another, that the establishment of the 
Church led to the disunion of its mem- 
bers, and its prosperity to its corruption. 
The first of those theories is falsified by the 
history of the three first centuries — during 
which we observe the religion to have been 
gradually but rapidly progressive throughout 
the whole extent of the Roman Empire, in 
spite of the persecution of some Emperors, 
the suspicious jealousy of others, and the 
indiflTerence of the rest. We need not dwell 
longer on this fact ; especially as it is virtu- 
ally admitted by those same writers, when it 
suits them to attribute Constantino's pretended 
conversion to his policy. The second of 
their assertions has a greater show of truth, 
but is, in fact, almost equally eiToneous. A 
fairer view of that question, and, if we mis- 
take not, the correct view, is the following — 
the establishment of the Church was in itself 
highly beneficial both to the progress of reli- 
gion, and to the happiness of society — the 
mere pacific alliance of that Body with the 
State was fraught with advantage to the 
whole Empire, with danger to no member of 
it. Many evils indeed did follow it, and 
many vexations were inflicted by Christ- 
ians upon each other in the perverse zeal of 
religious controversy. But such controver- 
sies, as we have sufficiently shown, had ex- 
isted in very great abundance, very long 
before Christianity was recognised by law; 
and the vexations were not at all the neces- 
sary consequence of that recognition. They 
originated, not in the system itself, but in the 
blindness of those who administered it ; they 
proceeded -fi-om the fallacious supposition — 
that which afl:erwards animated the Romish 
Church, and which has misled despots and 
bigots in every age — that unanimity in reli- 
gious belief and practice was a thing attain- 
able ; and they were conducted on a notion 
equally remote from reason, that such una- 
nimity, or even the appearance of it, could 
be attained by force. Many ages of bitter 
experience have been necessary to prove the 
absurdity of these notions, and the fruitless 
wickedness of the measures proceeding from 
them. But a candid inquirer will admit that 
they were not at all inseparably connected 
with the establishment of the Church ; and 
that that Body would not only have continued 
to exist and to flourish, without any interfer- 
ence of civil authority to crush its adversa- 
ries, but that it would have subsisted m that 
condition with more dignity, and more honor, 
and much more security. 



90 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



The prosperity of the Church was unques- 
tionably followed by an increase in the num- 
ber and rankness of its corruptions. But 
unhappily we have already had occasion to 
observe, that several abuses had taken 
root in all its departments, during at least 
that century which immediately preceded 
the reign of Constantine — ^to the fourth we 
may undoulitedly assign the extravagant hon- 
ors paid to Martyrs, and the shameful super- 
stitions which arose from them. But we 
should also recollect, that many among the 
Romish corruptions are of a much later date, 
and that several may be directly referred to 
the influence of expiring Paganism, not to 
the gi-atuitous invention of a wealthy and 
degenerate priesthood. Indeed, we should 
add, that in respect to the moral character of 
the clergy of the fourth century, they seem 
rather chargeable with the narrow, conten- 
tious, sectarian spirit, which was encouraged 
and inflamed by the capricious interference 
of the civil power, than with any flagrant de- 
ficiency in piety and sanctity of life. {Euseb, 
H. E.lib.viLe. i.) 

JVote on Ensehius. The name of Eusebi- 
us has been so frequently referred to in this 
History, that being now amved at the age in 
which he flourished, we are bound to give 
some account of his life and character. He 
is believed to liave been born at Csssarea in 
Palestine, about the year 270 ; he was raised 
to that See about 315, and died in 339, or 340 ; 
being thus (within two or three years) con- 
temporary with his Emperor, and his friend, 
in the three circumstances of his birth, his 
dignity, and his death. He was extremely 
diligent and learned, and the Author of ' in- 
numerable volumes.'* And among those 
which still exist, his Ecclesiastical History, 
and his Life of Constantine, furnish us with 
the best lights which we possess respecting 
his own times, and with our only consecutive 
narrative of the previous fortunes of Christi- 
anity. Eusebius admits, in the first chapter 
of his History, that he has ^ entered upon a 
desolate and unfrequented path ; ' and in 
gleaning the scattered records of preceding 
writers, and presenting them for the most part 
in their own language and on their own au- 
thority, he has indeed very frequently dis- 
covered to us the scantiness of the harvest 
and the poverty of the soil. Still in that 
respect he has faithfully discharged his histo- 
rical duties, and has rescued much valuable 
matter from certain oblivion. In this indeed 
consists one peculiar merit of his Histoiy, 

* Jerome de Vir. lUust. c. xxxi. 



that it unfolds to us a number of earlier 
memoirs, written immediately after the events 
which they describe, and on all of which we 
are at liberty to exercise our critical judg- 
ment, as to the credit which may be due to 
them, without also involving that of Eusebi- 
us in our conclusion. But respecting the 
historical candor of the Author, when he 
speaks in his own person, and the fidelity with 
which he has delivered such circumstances 
as were well known to him, a few words are 
necessary, because the question is not usually 
stated with fairness. 

In describing the sufferings of the Chris- 
tians during the last persecution, Eusebius * 
(H. E. lib. viii. c. ii.) admits ' that it does not 
agree with our plan to relate their dissensions 
and wickedness before the persecution, on 
which account we have determined to relate 
nothing more concerning them than may 
serve to justify the Divine Judgment. We 
have therefore not been induced to make 
mention, either of those who were tempted 
in the persecution, or of those who made 
utter shipwreck of their salvation, and were 
sunk of their own accord in the depths of the 
storm ; but shall only add those things to our 
General History, which may in the first place 
be profitable to ourselves, and afterwards to 
posterity.' And in another passage he asserts, 
that the events most suitable to a ' History of 
Martyrs ' are those which redound to their 
honor. From these two passages it appears 
that Eusebius in his relation of that persecu- 
tion has suppressed the particulars of the 
dissensions and scandals which had prevail- 
ed among the faithful, because he judged 
such accounts less productive of immediate 
edification and future profit, than the cele- 
bration of their virtues and their constancy. 
We may remark that in this determination, his 
first error was one of judgment — if indeed 
he imagined that the great lessons of History 
were more surely taught by the records of 
what is splendid and glorious, than by the 
painful, but impressive story of human im- 
perfection, and of the calamities which man 
has gathered from his own folly and wicked- 
ness. But his second and less pardonable 
deviation was from principle — there is a di- 
rect and avowed disregard of the second fun- 
damental precept of historical composition. 
However, the crime is less dangerous because 
it is avowed, and more excusable because 
less dangerous ; and at any rate, if we shall 
perceive, in the general course and character 

* In Vit. Constant, cap. ix., he makes the same 
sort of profession. 



CONSTANTINE. 



91 



of the work, a disposition to inveetigate dili- 
gently, and represent faithfully, we shall be 
disposed to confine our doubts to those por- 
tions only, which the writer has not even 
professed to treat with entire fidelity ; and in 
the vast multitude of circumstances, in which 
the honor of the Martyrs is not concerned, 
we shall approach our only fountain of infor- 
mation with a confidence not much impaired 
by a partial dereliction of principle, which is 
fairly admitted. 

But that delinquency of Eusebius which 
we have just mentioned is confined to the 
suppression of truth — it does not proceed to 
the direct assertion of falsehood — we shall 
now notice a still more serious suspicion, 
to which he has rendered himself liable. 
The thirty-first chapter of the twelfth book 
of his Evangelical Preparation bears for its ti- 
tle this scandalous proposition* — ' How it may 
be lawful and fitting to use falsehood as a 
medicine, for the advantage of those who re- 
quire such a method.' We have already de- 
plored, with sorrow and mdignation, the fatal 
moment, when fraud and falsehood were 



* We purposely copy the language of Gibbon 
(Vindication, p. 137, 2d ed.) Still we should fail in 
doing perfect justice to Eusebius, if we did not pub- 
lish, together with the proposition, the very short 
cliapter in which it is treated. It begins with a quo- 
tation from Plato (De Leg. 2.) 'A legislator of any 
value — even if the fact were not such as our discourse 
_ has just established it — if in any case he might make 
bold to deceive young persons for their advantage; 
could he possibly inculcate any falsehood more profit- 
a!ble than this, or more potent to lead all without force 
or compulsion to the practice of all justice 1 ' ' Truth, 
my friend, is honorable and permanent; but not, it 
would seem, very easy of persuasion.' To this some- 
what hypothetical passage of Plato, Eusebius adds — 
* You may find a thousand such instances in the Scrip- 
tures, where God is described as jealous, or sleeping, 
or angry, or liable to other human affections, so ex- 
pressed for the advantage of those who require 
such a method (en (hcpsXsiq. rbw dsojUEvaiv tov 
lOiovTOV TQOTtov.y This is all that is said on the 
subject, and it shows us perhaps to what limits Euse- 
bius intended to confine the application of his propo- 
sition. And thus Gibbon's account of the chapter, 
though it may be literally true, is calculated to mis- 
lead. ' In this chapter (says he) Eusebius alleges a 
passage of Plato, which approves the occasional prac- 
tice of pious and salutary frauds ; nor is he ashamed 
to justify the sentiments of the Athenian Philosopher 
by the example of the sacred writers of the Old 
Testament.' 



first admitted into the service of religion. 
Philosophy, in the open array of her avowed 
hostility, was not so dangerous as when she 
lent to her undisciplined adversaries her own 
poisoned weapons, and placed them in unskil- 
ful hands, as implements of self-destruction. 
It was disgraceful to the less enlightened fa- 
thers of the second and third centuries, that, 
even in the midst of trial and tribulation, they 
borrowed a momentary succor fi-om the pro- 
fession of falsehood — but the same expe- 
dient was still more shameful to Eusebius, 
who flourished during the prosperity of the 
Church, whose age and more extensive learn- 
ing left him no excuse in ignorance or inex- 
perience, and whose great name and unques- 
tionable piety gave sanction and authority to 
all his opinions. There can be no doubt 
then, that the publication of that detestable 
principle in any one of his writings, however 
modified and limited by his explanation, 
must, to a certain extent, disturb our confi- 
dence in the rest — the mind which does not 
profess to be constantly guided by truth pos- 
sesses no claim to our implicit submission. 
Nevertheless, the works of Eusebius must at 
last be judged by the character which seve- 
rally pervades them, not by any single prin- 
ciple which the Author has once only laid 
down ; to which he has not intended (as it 
would seem) to give general application, and 
which he has manifestly proposed rather as 
a philosophical speculation, than as a rule for 
his own composition. At least we feel con- 
vinced, that whoever shall calmly peruse his 
Ecclesiastical History will not discover in it 
any deliberate intention to deceive — in the 
relation of miraculous stories, he is more 
sparing than most of the Church Historians 
who succeeded him, and seemingly even 
than those whom he has copied — and upon 
the whole, we shall not do him more than 
justice, if we consider him as an avowed, 
but honest advocate, many of whose state- 
ments must be examined with suspicion, 
while the greater part bear direct and incon- 
testable marks of truth.* 

* Dr. Jortin (vol. i. p. 209) has corrected a mis- 
take of Dr. Middleton, who had attributed to Eusebi- 
us an absurd respect for the Erythrean Sibyl — which 
seems, in fact, to have been entertained by Constan- 
tine. 



92 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



CHAPTER VII. 

The Arian Controversy, 

Controversies among Christians — their origin — how 
distinguished from philosophical disputations — their 
character — accounted for. Constantine's conduct to- 
wards Heretics and origin of the Arian controversy — 
Alexander — Arius — his opinions — followers — Inter- 
ference of the Emperor — Council of Nice — various 
motives of those assembled —their proceedings and 
decision — Proposal of Eusebius of Caesarea — Gib- 
bon's account of this Council — Temporal Penalties — 
to what extent carried. Conduct of the successors of 
Constantine — Constantius. Athanasius — his history 
— twice exiled — his triumphant restoration — contests 
with Constantius— methods taken by the latter to se- 
cure success — remarks on them — third banishment 
of Athanasius— Council of Rimini — progress of Ari- 
anism. — Theodosius — Council of Constantinople.— 
Arianism of the Northern Barbarians — the conquerors 
of the West — its effects. Justinian — Spain — Council 
of Toledo. Termination of the controversy. Obser- 
vations — examination of Arian claims to greater puri- 
ty of faith — to greater moderation — Progress of Ari- 
anism in the West to what cause attributable — confu- 
sion of sectarian and national enmity — conduct of 
Catholics and Arians under persecution — Note on cer- 
tain Christian Writers. 

When Constantine established Christianity 
as the religion of the Empire, he probably 
did not foresee how soon he should be called 
upon to interpose his authority, in order to 
prescribe and define the precise tenets of 
that religion, which he had established. 
Doubtless he was well acquainted with 
the numerous opinions by which Christians 
bad ever been divided ; but he saw that, in 
spite of them, the Body had continued to ad- 
vance in vigor and magnitude, with the show 
of iieaitb and unity. The Church was strong 
in the midst of heresy, as well as of oppres- 
sion — and when he gave her his protection 
against the latter, he imagined, perhaps rea- 
sonably, that she could have nothing to ap- 
prehend from the former. But, whether it 
was, as some suppose, that the evil passions 
of Christians were inflamed by their present 
security, or, as we rather believe, that the 
expression of dissent had been softened by 
the impunity which attended it during form- 
er reigns, it is certain that scarcely ten years 
from the Edict of Milan had elapsed, before 
the Christian world beheld the beginning 
of a convulsion, which continued for some 
years to increase in violence, and which was 
not finally composed without a long and des- 
olating struggle. 

It had been the vice of the Christians of 
the third century, to involve themselves in 
* certain metaphysical questions, which, if 
considered in one light, are too sublime to 
become the subject of human wit ; if in an- 
other, too ti-ifling to gain the attention of rea- 



sonable men.' * The rage for such disputa- 
tions had been communicated to religion, by 
the contagion of philosophy ; but the manner 
in which it operated on the one and on the 
other was essentially different. With the 
philosopher such questions were objects of 
the understanding only, subjects of com- 
paratively dispassionate speculation, whereon 
the versatile ingenuity of a minute mind 
might employ or waste itself. But with the 
Christian they were matters of truth or false- 
hood, of behef or disbelief; and he felt assur- 
ed that his eternal interests would be influ- 
enced, if not decided, by his choice. Hence 
arose an intense anxiety respecting the result, 
and thus the passions were awakened, and 
presently broke loose and proceeded to every 
excess. 

From the moment that the solution of 
these questions was attempted by any other 
method than the fan* interpretation of the 
words of Scripture ; as soon as the copious 
language of Greece was vaguely applied to 
the definition of spiritual things, and the ex- 
planation of heavenly mysteries, the field of 
contention seemed to be removed from earth 
to air — where the foot found nothing stable 
to rest upon ; where arguments were easily 
eluded, and where the space to fly and to 
rally was infinite ; so that the contest grew 
more noisy as it was less decisive, and more 
angry as it became more prolonged and com- 
plicated. Add to this the nature and genius 
of the disputants ; for the origin of these 
disputes may be traced, without any excep- 
tion, to the restless imaginations of the East. 
The violent temperament of orientals, as it 
was highly adapted to the reception of reli- 
gious impressions, and admitted them with 
fervor and earnestness, intermingled so close- 
ly passion with piety, as scarcely to conceive 
them separable. The natural ardor of their 
feelings was not abated by the natural subtil- 
ty of their understanding, which was sharp- 
ened in the schools of Egypt ; and when this 
latter began to be occupied by inquiries in 
which the former were also deeply engaged, 
and when the nature of those inquiries as- 
sumed an indeterminate and impalpable 
form, it was to be expected that many extrav- 
agances would follow. We must also men- 
tion the loose and unsettled principles of that 
age, which had prevailed before the appear- 
ance of Christianity, and had been to a certain 
extent adopted by its professors — those, for 
instance, which justified the means by the 



* Warburton, Post, to 4th ed. of t^ Alliance of 
Church and State. 



THE ARlAN CONTROVERSY. 



93 



end, and admitted fi-aud and forgery into the 
service of religion. From these considera- 
tions we perceive, that disputations on such 
subjects, conducted by minds such as have 
been described, and on the vrorst principles, 
could not possibly hope for moderation, and 
could not speedily terminate; and it is not 
useless to have premised them to our ac- 
count of those controversies, for thus we shall 
neither attribute them (as some have done) 
to mistaken causes ; nor be so much scandal- 
ized by their intemperance, as to take any 
offence against religion itself, because such 
evils have been done in its name. 

Constantine appears to have enlisted him- 
self very early under the banners of the 
Church which he had established ; very soon 
after the Edict of Milan, we find him pub- 
lishing Laws against Heresy, which went so 
far, in menace at least, as to transfer the 
property of heretical bishops or ministers to 
the orthodox. In the list of the proscribed 
we find the followers of Paul of Samosata, 
the Unitarians of those days ; we find the 
Montanists, who were the Enthusiasts, the 
Novatians, who were the Reformers, and two 
denominations of Gnostics ; * but the opin- 
ions of the Arians were not yet attacked ; 
perhaps they had not yet assumed a tangible 
form, ar at least were not distinguished and 
stigmatized by a name. 

In the freedom exercised by individual 
opinion on abstruse mysteries under the early 
Church, it is possible that many may have held 
the doctrine afterwards called Arian ; but the 
controversy seems to have been awakened 
about the year 319, by the zeal of a Bishop 
of the Church, and the scene of its explosion 
was that hot-bed of heresy and dissension, 
Alexandria, f Alexander was the Bishop, 
Arius a Presbyter, in that city ; and the 
former, in an assembly of his clergy, felt it 



* The Marcionites and Valentinians — See Sozomen, 
lib. ii. c. 32; and the beginning of Gibbon's 21st 
chapter — we should rather conclude, however, from 
Eusebius'a account (Vit. Const. 1. iii. c. 63 — 66) 
that Constantine's Edict against those Heretics was 
posterior to the Council of Nice. Sozomen asserts 
(not very accurately) that the effect of the Edict was 
the destruction of all excepting the Novatians, against 
Avhom it was not seriously enforced. 

t Even after the Council of Nice we learn from 
Eusebius (Vit. Const. 1. iii. c. 23) that' while all the 
rest of the world was disposed to concord, among the 
Egyptians alone there prevailed immitigable dissen- 
sion.' — Some anecdotes respecting the character of 
this people, which had engrafted Greek principles on 
Afi-ican character, are given by Jortin. Eccl, Hist., 
book iii. A. D. 364. 



his duty strongly to impress on them his 
sentiments respecting the nature of the God- 
head ; maintaining, among other things, * 
that the Son was not only of the same emi- 
nence and dignity, but also of the same es- 
sence with the Father. Arius disputed this 
doctrine, and this dispute led him to the 
promulgation of his ow^n opinions : they were 
these, or nearly these f — that the Son had 
been created by the Father before all things ; 
but that time had existed before his creation, 
and that he was therefore not coetemal with 
the Father ; that he was created out of noth- 
ing ; that he was not coessential with the 
Father; that, though immeasurably supe- 
rior in power and in glory to the highest 
created beings, he was still inferior in both to 
the Father. These opinions found many and 
respectable advocates:}: in Asia as well as 
Egypt, among the clergy as well as the laity, 
and even in the highest ranks of the clergy ; 
and their number was probably increased, 
when the Bishop, after condemning the tenets 
of Arius in two Councils held at Alexandria, 
pronounced against him the sentence of ex- 
communication. 

The quaiTel now became so violent, that it 
was judged necessary to invite the interfer- 
ence of the Emperor. Constantine viewed 
the whole question as trifling and utterly un- 
important ; § he regretted that the peace of 
the Church should be so vainly disturbed ; 
he lamented that the harmony of Christians, 



* The opinions of Alexander himself have not es- 
caped the charge of heresy — his notions respecting the 
distinct persons of tlie Trinity were so imperfect, 
that Arius accused him, with seeming justice, of in- 
clination to the error of Sabellius. And again, some 
of his expressions respecting the nature of the second 
person place him upon the very borders of the error 
subsequently denominated semi-Arianism. So diffi- 
cult was it in those days even for the most pious pre- 
late to discover, and preserve uudeviatingly, the 
precise path of orthodoxy. 

I Mosh. Gen. Hist. c. iv. p. ii. ch. 5. Maimb. 
Hist. Arian. book i. p. 16. Gibbon, chap. 21. 
The original materials from which tlie history of Ari- 
anism is chiefly composed, are Eusebius's Life of 
Constantine, the writings of Athanaslus (particularly 
the first volume) and the Ecclesiastical Histories of 
Socrates, Sozomen and Theodoret. We may also 
mention the 69th (or 49th) Heresy of Epiphanius. 

I Sozomen i. 15. iii. 18. 

§ Constantine's epistle appears in Euseb. Vit. 
Const. 1. ii. c. 64—72. In c. 69 the Emperor de- 
scribes the origin of the controversy, and exposes its 
dangerous tendency; and in c. 71 he rebukes the par- 
ties for disputing i57Te^ /uiHQ(bv xal liav eXa/laTUV 
— ' about trifling, and most truly insignificant matters.* 
This account is confirmed by Sozomen, H. E. k i. C. 
15 and 16. Socrates, H. E. lib. i. c. 7. 



94 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



who were united on so many subjects of infi- 
nite weight, should be interrupted by such 
unprofitable speculations — and in the Epistle 
containing those sentiments he enjoined peace 
to both parties. Constantino knew not the 
nature * of the tempest which was excited, 
for neither experience nor history had yet 
presented to him any thing resembling it. 
However he had adopted the only measure 
which offered any hope of appeasing it, and 
had he persisted in his neutrality, it is proba- 
ble that the Arian controversy, after some 
noisy debates and angry invectives, would 
have discharged its passion in words, and the 
heresy itself would have fallen into dishonor, 
almost into oblivion, like so many others, f 
But the firmness of the Emperor was not 
proof against the importunity of the orthodox 
prelates, seconded, as some think, by his own 
theological vanity; a General Council was 
suggested as the only remedy for the evil, and 
the Emperor would, of course, preside over 
its deliberations. Still the matter was some 
little time in suspense ; and that was perhaps 
the most critical moment in ecclesiastical 
history, in which Constantino determined to 
convoke the Council of Nice. 

* It would appear Indeed from the following pas- 
sage in his Epistle, that he was very imperfectly in- 
formed even respecting the nature of the question 
controverted. ' Wherefore, says he, let an unguarded 
question, and an inconsiderate answer mutually exxuse 
each other — for neither does the cause of your conten- 
tion regard tlie chief among the commandments of the 
law, nor has any new heresy been introduced by 
you respecting the worship of God, but both of you 
hold one and the same opinion — so that there is noth- 
ing to prevent your concord and communion.' Vit. 
Const. 1. ii. c. 70. There was nothing, indeed, to pre- 
vent their concord and communion — yet the opinions 
which they held were widely and essentially different. 

t Jortin has suggested another method in the follow- 
ing very rational passage — (Eccles. Hist. B. iii.) 
* If, when the quarrel between Alexander and Arius was 
grown to such a height as to want a remedy, the Fa- 
thers of the Church had, for the sake of peace, agreed 
to draw up a Confession of Faith in words of Scrip- 
ture, and to establish the divinity of Christ on the ex- 
pressions used by tlie Apostles, every one might have 
assented to it, and the Arian party would most certainly 
have received it. The difference of sentiments, in- 
deed, and of interpretation, would not have ceased, but 
the controversy would have cooled and dwindled away, 
after every champion had discharged his zeal upon pa- 
per and written to his heart's content. The Arian no- 
tion that the Son was created in time, and that there 
was a time when he existed not, would probably have 
Bunk, as not being the language of the New Testament ; 
and the Macedonian notion, that the J/o/y Ghost urns 
created in time, would have sunk witJi the other for 
the same reason; at least these opinions would never 
Irave been obtruded upon us as Articles of Faith.' 



Council of JVice. In the year 325 a. d. 
about three hundred" and eighteen * Bishops 
assembled at Nice (Nica^a) in Bithynia,for the 
purpose of composing the Arian Controversy 
' Let us consider (says Dr. Jortin) by what 
various motives these various men might be 
influenced; by reverence to the Emperor, or 
to his counsellors and favorites, his slaves and 
eunuchs ; by the fear of offending some great 
prelate, who had it in his power to insult, 
vex and plague all the Bishops within and 
without his jurisdiction ; by the dread of 
passing for Heretics, and of being calumniat- 
ed, reviled, hated, anathematized, excommu- 
nicated, imprisoned, banished, fined, beggar- 
ed, starved, if they refused to submit; by 
compliance with some active, leading and im- 
perious spirits ; by a deference to the majori- 
ty; by a love of dictating and domineering, of 
applause and respect ; by vanity and ambition ; 
by a total ignorance of the question in debate 
or a total indifference about it ; by private 
friendship, by enroJty and resentment, by old 
prejudices, by hopes of gain, by an indolent 
disposition, by good-nature, by the fatigue of 
attending, and a desire to be at home, by the 
love of peace and quiet, and a hatred of con- 
tention, &c. &c.' To these considerations, 
which comprehend perhaps the usual mo- 
tives of human action, we should add that 
among so many assembled, many there must 
have been of sincere intention and earnest 
piety, and certainly several well instructed in 
the learning of that age ; and the excellence 
of these persons doubtless so influenced the 
general character of the Council, that, though 
unable to repress the intemperate violence of 
some of its members, they were sufficient to 
conduct it to that decision, which has now 
been followed by the great majority of Chris- 
tians for fifteen centuries. 

The Bishops began by much personal dis- 
sension, and presented to the Emperor a 
variety of written accusations against each 
other ; the Emperor burnt all their libels, and 

* ' Persons not more widely separated and diversi- 
fied in sentiments, than in person, residence and race, 
here met together ; and one City received them all, 
as it were an ample garland variegated with beautiful 
flowers.' Such is tlie light in which this assembly ap- 
peared to Eusebius, who was one of its members. Vit. 
Const. 1. iii. cap. 6. Respecting the number of Bish- 
ops, Eusebius, as the passage has come down to us, 
makes it more than two hundred and fifty. Socrates 
(lib. i. c. 8.), professing to follow Eusebius, describes 
it in oi\e place as above three hundred, in another as 
three hundred and eighteen. And tliat number is 
generally received by modern writers, on the additional 
authority of Athanasius, Hilary, Jerome and Rufiiras. 



THE ARIAN CONTROVERSY. 



95 



exhorted them to peace and unity. They 
then proceeded to examine the momentous 
question proposed to them. It was soon dis- 
covered that the differences, which it was in- 
tended to reconcile, might in their principle 
be reduced to one point, and that that point 
might be expressed by one word — and thus 
the question appears to have been speedily 
simplified (as indeed was necessary, that so 
many persons might come to one conclusion 
on so mysterious a subject) and reduced to 
this — whether the Son was, or was not, con- 
substantial with the Father Many of the 

leading Bishops hesitated, or even held in the 
first instance the negative opinion, and among 
them were Eusebius* of Csesarea, the histo- 
rian of Constantine, and Eiisebius of Ni- 
comedia, from whose hands the Emperor 
afterwards received baptism. The former 
proposed to the assembly a Creed, in which 
the word consubstantial f (Homoousian) was 
omitted : but in which he anathematized 
every hupious heresy, without particularizing 
any. His advice was not followed. Then 
arose subtile disceptations respecting the 
meaning of the word, 'about which some 
conflicted with each other, dwelling on the 
term and minutely dissecting it ; it was like 
a battle fought in the dark ; for neither party 
seemed at all to understand on what ground 
they vilified each other.':}: However, the 
result was perfectly conclusive ; they finally 
decided against the Arian opinions, and es- 
tablished, respecting the two fii-st persons of 
the Trinity, the doctrine which the Church 
still professes in the Nicene Creed.§ 

* Jortin (Eccl. Hist. b. iii.) has discussed the reli- 
gious opinions of Eusebius very reasonably. 

f He objected to the term as unscriptural — and to 
the use of such terms, he attributed nearly all the con- 
fusion and disorder of the Churches (See Socrates, 
lib. i. c. viii. near the end.) We may observe that 
this was the most tenable ground in which the Arians 
of every denomination intrenched themselves in the 
course of their subsequent disputes with the Consub- 
stantialists. — See Maim. Hist. Arian. b. iv. (vol. i. 
p. 223.) The distrust of tradition which they ven- 
tured to express even in that early age, was closely 
connected with it— yet it proved also, that the early 
tradition of the Church was favorable to the Catholic 
opinion. 

X See Socrates, 1. i. c. xxiii. This passage has 
rather reference to the differences on the same subject 
which continued after the Council; but it well des- 
cribes the nature of the disputations. Sit ista in 
Graecorum levitate perversitas qui maledictis insectan- 
tur eos a quibus de veritate dissentiunt. Cic. Fin. 11. 

§ Gibbon's account of this Council does not seem 
to rest on evidence sufficient to counteract its im- 
probability. He divides the Christian world, as 



Their labors being completed, the Bishops 
dispersed to their respective provinces — be- 
sides the solemn declaration of their opinion, 
on a most important point of doctrine (since 
it established the equal divinity of the Son,) 
they finally set at rest the question respecting 
the celebration of Easter, and enacted some 
profitable regulations relating to Church dis- 
cipline.* Thus fai', then, we can have no 
just reason to condemn the result of their 
meeting, or to pronounce such assemblies 
either pernicious or useless. The doctrine 
of the majority of Christendom was proclaim- 
ed by a public act, on a subject hitherto un- 
controverted, and henceforward it was reason- 
ably considered the doctrine of the Church. 
And if matters had rested here, perhaps the 
dissentients would either have concealed their 
opinions, or gi'adually melted away into the 
mass of the orthodox. But Constantine 
thought the work of ecclesiastical legislation 
incomplete, until the spiritual edict was en- 
forced by temporal penalties. Immediate 
exile was inflicted on those who persisted in 
error — and the punishment of a Heretic by a 
Christian Prince was defended by the same 



represented at Nice, into three classes or parties, 
all Heretical — Arians, Sabellians and Tritheists; 
and tlien he asserts that the two last (professing opin- 
ions diametrically opposite to each other) combined 
against the Arians. Without affecting to believe, 
that the majority of the Nicene Bishops would have 
explained the mystery of the Trinity in the precise 
language of the Athanasian Creed, we think it very 
irrational to suppose, that there were none (that there 
were not many) among them, impressed with notions 
of the Trinity very far removed either from Sabellian- 
ism or Tritheisra. Those, who know the pertinacity 
with which men adhere to their own previous notions 
on such matters, will not easily believe, that two nu- 
merous parties, professing opinions not only contrary 
but adverse, should immediately waive those opinions, 
and assume, and persist in, other opinions essentially 
different from either, and then unite, merely for the 
sake of outvoting a third party, against which they 
were not inflamed by any personal animosity. It is 
possible that there may have been some Sabellians as 
well as Tritheists among tlie members of the Council, 
notwithstanding ihe repeated condemnations of those 
heresies by the Church writers ; but it is impossible 
to believe, that the opinions, which were finally sanc- 
tioned by the great majority of tiie Bishops, and were 
ever afterwards followed as the rule of orthodoxy, 
were not previously very general among the ministers 
of the Church. 

* The three written monuments of this Council were 
the Rule of Faith — a number of Canons — and the 
Synodical Epistle which was addressed to the Church- 
es on its dissolution. Socrates, E. Hist. lib. i., c. 
ix. See Semler, Cent. iv. cap. iii. De Conciliis 
Mosheim. E. H. Cent. iv. p. ii. c. v. 



96 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



plea of rebellious contumacy, which is urged 
by the apologists of his Pagan predecessors 
to justify the execution of a Christian.* 

In justice, however, to the character of 
Constantine, we must admit, that he was ani- 
mated throughout these perplexing dissen- 
sions not by any private or sectarian animosi- 
ty against the Arian party, but by a smcere 
desire to restore peace to the Church. It 
was his object to correct and chastise the 
perversity of the Heretics, and thus to force 
them into communion with the great body of 
his Christian subjects ; but he had no design 
or wish for their extermination. And as soon 
as he discovered that his first severities were 
ineffectual; that the Arians, under the epis- 
copal guidance of Eusebius of Nicomedia,f 
lost little strength in Asia and even maintain- 
ed the contest in Alexandria itself, and that 
they were not without support in his own 
Court and Household, he perceived the inu- 
tility of his measures, and chose rather to re- 
trace the steps which he had taken, than to 
advance more deeply into the paths of per- 
secution. He therefore recalled Eusebius in 
the year 330, and six years afterwards Arius 
himself, after presenting to the Emperor a 
modified profession of faith, was released 
from the sentence of banishment. | That 
Heresiarch perished soon afterwards by a 
sudden, but probably a natural, death — and 
so far from joining in the anathemas, which 
are commonly heaped upon him, we shall 
perform a more grateful office in bearing 
testimony to the purity of his moral life, and 
the probable sincerity of his religious opin- 



*ln a formal Edict addressed to the Bishops and 
People, Constantine compares the blindness of Arius 
to that of Porphyry, and commands his followers to 
be designated by the ignominious name of Porphyri- 
ans. He then pi'oceeds to consign the books of Arius 
to the flames, nearly in the following terms: — ' If any 
man be found to have concealed a copy of those Books, 
and not to have instantly produced it and thrown it 
into the fire, he shall be put to death. The moment 
he is convicted of this he shall be subjected to capital 
punishment. The Lord continue to preserve you.' 
Socrates, Hist. E., lib. i., p. 32. 

fPhilostorgius, the Arian historian, attributes mi- 
racles to this Eusebius; and Athanasius (Orat. 2,) 
seems to consider him rather as the master than the 
disciple of Arius. See Tillemont. Sur les Ari^ris. 
Art. VI. 

X It is another, perhaps a more probable opinion, 
that Eusebius was recalled in 328, and Arius even 
sooner; but that the Emperor did not invite Arius to 
Constantinople until 336 Mosh. Ecc. Hist., Cent. 
IV, p. ii. c. V. See also Tillem. loc. cit., who dates 
the real rancor of the contest from the refusal of 
Athanasius still to communicate with his adversary. 



ions. Respecting the less important circum- 
stances of his manners and conversation, we 
shall be contented to adopt the language of a 
writer who has seldom treated either him or 
his followers with any show of candor or 
justice.* 'Arius made use of the advanta- 
ges he was master of, by art and by nature, 
to gain the people— for it is certain that he 
had a great many talents, which rendered 
him capable of nicely insinuating himself into 
their good opinion and affections. He was 
tall of stature and of a very becoming make, 
grave and serious in his carriage, with a cer- 
tain air of severity in his looks, which made 
him pass for a man of great virtue and aus- 
terity of life. Yet this severity did not dis- 
courage those who accosted him, because it 
was sofl;ened by an extraordinary delicacy in 
his features that gave lustre to his whole per- 
son, and had something in it so sweet and 
engaging, as was not easily to be resisted. 
His garb was modest, but withal neat, and 
such as was usually worn by those who were 
men of quality as well as learning. His 
manner of receiving people was very cour- 
teous, and very ingratiating, through his 
agreeable way of entertaining those who 
came to him upon any occasion. In short, 
notwithstanding his mighty seriousness, and 
the severity and strictness of his mien, he 
perfectly well understood how to soothe and 
flatter, with all imaginable wit and address, 
those whom he had a mind to bring over to 
his opinion, and engage in his party.' 

On the death of Constantine in 336 a. d. 
the Empire was partitioned among his sons. 
Constantius occupied the eastern throne, and 
Constantine and Constans divided that of the 
west. These two Princes (in compliance 
perhaps with the inclinations of their sub- 
jects) supported the Nicene faith in their 
dominions ; but Constantius loudly proclaim- 
ed his adhesion to the Arian or Eusebian f 
doctrine ; and, perceiving that a numerous 
sect already professed it, he proceeded by 
every art to impose it upon the body of his 
people. It is admitted that Constantius pos- 
sessed ' a vain and feeble mind, alike inca- 
pable of being moderated by reason or fixed 
by faith.| Instead of reconciling the parties 
by the weight of his authority, he cherished 
and propagated by verbal disputes the differ- 

* Maimbourg, Hist. Arian., b. i. Epiphanius, 
Hseres. 69. 

■f Eusebius of Nicomedia died in the year 342, af- 
ter gaining some advantages over his great antagonist 
Athanasius. 

t Gibbon, c. 21. 



THE ARIAN CONTROVERSY. 



97 



euces which his vain curiosity had excited.' 
And it is the complaint of Amniianus, a con- 
temporary historian, that the highways were 
covered, and the estabhshment of posts ahnost 
exhausted, by the troops of Bishops, who were 
perpetually hurrying from synod to synod. 
These measures served onl}^ to animate dis- 
sension ; and the evils and the odium which 
it produced are more justly charged upon the 
Prince who inflamed, than upon the parties 
who blindly waged it. 

In the year 350 Constans was assassinated, 
and soon afterwards Rome and Italy, with a 
great part of the western Empire, fell into the 
hands of Constantius. Hitherto the Church- 
es of the West had not been deeply agitated 
by the controversy, but having willingly em- 
braced, had steadily maintained, the doctrine 
of Nice ; but the first attention of the Empe- 
ror was directed to the disturbance of their 
repose and their faith. 

Athanasius. In the meantime, an adversa- 
ry, dangerous to the opinions, and not wholly 
subject even to the power, of the Sovereign, 
had been raised up in the person of Athana- 
sius. That great champion of Catholicism, 
the most distmguished among the Fathers of 
the Church, not by his writings only but by 
his adventures and his suflerings, steadily de- 
fended the Nicene doctrine during forty -six 
years of alternate dignity and persecution.* 
He succeeded Alexander in the See of Alex- 
andria in the year 326 ; he succeeded also to 
his enmity against the opinions and person 
of Arius, and boldly raised his voice against 
his recall from banishment by Constantine. 
Some intemperance in his zeal seems soon 
afterwards to have given a pretext to the 
Asiatic Bishops, many of whom were still 
Arian; and in a Synod held at Tyre,f they 
pronounced the sentence of degradation and 
exile, which was enforced by the Emperor. 
At the end of twenty-eight months, soon after 
the death of Constantine, he was restored ; but 
in 341 he was once more exiled by the Synod 
of Antioch,J acting under the influence of 



* His character is admirably described by Gibbon 
(chap. 21,) and the history of his constancy and his 
misfortunes is written with splendor and imparliality, 
even when Julian becomes his persecutor. 

t It was held in the year 335. The most important 
of the charges brought against Athanasius were mani- 
festly confuted, and the justice of his sentence is at 
least very questionable. 

XAt this time, or soon afterwards, the Arians drew 
up a Creed in which they omitted the offensive word 
Consubstanlial; but the terms which they applied to 
the Son, calling him arqinxuv te yal ara?J.oiwToi' 
Ttjg QtoTrjToc, ovoiag Te y.al ^ovlT.c y.al dvrauiwg 

13 



Constantius. The place of his former ban- 
ishment was France ; that of his second was 
Italy, and chiefly Rome ; so that he became 
familiar Avith the language of the West, with 
the discipline and Primates of its Church, and 
with the Court of its Emperor. He profited 
by all these advantages, and availed himself 
so effectually of the last, that Constans* at 
length prepared to interfere with arms in his 
favor. Threatened by the horrors of a reli- 
gious war, Constantius reluctantly consented 
to his restoration.! In the year 349 he reoc- 
cupied his former throne. ' The entrance of 
the Archbishop into his capital was a trium- 
phal procession ; absence and persecution had 
endeared him to the Alexandrians ; his au- 
thority, which he exercised with rigor, was 
more firmly established, and his fame was 
diffused from Ethiopia to Britain, over the 
whole extent of the Christian world.' 

It was immediately after this event that 
Constantius succeeded to the Western Em- 
pire; and in his zeal for the propagation of Ari- 
anism he presently renewed his attacks on 
Athanasius. He summoned | Councils of the 
Western Bishops ; he menaced and caressed 
and corrupted the Bishops whom he had 
summoned, and at length (in the year 356) 
with great difficulty succeeded in deposing for 
the third time his spiritual adversary. 

This struggle must not be passed over with 

y.ul Sohjg urcuou7.luy.xov iiy.ova, yai rcqwroroyov 
naaijg y.TiOsojg — are such as might have been sub- 
scribed by the most zealous Catholic. See Le Clerc, 
ap. Jortin, E. H. b. iii. ; and Tillemont. Sur les 
Ariens. Article xxxii. Also, Sozomen, 1. 3. c. 5; 
and Athanas. de Synodis. 

* The celebrated Council held at Sardica, in Thrace, 
in 347, in which the great majority were Catholics, 
probably encouraged the Emperor of the West to this 
resolution. 

t It was on this occasion, that Constantius request- 
ed Athanasius to grant to the Arians one Church at 
Alexandria. This request the Patriarch answered by 
another, proposing a similar concession to tlie Catho- 
lics at Antioch. From this Conference we learn not 
only what high ground was assumed by the Prelate, in 
his transactions with the Emperor, but also with what 
different success the measures of the latter had been 
attended in the Capitals of Syria and of Egypt. 

X The most numerous Council assembled on this oc- 
casion appears to have been that of Milan in 355, 
which was attended byabave 300 Western, as well as 
many Eastern Bishops. (See Maimb., Hist. Arian., 
b. iv. vol. i., p. 174., et seq.) In the same year Li- 
berius, Bislwp of Rome, was banished for his faithful 
attachment to the doctrine and cause of Athanasius ; 
but he was presently recalled, tlirough the intercession 
first of the matrons, and afterwards of the populace, of 
Rome. Sozom., lib. iv. c. 2. Theod. lib. ii. c. 17. 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



slight notice, since it presents to us an event, 
of which there had yet been no experience in 
the history of the Church, or in the history 
of Rome, or perhaps in the history of man. 
Hitherto, at least till a very short time pre- 
vious, the Church had been a despised and 
seemingly defenceless community, subject, as 
a Body, to the capricious insults of every ty- 
rant, and liable, in its individual members, to 
his arbitrary inflictions. Until very lately, 
the Emperor of the Roman world possessed 
authority uncontrolled over the liberty and life 
of his subjects, undisputed by any, except as 
rebels, or rivals for the throne. And certainly 
the monstrous evils of despotic government 
have never been more signally displayed, than 
during the dreary interval which separated 
Augustus and Constantine. Still at the end 
of that period the rules of government re- 
mained the same as at the beginning — no civil 
revolution had assigned limits to the authority 
of the Prince, or introduced any counteract- 
ing power — no political change had given 
weight to popular opinion or honor to free 
principles. And yet scarcely forty years from 
the accession of Constantine had elapsed, 
when we behold his son and successor reduc- 
ed to the employment of intrigue and artifice, 
for the deposition of a Magistrate whom he 
detested. The singularity of this circum- 
stance is even increased by two other consid- 
erations — one of which is, that the Emperor 
had the cordial support of a considerable por- 
tion of his subjects, the Arian party, in this 
contest — and the other, that his adversary was 
not sustained by any armed force of soldiers 
or followers ; nor is it probable even that his 
violent execution would have been followed 
by any serious insurrection.* Yet Constan- 
tius, with a prudent respect both for the spi- 
ritual authority of the Bishop and the rights 
of the Church, proceeded to the accomplish- 
ment of his object by indirect and tedious and 
unworthy methods. Such circumstances be- 
come indeed familar to us in the pages of lat- 
er history ; but we should not for that reason 
overlook their first occurrence, nor fail to re- 
cord with pleasure and gratitude the earliest 
proof w^e possess of the political effect of 
Christianity in moderating the despotism 
with which it was associated. 

The thu-d banishment of Athanasius lasted 
six years, until the death of his persecutor in 

* It is true that some popular commotions did at 
last attend the execution even of the legal order for the 
deposition of the Bishop, which were suppressed by 
force; but they were of very short duration, and en- 
tii'ely eoniined to Alexandria. 



362.* They were passed in the deserts of 
Upper Egypt, in concjealment and depen- 
dence ; and they were consoled by the pious 
exertions of the exile for the opinions for 
which he suffered — exertions, which the vi- 
gilance of tlie Imperial police could neither 
prevent nor neutralize. After his final resto- 
ration he enjoyed his See without interrup- 
tion for eleven years, and at length died in 
peace and dignity. 

Divisions of the Brians. In the meantime, 
as is natural among those who indulge in any 
laxity of speculation respecting mysteries 
really inscrutable, the Arians were divided 
among themselves almost as widely as the 
more moderate among them varied from the 
Church. The original and pure Arians, fol- 
lowing the opinioiis of their founder, main- 
tained not only that the substance of the 
Word was different from that of the Father, 
but that it did not even resemble it ; while 
others, pretending the authority of Eusebius 
of Nicomedia, denied with equal confidence 
the Consubstantiahty of the two Persons, but 
at the same time affirmed their perfect likeness. 
These last are commonly called Semiarians ; 
and their doctrine appears to have been first 
proclaimed at the Synod of Ancyra in Galatia, 
held by Basil, the Bishop of tliat place, in the 
year 358 ; but the Council of Seleucia, by 
which their tenets v/ere sanctioned in the fol- 
lowing year, holds a more prominent place in 
ecclesiastical annals.f They were very nu- 
merous during the reign of Constantius, who 
was their protector and proselyte ; but they 
afterwards yielded in some measure to the 
pure Arianism of Valens and his Patriarch, 
Eudoxius. Again the Semiarians were not 
themselves entirely united; several among 
them maintained the preeternity of the Word ; 
while others believed that, though it had sub- 
sisted before all ages, it had once had a begin- 
ning ; and that party| was not inconsiderable 
which, admitting a general likeness between 
the Father and the Son, denied that there was 
any similarity of substance. § Athanasius, in 

* It is asserted by Tillemont (Sur les Ariens, Art. 
108) that during the neutrality of Julian, the Catholics 
gained considerable ground upon their adversaries. 

t In the fourth century were held thirteen Councils 
against Arius, fifteen for him, and seventeen for the 
Semiarians; in all forty-five. Jortin, Ecc. Hist., b, 
iii. 

X It would appear that Constantius himself belonged 
to this sect of the Semiarians. See Gibbon, chap. 21. 

§ The Consubstantialists are known in history by 
the Greek term Homoousians ; those who asserted 
the similarity of the substances, by tlie name of Ho- 



THE ARIAN CONTROVERSY. 



99 



his Epistle respecting the Synods of Seleucia 
and Rimini exposes the gi-eat variety of the 
Arian Creeds, and the subject has been en- 
larged upon by Cathohc Historians, to show 
the inevitable perplexities of those who have 
once permitted themselves to deviate from the 
estabhshed doctrine. 

Council of Rimini. Having succeeded in 
his attack on the Consubstantialists (and, v/e 
might add, on the pure Arians) of the East, 
Constantius removed the scene of action to 
the Western Provinces, and convoked a Coun- 
cil at Rimini in the year 360: by nearly the 
same arts which he had employed to procure 
the condemnation of Athanasius,*' supported 
by a moderate, but firm exertion of the civil 
authority, he succeeded in influencing the 
members to the subscription of a Creed, con- 
taining some expressions capable of heretical 
mterpretation. 'The whole world gi'oaned 
(says St. Jerome) and wondered to find itself 
Arian ! ' But this conversion was neither 
sincere nor lasting ; and however opinions 
may have been divided in the East — for even 

MOiousiANs; those who denied any sort of resem- 
blance Avere called Anomoians ; and, to complete the 
confusion, the last mentioned Sectai'ians are some- 
times denominated — fiom the name of one of their 
most popular teachers — Eunomians. The unimpor- 
tance of the verbal difference might provoke our ridi- 
cule, did we not reflect how much the angrj' applica- 
tion of those terms tended to prolong and imbitter 
the controversy. See Semler, cent. iv. chap. 4., ad 
finem. The distinction which Tillemout (Sur les 
Ariens, Art. 66) draws between the Arians and Euse- 
bians refers rather to their situation in respect to the 
Church than to their doctrine. ' By the Arians we 
mean those who were expelled from the Quirch by the 
Council of Nice — by the Eusebians those who remain- 
ed in communion with the Church, but who bent 
themselves insidiously to ruin its doctri;.3, by the in- 
vention of new formularies, Avho endeavored to expel 
Athanasius, and who communicated with the original 
Arians. So that these two formed only one sect in 
intrigue, and perhaps in belief too — though the one 
party appeared in the Church, and the other was visi- 
bly separated fi-om it.' The word ouoovaioc is in- 
terpreted — habens simul essentiam, i. e. eandem es- 
sentiam. 

* He directed Taurus, tlie Governor of the Pro- 
vince, to confine the Bishops, until they should be all 
of one mind, that is, until they should be all of the 
Emperor's mind. The conditions of concord on 
which they at length agreed amounted to this: that 
the Catholics conceded the .offensive term (Consub- 
stantialism,) and the Arians to all appearance the 
doctrine; at least all parties agreed in anathematiz- 
ing the name of Arius, while they professed, as it 
would seem, the Semiarian opinions. Sulpic. Sever. 
lib. ii. Maimb. Hist. Arian., b. iii. Gibbon, chap. 
21. 



there, though the majority of the Bishops * 
followed the faith of the Emperor, there is 
reason to believe that many among the peo- 
ple remained Catholic f — we may safely infer 
from the small number of Arian prelates who 
were fomid willing to proclaim that doctrine, 
even under an Arian Emperor, that it had yet 
made little progi-ess in the Latin Church.j: 
For we should alwaj's bear in mind, that any 
sudden change in the, opinions of the vulgar 
respecting an abstruse mystery must neces- 
sarily be preceded by the same change in their 
spiritual directors. 

The path of intolerance, which had been 
pointed out and abandoned by Constantine, 
but so steadily followed by his heretical suc- 
cessor, was trodden with equal diligence in 
the Eastern Emph-e by Valens. That Prmce, 
who is believed to have been converted to 
Arianism by the influence of his Empress § 
Dominica, in the year 367, permitted consid- 
erable license against the Catholics to his 
Patriarch Eudoxius,even during the beginning 
of his reign, and proceeded, after a few years, 
to more direct and intemperate measures. || 

* The throne and principal Churches of Constanti- 
nople were occupied by Arian Patriarchs from the year 
342 till their restoration to the Catholics by Theodo- 
sius nearly 40 jears afterwards. Semler, Epit. sec. iv. 

+ At Antioch at least the dissent of the people from 
the established Arianism was strongly and violently 
expressed, and at Constantinople itself, the very cita- 
del of the heresy, in spite of the savage edicts of Con- 
stantius, some very sanguinary tumults still proved the 
steady perseverance of many Catholics. In one of 
these 3150 persons were killed. 

^ Of the four hundred Bishops assembled at Rimiui 
eighty only were Arians. 

§ The Arians had no cause to blush at the obliga- 
tions which they likewise owed to tAvo preceding Em- 
presses. Constantia protected their infancy and their 
misfortunes during the reign of Constantine, and Eu- 
sebia promoted their prosperity under the sceptre of 
Constantius. The Catholics could also boast of simi- 
lar patronage; but Maimbourg (Book vi.) establishes 
a very broad distinction as to the agency by which 
such aid w'as in each case administered; * as the devil 
(says that very rigid Cadiolic) had employed the as- 
sistance of Princesses to introduce Arianism into the 
Court of Constantine, of Constantius and Valens, so 
God made use of the Empress ^lia Flaccilla in order 
to prevent it from creeping into the Court of Theodo- 
sius.' In a later page (b. xii. A. D. 590) the same 
author again alludes to the diabolical agency ' which 
introduced the Arian heresy into the East by the means 
of three women,' and which was afterwards compen- 
sated by the divine benevolence in raising up three 
Princesses, Clotilda, Indegonda and Thpodelinda for 
the purification of France, Spain and Italy. 

II They are enlarged upon by Tilleniont, Sur les 
Ariens, Art. 115. 



100 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Alexandria, by whose pernicious fertility the 
controversy was first engendered, remain- 
ed however, through the influence of Alex- 
ander and Athanasius, strongly attached to 
the Nicene faith. It became the scene of 
frightful disorder, as soon as the civil authori- 
ties added strength to the malignity of the 
Arians, and proceeded again to expel Peter, 
the othodox Patriarch. The calamities thus 
occasioned were undoubtedly heightened by 
the zealous interference of the Jews and 
Pagans, who derived their best argunient 
against Christianity from the furious dissen- 
sions of its professors, and who were, on all 
occasions, anxious from other motives to join 
in the assault on the stronger and wealthier 
party. On the other hand, the Monks, a new 
but numerous Body, continued faithful to the 
doctrine of Athanasius, and loved it the more 
because they suffered for it. Peter avoided 
the tempest by a hasty retreat to Rome, and 
the success of the Arians does not appear 
permanently to have increased either their 
numbers or their popularity. However, there 
can be no doubt that the profession of Arian- 
ism was common, and even general, through- 
out the East during the reign of Valens, and 
that in some of the Asiatic Provinces, espe- 
cially Syria, such may have been the real be- 
lief of the majority; but its progress was 
attended with perpetual tumults, and at the 
death of Valens in 378 it had reached the 
highest point of prevalence which it was des- 
tined in those regions to attain. 

Theodosius the Great. Two years after- 
wards, Theodosius the Great proclaimed his 
adhesion to the doctrine of Nice, and imme- 
diately prepared to establish it as the Creed 
of his subjects. ' I will not permit (thus he 
addressed certain Arians in the year* 383) 
throughout my dominions any other religion 
than that which obliges us to worship the Son 
of God in unity of essence with the Father 
and Holy Ghost in the adorable Trinity — as 
1 hold the Empire of Him, and the power 
which I have to command you, he likewise 
will give me strength, as he hath given me 
the will, to make myself obeyed in a point so 
absolutely necessary to your salvation, and to 
the peace of my subjects.' The peace of his 
subjects was not indeed the immediate re- 
ward of his violent measures, but, on the con- 
trary, general confusion and much individual 
suffering was occasioned- by them. Still, as 
he persevered inflexibly, as he was supported 
even in the East by the more zealous, and, in 

* See Maimb..» Hi^t. Arian., b, vi. 



some places, the more numerous party, and 
as he was seconded almost by the unanimity 
of the Western Empire, his severities were 
attended by general and lasting success, and 
the doctrine of Arius, if not perfectly extir- 
pated, withered from that moment rapidly 
and irrecoverably throughout the Provinces 
of the East. 

The work of Theodosius was considerably 
promoted by the Council which he assembled 
at Constantinople in the year 381, and which 
stands in the history of the Church as the 
Second General Council. Its object, besides 
the regulation of several points of ecclesiasti- 
cal discipline, was to confirm the decision of 
Nice against the Arians, and especially to pro- 
mulgate the dqctrine of the Divinity of the 
Third Person, against the Macedonian * Here- 
tics. The Doctrine on those fundamental 
points, which was then established, is the 
same (if we except the maimer of the Holy 
Procession) which is still professed in our 
Church: by the Oriental Church it has been 
unceasingly maintained, without any varia- 
tion, to the present moment. 

Arianism of the Barbarians. We turn to 
the consideration of the Western Empire. 
While Valens was disturbing his subjects with 
fruitless persecution, the Western Empire was 
administered by his brother Valentinian with 
justice and moderation. Those, and they 
were few in number, among the Western 
Bishops, who had openly deserted to the faith 
of Constantius, were now concealed in ob- 
scurity, or removed by death ; Damasus, the 
Bishop of Rome, was an ardent supporter of 
the Nicene doctrine, and the Church pre- 
served the general appearance, if it could not 
quite secure the reahty, of concord. At Mi- 
lan, during the reign of Theodosius, the cele- 
brated St. Ambrose exerted his genius in the 
same cause, and at the end of the fourth cen- 
tury the proselytes of Arianism formed an 
inconsiderable and a declining party. Sud- 
denly it received a new and extraordinary 
impulse from a quarter which could not have 
been suspected, from accidents which could 
not be averted, nor immediately controlled j 
and which prolonged the existence of that 
heresy beyond the duration which seemed 



* Macedonius, in common with other Arians (or 
rather Semiarians,) denied the Consubstautiality, and 
affirmed the likeness of the two first Persons ; but he 
positively asserted that the Holy Ghost was xrioror, 
ci'eated. He is said to have published this notion 
twenty years before the General Council which con- 
demned it. Le Clerc, Compend. Hist , ap. Jort., b. 
iii, Mosh. H. E., Cent, iv^ p. ii^ ch> v 



THE ARIAN CONTROVERSY. 



101 



otherwise to have beeu assigned to it. Dur- 
ing the course of the fifth century numerous 
tribes of Barbarians, Goths, Huns, and Van- 
dals, Suevi and Alani and Sahi, overran and 
occupied the provinces of the west. Of these 
some had beeu previously converted to Christ- 
ianity in their native forests, before their emi- 
gration to the south, though others for the 
most part adopted the rehgion of the van- 
quished ; and while they professed generally 
the name of Christianity, they followed in its 
particular tenets the faith of then- Prince or 
leader. Now it so happened that all these 
tribes, excepting probably the Salii, imbibed 
in the first instance the notions of Ai'ius. 
This circumstance is thus accounted for : — 
The Goths, who were the earUest and most 
zealous among the converts, were directed in 
their religious creed by theh Bishop Ulpnilas, 
a man of great talents and influence. This 
prelate, in the course of two missions to Con- 
stantinople, during the reigns of Constantius 
and Valens, accommodated his opinions 
(whether sincerely or not, is questionable) to 
those of the Imperial Court, and he returned, 
at least from his second embassy, the zealous 
proselyte of Arianism. This doctrine he 
rapidly propagated among his compatriots, 
and diffused it through the whole nation. 
The example of the Goths was respected by 
the leaders of tribes of subsequent invaders 
and converts ; in embracing the religion of 
the provinces which they conquered they 
preferred that form of it which was professed 
by their predecessors in conquest ; and thus 
the tenets of Arius were disseminated among 
the barbarian colonists in every province of 
the western empire. Other means of spread- 
ing those tenets were the persecutions of the 
orthodox Emperors, especially Theodosius : 
by scattering the followers of the heretic 
among distant and populous nations they dif- 
fused to the same extent the knowledge of 
his doctrine, and multiplied the number of 
its professors. 

Again, those of the barbarian princes who 
embraced Christianity after their success, 
when they saw the great controversy by 
which the Christian world was divided, 
would be guided also by political motives as 
to the side they chose in it, and one of these 
would probably be opposition to the Eastern 
throne ; and, as they were litde versed in the 
arguments by which the question was contest- 
ed, and probably blind even to its real nature 
and importance, the mere effect of their igno- 
rance would be to direct them to what might 
seem the simpler creed. Their soldiers and 



followers, still blinder than themselves, nat 
urally acquiesced ui their belief; and even 
among the vanquished natives, the many who 
were indifferent would turn to the same pro- 
fession. On the other hand, the Church re- 
mained firm ; the exertions of its most eminent 
directors were bent almost without exception 
on the maintenance of the IN icene faith, and 
with such success, that the gi-eat majority of 
zealous and influential Christians probably 
retained, even under foreign and Arian rule, 
their attachment to the established doctrine. 

This reaction in favor of Arianism, as it 
was sudden and somewhat violent, was not 
of long duration ; indeed we may fairly con- 
sider the sixth century as having brought 
about its termination. The conversion of 
Clovis to the Catholic faith in the year 496, 
and his subsequent zeal in its favor, are 
commonly mentioned as having first opened 
the path to the conclusion of the dispute ; and 
as it is sometimes the pleasure of Divine 
Providence to select the vilest instruments for 
the accomplishment of His mysterious de- 
signs, so we may believe without astonish- 
ment that He deigned to bring about a great 
good even by the impure and flagitious min- 
istry of Clovis. A more effective agent in 
the same work was Justinian. That Emper- 
or began his long and active reign in 527, and 
his rigid orthodoxy was disgraced by the 
most violent proceedings against every de- 
scription of heresy. His victories extended 
his means of extirpation into the West, and 
before his death he had very generally 
strengthened, though he had not universally 
restored, the authority of the Church. 

The Ai-ians still retained a very powerful 
party in Spain, which was not destined to be 
otherwise extinguished than by the accession 
of an orthodox monarch. In the year 585 
Recared assembled the leaders of the two 
parties in a conference, which concluded in 
the triumph of the Catholics ; and that Prince 
pursued his victory both in Spain and Nar- 
bonese Gaul, with so much diligence and 
rigor, that after some sanguinary tumults and 
bai'barous executions,* the great body of his 
subjects ranged themselves under his doc- 
trine, and never afterwards relapsed into 
heresy. The celebrated Council of Toledo, 
which was held by the same King in 589, 
may be considered as having completed the 

* Maimb. Hist. Ai'ian., b. xi. The fact is admit- 
ted and justified by Mariana, Hist. Hispan., lib. v., 
ch. xiv. See Basde's Diet., Arius. The facility 
with which tlie Arians yielded to this persecution has 
given great matter of exultation to Catholic writers. 



102 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



extirpation of Arianism from the soil of 
Spain. 

The Lombards. In Italy the victories ob- 
tained by the Generals of Justinian gave 
strength and confidence to the Catholic 
Church, and w^eakened the opposition of its 
adversaries ; and the heresy appears to have 
been falling into discredit, when it received 
a fresh but momentary impulse from the 
invasion and triumphs of the Lombards. 
Those Arian vv^arriors crossed the Alps in the 
year 569, and presently became masters of 
the greater part of the country. Their con- 
quests were attended by unusual circumstan- 
ces of barbarity, and the necessary horrors of 
uncivilized warfare were inflamed by sectari- 
an animosity. But the sufferings of the Cath- 
olics were not of long duration ; they were 
speedily and effectually terminated by the 
conversion of the conquerors. This event is 
ascribed, in the first instance, to the diligence 
and fidelity of the orthodox Bishops,* who 
availed themselves of the first moments of 
tranquillity to recommend the Nicene doc- 
trine to the conscience of the victors. It is 
at least probable that their exertions prepar- 
ed and facilitated the success of a Catholic 
Queen, Theodelinda, who appears to have 
completed the overthrow of Arianism even 
among her Lombard subjects before the con- 
clusion of the sixth century. The triumph 
of that Princess may be read by the Catholic 
without a blush, and recorded by the histo- 
rian without a sigh ; since it was accomplish- 
ed, if not by the process of rational convic- 
tion, at least without the savage inflictions by 
which sudden religious changes are usually 
effected. 

It was thus that this lamentable controver- 
sy, after perplexing the faith, and animating 
the malice, and disturbing the happiness of 
the Christian world for more than two hun- 
dred and fift~? years, was at length extin- 
guished; an'^ >at this moment the very name 
of Arius is almost forgotten in the Eastern 
world ; and in the West his opinions are con- 
fined to the breasts of a very inconsiderable 
proportion of the Christian community. 

We shall close this account with a few ad- 
ditional observations. The Arians have laid 
claim to the greater moderation, both in the 
origin and in the conduct of this controversy, 
and they moreover assert that their commu- 
nion was free from many of the superstitious 
corruptions, which, at that time, were grovv- 



* Maimbcurg (Hist. Arian. ,b. xii.) is the more to 
be believed in tliis poiat, as he mentions the fact al- 
most incidentalJv. 



I ing up so rapidly in the Catholic church. 
This latter assertion is, at least, founded in 
probability ; because the principle of their 
faith, by disparaging the dignity of the Re- 
deemer, removed them farther from religious 
excess. Their tendency was rather towards 
too little, than towards too much belief; and 
we can readily suppose that those who were 
so averse from the worship of Christ, would 
certainly refuse ajiy adoration to the Virgin 
or other created beings. But notwithstand- 
ing this, we find that Constantius had a su- 
perstitious veneration for relics, and was the 
first to encourage their transfer from place to 
place, with the miraculous qualities attached 
to them ; and when that Arian disturbed the 
(real or supposed,) bodies of Timothy, St. An- 
drew, and St. Luke, and conveyed them to 
Constantinople, he assuredly introduced into 
the Church of Christ one of its most degrad- 
ing corruptions.* But theii- claims to supe- 
rior moderation are still more disputable, ex- 
cept, indeed, as far as it might be the fruit of 
their weakness. In the East, the reign of 
Constantius was the sera of their triumph, 
and it was polluted by constant and sanguina- 
ry persecution. That of Valens was not less 
distinguished by the same spirit and prin- 
ciple, and the same oppression ; and as the 
Arian Bishops were then exceedingly nume- 
rous and powerful, at least in Asia, it would 
be unfair to impute the whole criminality to 
the Emperor. Athanasius, the continual ob- 
ject of then* hostility, has the following pas- 
sage concerning them. ' Whenever any man 
differs from them, they have him before the 
Governor or the General ; him whom they 
cannot subdue by reason and argument, they 
take upon them to convince by whippings 
and imprisonments ; which is enough to show 
that their principles are any thing rather than 
religion ; for it is the property of religion not 
to compel, but to persuade.' On the other 
hand, Athanasius liimself either had not yet 
learnt, or liad wholly forgotten, this excellent 
truth when he appealed to Constantino against 
the recall of Arius ; nor was it generally either 
practised or acknowledged afterwards by the 
Catholic Emperors of the East.f Gradually 
the faith of the prelates submitted itself to the 
injunctions of those monarchs ; the people 
were, upon the whole, always favorable to 

* This took place iu 356. See Jortin, Eccl. His., 
vol. iv., p. xii, 

f There is one distinction, however, which to a cerr 
tain extent is true, that the Arians were more lenient 
in their treatment of other heretics; whereas thq 
j Catholics persecuted universally. 



THE ARIAN CONTROVERSY. 



103 



Catholicism ; and thus before the middle of 
the sixth century the Nicene doctrine was 
very firmly established throughout that part 
of the Empire. 

In the west Arianisni would never have 
taken any deep root, except through the in- 
fluence of the barbarian conquerors ; for the 
Church was steadily and zealously opposed to 
it, and so was the most religious, if not the 
most numerous, part of the conquered. It was 
probably confined to the courts of the victors, 
to their armies, and to such of the natives 
as were in most immediate intercourse with 
them. In Gaul, in Spain, and in Italy, the 
Gothic Princes appear seldom to have perse- 
cuted their Catholic subjects, except in retali- 
ation for some outrage exercised against the 
Arians by the Catholic Emperors of Constan- 
tinople. But in Africa the Vandal Arians 
were guilty of horrible excesses during the 
last half of the fifth century, which were not 
terminated until their expulsion by Belisarius 
in the year 530. On the other hand, in all 
those provinces the Catholic population, 
whether persecuted or not, seems always to 
have been equally disposed to rise in favor 
of a Catholic invader. But we should here 
recollect that the distinction of Arian and 
Catholic was in general so closely connected 
with that of Barbarian and Roman, conquer- 
or and conquered,* that we can scarcely say 
how much of this we should attribute to reli- 
gious, how much to national, animosity. Up- 
on the whole, we have little reason to give the 
praise of moderation, or even humanity, to 
either party ; much depended on the personal 
character of the Princes on either side, and 
on tJie principles or prejudices m which they 
had been educated. But in as far as the sec- 
tarian feeling was concerned, we may discov- 
er on both sides an equal disposition to give 
loose to it. 

The Arian was more flexible, the Catholic 
more rigid under persecution ; f the former 
finally submitted to conversion ; the latter 
would probably never have yielded to any 

* See Maimb., Hist. Ariau., b. xi. passim. In 
the mouth of an Arian, the terms Catholic and Roman 
were synonymous. 

t Bayle (in his Life of Arius) observes this incon- 
sistency in Roman Catholic writers, that they urge 
generally the obstinate perversity of heretics as a proof 
of their errors; and yet press their flexibility in par- 
ticular cases to the same conclusion. Yet the Roman | 
Catliolics endeavored to accommodate their practice 
to both their suppositions ; which, indeed, could only 
be reconciled by the assumption, that heretics were 
obstinate until they were persecuted, and no longer ; 
ftnd on this ground they erected the In^isition. 



infliction short of extirpation : and this dis- 
tinction is attributed by some to the undoubt- 
ed circumstance, that it is easier to extend 
the belief of the multitude, than to contract 
it ; a circumstance which proceeds from the 
false but prevalent notion, that too much be- 
lief is at least an error on the safe side, and 
that Jesus Christ would more readily inter- 
cede for those who might have paid Him 
excessive honor, than for those who had 
fiillen short in their worship. Others imagine, 
that the Arian always felt in his heart some la- 
tent consciousness of error, which undermined 
his constancy in the hour of trial, and depriv- 
ed him of that energy of invincible endurance 
which is inconsistent with the very shadow 
of insincerity. 

NOTE ON CERTAIN EARLY ECCLESIASTICAIi 
HISTORIANS. 

Three Greek writers, Socrates, Sozomen, 
and Theodoret, take up the annals of the 
Church about the time of its establishment 
by Constantine, nearly where the history of 
Eusebius terminates, and carry them on as 
far as the reign of Theodosius the younger, 
through a space of about one hundred and 
twenty years. It is necessary to give a short 
account of them. 

L Socrates was a native of Constantinople ; 
he was carefully instructed in grammar and 
rhetoric, and presently assumed the profession 
of a scholastic or advocate. Much time, how- 
ever, and very considerable diligence he di- 
rected to the compilation of his historical ma- 
terials, and no scanty judgment is shown in 
their arrangement and composition. The 
epistles of Bishops, the acts of Councils, the 
works of preceding or contemporary ecclesi- 
astics are consulted with care, and seemingly 
cited with fidelity, and the principal events 
are chronologically distinguished by olym- 
piads or consulates. His impartiality is so 
strikingly displayed, as to make his ortho- 
doxy questionable to Baronius, the celebrated 
Roman Catholic historian ; but Valesius in 
his life has clearly shown that there is no 
reason for such suspicion. We may men- 
tion another principle, which he has followed, 
which in the mind of Baronius may have 
tended to confirm the notion of his hetero- 
doxy — that he is invariably adverse to every 
form of persecution on account of religious 
opinions — - ' dicoyjudv ds Xeyoj to oTtojaovf 
duovrac — and I call it 



■.o& 



TTSLV TOVQ 



r^av)/cci^o 



persecution to offer any description of moles- 
tation to those who are quiet.' Some credu- 
lity respecting miraculous stories is his prin^ 
cipal failing. 



104 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



2. Hermias Sozomen was also aii advocate, 
resident at Constantinople ; but he was a na- 
tive of Palestine, born near Gaza, and was 
educated in a monastery in that country. In 
his writings we perceive a great ardor for the 
monastic life, and a concomitant tendency to 
superstitious extravagance. Superior in style 
to his contemporary, he is below him in judg- 
ment and discrimination ; still his work con- 
tains much valuable matter; though some of 
it is probably borrowed from that of Socrates, 
which seems to have been published some 
little earlier. 

3. Theodo7'et,\ike Sozomen, received a mo- 
nastic education ; but he entered into the ec- 
clesiastical profession, and became Bishop of 
Cyrus, in Syria. He was remarkable, not 
only for his learning and piety, but for his 
absolute and voluntary poverty. ' I was or- 
dained Bishop against my will ; for twenty - 
five years (says he, in an epistle still extant) I 
have so lived in that station, as never to be at 
variance, never to prosecute any one at law or 
to be prosecuted. The same I can say of all 
the pious clergy who are under my inspec- 
tion, none of whom was ever seen in any court 
of justice. Neither I nor my domestics ever 
received the smallest present from any per- 
son, not even a loaf or an egg. My patrimo- 
ny I gave long ago to the poor, and I have 
made no new acquisitions. I have neither 
house, nor land, nor money, nor a sepulchre 
where my friends may lay my body when I 
die. I am possessor of nothing save the poor 
raiment which I wear.' As a writer, howev- 
er, he is inferior to his two fellow-laborers, 
both in judgment and moderation ; he is more 
violent against schism and heresy, more big- 
oted, and more absurdly credulous. Yet he 
did not himself escape the charge of heresy, 
and was certainly attached to the party, prob- 
ably to the opinions, of Nestorius. His style 
is pronounced by Photius to be clear and 
lofty without redundancy. 

To this list we may venture to regret that 
we cannot add the name of Philostorgius. 
This writer was an Arian ; his history ex- 
tended from the year 300 to 425, and he had 
witnessed much of what he described. But 
of his works nothing remains, except an epi- 
tome by Photius, and some fragments. Pho- 
tius assures us that he betrayed gi'eat partial- 
ity for the sect to which he belonged, and 
this may have been so ; yet such is the nar- 
rative which we would willingly confront 
with the probable misrepresentations of his 
adversaries. 

We have also referred to the authorities of 



Epiphanius, Hilaiy, and Rufinus, but have 
been veiy sparing in our. use of them. Epiph- 
anim was bred a monk, and became Bishop 
of Salamis, in Cyprus. He was the author 
of a voluminous book against all the heresies 
which had hitherto arisen. But his work is 
disfigured by so many marks of levity and 
ignorance, that we can follow him with no 
general confidence. Hilary was Bishop of 
Poictiers, for the most part a copyist of Ter- 
tullian and Origen, but celebrated for ' Twelve 
Books concerning the Trinity,' written against 
the Arians. Rujinus was a Presbyter of Aqui- 
leia, a translator, and not always a faithful 
one, of Origen and other Greek writers. He 
was engaged in a violent contest with St. Je- 
rome, and was assailed by the virulence of 
that intemperate- writer ; and he had the addi- 
tional misfortune of being excommunicated 
by Anastasius, the Bishop of Rome, for his 
attachment to the opinions of Origen. These 
three writers belong to the fourth century. 
Jortin, H. E., b. ii., p. ii., p. 96. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



The Decline and Fall of Paganism. 

Condition of the two Religions on the accession of Con- 
stantine — Progress of Christianity during his reign — 
His successive measures against Paganism— Remarks 
on them — Proceedings of his sons — Accession of Julian 
— Reasons given for his Apostasy — His enthusiasm for 
Paganism— His character compared with that of M. 
Antoninus — his policy contrasted with that of Constan- 
tine — his .successive measures against Christianity — 
His attempts to reform Paganism — directed to three 
points — his attack on the truth of Christianity— In the 
attempt to rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem— defeated 
— by what means — whether miraculous or not — exam- 
ination of a late opinion — His death. Rapid decline of 
Paganism — Valentinian I. — Gratian. — Theodosius I. ■ 
his edict against Paganism — extremely effectual. Im- 
perfect faith of many of the Converts — corruptions in- 
troduced from Paganism. Synesius. Arcadias and 
Honorius — abolition of Gladiatorial Games. Theodo- 
sius II. — subversion of Paganism — in the East — in the 
West. Note on certain Pagan writers. 

From the dissensions of Christians, and the 
calamities occasioned by them, we turn to a 
more pleasing subject — the final triumph of 
the Faith over the superstition which had 
heretofore prevailed throughout the Roman 
empire ; and in proceeding to this investiga- 
tion, that which first strikes us as most re- 
markable is, that the very period during which 
the Christian world was most widely and 
angrily divided by the Arian controversy, the 



DECLINE AND FALL O AGANISM. 



10i> 



middle and conclusion of the fourth century, 
was that precisely during which the Religion, 
as if invigorated by internal agitation, over- 
threw her most powerful adversary — a cir- 
cumstance which is the more to be remark- 
ed, as strongly indicative of her owtli heavenly 
energy, because the spectacle of Christian dis- 
sension has afforded to infidels in every age, 
as it does at this moment, the most plausible 
argument for unbelief. Let us endeavor 
then to trace the measures by which this ex- 
traordinary revolution was brought about. 

At the accession of Constantine, the Chris- 
tians, though very numerous, formed no doubt 
the smaller portion of his subjects, since the 
multitude, who were, in fact, of no religion, 
were accounted among the votaries of pagan- 
ism ; and among the lower classes, the pa- 
rade of a splendid superstition was more 
attractive than the simplicity of the true wor- 
ship, to persons both ignorant and incurious 
about the truth of either ; while in many oth- 
ers, a latent inclination towards the new re- 
ligion would be repressed by the siglit of the 
worldly afflictions which so frequently pursu- 
ed it. The conversion of the Emperor was 
naturally followed by a great increase in the 
number of nominal* Christians ; the faith of 
many, who were nearly indifferent, would be 
decided by that event; and many also, of 
more serious minds, would thus be led to ex- 
amine with respect the nature of the religion 
which in its adversity they had contemptuous- 
ly neglected. Honor and emoluments were 
annexed to the dignities of the Church, which 
were thus made objects of ambition to the no- 
ble and the learned ; and since many, through 
the exercise of the rehgion, would gradually 
imbibe those sentiments and principles of pi- 
ety, which they had not perhaps carried into 
it, we may believe that, while the name of 
Christianity was rapidly extended over the 
Roman world, its essential doctrines and 
moral influence made a considerable, though 
by no means an equal, progress. 

Constantine, Constantine's first measure 
was the famous edict of universal toleration, 
which established Christianity without mo- 
lesting any other religion, and as late as the 
year 321 he published a proclamation favor- 
able to the maintenance of one of the grossest 
impostures of paganism, the art of divination. 
Until this period, and perhaps for some few 
years longer, he held with tolerably equal 
hand the balance of the two religions, f and 



* See a note on Dr. Arnold's seventh Sermon, p. 88. 
t In book iii. of Eusebius's Life of Constantine, 
14 



in the rivalry thus estabhshed between them 
Christianity was daily gaining some weight 
at the expense of its opponent. This crisis 
was, mdeed, of sliort duration, and the atten- 
tive eye of the Emperor immediately perceiv- 
ed to which side the victory was inclining. 
It was then that he threw into the prepon- 
derating scale the decisive addition of his 
civil authority. In the year 333 he began * 
to overthrow the temples and idols of the 
Gentiles, and to invade their property; he 
suppressed some of the writings most hostile 
to Christianity, and proclaimed his opposition 
to the sacred rites of paganism. He con- 
demned them as detrimental to the State ; 
and whatever may have been the sincerity of 
his faith, he was at least convinced that forms 
of worship so contrary to each other in all 
their principles could not long coexist in the 
same empire, and he gave his support to that 
which most conduced to the virtue and hap- 
piness of his subjects. 

The sons of Constantine followed their 
father's footsteps. During the Arian rule of 
Constantius the severity of the laws against 
Paganism was rather increased than relaxed, 
and sacrifice, together with idolatrous wor- 
ship, was visited by capital punishment. This 
system lasted until his death ; so that, for a 
space of about thirty years, the ancient super- 
stition was restrained by perpetual discour- 
agement, and afflicted with frequent perse- 
cution. The number of its followers was 
thus considerably reduced : but the triumph 
was not yet complete, and many were there 
still in every province of the empire, who 
hailed the accession of Julian. 

Julian. Julian, who is commonly men- 
tioned in history by the name of Apostate, 
was the nephew of the great Constantine ; he 
abandoned in early youth the faith in which 

the 44th and 45th chapters mention some prohibitioas 
against sacrifice a«d idol-worship, addressed first to 
Pagan Magistrates, and then to the people ; but in his 
prayer, or doxology, published in the 55th and follow- 
ing chapters, he accords alike ' both to believers and 
those in error the enjoyment of peace and tranquillity; 
as such friendly communion has most tendency to lead 
men into the straight path.' 

* Semler, tab. sec. quarti, on author, of Julian, 
Orat. 7. Mosheim (cent, iv., p. i., c. i.) dates the 
exertions of Constantine from the overthrow of Licin- 
ius. See Euseb. Vit. Const, lib. iv. c. 23, 25, 
&c. Fleury (lib. xi., sect. 33) assigns the destruction 
of the Temples of Venus, in Syria, and of JSscula" 
pius and Apollo, in Cilicia, to the year which follow- 
ed the Council of Nice. See Euseb. Vit. Const., 
lib. iii., chap. 54 ; and Sozomen, Hist. EccLj lib, 
ii., c. 5. 



106 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



he had been educated, and betook himself 
with great zeal to the practice of paganism. 
The motive to which this change is usually 
attributed, is the hatred which he indulged 
towards the name and sons of Constantine, 
owing to the cruelties which they had inflict- 
ed on his family ; hatred which a young and 
impetuous disposition might easily extend to 
their religion. Another reason alleged is, 
that when he saw the dissensions of the Chris- 
tians, and their rancor against each other, 
his faith was perplexed ; he found it hard to 
distinguish the excellence of the religion from 
the vices of those who professed it, and was 
unable to prevent his judgment from being 
blinded by his indignation. Both of them 
may be true ; for it is clear from some parts 
of his subsequent conduct, that his enmity to 
Christianity was founded on passion more 
than on reason, and his hatred of the faith 
is more prominent than his disbelief of it.* 
Hence it is, that, having renounced one reli- 
gion, he flew with ardor to the exercise of 
the other, and sought its aid and alliance 
against the common adversary. This enthu- 
siasm for paganism carried him into some 
ridiculous excesses. It is true that the affec- 
tion which he professed for processions and 
ceremony, and the proftise splendor of his 
sacrifices, may have proceeded from a wish 
to seduce and allure the vulgar ; but his pri- 
vate devotion to magical rites and the prac- 
tice of divination, in which his sincerity is 
not doubted, has no such excuse, and could 
only have proceeded from an irregular and 
superstitious mind. And yet to this weak- 
ness he united many extraordinary qualities 
— 'he was eloquent and liberal, artfid, insin- 
uating and indefatigable ; which, joined to a 
severe temperance, an affected love of jus- 
tice,f and a courage superior to all trials, first 
gained him the affections, and soon after the 
peaceable possession of the whole empire.' 
A strong attachment to literature distinguish- 
ed his character, and may have tended to 
nourish his heathen prejudices ; and the pas- 
sion for glory which sometimes misled him 
was probably the strongest among his pas- 
sions, and his leading motive of action. 

If we compare tlie character of Julian 
with that of the other great enemy of the 
rehgion, Marcus Antoninus, we shall find all 

* See note at the end of the chapter. 

fThe passage is quoted from Warburton; but we 
have no reason to question the sincerity of that prin- 
ciple in Julian, though it was soaietiuies overpowered 
by his religious antipathy. 



the advantages of a thoughtful, consistent, 
and sober understanding on the side of the 
latter. His conduct was invariably guided 
by his principles, and his principles were the 
best which heathen philosophy could sug- 
gest to him. His knowledge of Christianity 
was too partial, and the power of its professors 
too inconsiderable, to command his belief or 
respect ; and he was too deeply sensible of 
the absurdities of paganism to feel any regard 
for that worship ; so that he was contented 
rigorously, but not intemperately, to maintain 
that which happened to be the established 
religion. But Julian had more of passion 
than philosophy in his constitution and in 
his principles ; and even his philosophy (that 
of the new Academy) tended much more to 
speculation than to practice. Indifference, 
to which his temperament would never have 
led him, was precluded by the situation of 
the empire. Impetuous, and restless, and 
fearless, he converted into love for the one 
religion that which at first was only hatred 
for the other, and he proceeded daringly to 
accomphsh what he ardently projected ; yet 
his daring was tempered by so much address 
and knowledge, that it was not far removed 
from consummate prudence. 

But if we had space for such disquisitions, 
a more interesting and perhaps more profita- 
ble contrast might be drawn between the sit- 
uation and conduct of Juhan and of Con- 
stantino. Both arrived at the possession of 
unlimited power, through great difficulties, 
chiefly by means of their personal talents 
and popularity ; both, on arriving at the 
throne, found the religion of the state differ- 
ent from their own, and followed by the ma- 
jority of their subjects; and both determined 
to substitute that which himself professed. . 
The grand difference was this — the religion | j 
of Constantine (we may be permitted for one ' 
moment to treat the subject merely political- 
ly) was young and progressive; it stood on 
principles which proved its excellence, and 
ensured its durability ; the only weakness 
which it acknowledged was that of immatu- 
rity. The religion of Julian had long been 
held in derision by all reasonable men ; its 
energy had long passed away from it, and 
its feebleness was the decrepitude of old age. 
So that the one led on to certain victory an 
aspiring assailant ; the other endeavored to 
rally a shattered, undisciplined, dispirited 
fugitive. 

Let us next examine the manner in which 
Julian proceeded to the accomplishment of 
his hopeless enterprise. His first step was iu 



DECLINE AND FALL OF PAGANISM. 



107 



direct imitation of the first act of Constan- 
tine. He published edicts which estabhshed 
the rehgion of the Emperor as that of the 
state, and which tolerated every other. By 
such decrees he placed Christianity in a very 
similar situation to that m which, about fifty 
years before, his uncle had placed paganism ; 
and he finther increased this resemblance by 
invitmg the most eminent philosophers to his 
court, admitting them to his confidence, and 
raising them to the highest dignities and offi- 
ces in their religion. His second step was 
the natural consequence of the first ; he took 
away the immunities, honors, and revenues, 
which had been bestowed on the Christian 
clergy, and transferred them to the service of 
the established religion — and though great 
individual injustice was thus perpetrated, no 
one can reasonably complain of the principle 
of this transfer, since such advantages are 
necessarily conferred by the state on those 
who profess the religion of the state. His 
first edicts, while they restored to Pagans 
their civil rights, do not appear to have vio- 
lated those of the Christians : but by a sub- 
sequent regulation he disqualified the Chris- 
tian laity from office in the state. This 
measure was attended by another, founded 
on a deeper principle, and of much more dan- 
gerous consequence — he forhade any Chris- 
tian to lecture in the public schools of science or 
literature ; and this prohibition not only obli- 
ged the Christian youth to have recourse to 
Pagan instructers, but also deprived them of 
one of the greatest encouragements to profi- 
ciency. Julian was sufficiently instructed in 
the nature of his project, to perceive that it 
would be of little avail to oppress the dissen- 
tients by vexatious restraints, unless at the 
same time he could degrade them by igno- 
rance.* His last measure (for which we 
have the authority of the historian Socrates) 
was the direct imposition of a tax on all who 
refused to sacrifice to the Gods of the Em- 
pire. 

Considering that the reign of Julian lasted 
not two years, we must admit that, wliile he 
developed a perfect knowledge of the theory 



* A contemporary Christian writer (Gregorj' Naz- 
ianzen) tells us of another method adopted by Julian in 
order to bring the religion into disrepute, which proves 
how low his enmity was contented to descend, for the 
sake of inflicting one additional and ignoble wound. 
He commanded by edict {vouodsti^aac) that Chris- 
tians should no longer be called Christians, but Gali- 
leans. There was some art in this attack ; for the 
value of a name, which is every where of some influ- 
ence, has especial importance among orientals. 



of persecution, he made very rapid progi-es3 
m the practice of it ; and had he been suffer- 
ed by Providence much longer to persist in 
his aggression, with proportionate increase 
of severity, it is probable that the final tri- 
umph of Christianity would not otherwise 
have been achiev^ed than by the means of a 
rehgious war. But the provinces of the civ- 
ilized world were saved from that severest 
infliction by the death of the Emperor. 

Reform of Paganism. As Julian was either 
too sincere a religionist, or at least too wise 
a politician, to wish to deprive his subjects 
of all rehgion, he accompanied his labors for 
the subversion of Christianity by some judi- 
cious attempts to render paganism more dura- 
ble ; but this scheme could scarcely have 
hoped for any great success, even had it been 
undertaken at an earlier period, when the 
vices of that religion had been less openly ex- 
posed and acknowledged ; when its shrines 
were less generally deserted ; and when the 
mere moral superiority of its rival was less 
manifestly and notoriously exhibited. He ap- 
pears to have directed his exertions to three 
points, — viz. : 1. To conceal or disguise the 
absurdity of its origin and nature by moral 
and philosophical allegories ; 2. To establish 
ecclesiastical discipline and policy on the 
model of the Christian church ; 3. To correct 
the morals of the priesthood. 

For the first of these purposes he found 
materials already provided by the philosophers 
of his own sect, the Platonists ; who had been 
employed, especially since the appearance of 
Christianity, in refining the theology of pagan- 
ism. In pursuance of the second, he planned 
an establishment for readers in that theology ; 
for the order and parts of the divine office ; 
for a regular and formal service, with days 
and hours of worship ; and with respect to the 
third, he enjoined to the priesthood, (whom 
he seemingly would have established as a 
separate order,) as well as to their household, 
great severity of personal behavior, and 
strictly to withhold themselves from all vul- 
gar amusements and ignoble professions. 
While he imitated the discipline of the Church 
he was willing also to emulate her moral ex- 
cellences; and therefore he decreed the 
foundation of hospitals and other charitable 
institutions, and particularly recomm.ended to 
the ministers of religion the virtues of charity 
and benevolence. He did not live to com- 
plete, or probably to mature, these designs; 
but the above sketch is sufficient to prove the 
extent of the beneficial influence which Chris- 
tianity had already exerted, even over those 



103 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



who were not persuaded of its truth ; and to | 
show that the only art by which its formidable 
adversary could affect to supplant it, was by 
an ungraceful endeavor to resemble it. 

Attempt to rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem. 
But Julian, with all his authority and address, 
could scarcely hope to substitute that which 
was known to be a shadow for that which 
was believed to be real and substantial. It 
therefore became necessary for his design to 
overthrow the foundations on which Chris- 
tianity rested, or at least to disclose their 
weakness. One of the most important and 
influential of these was the accomplishment 
of so many ancient prophecies, tending, as it 
were, to a common centre, to the establish- 
ment of its truth. Among those prophecies, 
there was no one which excited such general 
admiration, and so strangely perplexed the 
unbelieving, as that which related to the de- 
struction of the Temple of Jerusalem ; not 
only as it had been once and signally fulfilled 
by the arms of Titus, but as the consequent 
dispersion of the nation and abolition of the 
law had already continued for nearly three 
hundred years to be a subject of appeal and 
triumphant argument with the defenders of 
Revelation. Julian doubtless perceived that 
if he could remove that ground of faith, many 
would be persuaded that the ancient Books 
of the Christians had no better title to divine 
inspiration than the Homeric rhapsodies, or 
the Orphic hymns ; and that the exclusive 
claim to truth, which distinguished the re- 
ligion from every superstition, had in fact no 
solid foundation. We can scarcely be mis- 
taken in considering this to have been his 
leading object, when, in the year 363, he un- 
dertook to rebuild the Temple. 

This was indeed to attack Christianity on 
the only ground on which any lasting ad- 
vantage could be obtained, or on which its 
overthrow could possibly have been effected. 
The persecution of its professors was certain 
to terminate in a reaction favorable to them ; 
the reform and adornment of paganism was 
only a ridiculous and contemptible mockery ; 
but the falsification of one prophecy would 
have reduced the worship of Christ, as far as 
its origin was concerned, to a level with that 
of Jove : so that we need not wonder at the 
ardor with which its adversaries engaged in 
this attempt, at the suspicion with which some 
wavering Christians beheld it, at the joy of 
anticipated triumph which it excited in true 
believers.* 



The historical facts are simply these : — the 
work was undertaken with some parade, un- 
der the superintendence of Alypius, an officer 
of rank and reputation, a pagan, and a per- 
sonal friend of the Emperor ; and the work- 
men were proceeding to clear away the ruins, 
and lay bare the old foundations, when an 
earthquake and tempest, accompanied by fire 
from below, and a strange appearance in the 
heavens, tore the foundations asunder, de- 
stroyed or dispersed those engaged in the 
labor, and consumed the materials ; and this, 
it clearly appears, not once only, but on re- 
peated attempts. Many of those who surviv- 
ed bore about with them lasting marks of fire, 
and the work was immediately suspended, 
and never afterwards renewed. These facts 
are the result of the combined evidence of 
four contemporary authors,* one of whom, 
Ammianus Marcellinus, was a pagan, a zeal- 
ous admirer of the Emperor, and resident with 
his master at Antioch when the event took 
place. To the circumstances above narrated 
others of a more extraordinary nature were 
at different periods f appended, some of which 



* Twice previously, during the reigns of Adrian and 
Constantine, the Jews had expressed a disposition to 



rebuild the Temple with their own hands; but the 
Imperial permission was withheld from political caus- 
es in the first instance, and from religious, or from 
both, in the second. 

* Ammian. Marc, lib. xxiii., c. i. Ambrose, Epist. 
xi.,t. ii. Chrysostom adv. Jud. et Gentiles. Gregory 
Nazianzen, Orat. iv. adv. Julian. The passage of 
Ammianus at least requires insertion j and we should 
observe, that alone it does not go to the full extent of 
the account which we have given. ' Diligentiam ubi- 
que dividens imperiique sui memoriam magnitudine 
operum gestiens propagare, ambitiosum quoddam apud 
Hierosolymam Templum, quod post multa et interne- 
civa certamina obsidente Vespasiano posteaque Tito 
aegre est expugnatum, instaurare sumptibus cogitabat 
immodicis; negotiumque maturandum Alypio dedit 
Antiochensi, qui olim Britannias curaverat pro prge- 
fectis. Cum itaquerei idem fortiter instaret Aly- 
pius, juvaretque provincice Rector, meiuendi glo- 
bi flammarum prope fandamenta crebris adsultibus 
erumpentes fecere locum exustis aliquoties oper- 
antibus inaccessum; hocque modo elemento desti- 
natius repellente cessavit inceptum.' The epistle 
of Ambrose is addressed to the Emperor Theodosius, 
and Chrysostom was not far distant from the spot 
when the event took place. Both these writers speak 
of it with brevity as notorious, and undisputed. But 
Gregory enters into more detail ; and, besides the cir- 
cumstances mentioned in the text, relates a miracu- 
lous closing of the doors of a church in which tlie 
workmen would have taken refuge, and tlie impression 
of the figure of the Cross on the dress and persons of 
those present. This last phenomenon is very inge- 
niously, and even probably explained by Warburton. 

f The miracle is related about half a century after- 
wards, with the addition of various particulars, by 
Rufinus, Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodorit. 



DECLINE AND FALL OF PAGANISM/ 



109 



are indeed consistent with physical probabil- 
ity, but others are manifestly the superstitious 
exaggerations of later ages. The truth of the 
outline which we have given cannot reason- 
ably be contested, nor is it at all affected by 
some variations in the details, implying diver- 
sity, but no contradiction. 

But, though the facts be undisputed, the 
question has still been moved and argued with 
much ingenuity, whether the convulsion in 
question was a phenomenon merely natural, 
or occasioned by divine interposition ; and as 
that question is usually proposed, the fairest 
method of stating it appears to be this. In a 
very critical period of the history of Chris- 
tianity, the highest earthly authority, having 
declared against it, proceeded to apply the 
severest test, not only to the constancy of its 
professors, but to the truth of the faith itself; 
(and in this respect the attempt of Julian dif- 
fers in character from those of any preceding 
persecutor.) The trial was made in the most 
public manner, in the very birth-place of the 
religion, in the eyes of the whole civilized 
world ; and as the world was still divided (and 
perhaps not very unequally divided) between 
the rival religions, the result would be neces- 
sarily expected with attentive anxiety by the 
votaries of both. Under these circumstances 
Julian undertook to falsify the prophecies of 
God, and thus most assuredly to overthrow 
the belief which rested on them. Again, the 
mountain on which the Temple of Jerusalem 
had stood was not so constituted, as either 
from its frame or situation to be probably the 
scene of a natural eruption ; history speaks 
but of one other commotion, confined partic- 
ularly to that hill, which took place at anoth- 
er critical conjuncture, the moment of the 
Crucifixion ; and from the days of Julian to 
this time, the convulsion has not ever been 
repeated. It remains then for us to consider, 
whether it be less improbable, that God 
should have interposed for the confirmation 
of his religion at the moment when its truth 
was put to a most public and insulting proof; 
than, that a mountain hitherto quiescent, and 
ever since so, should have undergone a natu- 
ral convulsion, and thrown forth destructive 
fire from physical causes, at that very crisis 
(and at that crisis only) when the test was ap- 
plied, and the insult offered ; that the eruption 
should have been confined to the particular 
spot in question ; that it should have continu- 
ed as long as the attempts were repeated ; and 
that it should have ceased, when they ceased, 
when its seeming purpose was effected, for- 
ever: and thus we might fairly leave it to 



any unprejudiced mind to decide, whether 
such a concurrence of fortuitous circumstan- 
ces at such a conjuncture were more or less 
credible than a miracle. 

But the question is not yet exhausted ; a 
very plausible explanation of the phenomenon 
has been recently published, and received 
with an attention, of which, perhaps, it is not 
undeserving.* The greater part of the city 
of Jerusalem was undermined by very exten- 
sive subterranean vaults and passages,f which 
were used as cisterns, or magazines, or places 
of refuge, or sepulchres, according to political 
circumstances, or their own form and situa- 
tion. We learn that the cisterns alone fur- 
nished water during the siege to the eleven 
hundred thousand inhabitants, for whom the 
fountain of Siloa was insufficient ; and we 
find, that when resistance became hopeless, 
the most active among the insurgents form- 
ed the project of secreting themselves in those 
recesses until the Romans should have eva- 
cuated the city. Some remains of such ex- 
cavations may still be observed both in the 
city and in the adjacent mountains. Now it 
may reasonably be supposed, that during the 
long period of desolation which intervened 
between Titus and Julian, those vast caverns, 
being obstructed by rubbish and ruins, would 
remain untenanted, and probably unexplored ; 
and thus the workmen of Alypius, when they 
proceeded with torches to examine and pen- 
etrate the gloomy labyrinths, might be terrifi- 
ed, and expelled by frequent explosions of 
inflammable air. On a spot singularly con- 
genial to superstitious apprehensions, under 
circumstances peculiarly calculated to awaken 
and encourage them, such natural detonations 
might readily be ascribed, even by some of 
those who witnessed them, to extraordinary 
interposition ; and certainly the multitude of 
the Christians who heard the story, being as 
familiar with miraculous tales as they were 
ignorant of the mysteries of nature, would re- 
ceive it unhesitatingly, as an especial proof of 
divine protection. Such might naturally be 
the case ; and suspicious as we should always 
be of any attempt to substitute plausible con- 
jecture for facts historically proved, how 

* It appears to have been first proposed by Michae- 
lis, quoted by Guizot in his translation of Gibbon's 
History. It is very reasonably treated by the judi- 
cious writer in tlie Encyclop. Metropol. (Life of 
Julianus,) and still more lately has been adopted, with- 
too little hesitation or comment, by the autlior of ' Tha 
History of the Jews.' 

t See Tacit, v. 12. Dio, 66. p. 747. Josephus^, 
Bell. Jud. vii. 2., and Autiq. Jud. xv. c. xi. sect. 7 



no 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



marvellous soever their character, we are not 
prepared to reject the above explanation, 
though by no means impatient to embrace it. 
At least Ave should observe, that, if it satisfies 
the description of Ammianus, it is not appli- 
cable to some of the circumstances mentioned 
by the Christian authorities ; so that these 
must be condemned and sacrificed to it, and 
our belief entirely confined to the pagan ac- 
count ; and even then it will remain with 
many a matter of wonder, that Alypius, a dig- 
nified and enlightened pagan, assisted by the 
presence of the Governor of the province, and 
acting almost under the eyes of the Emperor 
himself, should have finally abandoned a pro- 
ject esteemed by his master of immense im- 
portance, through a fortuitous impediment, 
of which the cause could scarcely be conceal- 
ed from him, or the facility of overcoming 
it. And after all, it will remain at least ques- 
tionable, whether the gases generated in 
those caverns were not of a nature more 
likely to extinguish, than to produce, com- 
bustion. 

A few months after this event Julian was 
killed in battle ; and the succession of Chris- 
tian Emperors was then restored, and never 
afterwards disturbed. Henceforward the ad- 
vance of religion upon the receding ranks of 
paganism encountered little resistance, and 
was conducted with singular rapidity ; still we 
do not observe in the religious policy of the 
immediate successors of Julian any violent 
disposition to direct the pursuit. 

Valentinian I. placed his pride in the most 
impartial and universal toleration. We may 
have observed indeed that some of the pagan 
Emperors commenced with the same pro- 
fessions, a reign which ended in persecution ; 
and we have seen that both Constantine and 
Julian hastened to deviate fi-ora the generous 
principles which they first proclaimed. But 
Valentinian is scarcely, if at all, liable to this 
reproach ; and though in other matters he was 
guilty of some passionate exertions -of unne- 
cessaiy severity, and though he neglected to 
restrain the Arian intolerance of his brother 
Valens, which afiiicted the Catholics in the 
East, he appears himself to liave maintained 
thoughout the whole Western empire a per- 
fect civil equality, as well between the reli- 
gions which divided it, as among the sects of 
each religion.* 



* ' Iiiclaruit hoc moderamine principatus quod inter 
religionum diversitates medius stetit, nee quenquam 
inquietavit, neque ut hoc colerelur irnperavit, aut ill- 
ud ; nee interdictis ininacibus subjectorum cervicein 
ad id quod ipse coluit inclinabat, sed iutemeratas reli- 



The short reign of Gratian, which likewise 
commenced with great professions of mode- 
ration, was rather remarkable for some laws 
against heretics, than for any deliberate at- 
tack on paganism. Nevertheless that wor- 
ship was unable to survive the political pa- 
tronage by which alone it had so long sub- 
sisted ; it seemed to have lost its only prin- 
ciple of existence as soon as it ceased to 
form a part of the system of Government ; *' 
left to its own energies it discovered the 
secret of its decrepitude, and so easy and 
uninterrupted was the process of its disso- 
lution, that it seemed patiently to await the 
final blow from any hand disposed to inflict it. 

Theodosius the Great. Theodosius I. is the 
Emperor to whom that achievement is usu- 
ally, and, if to any individual, justly, attribut- 
ed. He ascended the throne in the year 
379, but he does not appear to have pub- 
lished his famous law until thirteen years 
afterwards. It was to this eflfect — 'that no 
one, of whatever rank or dignity or fortune, 
whether hereditary or acquired, high or hum- 
ble, in what place or city soever he may 
dwell, shall either slay a victim to senseless 
images ; or, while he addresses in private 
expiation the Lar, the Genius and the Pe- 
nates, with fire, or wine, or odors, light 
torches, or burn incense, or suspend gar- 
lands in their honor ; but if any one shall 
immolate a victim in sacrifice, or consult the 
panting entrails, that any man may become 
his infoniier, until he receive competent pun- 
ishment, &c. &c.' The execution of this 
law, and of others to the same effect, was no 
doubt much facilitated by the zeal of Chris- 
tian informers ; and there could be few who 
would suffer martyrdom for a religion, | 

quit has partes, ut reperit.' — Ammianus Marcellinus. 
Was there any Emperor of those days (if we except 
tlie short rule of Jovian) who can share this honor 
with Valentinian 1 

* We may remark that by some of the earliest laws 
against paganism Divination was permitted, while 
Magic was forbidden ; because the former was a pub- 
lic ceremony, instrumental for political purposes, 
while the latter was the private and individual exer- 
cise of a similar description of art. The object of 
both was superstitious deception, but the Government 
would not permit the people to be deceived except by 
itself. 

t The bold i-esistance of an officer of high rank and 
character, named Gennadius, to a very impolitic edict 
of Honorius, has been pi'oduced as a solitary instance 
even of the disposition to suffer in the cause of pa- 
ganism. Honorius had forbidden any except Chris- 
tians to wear a girdle or sash at court, and Gennadius 
in consequence declined to present himself there. The 



DECLINE AND FALL OF PAGANISM, 



111 



which, as it rested on no evidence, could offer 
no certainty of recompense ; and, tlierefore, 
the consequence of the Edict of Theodosius 
was a vast diminution in the number of pro- 
fessed Polytheists. This change was most 
immediately perceptible in the principal cities 
of the empire, throughout which the supersti- 
tion for the most part disappeared ; thencefor- 
ward it was chiefly confined to the small towns 
and villages (or pagi) ; and about that time it 
was that the name Pagan (or Rustic, Villager) 
was first adopted to designate those who ad- 
hered to Polytheism. 

The prohibitions contained in the above 
edict are impartially levelled against every 
condition of heathen ; yet then* weight and 
efficacy must clearly have fallen upon the 
lower classes : for among the higher and bet- 
ter informed, though there might be many 
who had not yet embraced Christianity, there 
could at that time have been extremely few, 
who either felt or affected any ardent attach- 
ment to a worship which professed no moral 
principles, and offered no temporal advan- 
tages.* The vulgar persevered in it some- 
what longer, from habit, from prejudice, and 
from ignorance ; but these motives were not 
suflfilcient long to sustain them against the 
laws of the empire, and the authority of their 
superiors, and the example of their neigh- 
bors, all combining to propagate a more ex- 
cellent and more reasonable faith. 

But we are not to imagine that the num- 
ber of real converts to Christianity was at all 
in proportion to that of the seceders from 
paganism ; for persons who are forced out 
of any sort of faith will not readily throw 
themselves into the arms of that whence the 
compulsion has proceeded. However, time 
and patience might have remedied this dis- 
inclination, and led those converts (or at least 
the succeeding generation) fo a sincere affec- 
tion for a pure religion, if the purity of that 

Emperor then expressed himself willing to make a 
particular exception in favor of an officer who was at 
the moment necessary to him, biUGennadius refused 
that distinction, and persevered in his opposition so 
resolutely, that the Emperor fiimlly repealed the in- 
vidious law. See Zosimus, lib. v. 

* A celebrated pagan, Libanius, published even in 
this age an apology for his religion. His work was 
not suppressed, nor himself removed from one of the 
most important offices in the state, which he then 
held. While the Emperor was engaged in destroy- 
ing the practice of paganism, he miglit easily accord 
to a favorite subject tiie innocent indulgence of writ- 
ing its defence ; for he knew tliat it was not by reason 
but byhaliit that the worship would subsist, if it could 
possibly subsist at all. 



religion had not been already corrupted by 
the intemperate zeal of its own professors. 

We have noticed indeed certain abuses 
which had already shown themselves even 
in the iron days of Christianity, and there 
are others yet unnoticed by us, of which the 
earliest vestiges and indications may proba- 
bly be discovered in the practice of the ante- 
Nicene Church, or in the writings of its Fa- 
thers ; but among these idolatry certainly is 
not one. The ancient Christians continued 
to shun with a pious horror, which persecu- 
tion exasperated, and which time did not 
mitigate, every approach to that abomina- 
tion ; and while they truly considered it es- 
sentially and distinctively pagan, the reluc- 
tance which they felt to bow before any 
image was aggravated by the firm belief, 
that the images of the Pagans represented 
the implacable adversaries of man and God. 
So definite and so broad was the space which 
in this point at least separated the two reli- 
gions, that it seemed impossible that either 
of them should overstep it, or that any com- 
promise could ever be effected between prin- 
ciples so fundamentally hostile. Yet tha 
contrary result took place : and a reconcilia- 
tion, which in the beginning of the fourth 
century could not easily have been iinagined, 
was virtually accomplished before its termi- 
nation. 

Veneration for Maiiyrs. Let us trace the 
progress of this extraordinary revolution. 
On the first establishment of their religion, 
it was natural that Christians should look 
back from a condition of unexpected securi- 
ty on the sufferings of their immediate pre- 
decessors, with the most vivid sentiments 
of sympathy and admiration. They had be- 
held those sufferings, they had beheld the 
constancy with which they were endured 
the same terror had been suspended over 
themselves, and their own preservation they 
attributed, under the especial protection of 
divine Providence, to the perseverance of 
those Avho had perished. The gratitude and 
veneration thus fervently excited were loudly 
and {passionately expressed ; and the honors 
which were due to the virtues of the depart- 
ed were profusely bestowed on their names 
and their memory. Enthusiasm easily pass- 
ed into superstition, and those who had seal- 
ed a Christian's faith by a martyr's death 
were exalted above the condition of men, 
and enthroned among superior beings. Su- 
perstition gave birth to credidity, and those 
who sat among the Powers of heaven migh 
sustain, by miracidous assistance, their vota- 



12 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



ries on earth ; and credulity increased the 
food on which it fed, by encouraging the 
detested practice of forgery and imposture, 
tinder these dangerous circmnstances it be- 
came the duty of the fathers and the leading 
ministers of the Church to moderate the vio- 
lence of popular feeling, and to restrain any 
tendency towards vicious excess. But, un- 
happily for the integrity of the Catholic faith, 
the instructers were themselves carried away 
by the current, or, we should rather say, unit- 
ed their exertions to swell and corrupt it. 
The people we may excuse and compassion- 
ate : but we blush when we discover the 
most distinguished writers of the fourth cen- 
tury, Athanasius, Eusebius the historian, 
Gregory Nazianzen, Chrysostom, Jerome, 
and Augustin, engaged in shameful conspi- 
racy against their religion, while they exag- 
gerate ihe merit of the martyi's, assert or 
insinuate their immediate sanctification, and 
claim for them a sort of reverence which 
could not easily be distinguished from wor- 
ship. In this age, and from this cause, arose 
the stupid veneration for bones and relics ; it 
was inculcated and believed that prayer was 
never so surely efficacious as when offer- 
ed at the tomb of some saint or holy person ; 
the number of such tombs was then multi- 
plied ; at all of them miracles, and prophe- 
cies, and prodigies, and visions, were ex- 
hibited or recorded ; and the spirit of the 
Gospel was forgotten in the practice of for- 
bidden ceremonies, and the belief of impious 
fables. 

Such were the first unworthy advances 
which were made by Christianity, and en- 
couraged by her leadipg ministers, with the 
view to reconcile at least her external differ- 
ences with paganism ; * and, no doubt, they 
wei'e very effectual in alluring those easy 
Polytheists, whose piety was satisfied with 
numerous festivals in celebration of the ex- 
ploits of mortals deified ; for with them the 
change was only in the name of the deity, 
not in the principles of the religion. And 

*In the year 410, Synesius, a Platonic philosopher 
of Gyrene, was ordained Bishop of Ptolemais l>y The- 
ophilus of Alexandria. Synesius remonstrated against 
this election, declared himself to be a Platonist, and 
specified several points in which his speculative opin- 
ions differed from those of the Christians. But as he 
was an agreeable orator, and had much influence in 
"the province, his objections" were overlooked, and 
after receiving baptism he entered upon his episcopal 
functions. This is far from being the only instance 
of the pliancy of the early Church, at a period too 
v^ien it had no excuse from fear or .persecution. 



by this shameful compromise* the Church 
was filled by numerous converts, who believ- 
ed, and who were probably taught to believe, 
that the worship which they had deserted 
was by no means essentially dissimilar from 
that which they had .embraced, and who con- 
tinued, after their admission, to perpetuate 
and exaggerate those corruptions by which 
alone the resemblance was created. 

Here then we discover the root of several 
of the abuses of Papacy ; they were conces- 
sions made during this critical period to the 
genius of paganism, in order to delude its 
votaries into more speedy apostasy, and to 
accelerate the dissolution of the one religion 
into the other. The immediate object was 
accomplished— to diminish the numerical dis- 
play of Polytheism, and prematurely to crowd 
the churches and processions with nominal 
Christians ; and this was merely to anticipate 
the tardy but certain operation of irresistible 
causes, and to effect that iii appearance, 
which in the next generation would have 
been surely consummated. But the lasting 
result has been to darken and disfigure the 
features of Christianity, not in one race only, 
or for one age, but through a period, of which 
fourteen centuries have already been accom- 
plished, and of which we cannot yet foresee 
the termination. 

Aboliiion of Gladiatorial Games. Arcadius 
and Honorius succeeded respectively to the 
thrones of the East and West, and they fol- 
lowed the steps of Theodosius in his warfare 
against heresy as well as paganism. Arca- 
dius was more distinguished in the former 
contest, though he proceeded to some ex- 
tremities against the temples and idols of 
Phoenicia. Honorius is more honorably cel- 
ebrated by the law which abolished the Gla- 
diatorial Games. This institution, the most 
barbarous that ever disgraced a civilized na- 
tion, was the genuine offspring of the charac- 
ter and morals of pagan antiquity ; and it was 
supported through the extinction of human 
feeling, and the contempt of human life. It 
was not suppressed until the year 404, or 

* It must be observed that the Pagans on their side 
made the concession of sacrifice, or at least of immo- 
lation, which was the centre of their whole system. 
They were indulged with a sort of Polytheism of 
saints and martyrs ; and even sensible objects of wor- 
ship were not withheld from them. But these Beings 
and Images were to be approached only with prayer 
and supplication ; and if it was pi'esently found expe- 
dient to permit offerings to be made to them, their 
shrines were ttevcr contaminated by the blood of 
victims. 



PAGAN WRITERS. 



113 



about ninety j'^ears after the first establish- 
ment of Christianity — so slow is the influ- 
ence of the most perfect moral system to 
undermine any practice which time and use 
have consecrated. But at length it sank be- 
fore the gradual prevalence of happier and 
more natural principles ; and while we re- 
cord its subversion, as marking an important 
epoch in the history of human civilisation, 
we readily assign to it a corresponding rank in 
the annals of Christianity. 

Theodosius the younger succeeded Arca- 
dius in the empire of the East ; and we may 
consider him as having completed, as far as 
the limits of his authority extended, the task 
transmitted to him by his father, and his 
grandfatiier. And whether from greater 
moderation of temper, or because extreme 
rigor was judged no longer necessary against 
a fallen adversary, he somewhat mitigated 
the severity of the existing laws ; and was 
satisfied with inflicting upon the few, who 
still persisted ' in their accursed sacrifices to 
daemons,' the milder punishments of confis- 
cation and exile, 'though the crime was just- 
ly capital.' * From the flexible character of 
Polytheism, and the rare mention of heathen 
martyrs, we are perhaps justified in drawing 
the consoling conclusion, that those oppres- 
sive laws were seldom enforced to the last 
penalty. Yet we cannot doubt that many 
less direct, but not less effectual, modes of 
persecution were diligently exercised ; we 
are assured that numbers must have suffered 
in their persons or property for a blind but 
conscientious adherence to the worship of 
their fathers ; and we should have celebrated 
with greater satisfaction the final success of 
our religion, if it had been brought about by 
less questionable measures. 

Extinction of Paganism. In the West, the 
expiring struggles of paganism continued per- 
haps a little longer. Though the exhibition 
of gladiators had been abolished, the games 
of the Circus, and the contests of wild beasts 
were still permitted ; and though the essence 
of the pagan religion was virtually extin- 
guished, when the act of Immolation, in which 
in truth it consisted, was finally abolished, 
yet those spectacles were so closely associat- 
ed with its exercise, if they were not rather a 
part of it, that they served at least to keep the 
minds of the converts suspended, by seeming 

* The Theodosiau code is a Collection of the Con- 
stitutions of the Emperors from Constantine to Theo- 
dosius II., published by the latter in 438. 
15 



to reconcile with the principles of Christian- 
ity the barbarous relics of the old supersti- 
tion. And thus, though the number who 
professed that worship was now exceedingly 
small, yet its practice in some measure sur- 
vived its profession, and it continued to lin- 
ger in the recollections, and usages, and pre- 
judices, of men for some time after its name 
was disclaimed and repudiated ; still, from the 
historical survey of this subject, it is manifest 
that the mortal wound was inflicted by The- 
odosius I. ; and whatever fleeting vestiges we 
may discover in succeeding reigns, the super- 
stition was in fact extinct from the moment 
that the Emperor called upon the Senate of 
Rome to make their election between that 
and Chi-istianity. This celebrated assembly 
was convened in the j^ear 388 ; Christianity 
was established by the voice, and probably 
by the conscience of a very large majority ; 
and the religion of Julian did not in reality 
survive its enthusiastic votary and reformer 
for more than twenty-five years. 

NOTE ON CEETAIN PAGAN WRITERS 

1. — The' first whom we propose to men- 
tion (first in time and personal distinction 
rather than in literary merit) is Jtdian. His 
'Lives of the Emperors,' his predecessors, 
in which we find many pointed remarks and 
illustrations of their several characters, and 
especially of their defects, though possessing 
neither the fulness nor impartiality of history, 
must nevertheless be considered his most 
important work. That next in celebrity bears 
the singular name of the Misopogon or Beard- 
hater. The imperial satirist seems to have 
been excited to this composition by the ap- 
pearance of certain anapaests, published in 
ridicule of his personal rusticity, among his 
lively subjects of Antioch or Daphne. He 
admits the justice of their ridicule, he affects 
even to exaggerate the cause of it, and con- 
descends to visit his own shaggy exterior 
with much humorous severity. But through 
the levity of his self-condemnation some 
traces of suppressed asperity are occasionally 
discernible ; and the wit which had dared to 
trifle with an Emperor was not recommend- 
ed to Julian by the general belief that it had 
proceeded from the pen of a Christian. Be- 
sides these two works, several epistles and 
rescripts are extant which are of greater his ■ 
torical importance. 

That Julian's feeling towards the Chris- 
tians was not the contempt of a philosopher, 



114 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



but the angry malevolence of a pagan and a 
rival, appears from several passages in ills 
w^orks, and from those especially which are 
directed against Athanasius. In his epistle 
to Ecdicius, Eparch of the Egyptians, we find 
these passionate expressions, — ^ I swear by 
the great Serapis that unless Athanasius, the 
enemy of the Gods, shall be wholly expelled 
from Egypt before the calends of December, 
I will impose a fine of a hundred pounds of 
gold on the troops under your command ; 
and you know that if I am slow to condemn, 
I am still more so to relax the sentence ; for 
it does exceedingly afilict me, that all the 
Gods should be contemned through his 
means ; nor is there any thing that I would 
so willingly behold or hear of as accom- 
plished by you, as the expulsion of Athana- 
sius from the regions of Egypt ; the scoun- 
drel who has dared, and in my reign too, to 
persecute some distinguished Grecian ladies, 
tilt they submitted to baptism/ Again, in a 
decree addressed to the Alexandrians, the 
Emperor declares, ' that he had recalled the 
Galilaeans, who had been banished by Con- 
stantius,* not to their churches, but only to 
their countries ; while I understand (he adds) 
that Athanasius, with the extreme insolence 
and audacity which is characteristic of him, 
has taken possession of what they call tlie 
episcopal throne.' He then decrees his exile. 
In a subsequent letter, (Edit. Par. p. 330.) 
addressed to the same people, he expresses 
his hatred both of the persons and doctrines 
of the Galilaeans in the most powerful and 
passionate language. On the other hand he 
acknowledges, in more than one passage, the 
charitable attention which those same Gali- 
laeans bestowed upon the poor, and ascribes 
much of their success to that virtue ; and the 
general spirit of his instructions respecting 
their treatment, while it enjoins a preference 
to the worshippers of the Gods,f decidedly 
discourages unprovoked | severities against 
the persons of ' the Atheists.' 



* In a very kind episde to ^tius, a celebrated 
Arian Bishop, and formerly his friend, Julian men- 
tions the same fact. 

t Uqoxiiiaodai uBvrol rovq -^tooa^Eig x<ii navv 
(pjjui Ssiv. Kpistle to Astabius. 

t He seems however very readily to have availed 
himself of the offences of the Christians, in order to 
plunder them, and that too with great religious im- 
partiality. In an epistle to Ecebolus he complains 
that the Arians of Edessa, exulting in their opulence, 
had made an assault upon the Valentinians ; and he 
adds, ' that with a view to assist them in effectuating 
the instructions of their own admirable law, and that 
they might more easily travel to the kingdom of Hea- 



A passage in the Misopogon proves either 
the abject superstitiousness of the author, or 
his impudent and prejudiced hypocrisy ; and 
though we believe the former to be the more 
probable charge, we are willing to leave the 
decision to his most devoted admirers. The 
story is well known of the religious disap- 
pointment which he experienced at Daphne j 
how he entered the Temple with extraordi- 
nary parade and solemnity, for the purpose 
of presiding at a public and splendid sacri- 
fice, and how he was reduced by the univer- 
sal desertion of the votaries of the Gods to 
the performance of an imperfect, and almost 
solitary act of devotion. In his relation of 
this story, in which his angry embarrassment 
is almost ludicrously depicted, he unreserv- 
edly asserts, and invokes the Sun to attest his 
veracity, that at the moment of his entrance 
into the Temple the statue of the God indi- 
cated to him what was to take place. ^ 

His celebrated Epistle respecting the refor- 
mation of Paganism is addressed to Arcadius, 
the chief priest of Galatia ; it is the most re- 
markable monument of the religious policy 
of Julian, and it is also an evidence of the 
great and general influence which Christian 
principles had acquired even over the con- 
duct of unbelievers. The progress of ' impi- 
ety or Atheism' is ascribed by the Emperor 
chiefly to three causes ; to the charitable or 
hospitable philanthropy of its professors ; to 
their provident care respecting the sepulture 
of the dead ; to their parade and afiectation 
of a holy life ; and he enjoins the votaries of 
the ancient worship to imitate the first of 
these pretensions, and to realize the last. On 
the priests especially, as well as their families 
and their servants, he imposes a rigid atten- 
tion to their religious duties, and he forbids 
them at the same time the amusement of the 
theatre, the conviviality of the tavern, and the 
exercise of every vulgar profession ; the dis- 
obedient are to be removed from the minis- 
try. The Emperor then proceeds to order 
the foundation of numerous establishments 
(^S'evodoxEla) in every city, for the humane 
purpose of hospitality and charity : ' for it is 
shameful to us, that no beggar should be 
found among the Jews, and that the impious 
Galilaeans should support not only their own 
poor, but ours also ; while these last appear 

ven, he bad ordered all the possessions to be taken 
away from the Church of Edessa ; distributing the 
money among the soldiers, and confiscating the fixed 
property.' 

* EjTsoi'utjvf |Uot tlaO.^iivri ttqcotov to ayaXf<a^ 
p. 112. Ed. Paris. 



CONVERSION OF THE BARBARIANS. 



115 



destitute of all assistance from ourselves;' 
and that pagan authority may not be thought 
wanting to justify his philanthropy, he cites 
a passage from Homer in praise of hospital- 
ity. He concludes with some instructions to 
regulate the intercouree and define the re- 
spective dignities of the religious and civil 
authorities. 

2. The name ofAmmianus Marcellinus de- 
serves even at the hands of the ecclesiastical 
historian more elaborate mention than can 
here be bestowed upon it. A native of An- 
tioch, of noble family, he devoted his youth to 
military service, and attended Julian, his pat- 
ron and friend, in his fatal expedition against 
the Persians. During the reign of Valentinian 
and Valens he appears to have withdrawn to 
studious repose in his native city, and under 
Theodosius he finally fixed his residence at 
Rome. It was here that he composed his 
history in the Latin language, and published 
it with the general applause of a people 
among whom the admiration of literary merit 
had survived its possession. The work con- 
sisted of thirty-one books, comprising the af- 
fairs of the empire from the beginning of the 
reign of Nerva to the end of that of Valens. 
The thirteen first are lost, and those remain- 
ing have escaped to us as from a shipwreck, 
torn and mutilated.*' Respecting the religion 
of the author, there can be no serious doubt 
that he adhered to paganism ; though the im- 
partiality with which he commonly treats the 
deeds and character of Christians has led some 
writers to suspect his attachment to their 
faith. The suspicion is at least honorable to 
the historian, and a more faithful imitation 
of his example would have removed many 
stains from the pages of ecclesiastical annal- 
ists, and spared much perplexity to those who 
search them for information and truth. 

3. The History of Zosimus extends from 
the time of Augustus to the second siege of 
Rome by Alaric : it consists of five books, and 
the fragment of a sixth, into the first of which 
the reigns of the predecessors of Constantino 
are compressed. Zosimus was a prejudiced, 
and, as some miraculous descriptions attest, a 
superstitious pagan ; and he treats with sever- 
ity, perhaps with injustice, the character of 
some of the Christian Emperors ;f but as by 

* See the life of Ammianus Marcellinus by Valesi- 
us, which we have chiefly followed in this account. 

t Julian is his great hero, and Constantine the prin- 
cipal object of his censure. Respecting the latter, it 
has been observed, that we may safely believe any evil 
that has escaped from Eusebius, and any good that 
has been extorted from Zosimus. But these' combined 1 



far the greatest proportion of his attention is 
bestowed on the details of mihtary enterprise, 
it is not often that he crosses the more peace- 
ful path of the ecclesiastical historian. 



CHAPTER IX. 

From the Fall of Paganism to the Death of 
Justinian. (388 . . . 567.) ' 

Conversion of the Goths— of Clevis and the Franks — of 
other Barbarians — causes of its facility — Miraculous 
interpositions — Internal condition of the Church — Sy- 
meon and the Stylites — Pope Leo the Great — Papal 
aggrandizement — private confession — Justinian, his or- 
thodoxy, intolerance, and heresy — Literature — its decay 
not attributable to Christianity — three periods of its de- 
cline — Religious corruptions — Barbarian conquests — 
Seven liberal arts — Justinian closes the Schools of 
Athens — early connexion of Philosophy with Religion — 
Morality— of the Clergy— of the People— general misery 
— Note on certain Fatliers of the fourth and fifth Cen- 
turies. 

That we may treat with some perspicuity 
the long period over which the two following 
chapters are extended, we shall separate in 
each of theiii the external progress and revers- 
es of Christianity from the internal conduct 
and condition of the Church, and the charac- 
ter of those v/ho ruled and influenced it. 

I. Convei'sion of the Barbarians. Christian- 
ity had scarcely completed its triumph over 
an ancient superstition, refined and embellish- 
ed by the utmost human ingenuity, when it 
was called upon to dispute the possession of 
the world with a wild and savage adversar}^ 
Almost at the very moment when Julian was 
laboring for the reestablish ment of paganism, 
Ulphilas,* who is commonly called the apos- 

would furnish very scanty materials for the delineation 
of a great character. We must believe much mors 
than these; and in tliis matter the panegyrics of the 
Christian are not, perhaps, more liable to suspicion 
than the aspersions of the pagan writer. 

* Ulphilas is believed to have been the descendant 
of a Cappadocian family carried into captivity by the 
Goths, in the reign of Gallienus. His conversion to 
Arianism is referred to his embassy to the court of 
Valens in 378, and on his return home he diligently 
diffused that heresy. It would appear, however, that 
his method of seduction was to assure the Goths, that 
the disputes between the Catholics and Arians were 
merely verbal, not at all affecting the substance of 
faith — so that his success was gradual, and at first 
imperfect: thus, for instance, in the time of Theodoret, 
the Goths avowed their belief, that the Father wag 
greater than the Son ; but they were not yet prepared 
to affirm that the Son was created — though they con- 
tinued to communicate with those who held that opin- 



116 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



tie of the Goths, was diffusing the knowledge 
of the Gospel with gi'eat rapidity among that 
young and powerful people : so that the first 
invaders of the empire had previously learnt 
in their own land to profess, or at least to 
respect, the religion of the empire. The 
Goths then were early and easy proselytes to 
Christianity ; and the example of their con- 
version, as well as of their invasion, was fol- 
lowed by the various hordes of barbarians 
who presently overran and occupied the West. 
The Burgundians in Gaul, the Suevi in Spain, 
the Vandals in Africa, the Ostrogoths in Pan- 
nonia, and others, as they successively pos- 
sessed themselves of the Roman provinces, 
daring the fifth and sixth centuries, succes- 
sively adopted the religion of the conquered ; 
and if Rome, in her days of warlike triumph, 
received from vanquished Greece some taste 
in arts, and attainment in science, and skill in 
philosophical disputation, she repaid her pri- 
vate obligation with more sohd and extensive 
generosity in her days of decline, when she 
Instructed her own conquerors in those les- 
sons of religious truth and moral knowledge, 
of which the principles can never change, nor 
the application ever be limited. 

It is impossible to trace with any certainty 
the exact moment and circumstances of the 
conversion of so many tribes. That of Clovis, 
King of the Franks, has obtained the greatest 
historical celebrity, and many of the particu- 
lars respecting it wear great appearance of 
probability.* In the year 493 Clovis espoused 
Clotilda, niece of the King of the Burgun- 
dians, a Christian and a Catholic. He toler- 
ated the religion of his bride, and showed re- 
spect to its professors, especially to St. Remi, 
Archbishop of Rheims ; but he steadily refus- 
ed to abandon his hereditary idols on the im- 
portunity either of the prelate or Queen. At 
length he found himself in a situation of dan- 
ger ; in the heat of an unsuccessful battle, 
while his Franks were flying before the Al- 
emaimi, Clovis is related to have raised his 
weeping eyes to heaven, and exclaimed, ' Je- 
sus Christ ! thou whom Clotilda asserts to be 
the Son of the living God, I implore thy suc- 
cor. If thou wilt give me the victory, I will 
believe in thee, and be baptized in thy name.' 

ion. Fleury, H. E. llv. xvii. sect. S6. Tillem. 
(Sur les Ariens, Art. 132, 133) pronounces an eulogy 
upon his virtues, in spite of his heresy; and yet he 
adds, ' Voilk comment un homme eutraina dans I'enfer 
ce nombre infini des Septentrionaux, qui avec lui et 
apr^s lui ont embrasse I'Arianih'me. ' 

* Those which we select, together with many others, 
are related an lire autliority of Gregory of Tours, and 



At that moment the King of the Alernanni 
was slain ; his soldiers immediately fled, and 
abandoned the field to Clovis. The victor 
was not unmindful of the God of his adver- 
sity. On the conclusion of his expedition he 
caused himself to be publicly baptized; about 
three thousand of his soldiers attended him to 
the holy font with joy and acclamation, and 
the rest of his subjects followed without any 
hesitation the faith of their Prince. The 
conversion of Clovis took place in 496 ; and 
though it had not the effect of amending the 
brutal character of the proselyte, it made a 
great addition to the physical strength of 
Christianity ; * and it was attended by a pe- 
culiar circumstance which places it among 
the important events of ecclesiastical history. 
The numerous barbarian conquerors who 
then ruled the Western Empire had embrac- 
ed without any exception, f the heresy of 
Anus ; Clovis alone adopted the Catholic faith ; 
and this accident fwe are taught to attribute 
it to the orthodoxy of his wife) was probably 
the earliest cause of that close connexion be- 
tween the court of Burgundy and the See 
of Rome, of which some traces may be dis- 
cerned even thus early, and which, in a later 
age, was confirmed by Pepin and established 
by Charlemagne. 

The success of the Roman arms during the 
reign of Justinian, which began about thirty 
years after the baptism of Clovis, does not ap- 
pear to have disinclined the barbarians to the 
religion of their enemies; it might even natu- 
rally produce the contrary effect ; and we do 
not read of any of their tribes which, after 
settling in a conquered province, were dispos- 
ed long to resist the influence of the Gospel. 

Respecting the natural causes which facil- 
itated this powerful accession to the body of 
Christianity from a quarter whence the darkest | i 
danger was portended, it is proper to suggest 
a few brief observations, that we may be en- 
abled calmly to consider, whether or not they 
are sufficient to account for the phenomenon 

Hincm. Vita San. Remigii. See Fleury, liv. xxx. 
sect. 46. 

* Clovis, immediately after his baptism, made some 
considerable donations of land to St. Remi, who ap- 
plied them to the use of divers churches, and the foun- 
dation of the Bishopric of Laon. Fleury, H. E. liv. 
XXX., sect. 46. 

f Thrasamond, King of the Vandals, in Africa; 
Theodoric, of the Ostrogoths, in Italy; Alaric, of the 
Visigoths, in Spain ; Gondebaud, of the Burgundi- 
ans, were all Arians ; and, as if to complete the he- 
terodoxy of the princes of Christendom, even Anasta- 
sius, the Emperor of the Eastj was involved in the 
Eutychian heresy. 



CONVERSION OF THE BARBARIANS. 



117 



without the intervention of miraculous assist- 
ance. The wild and warlike polytheists of 
the north, who estimated excellence by pow- 
er, and power by the extent of military sway, 
and who ignorantly applied to the gods the 
rules by which they judged of men, approach- 
ed with respectful predisposition the Deity 
of the Roman empire.* And if it be true 
that their own successes gradually tended to 
abate this respect, yet is it not possible that 
they could fail to observe, or observe without 
some sense of reverence and humiliation, the 
superiority in arts and sciences, the high in- 
tellectual preeminence of the people whom 
their mere sword had overthrown ; nor would 
they hesitate to infer, from such sensible in- 
dications, both the wisdom and beneficence 
of the protecting Divinity! Again — The form 
of idolatry which they professed was most 
peculiarly characterized by a superstitious 
veneration for their priesthood ; — it had no 
written law, nor any fixed principles, nor any 
very attractive immemorial solemnities. In 
a foreign country, in the license of a military 
expedition, the reverence for their native, and 
for the most part absent ministers, would grad- 
ually abate in fervency and fidelity ; and then 
(such is the nature of superstition) it would 
change its object, and swell into devout re- 
spect for the ministers of the unknown reli- 
gion, by whose more imposing rites they were 
now suiTounded and dazzled. By this pro- 
cess being insensibly weaned from an ancient 
worship, chiefly perhaps endeared to them by 
its association with that home which they had 
now deserted forever, they would join in the 
splendid processions, and bend in the stately 
temples of the Christians. Of such advanta- 
ges as these the clergy were not slow to avail 
themselves; and their own great superiority 
in penetration and learning, joined with a zeal- 
ous and interested activity,f enabled them to 



* The conversion of the Burgundians, early in the 
fifth century, is thus i-elated, with no improbability. 
Harassed by the continual incursions of tiie Huns, 
and incapable of self defence, they resolved to place 
themselves under the protection of some God; and 
considering that the God of the RomaiTS most power- 
fully befriended those who served hlni, they determin- 
ed, on public deliberation, to believe in Jesus Christ. 
They therefore went to a city in Gaul, and entreated 
the Bishop to baptize them. Immediately after that 
ceremony they gained a battle against their enemies ; 
and if (as is also asserted) they afterwards lived in 
peace and innocence, they reaped, in that respect at 
least, the natural fruits of their conversion. Socrat. 
vii., chap. BO. Fleury, H. E. liv. xxiii., sect. 5. 

t At a Council held at Brague, or Braccara, in 
Portugal, in the year 412, on the irruption of an idol- 



convert the mass of the invaders ; while the 
Prince, as illiterate as his subjects, was often 
influenced by the address, and ofl;en by the 
piety, of the prelates who had access to his 
court. The same work was still further fa- 
cilitated by the example of the Goths, who had 
opened the gates of Christianity to succeeding 
conquerors. Nor should we by any means 
pass over the exertions of the missionaries, 
who had previously introduced into the na- 
tive forests of the invaders a favorable opin- 
ion, and even a partial profession, of the reli- 
gion of the empire which they were destined 
to subvert. 

These reasons are probably sufficient to ac- 
count for the facility with which the various 
invaders of the western provinces adopted the 
religion which they found established there, 
even without any deep examination into its 
merits or its truth ; but the histories of those 
times are so abundant in preternatural tales 
of extraordinary conversions every where 
wrought by the continual interposition of 
Providence, that we must not quite overlook 
this consideration. However, we can here 
entertain little doubt, or feel any strong hesi- 
tation to affirm, that the very great proportion 
of those miraculous stories is wholly and 
unquestionably fabulous.* But we must be 
careful that our indignation at the impiety 
which fabricated so many wicked impostures, 
and the diligent mendacity which has retailed 
them, do not so far prevail as to hurry us into 

atrous or Arian host of Alani, Suevi and Vandals, the 
Bishops prepared themselves to resist at every risk 
the destructive torrent. For this purpose they appear 
to have adopted tv,-o measures, which, in their union 
at least, are strongly indicative of the state of religion 
in that age and country. The first was to publish aa 
abbreviation of the Creed of the Catholic church ; tlie 
second, to conceal in the securest recesses and caverns 
the invaluable relics of their saints. Fleury, H. E. 
lib. xxiii,, sect. 6. 

* Unbelievers and heretics were closely associated 
in the language and opinion of the Catholics of those 
days, and were consequently subjected to the same 
mode of cure. In the fourth century even the great St. 
Ambrose condescended to adopt the miraculous meth- 
od of argument for the Conversion of the Arians. He 
used, in his disputes with those heretics, to produce 
men possessed with devils, who, on the approach of 
certain Catholic relics, were obliged by preternatural 
compulsion to acknowledge with loud cries that the 
doctrine of the Council of Nice was true, and that of 
the Arians both false and of most dangerous conse- 
quence. This testimony of the Prince of darkness 
was regarded by St. Ambrose as unquestionable and 
conclusive (Mosh. c. iv.,p. 2. c, 3.,)nor Avas it easily 
answ^ered by adversaries Avho made less profession ot 
influence in the other world. 



118 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



an entire disbelief of any divine intervention 
in those ages. To pronounce so sweeping a 
sentence, in the confusion of contemporary 
evidence, in our necessary ignorance of the 
dispositions of Providence, vv^ould approach 
too near to presumption ; and we shall, there- 
fore, do better to leave this subject where the 
judicious moderation of Mosheim * has placed 
it: — 

'How far these conversions (he says) were 
due to real miracles attending the ministry of 
those early preachers is a matter extremely 
difficult to be determined. For, though I 
am persuaded that those pious men who, in 
the midst of many dangers, and in the face 
of obstacles seemingly invincible, endeavored 
to spread the light of Christianity through 
the barbarous nations, were sometimes ac- 
companied by the more peculiar favor and 
succor of the Most High ; yet I am equally 
convinced, that the greatest part of the prodi- 
gies recorded in the histories of this age are 
liable to the strongest suspicions of falsehood 
or imposture. The simplicity and ignorance 
of the generality in those times furnished the 
most favorable occasion for the exercise of 
fraud ; and the impudence of impostors in 
contriving false miracles was artfully propor- 
tioned to the credulity of the vulgar, while 
the sagacious and the wise, who perceived 
these cheats, were obliged to silence, by the 
danger which threatened their lives and their 
fortunes, if they detected the artifice. Thus 
does it generally happen in human life, that 
when the discovery and profession of the 
truth is attended with danger, the prudent | 
are silent, the multitude believe, and the im- 
postors triumph.' 

II. While the profession of Christianity 
was thus extending itself among so many 
nations, the changes which were gradually 
taking place within the Church were by no 
means favorable to its purity. We have al- 
ready mentioned the copious transfusion of 
heathen ceremonies into the Christian wor- 
ship which had taken place before the end 
of the fourth century, and, to a certain extent, 
paganized (if we may so express it) the out- 
ward form and aspect of religion ; those cer- 
emonies became more general and more nu- 
merous, and, so far as the calamities of the 
times would permit, more splendid in the 
age which followed. To console the convert 
for the loss of his favorite festival, others, of 
a different name, but similar description, were 
introduced ; and the simple and serious occu- 

* Cent, v., p. 1., c. 1. 



pation of spiritual devotion was beginning to 
degenerate into a worship of parade and de- 
monstration, or a mere scene of riotous fes- 
tivity. But, various were the forms assumed, 
and numerous the excesses occasioned, by re- 
ligious corruption ; which was by no other 
circumstance more plainly evidenced, or more 
eflfectually promoted, than by the growing 
prevalence of the monastic spirit. 

Symeon the Stylite. It is contrary to our 
general purpose to call much attention to in- 
stances of the passing fanaticism of the day 
— those transient eruptions of superstition 
which have left no deep traces behind them 
in history or moral consequences ; neverthe- 
less, we cannot forbear to record one very 
extraordinary shape which the frenzy of 
those times assumed. About the year 427, 
one Symeon, at first a shepherd, afterwards 
a monk, of Syria, invented a new method of 
penitential devotion. Dissatisfied with the 
insufficient austerities which were practised 
in his convent, he retired to a mountain in 
the neighborhood of Antioch, where, by sol- 
itaiy self-inflictions and extreme abstinence, 
he obtained great provincial celebrity ; but 
his I3iety or his ambition were not thus easily 
contented, and accordingly he devised an 
original and more difficult path to sanctity. 
He caused a pillar to be erected, of which the 
height was gradually increased from nine to 
sixty feet ; thereon he established his resi- 
dence. His ordinary occupation was prayer ; 
and habit and exercise enabled him to take, 
without risk or difficulty, the diflferent pos- 
tures of devotion. Sometimes, especially on 
great solemnities, he assumed an erect atti- 
tude, with his arms outstretched ; sometimes 
he bent forward his body, attenuated by con- 
tinual fasting, till the forehead touched the 
feet ; and he repeated those inclinations with 
marvellous flexibility.* He passed the whole 
night and a part of the morning in worship ; 
one slender meal in the course of a week suf- 



*'A curious spectator (says Gibbon), after num- 
bering 1244 repetitions, at length desisted from tlie 
endless account.' Tlieodorit, who had frequently 
seen and conversed with him, wrote an account of 
his life during its continuance. That author himself 
entertained soibg doubts as to the credibility of his 
narration : ' although (says he) I have for my wit- 
nesses, if I may so express myself, every man in ex- 
istence, yet I fear that to postei'ity my account may 
appear a groundless fable ; for what is passing here 
is above humanityj and men are wont to proportion 
their belief to the powers of nature, and all which sur- 
passes those boundaries appears falsehood to such as 
are not familiar with things divine.' See Fleury, 
liv. xxix., sect. 9. 



IIVTERNAI. CONDITION OF THE CHURCH. 



119 



ficed for his sustenance, and a coarse vest- 
ment of skin, which wrapped his whole body, 
was his only covering: in this situation he 
endured the returning inclemencies of thirty 
seasons, and at length died, without descend- 
ing from his column. 

It is no matter of reasonable astonishment 
that the passionate enthusiasts of the east 
thronged eagerly round the pillar of Symeon 
from the most remote provinces, and regard- 
ed the self-devoted martyr with feelings par- 
taking of adoration. Nor are we, in any de- 
gree, surprised to read, that he converted to 
Christianity the inhabitants of Libauus and 
Antilibanus, and an entire tribe of Arabs, 
together with several Jews and heretics, by 
miraculous aid and operation. Nor, perhaps, 
have we cause to think it strange that this 
popular fanaticism was rather encouraged 
than disclaimed by the Church ; * and that 
it has descended to posterity without any ec- 
clesiastical stigma of schism or heresy. But 
our amazement is reasonably excited, when 
we leam that Theodosius II. seriously con- 
sulted Symeon the Stylite on the most im- 
portant concerns of Church and State ; f and 
that the Emperor Leo particularly solicited 
his advice respecting the Council of Chalce- 
don — whether those princes really shared 
the popular madness, and considered him 
as a soothsayer or prophet, to v/hom bodily 
mortification, and a loftier residence had dis- 
closed a nearer prospect of the secrets of 
futurity ; or whether they were only willing 
to gain credit with the silliest among their 
subjects by encouraging their most absurd su- 
perstition. However this may be, Symeon 
became the founder of a sect of fanatics call- 
ed 'Stylites' (or Pillar-men); who, under the 
names of 'Holy Birds' and 'Aerial Martyrs,' 
peopled the columns of the east ; and, after 
imitating (so far as then* physical powers per- 
mitted them) the ascetic gesticulations of their 
master, have escaped, in more fortunate ob- 
livion, the sinister celebrity which still attends 
his name. 

Leo the Great. We have now traced the 



* It is true that when Symeon first ascended his 
pillar some opposition was made to the innovation 
by some monasteries both of Syria and Egypt ; but 
as their objections were confined to the novelty of 
the scheme, and did not proceed from its absurdity, 
they speedily disappeared, and Symeon was i-estored 
with unanimity to the bosom of the Catholic church. 

t Gibbon, chap, xxxvii. Fleury, liv. xxix. sect. 
9. The Emperor Marcian is also said to have in- 
dulged his curiosity by a secret visit to the Holy Pil- 
lar, in the throng of his miserable subjects. 



history of the Roman See to the middle of 
the fifth century, and our attention has not 
hitherto been ai-rested by the genius or the 
fortune of any individual who has occupied 
it. We have no cause to lament this circum- 
stance. The truly episcopal duties of devo- 
tion and charity are usually performed in 
silent unobtrusiveness ; and the highest in- 
terests, and the truest happiness of the human 
race, have commonly been best promoted by 
those of whom Fame has made least men- 
tion. But this long period of comparative 
obscurity was at length terminated by the 
name of Leo, suruamed the Great. That 
prelate ascended the chair of St. Peter in the 
yeai' 440, and occupied it for one and twenty 
years. At his accession, he found the East- 
ern Church still agitated by the receding 
tempest of the Nestorian controversy ; and 
the heresy of Eutyches, which immediately 
succeeded, introduced fresh disordei-s, which 
continued to disturb his long pontificate. In 
the West, the success of the barbarians in 
Africa and Gaul presented a new and exten- 
sive field for ecclesiastical exertion ; while 
we are taught, at the same time, to believe 
that the internal lustre of his Church was 
darkened and endangered by the prevalence 
of the Manichsean heresy. The zeal of St. 
Leo was directed to all these points ; and, 
perhaps, if he had evinced less eagerness in 
the discovery* and pursuit of his domestic 
adversaries, the very circumstance of their 
existence might never have been known to 
us. But, in justice, we are equally bound to 
praise his firm cooperation with the East- 
em Church for the peaceful repression (had 
such been possible) of the perverse notions 
which perplexed and divided it ; nor are 
there wanting many salutary expositions of 



*Baronius (chiefly ad ann. 443) gives several 
proofs, from the Chronicon of Prosper and St. Leo's 
own writings, of the diligence of that Prelate in tear 
ing those heretics from their hiding-places, and pub- 
lishing their infamy. It also appears that until that 
period it had been usual for all Christians to direct 
their prayers to the East ; but as this form was with 
the Manichceans essential, with the orthodox only 
matter of ceremony, he directed the latter to discon- 
tinue the practice, in order that the perverse might 
be distinguished and detected by their perseverance. 
There is also a passage (in his 95th epistle) in which 
he advocates the unsheathing of the temporal sword 
in vindication of the doctrines of the Church. ' Pro- 
fuit diu lata districtio ecclesiasticae lenitati, quae, etsi 
sacerdotali contenta judicio cruentas refugit ultiones, 
severis tamen Christianorum principum constitution- 
ibus adjuvatur, dum ad spirituale nonnunquam recur- 
runt reraedium, qui timent corporale supplicium ' 



120 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



doctrine and reasonable rules of discipline 
scattered throughout his numerous writings.* 
The circumstances of the times were fa- 
vorable to another object, which, with Leo, 
indeed, may possibly have been secondary, 
though it occupied the foremost place in the 
attention of so many of his successors — the 
aggrandizement of the Roman See. In the 
East, it happened about that time that the 
Patriarch of Constantinople, by the assump- 
tion of some additional power,-!- had alienat- 
ed the Bishops of Alexandria and Antioch, 
and that these last appealed to Rome for suc- 
cor and justice. Of course, the authority 
which such appeal might seem to imply was 
at no time recognised by the Patriarch — it 
was even decided, during this very pontifi- 
cate, by the tw^enty-ninth Canon of the Coun- 
cil of Chalcedon, :{: that the 'See of New 
Rome should have the same advantages with 
that of Ancient Rome in the ecclesiastical 
constitution ; ' but, nevertheless, the influence 
of the latter was extended, for the moment 
at least, among the subjects of the former, 
by the dissensions which severed them from 
theh' Head. And, again, the accidents which 
placed the Bishop of Rome in familiar and 
almost independent correspondence § with 
the Emperor, could not fail to exalt his name 
and elevate his dignity. In the western pro- 
vinces, the increase of Papal authority was 
owing to other causes; the declining power, 
the indolence and the absence of the Empe- 
rors, left little civil control over the authority 
of the Bishop who presided in the imperial 

* One hundred and forty-one Epistles and ninety- 
six Sermons still remain to us, though several of both 
are lost. Upon the whole they indicate great talents, 
and an improved and exercised mind. Respecting 
their genuineness, see Dupin, t. iii. p. 2. 

f Mosh. cent, v., p. ii., c. ii. 

t Held in 451. The substance of the enactment is 
as follows : — ' That the Fathers did reasonably accord 
its privileges to Ancient Rome, because it was the 
imperial city; and for the same reason the hundred 
and fifty Bishops here assembled have decided that 
^evf Rome, which is honored with the empire and 
the senate, shall have the same advantages with An- ! 
cient Rome in the ecclesiastical constitution, and he 
the second after it' — meaning, obviously, that the'! 
two Sees were to be independent in power and equal '! 
in privilege ; but that in rank and precedence the su- 
periority was due to the more ancient. This Canon 
has given birth to the most voluminous contentions. 
Fleury, liv. xxviii. sect. 30. Baron, ann. 451. 
Sect. 148. 

§ Some Epistles are still extant, addressed by St. 
Leo to the Emperor Theodosius, on the subject of the 
Eastern controversies. 



city ; and the incursions and triumphs of the 
barbarians rather conti'ibuted to advance than 
to restrain his rising dominion. For the 
chiefs of the invaders, whose principal solici- 
tude was to give stability to their government, 
when they perceived the great deference paid 
by the multitude to the hierarchy, while they 
courted the inferior members of that body, 
naturally offered the most obsequious respect 
to the highest in rank. From these and sim- 
ilar causes a variety of advantages spontane- 
ously flowed, and they were seized and per- 
petuated by the genius and ambition of Leo. 
Private Confession. One innovation in 
the discipline of the Church was introduced 
by that Pontiff, which deserves more atten- 
tive notice than is usually directed to it. It 
had been the custom for the more gi'ievous 
offenders to make the confession of their sins 
publicly, in the face of the congregation ; or 
at least for the ministers occasionally to pro- 
claim before the whole assembly the nature 
of the confessions which they had received. 
Leo strongly discouraged that practice ; and 
permitted, and even enjoined with some ear- 
nestness, that confession should rather be pri- 
vate, and confided to the priest alone. The 
evil most obviously proceeding from this re- 
laxation was the general increase, or, at least, 
the more indecent practice, of the mortal 
sins, and especially (as Mosheim * has observ- 
ed) of that of incontinence ; unless, indeed, 
we are to suppose that the original publicity 
of confession was abandoned, from its being 
no longer practicable in a numerous body 
and a corrupt age. But another consequence 
which certainly flowed from this measure, 
and which, in the eye of an ambitious 
Churchman, might counterbalance its demor- 
alizing effect, was the vast addition of influ- 
ence which it gave to the clergy. When he 
delivered over the conscience of the people 
into the hands of the priest, — when he con- 
signed the most secret acts and thoughts of 
individual imperfection to the torture of pri- 
vate inquisition and scrutiny, — Leo the Great 
had indeed the glory of laying the first and 
corner-stone of the Papal edifice — that on 
which it rose and rested, and without which 
the industry of his successors would have 
been vainly exerted, or (as is more proba- 
ble) their boldest projects would never have 
been formed. 

* Cent. V. p. 2. ch. iv. The epistle containing this 
ordinance is the 136th, addressed (on March 6, 459) 
to the Bishop of the March of Ancona and Abruzzo. 
Dupin, Nouv. Bibliotli. torn. iii. par. ii. 



INTERNAL CONDITION OF THE CHURCH. 



121 



Justinian. From the name of St. Leo we 
may proceed without interruption to that of 
Justinian ; * who ascended the throne of Con- 
stantinople in the year 527, and occupied it 
for nearly forty years. This Emperor is most 
honorably known by his legislative labors, 
and the digest of a code of laws, which, in a 
later age, obtained general and durable recep- 
tion throughout Europe, and which are not 
in all places obsolete at this moment. A dif- 
ferent and secondary description of celebrity 
is reflected on him by the success of his gen- 
erals, Belisarius and Narses, against the inva- 
ders of the West ; but, for our own part, we 
are not disposed to think, that he would have 
made any addition to the extent, or improve- 
ment in the nature, in his reputation, had he 
deserted the pacific duties for which he was 
well qualified, to place himself at the head of 
armies f without disposition or experience for 
command. He deputed to his soldiers the 
sanguinary task of conquest, and confined his 
own talents to those offices which he justly 
considered to be more truly imperial. Among 
the first and favorite of these he placed the 
regulation of the religious affahs of his sub- 
jects. His own faith was distinguished by 
the most rigid orthodoxy ; and his theological 
studies had at least conducted him to sound 
doctrinal conclusions. But he had studied 
with more success the tenets, than the histo- 
ry, of his reUgion ; or he would have learnt 
from the sad experience of two centuries, that 
neither the canons of councils, nor the oppres- 
sion of civil power, are sufficient to restrain 
the wanderings of human opinion. He de- 
voted a large portion of his long reign to the 
extinction of heresy ; he waged war with 
equal fury :}: against the remnant of the Arians, 



* Of the jurisdiction of the clergy, which was the 
most acknowledged exercise of their power, and the 
most direct cause of their influence, it will be better 
to defer all mention until we come to treat of the acts 
of Charlemagne. 

t The trumpet of Gibbon (upon the whole a humane 
historian) is too often and too loudly sounded in cele- i 
bration of military prowess, and the pomp of camps, j 
and the virtues of heroes — the favorite themes of vul- 
gar minds, and the easiei>i incentives to vulgar enthu- 
siasm. 

X He appears to have taken pains to search for 
them — a detestable exaggeration of persecution. He 
assailed with the same ardor both pagans and astrol- 
ogers ; and his severities against the Samaritans, who 
had obtained a place in tlie long list of heretics, excit- 
ed and justified their rebellion ; and it was not sup- 
pressed without horrible carnage. On the other hand, 
he exerted himself with equal vigor against various 
forms of impiety and immorality (Fleurv, liv. xxxii. 
16 



the Nestorians, and the Eutychians ; he ex- 
pelled them from their churches, which he 
transferred, together with their public posses- 
sions, to the Catholics ; and, finally, he de- 
scended to individual persecution, and confis- 
cated the private property of many. What- 
ever ambiguous excuses may be found for 
his other proceedings, the guilt of this last 
robbery is usually attributed to his sordid 
avarice. In spite of those measures (shall 
we not rather say, in consequence of them ?), 
the fifth General Council (assembled at Con- 
stantinople during his reign) conferred upon 
him the title of 'The Most Christian Em- 
peror,' not foreseeing that, by one of those 
strange dispositions of Providence v/hich 
seem to mock at human calculation and con- 
sistency, the very monarch whom they had 
exalted by that glorious distinction — due, 
indeed, to the purity of his faith, but for- 
feited by his intemperance and bigotry, — 
was destined to die a heretic ! * A foolish dis- 
pute had been raised at that time, whether 
the body of Christ on earth was or was not li- 
able to corruption ; and this divided Oriental 
Christians into the two sects of Corruptibles 
and Incorruptibles. The latter were obvi- 
ously involved in the heresy of the Phantas- 
tics ; and yet Justinian, in the bhndness of 
old age, Eidopted that opinion ; and it is even 
believed, that he was preparing to persecute 
all who differed fi^om him, when he fell sick 
and died. 

Our censures on the religious policy of Jus- 
tinian, though at variance with the usual lan- 
guage of ecclesiastical historians, require no 
justification — but it is proper to clear that Em- 
peror from the more, odious imputation of 
having created the system, which he so zeal- 
ously administered. The sentence of ban- 
ishment pronounced by Constantino against 
Arius and his followers, however speedily 
regretted and revoked, was the grand and 
authoritative precedent to which every Cath- 
olic persecutor of after times appealed with 
pride and confidence. That which w^as an 
experiment — an injudicious and fruitless ex- 
periment, with Constantine, became a princi- 
ple or a habit with most of his successors, 
each of whom enacted such penalties as seem- 
ed suited to repress the errors of the day; 
but it was reserved to Theodosius II. to corn- 
sect. 27.) ; and was no less zealous in the conversion 
of the Heruli and other barbarian tribes to the belief 
in the Gospel, than in oppressing all who did not in- 
terpret that Gospel as he did. 

^ The history of Henry VIII. of England furnishes 
an insLance at first sight very similar to this. 



122 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, 



plete the work, and to confirm and embody 
the scattered edicts of bigotry and despotism. 
There is no space here to enumerate the se- 
vere laws against heretics, which may be 
found in the Theodosian Code ; * it may suf- 
fice to say, that they extended to ahuost every 
denomination of dissent, and menaced the 
contumacious with confiscation, iutestation, 
exile, as the ordinary punishments — while 
* the last and inexpiable penalty ' was sus- 
pended over the most formidable innovators. 
More than this — that Emperor actually ap- 
pointed Inquisitors for the detection of certain 
specified offenders, and enjoined the most 
diligent and penetrating search f for the pur- 



* The following are extracts: — Quid sensibus excte- 
catos Judoeos, Sainaritas, Paganos, et ceetera hsereti- 
corum genera porteutoruin audere cognoscimus'? Quod 
si ad sanitatem mentis egregio legum edicto revocare 
conemur, severitatis culpam ipsi praestabunt; qui du- 
rse frontis obstinato piaculo locum venia3 non relin- 
quunt. Quamobrem, cum sententia veteri desperatis 
morbis nulla sit abhibeuda curatio, tandem, ne ferales 
sectse in vitam, immemores nostri sceculi velut indis- 
creta confusione, licentius evagentur, hac victura in 
omne cBVum lege sancimus — Neminem Judseum, nem- 
inem Samaritam, neutra lege constantem, ad honores 
et dignitates accedere ; nuUi adniinistrationera patere 
civilis obsequii, nee defensoris fungi saltem officio. 
Nefas qulppe credimus, ut supernag majestati et Ro- 
manis legibus inimici, ultoresque etiam nostrarum le- 
gum surreptivse jurisdiclionis habeantur obtentu et 
acquisitae dignitatis auctoritate muniti adversum 
Christianos, et ipsos plerumque sacra? Religionis 
Autistites, velut insultantes fidei nostrse judicandi vel 
pronuntiandi quid velintj habeant potestatem, &c. 
A^ain : — Hinc prospicit nostra dementia Paganorum 
quoque et gentilium immanitates vigiliam nostram de- 
bere sortiri, qui naturali vesania et licentia pertinaci 
religionis tramite dissidentes nefarios sacrifioiorura 
ritus occultis exercere quodammodo solitudinibus 
designantur — quos non promulgatarum legum mille 
terrores, non denuntiati exitii poena compescant, ut 
si emendari non possint mole saltem criminum et il- 
luvie victimarum discerent abstinere. Sed prorsus 
ea furoris peccatur audacia, &c. &c. Leg. Novell. 
Div. Theod. A. lib. These enactments of the first, 
confirmed by the second Theodosias, are in everj-^ 
sense barbarous. 

t ' Summa exploratione rimetur, ut, quicunque in 
unura Paschee diem non obsequenti religione convene- 
rint, tales indubitanter, quales hac lege damnamus, 
habeantur.' This seems to have been levelled against 
the remains of the Quartadecimans. The Encratites, 
Saccophori, and Hydroparastatne, are the names 
which are threatened ' summo supplicio et inexpi- 
abili poena.' A law was also enacted to pi'event the 
meetings of the Tascodragitse — a denomination of per- 
sons ' who made their praj'ers inwardly and silently, 
compressing their noses and lips with their hands, lest 
any sound should transpire.' Basnage, iii. 82. Jor- 
tia, vol. iv. ad ann. 381. That any danger either to 
Church or State could for an instant have been ap- 



pose of unmasking them. It has been ob- 
served, that Pope Leo the Great adopted thia 
method for the extinction of the Manichse- 
ans; and it is some excuse for the eagerness 
of the Bishop that the mighty footsteps of the 
Emperor lay traced before him. It would 
not be just to attach to his name very deeply 
the guilt of intolerance ; nor would v/e de- 
fraud even Justinian himself of such plea as 
may be found for him in the penal system 
previously established, in the spirit of the 
times, in the practice of his predecessors. 
Yet should we distinguish — a churchman 
may be more leniently censured if he enforce 
the laws already enacted for the protection 
of his Church, and calculated, as he may ig- 
norantly imagine, for that purpose. But a 
legislator should look more deeply into the 
records of history and the constitution of 
human nature ; and if, among the venerable 
statutes of his ancestors he observes one 
which is founded in manifest injustice, which 
in its immediate operation occasions confu- 
sion and misery, and which in its general ef- 
ficacy has been proved by long experience to 
miss the end proposed — to reenact and per- 
petuate that statute is not error, but deep and 
inexpiable crime. 

III. We shall conclude this Chapter with 
a few remarks respecting the literature and 
morality of the period on which we are em- 
ployed : for though it may seem impossible to 
treat so extensive a subject in such contract- 
ed limits with adequate fulness, or even with 
profitable precision, there would be still great- 
er ground of reproach were we to neglect it 
altogether. 

Decline of Literature. The decline of Ro- 
man literature between the age of Augustus 
and that of the Antonines, in chasteness and 
delicacy of thought and expression, and even 
the decay of the language itself, are instantly 
perceptible to the classical reader ; yet was it 
still animated by some of the fire of ancient 
genius : it had availed itself of the progress 
of science and the increased knowledge of 
man, and it applied that knowledge with im- 
mortal success to history as well as philoso- 
phy ; but from the reign of Antoninus to that 
of Diocletian the fall was sudden and precip- 
itate. In the barren records of the third cen- 
tury we find no names of good, few even of 

prehended from such abject and pitiful enthusiasm 
might have been pronounced impossible, if the history 
of persecution in every age, howsoever modified and 
disguised by time and circumstance, did not inces- 
santly attest it to be both credible and probable. 



Decline of literature. 



123 



indifferent writers ; and if the works of the 
ancients were more generally diffused and 
studied than formerly (which seems uncer- 
tain,) they were at least much less diUgently 
imitated, and not an effort was made to sur- 
pass them. It is of importance to remark 
this fact ; because there have been some so 
unjust in their hostility to revelation, or so 
perverse in their estimation of history, as to 
attribute the decay of literature to the preva- 
lence and influence of the Christian religion. 
This charge is very far removed from truth — 
indeed it is easy to show that literature had 
already fallen into deep and irretrievable 
ruin, before Christianity began to exercise 
any control over the refinements of society. 
At the beginning of the third century, during 
the parting struggles of learning, the Chris- 
tians, numerous as they were, and uTesistible 
in strength, were principally confined to the 
lower and middle ranks ; and even at the be- 
ginning of the last persecution, though they 
held some high offices in the court of Justin- 
ian, it will scarcely be asserted that they form- 
ed a sufficient proportion of the higher and 
educated classes to affect in any great degree 
the literary character of the empire.* A very 
general moral improvement they had un- 
doubtedly introduced among the lower or- 
ders : some influence on the civilisation of the 
people, and even on the policy of the govern- 
ment, they may also have exercised ; but 
complete revolutions in national literature do 
not originate in those quarters ; and even had 
it been otherwise, we have seen, that more 
than a century before that period, the down- 
fall of taste and learning had been irrevocably 
decreed. 

While they speculate on the secondary 
causes of singular phaenomena, historians are 
sometimes too prone to neglect such as are 
plain and obvious. In the present instance 
these were certainly no other than the pro- 
longation of unmitigated despotism, and the 
civil confusion, which, in addition to its cus- 
tomary attendants, it so commonly introduced 
regarding the succession to the throne. It is 
unnecessary to search after remote reasons 



* The effect which Christianity may have produc- 
ed on the literature of the Roman Empire in the third 
century, bears some resemblance in character (though 
It was far inferior in degree) to that exerted by Pu- 
ritanism on the literature of our own country. And 
if it be true, that the immediate influence of both was, 
to a certain extent, hostile, their ultimate operation 
was certainly to invigorate and renovate. Some of 
the Fathers of the fourth and fifth centuries write bet- 
ter than any profane autlior after Tacitus. 



for the degradation of any people which has 
been subjected for three centuries to the 
abuse of arbitrary rule ; and though it be true 
that Trajan and the Antonines for a moment 
arrested the torrent of corruption, they were 
but accidental blessings ; and if their person- 
al excellence partially remedied the mons- 
trous depravity of the system, their influence 
lasted not beyond their life. Presently the 
tide resumed its downward course, and its 
natural and necessary progress was scarcely 
accelerated either by the crimes of Severus 
or the calamities of Decius. Whether, then, 
it be reasonable to consider the first period 
of the decline of literature as closing with the 
reign of the Antonines, or whether we shall 
extend it over the barren period which inter- 
vened between the death of Marcus and the 
establishment of Christianity, it is clear that 
it proceeded from causes quite independent 
of that religion. The second line we may 
venture perhaps to draw after the fourth 
Council of Carthage, and the third at the 
expulsion of the Athenian philosphers by 
Justinian. 

During the second period, Constantino, Ju- 
lian and Theodosius successively proposed 
encouragements to learning, and bestowed 
personal honors on those possessing it. If 
Julian confined his rewards to Pagan, and 
Constantino to Christian, literature,the greater 
effect (owing to the longer duration of his 
reign) was produced by the latter — the same 
is true of the exertions of Theodosius ; con- 
sequently, during the last half of the fourth 
and the beginning of the fifth century, the 
Church abounded with prelates of splendid 
talents, and laborious industry, and such 
learning as was then thought most necessar}'. 
The Christian writings of this period, to 
whatsoever objections they may be liable, 
constitute the best part of its literature. And 
in so far as they are censured (and justly cen- 
sured) for the occasional display of vain spec- 
ulation about things not determinable, of un- 
fair representation, of perverse disputatious- 
ness, of absurd or unworthy arguments, it 
is a question, whether the lucubrations of 
the schoolmen and rhetoricians of Rome or 
Greece give less groimd for the same re- 
proaches : for in a mere literary point of view, 
it matters little, whether it be the inscrutable 
in nature or in revelation on which the way- 
ward imagination wastes itself; and as these 
latter investigations are more likely to deviate 
into a moral character, so is there a better 
prospect of their utility. And in justice to 
most of the Fathers of this period we should' 



124 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



add, that there are many splendid illustrations 
of scripture, and many generous bursts of 
moral exhortation, which enrich and ennoble 
their works, and which surpass the ardor, 
if they do not rival the elegance, of profane 
philosophy. 

Fourth Council of Carthage. A canon of 
the Council held at Carthage * in the year 398 
forbade the study of secular books by Bish- 
ops ; and we have therefore selected this as 
a crisis in the history of Christian literature. 
Assuredly a deplorable dearth of learning 
very soon followed this crisis, and our thii'd 
period is distinguished by scarcely two or 
three names respectable for talents or acquire- 
ments. However we do not at all intend to 
attribute this rapid defection to the injudi- 
cious ordinance in question ; since its author- 
ity was not universal, and since injunctions 
of that description are seldom obeyed, except 
by such as are previously disposed to receive 
them. It was an index rather than a cause 
of the altering spirit of the Church, and as 
such we record it. The real reasons of that 
sudden defection, and of the darkness which 
followed it, are two : the first of these, which 
alone perhaps might gradually have complet- 
ed the extinction of sound learning, was the 
internal corruption of Christianity, and the 
spreading disease of monachism. An age of 
prodigies and relics and Stjdites was not pro- 
per for the growth of genius or the cultivation 
■of knowledge ; and the little of either which 
-survived in the East may have owed its exis- 
tence to the dissensions of the Christians, as 
much as to their virtues. The second reason 
was the frequent irruption and final settle- 
ment of the barbarian conquerors. This 
cause was indeed confirmed almost entirely to 
the provinces of the West; but the wounds 



* The celebrated Canon in question appears in the 
midst of several others, generally respecting the epis- 
copal office and duties: their substance is as follows — 
' the Bishop should have a small residence near the 
church; his furniture should be of small price, and his 
table poorly supplied; he should sustain his dignity by 
his faith and his holy life; he shall read no profane 
books, nor those of the heretics, unless by necessity. 
He shall take no concern in the execution of wills, 
nor any care of his domestic affairs, nor plead for any 
temporal interests. He shall not himself take charge 
either of the widows, orphans, or strangers, but com- 
mit that office to the chief priest — he shall have no 
other occupation than reading, prayer and preaching. 
He shall perform no ordinations without the counsel 
of his clergy, and the consent of the people.' See 
Flemy, liv. xx., sect, xxxii. We are not to suppose 
that the above canons were every where received, or 
perhaps strictly enforced any where. 



which it inflicted there were deeper and of 
more extensive influence than might at first 
have been apprehended. It afforded a fear- 
ful prospect that those hordes of colonists 
were wholly uninstructed in literary acquire- 
ments, and even generally prejudiced against 
them. Theodoric himself, the wisest, as well 
as the best, among their Princes, while he re- 
spected the superior civilisation of the van- 
quished, despised and disclaimed that art 
which seemed to be employed for no other 
end, than to inflame and perpetuate religious 
controversy. He could never be prevailed 
upon to learn to read. But the cause which 
increased and prolonged that mischief, and 
created many others, was the superstitious 
disposition which the invaders brought with 
them. They had learnt, as the rudiments 
of their own religion, a subservient reverence 
for their priesthood, and this principle ac- 
companied them into the Christian church ; 
the priesthood received without reluctance 
the unbounded homage which was oflfered 
to them ; their authority grew with that obse- 
quiousness, and their ambition swelled with 
their authority ; and when they found how 
easily this could be maintained and extended 
over a credulous people, and how certainly 
credulity is the oflfspring of ignorance, they 
became interested in perpetuating blindness 
and prejudice. 

Some schools indeed still subsisted, and 
the youth were instructed in what were cal- 
led the Seven Liberal Arts ; * but these, as we 
learn from Augustin's account of them, con- 
sisted only in a number of subtile and useless 
precepts ; and were consequently more adap- 
ted to perplex the memory than to strengthen 
the judgment. The arts in question were 
grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, music, 
geometry, and astronomy ; and those were 
very rare among the scholars whose studies 
extended beyond the three first. Moral ex- 
hortations began now to be commonly con- 
fined to the public reading of ' Books of Mar- 
tyrs ' and ' Lives of Saints,' by which the pas- 
sions of the vulgar were excited, and their 
imaginations prepared for the belief of any 
imposture which it might be expedient to 
practice upon them. Such were the mate- 
rials of Christian literature during the fifth 
and sixth centuries, and such they continued 
with very little alteration until the eleventh. 

Edict of Justinian. Some remnants of the 
philosophy of ancient Greece still lingered at 
Athens ; and a few degenerate descendants 

* Mosh., cent, v., p. xi., c. i. 



MORALITY. 



125 



of Plato, Aristotle or Zeno, still exhibited in 
their half deserted schools the shadow of the 
lore of former ages. Those teachers had 
been encouraged by M. Antoninus and Ju- 
lian, and tolerated by the Christian Emperors, 
and they may have constituted the wisest, 
and probably the most virtuous portion of 
the Pagan population ; but they had gradually 
dwindled away into obscurity and insignifi- 
cance. Nevertheless, Justinian considered 
their existence as inconsistent with the prin- 
ciples of his government, and consequently 
issued (in the year 529) that celebrated edict 
which closed the schools of Athens forever. 
The historian of the Church of Christ need 
not fear to celebrate an^/ judicious exertions 
to enlighten and dignify mankind. And in 
so far as the genius of philosophy has been 
employed in the discovery of moral truth, and 
m effectual exhortations to virtue and mag- 
nanimity ; in so far as it has taught the sci- 
ence of government on sound and practical 
principles ; in so far as its researches have 
had no other object than truth, and truth 
which was convertible to the service and im- 
provement of society — so far we respect its ex- 
ertions and honor its name, and disdain the 
narrow policy which completed its extinction. 
But we are bound to admit, thpt, long before 
the period in question, the abuse of reason 
had so far supplanted its proper exercise, and 
perverted its noble character and pur[)oses, 
that it constituted in fict the most active por- 
tion of the systems then called philosophical 
— just as the abuses of religion were then be- 
ginning to form the most conspicuous part 
of the Catholic system. To the connexion 
of Christianity with philosophy several of 
those abuses may be attributed ; for at the 
first moment of their contact, while religion 
was yet pure, philosophy was already deeply 
and vitally corrupted; and the infection of 
bad principles, whether of reasoning or mo- 
rality, was too easily communicated. And 
thus religion, which is indeed the friend of 
that true and useful philosophy whose object 
is the advancement of society and the hap- 
piness of man, became stained and degraded 
by its alliance with controversial sophistry. 
There is also another reflection which lessens 
the indignation so naturally excited in every 
generous mind by the edict of Justinian. 
The philosophers had declared war against 
Christianity at an early period ; to their ma- 
lignity the last and severest persecution may 
be partly attributed, and the more dangerous 
aggressions of Julian were conducted by 
their spirit, if not by their counsel ; so that. 



if we cannot excuse the severe retaliation, 
which Christianity, in her time of triumph, 
more effectually inflicted, at least our com- 
passion for the sufferer is diminished by the 
recollection of its hostility and its vices. The 
exiled philosophers (seven in number) at first 
took refuge at the court of Persia ; but find- 
ing none of the moral advantages Avhich they 
professed to expect under a different form of 
government and worship, they were present- 
ly contented to return, on certain stipulations, 
and terminate their days under a Christian 
monarch. 

We can scarcely believe that the character 
of Christian literature was so deeply affected 
by that act of Justinian, as some imagine. 
Mosheira* appears to consider it as having 
occasioned particularly the extinction of the 
New Academy, (the descendant of the Pla- 
tonic school,) and the substitution of the sys- 
tem of Aristotle. It is, indeed, well known 
that about this period the latter philosophy 
was gradually gaining ground upon the form- 
er in the Christian schools, probably because 
it was better suited to the contentious spirit 
of the age ; and whatever evils had heretofore 
been occasioned in the Church by too great 
reverence for the authority of Plato, and by 
the boldness of his followers, much more ex- 
tensive and more durable calamities were af- 
terwards inflicted upon the Christian world 
by the universal submission of the human 
mind to the name of Aristotle. But we are 
not persuaded that this change was brought 
about violently : or that the edict, which si- 
lenced a few obscure Pagan philosophers, at 
all generally influenced the learning of Chris- 
tians ; or that any act of legislation could sud- 
denly have effected so general an alteration 
in the studies and intellectual pursuits of 
an extensive empire. These mighty changes 
usually result from the patient operation of 
general principles upon the morals and habits 
of a people — ^the caprice of a monarch has 
no power to create them ; and, perhaps, it is 
the commonest mistake of historians to attri- 
bute too much to the edicts of Sovereigns, 
and too httle to the unceasmg movement and 
agitation of civilized society. 

Morality. Respecting the condition of 
morals during this period it is impossible to 
speak with equal definiteness ; some indeed 



* Cent. A'i., p. ii., c. i. In another place he seems 
inclined to attribute the same result (and perhaps 
with rather more probability) to the decision of the 
fifth General Council, by which some of the opinions 
of Origen, who was a New Platonician, were con- 
demned. 



126 



HISTORY OP THE CHURCH. 



do not hesitate to describe them as exceeding- 
ly depraved, and as being in no respect bet- 
ter upheld by the clergy than by the laity : * 
and true it is, that certain laws were enacted, 
with the specific object of securing the mo- 
rality, and even of punishing the offences, 
of the priesthood ; indeed when we consider 
the sort of immunity from civil tribunals 
which that body in those times enjoyed, we 
are not surprised that too great general indul- 
gence led to the imposition of occasional and 
particular restraints. But these by no means 
prove its universal corruption. 

The increased wealth of the Church is 
mentioned as another and a necessary reason 
of its increased degradation. But we should 
not be too indiscriminate in our inference of 
evil from that cause ; the ill effects of eccle- 
siastical wealth, which is generally diffused 
among the clergy with very great inequality, 
would be chiefly confined to the more elevat- 
ed and ambitious members of the hierarchy, 
and would scarcely extend to the lower and 
more numerous ranks of the ministry ; be- 
sides which we should recollect that it is at 
least as common an effect of wealth to en- 
large and exalt, as to debase, the character 
of its possessor. Even were this not so, the 
Church, in the sixth century, had certainly 
not arrived at any dangerous degree of opu- 
lence, since the sources, which in after ages 
so profusely supplied it, were scarcely yet 
opened. At the same time, the steady pro- 
gress of religion, the general conversion of the 
barbarian conquerors, and the devotion of 
the converts to their priesthood, are scarcely 
consistent with the gross immorality, and 
even total contempt of decency, with which 
Mosheira charges that order, f And there- 
fore, without advocating its perfect moral pu- 



* Mosheiin, cent, vi., p. ii., c. ii. 

f ' Whence so many laws to restrain the vices and 
preserve the morals of the ecclesiastical orders, if they 
had fulfilled even the obligations of external decency, 
or shown, in the general tenor of their conduct, a cer- 
tain degree of respect for religion or virtue. Be that 
as it will, the effects of all these laws and edicts were 
so inconsiderable as to be hardly perceived ; for so 
high was the veneration paid at this time to the cler- 
gy, that their most flagitious crimes were corrected 
by the slightest and gentlest punishments : an unhappy 
circumstance, which added to their presumption, and 
rendered them more daring and audacious in iniquity.' 
These are Mosheim's words ; and some will think 
that they carry their own confutation with them. 
At least we may safely believe, that the flagrant of- 
fences of a few notorious individuals have been dark- 
ly reflected upon the whole body ; and such has 
been the misfortune of the Christian priesthood in 
every age. 



rity, which again would have been strangely 
at variance with the superstitious spirit which 
already vitiated the faith, we need not hesitate 
to believe, that the great majority of its mem- 
bers continued with zeal, though in silence, 
to execute their offices of piety, and that, 
though stained by individual transgression 
and scandal, the body was very far removed 
ffom general degradation, either in the East- 
ern or Western empire. 

Hitherto we have spoken of the clergy on- 
ly, and the general morality of the age would 
to a great extent be regulated by the conduct 
of that body. But the political prostration 
of the Western provinces, overrun by so 
many savage tribes — the rapid dissolution of 
the old governments without any stability in 
those which succeeded them — the subversion 
of legal security, the substitution of military 
and barbarous license — these and other cir- 
cumstances, aggravating the usual miseries 
of conquest, occasioned, wheresoever they 
extended, more absolute wretchedness, both 
individual and national, than had hitherto 
been recorded in the history of man ; inso- 
much, that among those who beheld and shar- 
ed those inflictions, there were many who 
regarded them as special demonstrations of 
divine wrath. And as men are ever prone 
to attribute such chastisements to the most 
striking revolution of their own day, and as 
the subversion of the temples of their ances- 
tors was still recent in their memory, some 
there were who ascribed the anger of the 
Gods to the establishment and prevalence of 
Christianity. Since the appearance of that 
impiety (they said) the Roman power has in- 
cessantly declined. The Gods, the founders 
and protectors of that empire, have with- 
drawn their succor, as their service has been 
neglected ; and now that it has been entirely 
repressed, now that their sanctuaries are clos- 
ed, and their sacrifices, auguries and other 
propitiations rigorously prohibited, they have 
at length abandoned us wholly, and left the 
once victorious Rome to be a prey to barbari- 
ans.* This foolish delusion was immediately 
and successfully combated by the eloquence 
of St. Augustin. In his noble composition, 
' The City of God,' f he confuted the error 

* Fleury, H. E., liv. xxiii., sect. vii. 

f The work was published in 426, after thirteen 
years had been employed in its composition. It con- 
sists of twenty-two books, of which the ten first are 
devoted to the confutation of the various errors of 
Paganism, and among others of that which we have 
now mentioned ; v/hile the twelve last establish the 
truth of Christianity. 



ECCLESIASTICAL WRITERS. 



127 



by irrefragable auguments, and conclusive 
appeals to the evidence of profane history ; 
and inculcated the more reasonable opinion, 
that the temporal afflictions which God per- 
mitted to devastate the empire were chastise- 
ments* inflicted by a just Providence for the 
correction, not for the destruction, of his crea- 
tures. The error was indeed confuted, and 
presently died away ; but tlie general disloca- 
tion of society which occasioned it must have 
suspended for a time the moral energies of 
man, and the period of his severest suffering 
may also have been that of his deepest de- 
pravity. 



* Thirteen years afterwards Carthage was sacked 
by the Vandals; and Salvian, a presbyter of Mar- 
seilles, a contemporary author, also considers that 
event as a signal example of divine justice; and he 
enlarges witii great fervor on the exceeding corrup- 
tion of that great city. ' It seemed as if the inhab- 
itants had entirely taken leave of reason — the streets 
were filled with drunkards crowned with flowers and 
perfumes, and infested with every possible snare 
against chastity ; adulteries, and the most abominable 
impurities were the commonest of all things, and they 
were publicly practised with the extreme of impu- 
dence. The orphans and widows were oppressed, 
and the poor were tortured to such despair, that they 
prayed God to deliver the city to the barbarians. 
Blasphemies, too, and impiety reigned there; many, 
though professedly Christians, were at heart Pagans, 
and worshipped t!>e celestial Goddess with entire de- 
votion. Besides which (he adds), the people had an 
extreme contempt and aversion for the Monks, how- 
ever holy they might be.' The description is proba- 
bly exaggerated — yet ecclesiastical historians almost 
universally admit the cori'uption of Christians to have 
been the cause of tlieir chastisement. Baronius adds 
another reason — the prevalence of heresy. At the 
year 412, he asserts — Barbari przevalent ubi. hoereses 
vigent; and in other places (ann. 410, 428) declares, 
that the former might easily have been subdued, if 
the latter could have been expelled ; and ad ann. 406, 
407, he more specifically affirms, that Providence sent 
the invaders into Gaul for the express purpose of de- 
stroying the heresy of Vigilantius, and that the great- 
est devastations were committed in the districts whei'e 
those errors were most deeply rooted. By an opposite, 
but not less extravagant, error, Theodosius, legislating 
nearly at the same time, attributed even the unseason- 
able severities of the skies to the prolonged existence 
of Paganism. ' An diutius perfer.imus mutari tempo- 
rum vices irata coeli temperie; quae Paganorum ex- 
acerbata perfidia, nescit naturae libramenta servare. 
Unde enim ver solitam gratiam abjuravit'? Undo aest- 
as messe jejuna laboriosum agricolam in spe destituit 
aristarum '? Unde intemperata ferocitas ubertatem ter- 
rarum penetrabili frigore sterilitatis Isesione damnavit 
— nisi quod ad impietatis vindictam transit lege sua 
naturae decretum'? Quod ne posthac sustinere cogam- 
ur, pacifica ultione, ut diximus, pianda est supremi 
nurainis veneranda maiestas.' 



NOTE ON CERTAIN ECCLESfASTrCAL WRIT- 
ERS OF THE FOURTH AND FIFTH CENTU- 
RIES. 

1. It is probable that Lactantius was a 
native of Africa, since his first lessons were 
received from Arnobius, whose school was at 
Sicca, in that comitry ; but the truth is not 
undoubtedly known, nor the year of his birth. 
It is only certain, that he witnessed and sur- 
vived the persecution of Diocletian, and was 
selected, in his old age, as preceptor to Cris- 
pus, the son of Constantine. He was the 
most learned Christian of his time ; and the 
record of his necessitous and voluntary pov- 
erty may at least persuade us, that his habits 
were influenced by the spirit of Christian 
philosophy which adorns his writings. 

The 'Divine Institutions,' his most impor- 
tant work, contain a powerful confutation of 
Paganism, in a style not uninspired with the 
genius of antiquity. ' Lactantius (says St. 
Jerome)* is as a stream of Ciceronian elo- 
quence; and I would that he had been as 
successful in confirming our own doctrine as 
in overthrowing that of others.' He was li- 
able indeed to that reproach, and he shared it 
with all the apologists who had preceded 
him ; his arguments are often feeble, his as- 
sumptions sometimes false, and his conclu- 
sions not always sound : but his style deserves 
great praise ; and if his diction occasionally 
rivals the elegant exuberance of Cicero, (and 
he is commonly compared, and sometimes 
preferred, to that orator,) the Christian has 
reached, through the more elevated nature of 
his subject, a sublimer range of thought and 
expression, in the field of moral as well as 
divine philosophy. A nobler conception of 
the Deity, and a deeper knowledge of his 
works and dispensations, have occasionally 
exalted, above the Roman's boldest flights, 
a genius clearly inferior both in nature and 
cultivation. 

There is another work still extant, called 
' The Death of the Persecutors,' first print- 
ed in 1679, and by many attributed (though 
probably not with truth) to Lactantius. It is 
of undisputed antiquity,f and contains some 
valuable facts not elsewhere recorded ; but it 
is still more remarkable for an attempt to 

*Epist. 13, addressed toPauIinus, Bishop of Nola 
See Dupin, Nouvelle Biblioth. Vie de Lactance. 
The Institutions were dedicated to Constantine, jarofto- 
bly during the conclusion of the last persecution (be- 
tween 306" and 311), and may possibly have influenced 
his religious opinions. 

\ Probably published about 315. 



128 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



vindicate the temporal retribution of Provi- 
dence, by asserting the violent ends of the 
various persecutors. But an endeavor to 
pervert, with whatsoever promise of tempo- 
rary profit, the eternal truths of history, can 
produce no other lasting effect, than to stain 
the character of the author, and to throw dis- 
credit on the cause which is advocated by 
falsehood. 

2. Gregory, son of the Bishop o? J\!*a%ianzus, 
Was born about 320. He was animated by a 
strong natural love for literary and religious 
seclusion, and a disinclination to ecclesiastical 
dignities, of which we are compelled to ac- 
knowledge the sincerity, though it so happen- 
ed that he occupied, in succession, the sees 
of Sasimi, of Nazianzus,* and Constantinople. 
His learning, his eloquence, and his religious 
zeal preserved him from obscurity, and rais- 
ed him, in his own despite, from indepen- 
dence and privacy. On a visit to Constanti- 
nople, about the year 376, he found the 
Churches, with only one exception, in the 
possession of the Arians. In the adversity 
and humiliation of the Church, he raised his 
voice against the predominant heresy with 
boldness and success. Several are believed 
to have been converted by his arguments ; 
and he continued to instruct and govern the 
Catholic party, until the accession of the or- 
thodox Theodosius. He was then raised by 
the command of the Emperor and the affec- 
tion of the people to a dignity which he neith- 
er coveted, nor long retained. Some discon- 
tents which followed gave him a pretext for 
resignation, and he died in 389 in the retire- 
ment of his native city. 

There remain to us about fifty of his Dis- 
courses and Sermons, of which the language 
and sentiments ahke argue a moderate tem- 
per and a cultivated mind. The most cele- 
brated among them are the third and fourth, 
which are directed against the Emperor Ju- 
iian. In the seventeenth discourse, delivered 
on the occasion of some seditious disturbances 
at Nazianzus, in presenting himself as a me- 
diator between the people and the civil officer, 
he exalts the authority of the Church in very 
lofty language. He thus addresses the Gov- 
ernor of the city: 'the law of Christ subjects 
you to my power and to my pulpit ; for ours 
is the authority — an authority greater and 
more excellent than that which you possess, 
unless, indeed, spirit is to be subject unto 

* He was raised to a share of this See, as a kind 
of Coadjutor io his father, and on his deadi fled from 
the city, lest the undivided responsibility should then 
be forced upon him. 



flesh, and heaven unto earth : * you command 
with Jesus Christ ; it is -He with whom you 
exercise your authority ; it is He who has giv- 
en you the sword which you wear, not so 
much for the chastisement of crime, as for its 
prevention by terror and by menace.' It is 
curious to reflect, that these principles were 
thus publicly promulgated (in the year 372) 
within sixty years from the establishment of 
Christianity, and within nine from the death 
of Julian. Yet the character of Gregory was 
mild and forbearing; his twenty-sixth dis- 
course contains some temperate injunctions 
respecting the treatment of heretics ; and both 
in that and in other places, while he laments 
the distractions of the Church, and while he 
proclaims his own attachment to the Cath- 
olic doctrine, he is never so unjust as to as- 
cribe the whole evil to the opposite party, 
nor so partial as to conceal or to spare the 
vices and scandals which disgraced his 
own.f 

Gregory is celebrated for his friendship 
with St. Basil, the founder of oriental mon- 
achism ; and the brother of St. Basil was 
another Gregory, Bishop of JVyssa, in Cap- 
padocia. This last was the author of five 
orations on the Lord's Prayer, besides various 
Commentaries on Scripture, and discourses 
on the mysteries and moral treatises. But 
the work by which he is most known is his 
oration on the life of St. Gregory, surnamed 
Thaumaturgus, or the wonder-worker. That 
renowned prelate (he was Bishop of Neocje- 
sarea) flourished about one hundred and 
twenty years before his namesake of Nyssa ; 
so that the stupendous miracles which are so 
diligently recorded of him by his credulous 
panegyrist can have no claim on our serious 
consideration. 

3. *S^. Ambrose was born in Gaul, about the 
year 340, of Roman and noble parents ; J he 
was educated in Italy, and his talents and 
conduct early raised him to a high civil ap- 
pointment. In 374, on the vacancy of the 

* Dupin, a liberal Catholic, throws into his trans- 
lation of this passage the words Church and Princes, 
neither of wliich came from the lips of Gregory. 

f It should be observed, that in his sixth Discourse 
(delivered before Gregory of Nyssa) he exalts die hon- 
or of the martyrs, and even attributes to them the of- 
fice of mediators. 

X Dupin, Nouv. Biblioth. Vie St. Ambrose. 
While the infant was one day sleeping in his father's 
palace, a swarm of bees surrounded his cradle, and 
after i-eixjsing on his lips, suddenly ascended high into 
the air, and disappeared. Ambrose had been antici- 
pated by Pluto— yet the Roman Church has shown no 
disinclination to adopt the profane miracle. 



ECCLESIASTICAL WRITERS. 



129 



See of Milan, a violent dissension arose be- 
tween the Catholics and the Arians ; the Bish- 
ops of both parties assembled in gi"eat num- 
bers, and the tumultuous divisions of the 
people not only violated the unity of the 
Church, but seriously threatened the repose 
of the State. Ambrose was then Governor- 
General of the province, and he proceeded in 
person to compose the disorders. The peo- 
ple were assembled in the principal church, 
and there he addressed them at length on 
their civil duties — on social order and pub- 
lic tranquillity. His eloquent harangue pro- 
duced a very different effect from that which 
had been (at least professedly) proposed by 
it, for it was followed by the unanimous ac- 
clamatory shout — 'We will have Ambrose 
for our Bishop.' 

Ambrose was not yet baptized * — what reli- 
gious instruction he may have received in 
the schools of the Catechumens is uncertain, 
and it appears to have been exceedingly 
slight ; but he had not yet been admitted to 
the communion of the faithful. Yet no dif- 
ficulty seems to have arisen from this obstacle. 
But the consent of the Emperor was necessa- 
ry for his translation from a civil to an eccle- 
siastical office. That consent was granted 
with immediate alacrity. Still there remain- 
ed one unforeseen impediment to be over- 
come — the persevering repugnance of Am- 
brose to the proposed elevation. But the 
perseverance of the people was not less obsti- 
nate. It was in vain that the Bishop elect, in 
order to disqualify himself in their eyes for a 
sacred office, publicly committed some acts 
of judicial cruelty and flagrant immorality. 
The people exclaimed — 'Thy offence be 
upon our heads.' It was in vain that he es- 
caped from the city and concealed himself at 
the residence of a faithful friend ; he was dis- 
covered and conducted in triumph to Milan. 
At length, conceivmg that the will of God 
was thus irresistibly declared against him, he 
submitted to assume t]^e ungrateful dignity. 

After having passed through the necessa- 
ry ecclesiastical gradations he was ordained 
Bishop on the 8th day after his baptism, at 
the age of 34. His first act was to make over 
the whole of his property to the Church or 
the poor ; and it should be remarked, that the 
same charitable disposition continued after- 
wards to distinguish him. He immediately 
declared in favor of the Catholic against the 
Arian doctrine; and though the fury with 
which the contest was at that time conducted 
reached and infected him, we cannot justly 



*Se6 FleurVj liv. xvii., sect, xxi.j &C. 

17 



accuse him of having wantonly inflamed it. 
The empress Justinia, the widow of Valen* 
tinian, was an Arian, together with her sol* 
diers and her court ; the great body of the 
people were on the side of Ambrose ; and in 
the year 385 some violent disputes arose, in 
which the Bishop maintained his spiritual 
privileges with a courage and a confidence 
which would not have dishonored the bright- 
est ages of papacy.* From a contest with a 
passionate woman, he advanced to measure 
his strength with a wise and powerful Empe- 
ror. Theodosius the Great had very barba- 
rously avenged the murder of some Imperial 
officers at Thessalonica by the massacre of 
the inhabitants ; and as the Bishop of Milam 
had previously interfered in their favor, he 
boldly condemned the sanguinary execution. 
Theodosius pleaded in his defence the exam- 
ple of David. ' Since then you have imitated 
his offence (rejoined the Prelate) imitate also 
his penitence.' It appears, that for the period 
of eight months the Emperor was denied all 
access to the holy offices of the church — the 
consolation which was afforded to the lowest 
of his subjects was refused (as he complain 
ed)f to himself Finally, after some public 
humiliation, to remind him of the essential dis- 
tinctions between the Priest and the Prince,t 
and the spmtual inferiority of the latter, he 
consented to the performance of public pen- 
ance, as the condition of reconciliation with 
the Church. This extraordinary event took 
place in 390 ;§ and if we have already remark- 



* The great influence which Ambrose is shown to 
have possessed over the populace, not to excite only 
but to compose its tumults, attests the vigor of his 
character more certainly, than it proves either his vir- 
tues or even his eloquence — though we have no reason 
to doubt either. 

t See Fleury, liv. xix., sect. xxi. The power ' tor 
bind and to loose,' as delegated by Christ to his min- 
isters on earth is a favorite theme with St. Ambrose^ 
and asserted by him in a sufficiently extensive sense. 

^ See Theodorit, book v., c. xviii. 

§ Six years earlier (according to Fleury) St. Am- 
brose addressed to Valentinian a letter, in which he 
strenuously opposed the restoration of the altar of 
victory at Rome, so warmly pressed by Symmachus. 
It contains these bold expressions — ' What answer 
will you make, then, when a Bishop shall say to you. 
The Church cannot receive the offerings of him, who 
has given ornaments to the temples of the Gods ; we 
cannot present on the altar of Jesus Christ the gifts of 
him who has made an offering to idols. The edict 
signed by your hand convicts you of that, act. The 
honour which you offer to Christ, how can it be ac- 
ceptable to him, since at the same instant you offer 
adoration to idolsl No— you cannot serve two mas- 
ters, &c.' Epistle 17. 



130 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



ed upon the boldness with which Gregory 
Nazianzen proclaimed (about eighteen years 
earlier) the ghostly supremacy of the Church, 
we must not here omit to observe, that 
from the conclusion of Diocletian's persecu- 
tion fourscore years had not yet elapsed, ere 
a successor of that unrestrained and lawless 
despot was compelled by the mere influence 
of opinion to humble himself before the 
unarmed minister of that religion which his 
predecessor had designed to exterminate. 

Many works of St. Ambrose remain, which 
exhibit no great indications of literary genius ; 
but they abound in useful moral lessons, 
which are plentifully interspersed with ex- 
nortations to fasting and celibacy, and the 
other superstitions of the day. It is also re- 
corded, that he performed many astonishing 
miracles ; stories that throw disgrace on an 
elevated character, which really needed not 
the aid of imposture to secure respect, or 
even popularity. He died in 397 ; and after 
enjoying universal celebrity during his life, 
throughout the whole extent of Christendom, 
he has deserved from succeeding generations 
the equivocal praise, that he was the first ef- 
fectual assertor of those exalted ecclesiastical 
pretensions, so essential to the existence of 
the Romish system, and so dear to the ambi- 
tious ministers of every Church. 

4. St. John, surnamed from his eloquence, 
Chrysostom, {i. e. the Golden Mouthed,) was 
a native of Antioch, of a noble and opulent 
family. In the year 374, while he was still 
young, he had acquired such distinction, that 
tj^e neighboring Prelates elected him to a va- 
cant See ; but it is generally affirmed that he 
refused that dignity, and fled to an adjacent 
mountain, where he passed four years in the 
society of an ancient solitary ; thence he 
changed his residence to a frightful cavern, 
which witnessed for the two following years 
his rigid austerities. Having completed this 
preparatory discipline, he entered upon the 
offices of the ministry ; and after edifying his 
native city for eighteen years by the most an- 
inating instructions, he was at once exalted, 
without solicitation, and even against his pro- 
fessed wish, to the See of Constantinople. 
Chrysostom carried with him to that danger- 
ous eminence not only the fervor of Christ- 
ian eloquence, but the severity of monastic 
virtue ; and he thought it little to move the 
affections and raise the admiration of his au- 
dience, -unless he could reach their practice 
and quell their vices. Had he confined his 
exhortations to the mass of the people, he 
would have produced less effect perhaps, 



but he would have excited no odium —but 
the intrepid and earnest orator rose in his 
vehement denunciations from the people to 
the clergy, and from the clergy to the court, 
without excepting even the Empress herself 
from his reproaches.* To the keenness of 
his censures he' added the weight of ecclesi- 
astical jurisdiction, and both were zealously 
employed against episcopal licentiousness,! 
no less than against the vices and scandals 
imputed to the priesthood, and especially to 
the monastic orders. But in the tedious and 
delicate office of ecclesiastical reform, that 
zeal which is not tempered with moderation, 
and qualified by due regard for existing cir- 
cumstances, will commonly ruin the advocate, 
without benefiting the cause. The disposi- 
tion of Chrysostom was naturally choleric 
and impatient, and his noblest intentions were 
frustrated by his passionate imprudence. Two 
powerful parties united for his overthrow; 
and though their first triumph was instantly 
reversed by an insurrection of the populace, 
whom his ardent eloquence, the beneficence 
of his charitable habits and institutions, the 
austerity of his morals, and the very bitter- 
ness of his rebukes, had bound and devoted 
to him, yet a subsequent condemnation was 
more eff*ectual ;| and after a tumultuous rule 
of six years, Chrysostom was dismissed into 
exile to a desolate town named Cucusus, 
among the ridges of Mount Taurus. In that 
remote residence he passed three years, the 
last, perhaps the most glorious, of his life — 
for his virtues were more eagerly acknow- 
ledged in his absence, and his genius was 
endeared, and his errors were obliterated, by 
his misfortunes. About thirteen years after- 
wards his relics were removed to Constanti- 
nople, and his name assumed an eminent 
place among the saints of the Church ; and 
it is proper to add, that the justice, which 

* Eudoxia, after failing in her first attempt to dis- 
place Chrysostom, renewed her hostilities ; and it was 
then that the Bishop deli^red the sermon (if indeed 
he did at all deliver it) beginning with the celebrated 
words — ' Herodias is again furious ; Herodias again 
dances ; she once again requires the head of St. John.' 
' An insolent allusion, (says Gibbon,) which, as a 
woman and a Sovereign, it was equally impossible 
for her to forgive.' Chap, xxxii. The whole ac- 
count of St. Chrysostom is written with learning, elo- 
quence and fairness. 

t In his visitation through the Asiatic provinces he 
deposed thirteen Bishops of Lydia and Phrygia, anA 
passed a very severe censm'e upon the whole order. 

4: Still his expulsion was not effected without pop- 
ular commotions, which led to the conflagration of the 
principal churcli and the adjoining palace. 



ECCLESIASTICAL WRITERS. 



131 



was so abundantly bestowed on the memory 
of Chrysostom, should m a great measure be 
attributed to the perseverance of the Bishop 
of Rome ; whose sympathy had consoled 
him in his adversity, and whose influence, 
had his Ufe been much prolonged, might 
eventually have restored him to his dig- 
nity.* 

The works that remain of St. Clirysostom 
are for the most part Sermons and Homilies, 
and are nearly a thousand in number. Their 
style is not recommended by that emulation 
of Attic purity which adorns the writings of 
Basilius, or Gregory Nazianzen ; but it is el- 
evated and unconstrained, pi'egnant with nat- 
ural thoughts and easy expressions, enriched 
with metaphors and analogies, and dignified 
by boldness and grandeur. And, what is 
more important, the matter of his discourses, 
while it declines the affectation of subtlety, 
and avoids the barren fields of theological 
speculation, is directly addressed to the com- 
mon feelings, and principles, and duties of 
mankind. The heart is penetrated, the latent 
vice is discovered, and exposed in the most 
frightful colors to the detestation of Christians. 
Such was the character of that eloquence 
which, by captivating the people and scan- 
dalizing the great, occasioned such tumultuous 
disorder in the metropolis of the East. Yet 
the historian finds much more to admire in 
the bbld and impetuous enthusiasm of the ora- 
tor, than to censure in his indiscretion. One 
object alone filled his mind and animated his 
efforts— and that the noblest object to which 
the genius of man can be directed — to warm 
the religion, to purify the morals, and to ad- 
vance the virtue and happiness of those whom 
he influenced. 

At the same time, it is not asserted that St. 
Chiysostom was exempt from the errors and 
abuses of his day ; he exalted the merit of 
celibacy ; he strongly inculcated the duty of 
fasting, and the sanctity of a solitary and as- 
cetic life ; he encouraged the veneration for 
saints and martyrs ; but the practical nature of 
his piety sometimes shone through the mists 
of his superstitious delusion. If any, for 
instance, engaged in a pilgrimage to the holy 
places, he assured them that their principal 
motive should be the relief of the poor — if 
any were bent on offering up prayers for 

* A letter from Chrysostom to Imiocent, wriUen in 
406, is still extant, in which, with many expressions 
of gratitude, he exhorts that Pope to continue his ex- 
ertions to succor him, without being discouraged by 
the want of success. 



the dead, he exhorted them to give alms for 
the dead also.* 

With respect to his doctrine, the three 
points which have been most warmly disputed 
are, his opinions on the Eucharist, on Grace 
and Original Sin, and on Confession. Re- 
garding the first of these, his expressions are 
both vague and contradictory ; since some of 
them would lead us to believe, that he very 
nearly approached, if he did not actually 
reach, the belief now held by the Roman ' 
Catholic Church ; while in another passage^ 
where he affirms the real presence, he also 
(and incidentally) asserts that the nature of tha 
bread is not changed. Upon the whole, it is 
clear that he held very elevated notions res- 
pecting the Sacrament, and it is probable that 
his deliberate opinion was in favor of that 
which we call Consubstantiation. But re- 
garding the nature of penitence, it is quite 
plain, in spite of some seeming inconsistencies 
which Roman Catholic writers have detected, 
or imagined, that his direct assertions incul- 
cate the sufficiency of penitential confession 
to God in prayer, without any necessity for 
the mediation of his ministers. As to the 
second point, we shall perhaps refer to the 
probable opinion of this father, when we shall 
arrive at the description of the Pelagian con- 
troversy. 

5. St. Jerome was born at the city of Strigna 
or Stridona, on the confines of Pannonia and 
Dalmatia, about the year 345. His family 
was honorable, his fortune abundant, and his 
youthful studies, under the celebrated Dona- 
tusjf had improved and fortified his literary 
taste. But the deep religious feeling,| which 

*See Dupin, Nouv. Biblioth. Art. St. Jean Chry- 
sostom. The latter part of the fourth century, and the 
beginning of the fifth, from the death of Julian, for in- 
stance, to the conquest of Africa by the Vandals, is a 
very important and a deeply interesting period of 
Christian history; and there is no method peiv 
haps by which its peculiarities could be so distinctly 
painted, as by detailed accounts of St. Ambrose, Su 
Chrysostorn, and St. Augustin — accounts, which should 
reject all that is fabulous and absurd in the records re- 
specting those fathers, while they embraced the most 
characteristic and striking particulars of their pri- 
vate, as well as public^ conversation, their writings 
and their doctrine. 

t The commentator on Virgil and Terence. 

X In his twenty-second letter, in order to divert Ins 
correspondent (Eustochium) from the study of profane 
authors, St. Jerome recounts, that formerly, during 
the access of a violent fever, he had been dragged in 
spirit to the tribunal of Jesus Christ, Avhere, after 
receiving severe chastisemeiit for his attachment to 
those authors (Cicero and Plautus are specified), he 
had been forbidden to read them more. Moreover, 



152 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



took early possession of his soul, led him to 
consecrate his labors and his learning to that 
wliich he deemed the service of Christ- An 
excessive admiration of monastic excellence, 
and ardor for the habits w^hich conferred it, 
constituted the ruling principle of his life; 
and whether it was, that the solitudes of Eu- 
rope were not yet sufficiently sanctified to 
satisfy his passion for holy seclusion, or that 
the celebrity attending on ascetic privations 
was still chiefly confined to the Eastern 
world, he bade adieu to his native hills, to his 
hereditaiy property, to pontifical Rome her- 
self, and transferred his library, his diligence, 
and his enthusiasm, to a convent at Bethle- 
hem. In a retreat so well qualified to nour- 
ish rehgious emotion even in the most tor- 
pid heart, the zeal of Jerome did not slumber, 
but rather seemed to catch fresh fire from 
the objects and the recollections which sur- 
rounded him. From that wild and awful 
abode he poured forth the torrent of his law- 
less eloquence, and thundered with indiscri- 
minate wrath against the enemies and the 
reformers of his religion. And if in that 
peaceful, and perhaps sinless solitude, it was 
excusable that he should exaggerate the mer- 
its of mortification, and fasting, and celibacy, 
and pilgrimage, and disparage the substantial 
virtues, which he could rarely v/itness, and 
which he could never practise ; on the other 
hand it was some aggravation of his intem- 
perance, that in the birth-place of Christ, at 
the very fountain of humility and peace, he 
vented, even against his Christian adversa- 
ries, a. malignant and calumnious rancor. 
Rufinus, Jovinian and Vigilantius, successive- 
ly sustained the fulness of his indignation ; 
and lastly, towards the close of his life, the 
opinions of Pelagius again excited that vio- 
lence, which even old age * had been unable 
to moderate.! 



he assures Eustochium, that that story is no dream, 
avid invokes the heavenly tribunal before which he 
had appeared, to attest his veracity. See Duphin, 
Nouv. Bibl., vie S. Jerome. 

* St. Jerome died in the year 420. 

fin the meantime St. Jerome was not himself 
exempt from error, and such too as called for the 
reprehension even of St. Augustin. The former 
somewhere expresses an opinion, that the difference 
between St. Paul and St. Peter, described in the 
Acts, was not real, but only feigned — for pious pur- 
poses; an opinion which the Bishop of Hippo most 
justly condemns as of very dangerous consequence. 



But while we censure both the superstitious 
and contentious spirit of St. Jerome, we must 
also recollect how great a compensation he 
made for evils thus occasioned, by his great 
work, the Latin translation of the Old Testa 
ment. And we must add, that a considerable 
knowledge of Hebrew, much general learn- 
ing, and long application, qualified him, fai* 
above any contemporary, for the most impor- 
tant undertaking hitherto accomplished by 
any father of the Roman church. 

And here let us pause, to obsei-ve for one 
moment the immediate effect of his various 
labors. His theological philippics were hailed 
by the body of the Church with triumphaBt 
acclamation ; his exhortations to seclusion 
and celibacy peopled the desert places with 
monks and hermits ; but his translation of 
the Bible was ill received by the Church; 
' it was considered as a rash and dangerous 
innovation ; '* even St. Augustin disapproved, 
and held that it was more prudent to abide 
by the text of the Septuagint, than to risk 
the confusion and scandal which a new ver- 
sion might create. This senseless clamor was 
sufficient, even in those days, to prevent the 
immediate diffusion of the work ; and almost 
two hundred years afterwards, we learn, that 
it only divided with its rival the diligence of 
St. Gregory; in later times it spread into 
wider circulation, and finally obtained very 
general possession of the Latin Church, f 

As the name of Aihanasius more properly 
belongs to the Arian controversy, so that of 
Augustin is closely connected with the his- 
tory of the Donatists and Pelagians, and that 
of Basil with the rise of Monasticism. Those 
who may desire more extensive information 
respecting the lives and countless writings of 
the fathers here mentioned, and of the more 
numerous and obscure associates whom we 
have no space to notice, may apply, though 
with difterent degrees of confidence, to the 
compilations of Lardner, Dupin, Cave, and 
Tillemont. 



St. Jerome also ventured a prophecy respecting the 
Millennium — but this indeed was a safer field of 
speculation, since his prediction was not the object 
of conclusive reasoning; and thus it continued in hon- 
or for about six hundred years, until the patience of 
time at length falsified it. 

* Dupin, Nouv. Biblioth., loc. cit. 

t Of all the works of St. Jerome, his ' Catalogue 
of Ecclesiastical Writers' is that which is now most 
frequently referred to. 



EXTERNAL FEATURES OF CHRISTIANITY. 



133 



CHAPTER X. 

From the Death of Justinian to that of 
Charlemagne, 567 to 814. 

I The External fortunes of Christianity — its Restoration 
in England by St. Austin — its progress in Germany — 
among the Tartars — Its reverses — Mahomet and his 
successors — their conquests in Asia — in Egypt — facili- 
tated by Christian dissensions — in Africa — Carthage — 
in Spain — in France — their defeat by Charles Martel — 
Treatment of Christian subjects by the Saracens — Char- 
lemagne — forcible conversion of the Saxons and Pan- 
nonians. — II. The Internal condition of Christianity — 
method of this History— Pope Gregory the Great— his 
character and conduct — worship of Images — Purgatory 
— Relics — Ceremonies — the Gregorian Canon — Gregory 
the creator of the Papal system — Title of (Ecumenic 
Bishop— Power of the Keys— Apocrisiarii and Defen- 
sores— Changes in the seventh and eighth centu- 
ries—Orders of' the Clergy— The Tonsure — Unity of 
the Church — Councils — Metropolitans — Increase and 
abuse of Episcopal power — Pope Zachary consulted 
as to the deposition of Childeric — his conduct how 
far blamable — tlie Lombards — the Donation of Pepin 
— confirmed by Charlemagne — His liberality to the 
Church, and the motives of it— His endeavors to reform 
the Church. 

Christianity had obtained early and per- 
haps general reception in Britain, when it 
was suddenly swept away, with the language 
itself, by the invasion of the Anglo-Saxons 
in 452, and almost entirely obliterated. To- 
wards the end of the sixth century some 
circumstances occurred favorable to its resti- 
tution. Ethelbert, King of Kent, the most 
considerable of the Anglo-Saxon princes, 
married Bertha, daughter of the King of Pa- 
ris, a Christian. Some clergy appear to have 
followed her to England, and to have softened 
the pagan prejudices of the Kmg. Gregory 
the Great, who was then Bishop of Rome, 
availed himself of this circumstance, and in 
the year 596, he sent over forty Benedictine 
monks, under the conduct of Augustin (com- 
monly called St. Austin), prior of a mon- 
astery of that order. The King was convert- 
ed, and most of the inhabitants of Kent fol- 
lowed his example ; the missionary then re- 
ceived episcopal ordination from the primate 
of Aries, and was invested, as Archbishop 
of Canterbury, with power over the British 
Church. The religion, thus established, 
spread with great rapidity ; six other Anglo- 
Saxon Kings embraced the faith of Augustin 
and Ethelbert; and it was very generally 
propagated throughout the whole island be- 
fore the conclusion of the seventh century. 

The miraculous assistance by which this 
work was accomplished is acknowledged in 
a letter addressed by the Pope himself to his 
missionary. ' I know that God has perform- 
ed through you great miracles among that 



people ; but let us remember that, when the 
disciples said with joy to their divine master, 
" Lord, even the devils are subject unto us 
through thy name," he answered them — 
"Rather rejoice, because your names are 
written in heaven." While God thus em- 
ploys your agency without, remember, my 
dear brother, to judge yourself severely 
within, and to know well what you are. 
If you have offended God in word or deed, 
preserve those offences in your thoughts, 
to repress the vain glory of your heart, 
and consider, that the gift of miracles is 
not granted to you for yourself, but for 
those whose salvation you are laboring to 
procure.' An increased acquaintance with 
the character of Gregory, which v/e shall 
presently acquke, will diminish the weight 
of his testimony on this matter; which many 
indeed will be strongly predisposed to doubt, 
from the circumstance, that the apostle of 
England was never supernaturally gifted 
with any knowledge of the language of the 
country, but was obliged, in addressing the 
people, to avail himself of the imperfect ser- 
vice of an intei-preter. But (little as those 
stories may be entitled to credit) it is certain, 
that God vouchsafed one heavenly blessing 
on the mission of St. Austin, though display- 
ed in a manner less popular with Roman 
Catholic historians — the work of conver- 
sion was accomplished without violence or 
compulsion ; the sword of the spirit was 
found sufficient for the holy purpose, and the 
ruins of our Saxon idolatry were not stained 
by the blood of one martyr. 

It is not pretended, that the religion thus 
hastily introduced was a pure form of Chris- 
tianit}^, or even that it differed very widely, 
in its first appearance or operation, from the 
superstition which it succeeded. There 
even exists an Epistle from Gregory in which 
he permits the ceremonies of the former 
worship to be associated with the profession 
of the Gospel; nor is it possible, even for 
the most perfect law at once to change the 
habits and correct the morals of a savage 
people. But the consent of history assures 
us, that, during the century following, the 
nation gradually emerged from the rudest 
barbarism into a condition of comparative 
civilisation, and that the principles and mo- 
tives of Christianity extended their salutary 
influence over the succeeding generations. 

Many historians affirm, that St. Austin 
neglected the lessons of humility which he 
had received from his master, and proceeded 
to assert with great insolence the spiritual 



134 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



supremacy of Rome, not only over his own 
converts, but also over that faithful portion 
who still maintained among the Cambrian 
mountains the doctrine and practice trans- 
mitted from their forefethers. It appears in- 
deed that those simple believers having been 
long severed from the body of Christen- 
dom, ignorantly preserved the original ori- 
ental rite in the celebration of Easter, which 
had been so long proclaimed schismatic ; 
they were still involved in the error of the 
(duartadecimans ; and they continued to per- 
severe both in that, and in the rejection of 
papal authority, even after they had been 
enlightened by the exhortations of St. iiustin. 
It is recorded, and is probable, that they 
were deterred by the imperious conduct of 
that prelate from uniting with his Church ; 
and thus far we need not hesitate to condemn 
him ; but some more serious charges which 
have been brought against him stand on very 
slight foundation.* 

It is next our duty to record and cele- 
brate the labors of Succathus, a Scotsman, to 
whom is usually given the glory of having 
converted the Irish, and established among 
them the Episcopal Church; and also of 
Columban, an Irish monk and missionary, 
who diffused the religion among the Gauls 
and various Teutonic tribes, about the end 
of the sixth century. It is not easy, at this 
distance of time, to calculate the precise ef- 
fect of mere individual exertion in so dif- 
ficult an enterprise, or to separate what is 
fabulous in such records from that which 
may reasonably be received. But the pro- 



* Jortin (Eccl. Hist., vol. iv., p. 417) says, ' The 
Christianity which this pretended apostle and sancti- 
fied rufSan taught us, seemed to consist principally in 
two things, in keeping Easter upon a proper day, and 
to be slaves to our Sovereign Lord God, the Pope, 
and to Austin, his deputy and vicegei'ent. Such were 
the boasted blessings and benefits which we I'eceived 
from the mission and ministr^^ of tliis most audacious 
and insolent monk.' This is passionate and unjust 
abuse. St. Austin was indeed the missionary of a 
Pope — but his conversion of the mass of the inhab- 
itants of this island was perfectly independent of his 
endeavors to bring over to tlie Church of Rome the 
few and obscure schismatics of Wales ; and let us 
recollect that his exertions, in both cases, were di- 
rected only to persuade. The evidence respecting 
the massacre of the twelve hundred monks of Bangor 
is very fairly stated by Fuller ; and it seems upon the 
■whole probable, that the event took place after the 
death of St. Austin. But at any rate the crime was 
committed in the heat of battle, apparently with- 
out design or premeditation — so that it is absurd to 
charge it upon a person, who, even if he was living, 
wag certainly not present at the scene. 



gress of St. Austin is much more intelligible 
— since he was aided by the immediate sup- 
port of Pope Gregory, and since one of the 
earliest among his proselytes was a King. 

It appears probable, that at the beginning 
of the eighth century Christianity had made 
very little progress in Germany; at least its 
reception had been confined to provinces 
immediately bordering on the Roman em- 
pire.* In the year 715, Winfrid,f a noble 
Englishman, who was afterwards known by 
the name of Boniface, undertook the labors 
of a missionary. His first attempt was fruit- 
less ; but presently returning, under the au- 
spices and by the authority of Pope Gregory 
II., he preached among the Frieselanders 
and Hessians with considerable success. % 
In 723 he was consecrated a Bishop, and 
being joined by many pious Christians, from 
France as well as England, he established 
numerous churches throughout the country. 
His immediate recompense was advancement 
to the archiepiscopal See of Mayence, and to 
the Primacy of Germany and Belgium, To 
posterity he is more generally and more glo^ 
riously known as the Apostle of the Germans. 
And the additional title of Saint was due not 
only to his zeal, but also to his martyrdom— 
for, returning in his old age to Frieseland,§ 

* Fleury (1. xxxviii., sect. Iviii.) mentions three 
monasteries as having been founded at Tournay and 
Ghent about the middle of the seventh century. 

t We are not to confomid this missionary with St. 
Wilfrid, another Englishman, who also gained some 
reputation both in France and at Rome, from about 
660 to 710. The vast quantity of relics which he 
brought home from his first expedition to the Ccrati- 
nent is mentioned by Fleury, liv. xxx., sect. xxxv. 

X Mosheim, Cent, viii., p. i.,c. i. Milaer takes 
great pains to exculpate Boniface from the vari- 
ous charges of violence, arrogance, fraud, &c. , which 
Mosheim very liberally heaps upon him, and to prove 
him, from his own correspondence, to have been 
a mere pious, unambitious missionary. There is 
some reason in the defence ; and Mosheim may 
very probably have been prejudiced against Boniface 
by that absolute devotion to the Holy See which he 
professed, and by which he profited. See also Fleu- 
ry, end of liv. xli., &c. 

§ That country was for sorne years the scene of the 
successive exertions of St. Wilfrid, St. Vulfran, St. 
Villebrod, and lastly St. Boniface. It was the second 
of those missionaries whose injudicious answer to 
Radbod, the King of the Frieselanders, retarded the 
progress of the nev/ religion- That Prince was 
standing at the baptismal font, prepared for the cere- 
mony — only one point remained, respecting which 
his curiosity was still unsatisfied — ' Tell me,' said he 
to the holy Bishop, ' where is now tlie greater num- 
ber of the Kings and Princes of the nation of the 
Frieselanders — are they . in tlie Paradise which y&u 



EXTERNAL FORTUNES OF CHRISTIANITY, 



135 



that he might terminate his labors where he 
had begun them, he was massacred by the 
savage inhabitants, together with fifty eccle- 
siastics who attended him. (a. d. 755.) 

To the eiglith century we may also refer 
the introduction of Christianity among the 
Tartars, the mhabitants of those regions which 
now constitute the southern Asiatic provinces 
of the Russian empire. This spiritual con- 
quest was achieved under the auspices of an 
heretical Bishop, Timotheus the Nestorian, 
about the year 790. On the other hand, for 
the chastisement of a corrupt Church and a 
sinful people, the extensive tracts of central 
and southern Asia had been already over- 
whelmed by the fiercest enemies who have 
ever been raised against the Christian name, 
the fanatic followers of Mahomet ; and to their 
mention we cannot proceed perhaps with a 
better augury, than after recording that ob- 
scure fact, which planted the banner of Chris- 
tianity in a Russian province. 

Mahometan Conquests. During the fourth 
century of our history we were occupied in 
obsei-ving the destruction of the ancient pa- 
ganism of Greece and Rome ; during the fifth 
and sixth we marked the success of Christian- 
ity in supplanting the rude superstitions of the 
Celtic invaders of the empire, and subduing 
those savage aggressors to the law, or at least 
to the name, of Christ. But the seventh cen- 
tury was marked by the birth of a new and 
resolute adversary, who began his career with 
the most stupendous triumphs, who has torn 
fi"om us the possession of half the world, and 
who retains his conquests even to this mo- 
ment. Mahomet was born about the year 
570 ; we are ignorant of the precise period of 
the nativity of that man who wrought the 
most extraordinary revolution in the aflTairs 
of this globe, which the agency of any being 
merely human has ever yet accomplished. 
His pretended mission did not commence till 
he was about forty years old, and the date of 
his celebrated flight from Mecca, the Hedji- 



proraise me, or in the Hell with which you menace 
me V ' Do not deceive yourself,' replied St. Vulfran ; 
•the Princes, your predecessors, who liave died v/ithout 
baptism, are most assuredly damned ; but whosoever 
shall believe henceforward, and be baptised, shall be 
in joy eternal with Christ Jesus.' Upon this Radbod 
withdrew his foot from the font and said — ' I cannot 
resolve to relinquish the society of the Kings, my pre- 
decessors, in order to live with a few poor people in 
the kingdom of heaven. I cannot believe these nov- 
elties, and I will rather adhere to the ancient usages 
of my nation.' It was not until after the death of this 
Prince that St. Boniface gained any footing iu the 
country. Fleury, 1. xlix., s. 35 



rah, or era of Mahometan nations, is 622, 
A. D. The remainder of his life was spent in 
establishing his religion and his authority in 
his native land, Arabia ; and the sword with 
w^hich he finally completed that purpose, he 
bequeathed, for the universal propagation of 
both, to his followers. His commission was 
zealously executed ; and, in less than a cen- 
tury after his death, his faith was uninterrup- 
tedly extended by a chain of nations from 
India to the Atlantic. 

The fate of Persia was decided by the bat- 
tle of Cadesia, in 636. In Syria, Damascus 
had already fallen, and after the sanguinary 
conflict of Yermuk, where the Saracens for 
the first time encountered and overthrew a 
Christian enemy, the conquerors instantly 
proceeded to the reduction of Jerusalem ; 
that grand religious triumph they obtained 
in 637. In the year following Aleppo and 
Antioch fell into their hands, which com- 
pleted the conquest of Syria. Thence they 
proceeded northward as far as the shores 
of theEuxine and the neighborhood of Con- 
stantinople. 

The invasion of Egypt took place in 638, 
and within the space of three years, the whole 
of that populous province was in the posses- 
sion of the infidels. Alexandria was the last 
city which fell ; and in somewhat more than 
a century after the expulsion of philosophy 
from Europe by a Christian legislator, the 
schools of Africa were closed in their turn by 
the arms of an unlettered Mahometan. 

The success of the Saracens was not incon- 
siderably promoted by the religious dissensions 
of their Christian adversaries. A vast number 
of heretics who had been oppressed and stig- 
matized by Edicts and Councils were scattered 
over the surface of Asia ; and these were con- 
tented to receive a foreign master, of whose 
principles they were still ignorant, in the place 
of a tyrant whose injustice they had experi- 
enced. But in Egypt, especially, the whole 
mass of the native population was unfortu- 
nately involved in the Jacobite heresy ; and 
few at that time were found, except the res- 
ident Greeks, who adhered to the doctrine of 
the Church. The followers of Eutyches 
formed an immediate alliance with the sol- 
diers of Mahomet against a Catholic Prince ; 
and they considered that there was nothing 
unnatural in that act, since they hoped to se- 
cure for themselves, under a Mahoinetan, the 
toleration which had been refused by an or- 
thodox government. We should remark, 
however, that this hope, the pretext of their 
desertion, was with niany the suggestion of 



136 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



their malice : that besides the recollection of 
wrongs, and tlie desire to escape or revenge 
them, they were inflamed as furiously as their 
persecutors by that narrow sectarian spirit, 
which is commonly excited most keenly 
where the differences are most trifling ; and 
which, while it exaggerated the lines that 
separated them from their fellow Christians, 
blinded them to the broad gulf which divid- 
ed all alike from the infidel. 

From Egj'pt the conquerors rushed along 
the northern shore of Africa; and though 
their progress in that direction was interrupt- 
ed by the domestic dissensions of the Prophet's 
family, even more than by the occasional vig- 
or of the Christians, they were in possession 
of Cartilage before the end of the seventh 
century. Thence they proceeded westward, 
and after encountering some opposition from 
the native Moors, little either from the Greek 
or Vandal masters of the country, they com- 
pleted their conquest in the year 709. 

Hitherto the Mahometans had gained no 
footing in Europe ; and it may seem strange 
that the most western of its provinces should 
have been that which was first exposed to 
their occupation. But the vicinity of Spain 
to their latest conquests, and the factious dis- 
sensions of its nobility, gave them an early 
opportunity to attempt the subjugation of that 
country. Their success was almost unusual- 
ly rapid. In 711 they overthrew the Gothic 
monarchy by the victory of Xeres ; and the 
two following years were suflScient to secure 
their dominion over the greatest part of the 
peninsula. 

The waters of this torrent were destined to 
proceed still a little farther. Ten years after 
the battle of Xeres, the Saracens crossed the 
Pyrenees and overran with little opposition the 
southwestern provinces of France — ' the vine- 
yards of Gascony and the city of Bourdeaux 
were possessed by the Sovereign of Damas- 
cus and Samarcand ; and the south of France, 
from the mouth of the Garonne to that of the 
Rhone, assumed the manners and rehgion of 
Arabia.'* Still dissatisfied with those ample 

* Gibbon has not composed a more eloquent, or a 
less philosophical chapter, than his fifty-first. As if lie 
were blinded by the splendor of the Mahometan con- 
quests, he overlooks, not only the misery immediately 
occasioned by them, but their fatal influence on the 
progressive and permanent improvement of man. 
History is philosophy teaching by example; and the 
lessons of history are then, indeed, noble and profit- 
able, and then only, when philosophy casts away her 
pride and her pedantry, and condescends to rise into 
pjiilzinthrophy, 



limits, or impatient of any limit, these chil- 
dren of the desert again marched forward in- 
to the centre of the kingdom. They were 
encamped between Tours and Poitiers, when 
Charles Martel, the Mayor or Duke of the 
Franks, encountered them. It is too much to 
assert that the fate of Christianity depended 
upon the result of the battle which followed ; 
but if victoiy had declared for the Saracens, 
it would probably have secured to them in 
France the same extent, perhaps the same 
duration, of authority which they possessed 
in Spain. Next they would have carried 
the horrors of war and Islamism into Ger- 
many or Britain ; but there other fields must 
have been fought, against nations of warriors 
as brave as the Franks, by an invader who 
was becoming less powerful, and even less 
enthusiastic, as he advanced farther from the 
head of his resources and his faith. Indeed, 
if we had space to speculate more deeply on 
the probabilities of this question, we should 
rather be led to consider this eflbrt against 
France as the last wave of the deluge now 
exhausted, and about to recede within more 
reasonable boundaries. 

The final struggle of the Saracens was 
scarcely worthy of their former triumphs. 
During six days of desultory combat the 
horsemen and archers of the East maintained 
indeed an indecisive advantage : but in the 
closer onset of the seventh day, the Germans, 
more eminently powerful in limb, and strong 
in heart as well as hand, instantly extinguish- 
ed the Arabs with iron arm and overbearing 
chest.* The chief of the Saracens fell in the 
conflict ; the survivors fled to their encamp- 
ment, and after a night passed in the dissen- 
sion usual to the vanquished, they dispersed, 
and evacuated the country. This battle was 
fought in the year 732 ; the advantages were 
slowly but resolutely pursued by the conquer- 
or, and presently ended in the final expulsion 
of the invader from the soil of France. 

In less than one century from the preach- 
ing of Mahomet, his disciples had obtained 
military possession of Persia, Syria, and the 
greater part of central and western Asia, of 
Egypt, and the long extent of the northern 
coast of Africa; and lastly of the kingdom of 
Spain. The propagation of their religion 
furnished to all the pretext, and to many the 
sincere motive, of aggression ; and as the 



* Gibbon, c. lii. Roderic Toletan. c. xiv.. Gens 
Austriie membrorum pre-eminentia valida, et gens 
Germana corde et corpore prtestantissima, quasi in 
ictu oculi raanu ferrea et pectorq arduo Arftbeg e^v 
tinxeruiU. 



INTERNAL CONDITION OF CHRISTIANITY. 



137 



most violent means were not forbidden by 
their law, and as religious wars are seldom 
distinguished by mildness and humanity, we 
may believe that many revolting cruelties 
were occasionally perpetrated by them. 
However upon the whole they found it more 
politic to tolerate than to exterminate ; with 
the heretics of the East they fornied early 
and friendly relations through a common 
enmity ; and in Africa and Spain they gene- 
rally proffered the alternative of the Koran 
or tribute ; * so that Christianity was not 
immediately extirpated from any of the con- 
quered counti'ies, and even at this moment 
it continues to linger, however degraded by 
adversity and oppression, in almost all of 
them. The country in which it suffered the 
most immediate and perfect prostration was 
the northern coast of Africa ; and those two 
fruitful nurseries of religion and religious 
men, Alexandria and Carthage, which fill 
so eminent a station in the early Catholic 
Church — names which are so closely asso- 
ciated with all the various fortunes of rising 
Christianity, with its most honorable and 
holy triumphs, with its afflictions and rever- 
ses, with the zeal, the genius, and the elo- 
quence of its professors, with their dissensions 
and intolerance — those two powerful Church- 
es were from that time forward oblitera- 
ted from history. It is true, indeed, that 
the former still preserved a title, but it was 
without power ; and a dignity, but it was 
without independence : she lost her learning 
and her industry, and all her excellence and 
energy departed with them. But at Car- 
thage the actual extinction of Christianity 
very speedily followed the success of the 
Mahometans, and the labors of Tertullian, 
Cyprian, Lactantius, Augustin and so many 
others were spurned and execrated, if indeed 
their very names were not rather forgotten, 
by a faithless and blaspheming posterity. 

The victory of Charles Martel was soon 
followed by the reestablishment of a more 
effective government in France ; and pre- 
cisely forty years after the battle of Tours, 
we find Charlemagne engaged in a sanguin- 
ary war against the Saxons, for the purpose 
of converting them to the Christian religion. 
It seemed, indeed, as if that zealous Prince 
was for a season possessed by the spirit of the 

* The Mahometans drew a broad distinction be- 
tween those infidels who had a Book of faith, and 
those who had none. Among the former they placed 
the disciples of Zoroaster, and therefore showed them 
great mercy — but they had no corapassioa on the 
Pagan. 

18 



Arabian, and that he imitated the fury of his 
armed apostles ; and, as if Christianity had 
not already sufficiently suffered by adopting 
the vices of other systems, he dragged into 
its service the most savage principle of 
Islamism. After eight yeai's of resistance 
and misfortune the Saxons were compelled 
to take refuge in the profession of the Gos- 
pel ; * and the Huns of Pannonia were soon 
afterwards driven by the same victorious 
compulsion to the same necessity. 

When we behold the limits of Christendom 
extended by the writings of its ministers, or 
the eloquence of its missionaries, we record 
such conquests with pure and grateful satis- 
faction ; when we observe a mass of Pagans, 
or other unbehevers, suddenly, but peaceful- 
ly, melting into the bosom of the Church, 
we question their motives, we lament the 
stain which they may bring with them, and 
we censure any unworthy compromise which 
has been made to conciliate them ; yet we 
are consoled to reflect that no immediate 
misery has been occasioned by a change 
which is pregnant at least with future im- 
provement. But when we see the sword 
employed to propagate a religion of which 
the very essence is peace, we are at once 
disgusted and revolted by the cruel and 
impious mockery. 



THE INTERNAL CONDITION OF CHRISTIANITY 
FROM THE REIGN OF JUSTINIAN TO THAT 
OF CHARLEMAGNE. 

In an endeavor to compress into a few short 
chapters the ever- varying records of fifteen 
centuries, it might, perhaps, be thought suf- 
ficient to exhibit a mere chronological series 
of events and names ; but we consider it a 
more profitable, as it is certainly a more 
attractive employment, to select and illustrate 
what is material and consequential, and to 
pass, as it were, from eminence jto eminence, 
dwelling for some short space on each, and 
delineating its features with some exactness, 
though we may thus be compelled to ti*eat 
with little minuteness the periods interven- 

* Charlemagne was occasionally troubled by the 
contumacy of his converts, even to the end of his 
reign ; and in the civil wars among his grandsons, 
we find Lothaire proclaiming liberty of conscience 
to the Saxons of the succeeding generation (in 841). 
Many of them eagerly cast away the mask of Chris- 
tianity, and flew to his standard. Compulsion has 
filled the world with hypocrites, but it has never 
made a true convert to any faith or any form of faith. 
See Millet, Hist. France. 



138 



HISTORY OP THE CHURCH. 



ing ; but it is certain that there are many 
secondary names and many occurrences of 
mere temporary importance, which may be 
consigned to silence without any danger to 
the integrity and usefulness of history. On 
this principle we shall proceed, without delay, 
from the death of Justinian to the accession 
of Gregory the First to the pontifical chair. 
That prelate presided over the Church of 
Rome from the year 590 to 604; and he 
illustrated that short period by so many 
splendid qualities, and pursued his various 
purposes with such bold and successful ex- 
ertion, that he has acquhed, and perhaps 
deserved, the deep and faithful veneration 
of the Catholic Church. At least it has been 
found so difficult to estimate his character 
with moderation, and we observe so much 
intemperance, both in the eulogies and the 
insults * which are offered to it, that its 
mere strength and energy, which are thus 
sufficiently proved, assert its claim to a more 
considerate and impartial examination. 

Gregory the Great. Two prominent vices 
overshadowed and counteracted the nume- 
rous excellences of Gregoiy — superstition 
and ambition. For the former of these some 
excuse may be found in the spirit and prin- 
ciples of the age in which he lived ; the 
latter was the produce of the same vigorous 
nature which gave birth to his virtues ; and 
it was urged in him to an excess, which it 
would not have reached in a feebler mind. 
His virtues were his own, and those of his 
religion ; and if Ave should discredit, as affect- 
ed, that humility which preferred the cloister 
to the chair of St. Peter, and so long rejected 
the proffered mitre,f at least we must praise 
the generosity which led him, m early life, 
to bestow his lai-ge possessions on the Church, 
and Vv^e must admire his ardent piety, and 
sincere, though often misdirected, devotion. 
The extreme severity of his moral practice 
has not been contested, nor his honest en- 

* * Pope Gregory the Great, called St. Gregory, 
was remarkable for many things ; for exalting his 
own authority, for running down human learning and 
polite literature, for burning classic authors, for pat- 
ronizing ignorance and stupidity, for persecuting 
heretics, for flattering the most execrable princes, 
and for relating a multitude of absurd, monstrous and 
ridiculous lies, called miracles. He was an ambi- 
tious, insolent Prelate, under the mask of humility.' 
Jortin, Remarks, vol. iv., p. 403. -Most, though by 
no means all, of the above charges are true ; but the 
counterpoise of good and powerful qualities is left 
almost entirely unnoticed by their author. 

t Baron, ann. 590, sect. vii. Stc. &c. 



deavors to enforce the same practice in every 
rank and order of his clergy. Circumstances, 
political as well as religious, had introduced 
abuses into the system of ecclesiastical disci- 
pline, which a weak and narrow mind might 
have thought it expedient to protect, but 
which Gregory knew that it was wiser to 
reform. Indeed we may observe, that the 
best friends of every Church in every age, 
and those whose services are most gratefully 
acknowledged by posterity, however ungra- 
ciously they may be accepted by interested 
contemporaries, are men who dare to distin- 
guish between the system and its corruptions, 
and to admmister those vigorous measures 
of renovation which are necessary for its 
health and perpeti^ity. And thus would it 
have been still happier for the fame of that 
Pope had he taken a still bolder view of the 
imperfections of his Church, and applied to 
the cure of its deeper and spiritual diseases 
the remedial attention which he confined to 
its discipline and its ceremonies. 

The character of Gregory was distinguish- 
ed by the fervor of his charity ; the virtue 
which sun'ounded his palace with crowds of 
sufferers of every rank and profession, and 
distributed for their relief* the funds, which 
with little scandal might have been lavished 
on selfish purposes, has never been disputed, 
and ought never to have been disparaged. 
Nor was he contented to exercise this alone, 
but strove, on the contraiy, to extend its 
practice by powerful exhortations among his 
episcopal brethren — ' Let not the Bishop 
think that reading and preaching alone suf- 
fice, or studiously to maintain himself in 
retirement, while the hand which enriches 
and fructifies is closed. But let his hand be 
bountiful ; let him make advances to those 
who are in necessity; let him consider the 
wants of others as his own ; for without 
these qualities the name of Bishop is a vain 
and empty title.'f We should also remark, 
that this Pope exerted himself on more than 
one occasion to redeem Christian prisoners 
from captivity, and to alleviate their suffer- 
ings during it. 

He was diligent in his efforts to propagate 
the Catholic faith. His most important sphit- 
ual conquest was that of England ; and if it 
be a reproach to him that he there permitted 
the first converts to retain, under other names, 

* See Baronius, ann. 591, sect. iii. xxiv. &c. ; ann. 
592, sect, ii.; ann. 596, sect. viii. Fleury, 1. xxxv. 
sect. xvi. Gibbon, chap. xlv. 

t Lib. v., Epist. 29, apud Baron, ann. 592, sect 
xvi. 



INTERNAL CONDITION OF CHRISTIANITY. 



139 



the substance of some of their superstitious 
practices,* in France, where the longer and 
more general diffusion of the religion left less 
excuse for such a concession, he zealously 
endeavored to extirpate the remains of idol- 
atry .f The conversion of the Jevrs I was 
another favorite object with him ; and in one 
respect he adopted the most promising means 
for tliat purpose, by treating them with mild- 
ness and humanity; in another he insulted 
their principles, while he disgraced his own, 
by the direct offer of gain, as the reward of 
their apostacy. His zeal for the unity of the 
Cliurch is a very ambiguous excellence ; but 
it was warmly, and (as Roman Catholic histo- 
rians assert) successfully exerted, both against 
the remnant of the Donatists, and against 
certain schismatics who had seceded from 
the Church on the controversy respecting the 
Three Chapters. § We may add to this, 
that his activity in ennobling the services 
of religion, and adding splendor to its cere- 
monies, however unworthy a method of 
recommending a spiritual religion, found 
some excuse in the degenerate prmciples of 
the sixth century. 

Through the disturbed condition of Italy, 
the aggi-essions of the Lombard invaders, and 
the weakness of the Imperial power, the 
direction of the political interests of Rome 
devolved for the most part upon Gregory. 
It appears not that he sought that charge, so 
eagerly grasped by many of his successors, 
but rather that he entered with reluctance 
upon duties which, if not at direct variance, 
were at least little in accordance with a 
spiritual office. But, having once undertaken 



* Altaria destruantur, relliquia: ponantur. He 
alloAvs even sacrifices on Saints days — substituting, 
however, a convivial, for a superstitious, motive — nee 
diabolo tam animalia immoJent, sed ad laudem Dei 
in esu sue animalia occidant, &c. Baron, ann. 601. 
xxii. 

t Fleury, H. E., lib. xxxv., sect. xxi. He com- 
plains of immolations to idols, worship of trees, sac- 
rifices of the heads of animals, &c. — Quia pervenit ad 
nos quod multi Christianorum et ad Ecclesias occur- 
rant, et (quod dici nefas est) a culturis dajmonum non 
discedant.. See Baron, ann, 597. xviii. 

% Baron, ann. 594, sect. viii. ann. 598, sect. xiv. 

§ The subject of the fifth General Council. One 
of these schismatics, named Stephanus, came to Rome, 
and oftered to Gregory to return to tlie Church, if the 
Bishop would take upon himself the risk of his soul, 
and intercede with God as his sponsor and fidejussor, 
that his return to the Catholic Church, should be 
sanctioned in Heaven ; which Gregory undertook 
without any hesitation — quod Gregorius minime facere 
CunctatUb est. Baronius, ami. 590, sect. xxvi. 



them, he discharged them with the ability 
and in the spirit which became his character 
and his profession ; he presented himself as 
a mediator and pacificator, and by his faith- 
ful ministry to the God of peace,* he suc- 
ceeded in averting the arms of his enemies, 
and in preserving his country from servitude. 

He professed to reject from the service of 
religion that profane learning of which his 
writings prove him to have been ignorant ; 
and hence probably proceeded the chai-ge so 
commonly believed, though insufficiently f 
supported, that he burnt the Palatine Library, 
and destroyed some of the most valuable 
remains of classical antiquity. But it is ad- 
mitted, that he was inferior to none in the 
learning of his own age ; J and his diligence 
and energy are abundantly attested by the 
voluminous and even vigorous compositions 
which he has left behind him. § 

Use of Images. We shall proceed to point 
out some instances in which Gregory deviat- 
ed even farther than his predecessors from 
that ancient faith and practice of which his 
See, since it now claimed exclusively the 
denomination of Apostolical, professed a pe- 
culiar observance. Before the end of the 
sixth century, the dangerous usage which 
had originated in the fourth, 1| of exposing 
images of saints, of the virgin, and even of 
Christ, in places consecrated to worship, had 
taken deep root, as well in the Western as in 

* The following is his boast to Sabinianus, his 
Apocrisiarius or Envoy at Constantinople. * Unum 
est quod bi-eviter suggeras serenissimis Dominis nos- 
tris ; quia (that) si ego servus eorum in mortem Lon- 
gobardorum me miscere voluissem, hodie Longobar- 
dorum gens nee regem, nee duces, nee comites 
habuisset, atque in summa confusione esset divisa. 
Sed quia Deum timeo,in mortem cujuslibet homin- 
is me miscere formido.' See Baronius (ann. 595, 
sect, xviii.), who details his various negotiations 
with the Lombards very accurately. 

t There seems to be no authority for this accusa- 
tion older than the twelfth century. See Bayle, Vie 
de Greg. I. 

% ' Disciplinis vero liberalibus, hoc est grammatica, 
rhetorica, dialectica, ita a puero est institutus, ut 
quamvis eo tempore florerent adliuc Romge studia lit- 
erarum, tamen nuUi in urbe sua secundus putaretur.' 
Paul. Diac. Vit. St. Greg. Gibbon, c. xlv. 

§ There are greater remains of the works of Gre- 
gory than of any other Pope ; and a diligent and 
judicious study of his Epistles might still throw much 
new light on the early History of his Church. Baro- 
nius attributes the rudeness of his style to the barba- 
rism of the age in which he lived. 

II We shall treat this and some other of the Ro- 
man Catholic corruptions more fully in the thirteentli 
Chapter. 



140 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



the Eastern Church. Serenus, the Bishop 
of Marseilles, caused some of them to be re- 
moved, and complaint was made to Gregory. 
The Pope at once, and very explicitly, declar- 
ed, that images should on no account be ap- 
proached as objects of worship, and strongly 
exhorted the Bishop to press that consider- 
ation on all who might possibly mistake their 
use — which was, when truly understood, to 
impart knowledge to the ignorant, and learn- 
ing to the illiterate. At the same time, such 
being their professed end and purpose, he 
strenuously opposed their removal. By this 
determination, he impressed upon a popular 
corruption that sanction and authority which 
alone was wanting to make it permanent and 
universal. 

The belief in the fire of Purgatory was 
seriously inculcated by the same Pontiff; 
and to him more justly than to any individ- 
ual, we may attribute the practical system to 
which that speculative opinion gave birth. 
He also exalted the merit of pilgrimages * to 
the Holy Places ; but the superstition which 
he most ardently sustained, was, a reverential 
respect for relics, founded for the most part 
on their miraculous qualities. The deep and 
earnest solemnity with which one of the 
greatest characters of his age and church 
was not ashamed to enforce so very gross a 
delusion, cannot so well be depicted to the 
reader as in his own language. 

Reverence for Relics. The Empress Con- 
stantina, who was building a Church at Con- 
stantinople to St. Paul, made application to 
Gregory for the head of that Apostle, f or at 
least for some portion of his body. The Pope 
begins his answer by a verj'^ polite expression 
of his sorrow ' that he neither could nor dar- 
ed to grant that favor ; for the bodies of the 
holy Apostles, Peter and Paul, are so resplen- 
dent with miracles and terrific prodigies 
in their own Churches, that no one can 
approach them without great awe, even for 
the purpose of adoring them. When my 
predecessor, of happy memory, wished to 
change some silver ornament which was 
placed over the most holy body of St. Peter, 

* Baronius, ann. 592, sect. xix. 

t Baronius, who cites the Pope's reply with con- 
siderable admiration, attributes the Empress's exor- 
bitant request to Ecclesiastical ambition, — to a desire 
to exalt the See of Constantinople .to a level with 
that of Rome, by getting- into her possession so im- 
portant a portion of so great an Apostle. Fleury 
quotes the letter chiefly in proof that the transfer 
of relics was forbidden in the Roman Church, while 
that abuse was permitted iu tlie East. 



though at the distance of almost fifteen feet, 
a warning of no small terror appeared to 
him. Even I myself wished to make some 
alteration near the most holy body of St. 
Paul, and it was necessary to dig rather 
deeply near his tomb. The Superior of the 
place found some bones which were not at 
all connected with that tomb ; and, having 
presumed to disturb and remove them to 
some other place, he was visited by certain 
fearful apparitions, and died suddenly. My 
predecessor, of holy memory, also undertook 
to make some repairs near the tomb of St. 
Lawrence : as they were digging, without 
knowing precisely where the venerable body 
was placed, they happened to open his 
sepulchre. The mqnks and guardians who 
were at the work, only because they had 
seen the body of that martyr, though they 
did not presume so much as to touch it, all 
died within ten days ; to the end that no man 
might remain in life who had beheld the body 
of that just man. Be it then known to you, 
that it is the custom of the Romans, when 
they give any relics, not to venture to touch 
any portion of the body ; only they put into 
a box a piece of linen (called hrandeum\ 
which is placed near the holy bodies ; then 
it is withdrawn, and shut up with due vene- 
ration in the Church which is to be dedicat- 
ed, and as many prodigies are then wrought 
by it as if the bodies themselves had been 
cai'ried thither ; whence it happened, that in 
the time of St. Leo, (as we learn from our 
ancestors,) when some Greeks doubted the 
virtue of such reUcs, that Pope called for a 
pair of scissors, and cut the linen, and blood 
flowed from the incision. And not at Rome 
only, but throughout the whole of the West, 
it is held sacrilegious to touch the bodies of 
the Saints, nor does such temerity ever 
remain unpunished. For which reason we 
are much astonished at the custom of the 
Greeks to take away the bones of the Saints, 
and we scarcely give credit to it. But what 
shall I say respecting the bodies of the holy 
Apostles, when it is a known fact, that at the 
time of their martyrdom, a number of the 
faithful came from the East to claim them ? 
But when they had carried them out of the 
city, to the second milestone, to a place called 
the Catacombs, the whole multitude was un- 
able to move them farther, — such a tempest 
of thunder and lightning terrified and dispei*s- 
ed them. The napkin, too, which you wished 
to be sent at the same time, is with the body 
and cannot be touched more than the body 
can he approached. But that your religious 



INTERNAL CONDITION OF CHRISTIANITY. 



141 



desire may not be wholly frustrated, I will has- 
ten to send to you some part of those chains 
which St. Paul wore on his neck and hands, 
if indeed I shall succeed in getting off any 
filings from them. For since many contin- 
ually solicit as a blessing that they may cany 
off from those chains some small portion of 
their filings, a priest stands by ivith a file ; 
and sometimes it happens that some portions 
fall off fi-om the chains instantly, and with- 
out delay ; while, at other times, the file is 
long drawn over the chains, and yet nothing 
is at last scraped off from them.' 

The pages * of Ecclesiastical History are 
so full of such idle fables, that the repetition 
even of the smallest portion of them is a task 
as tedious as it is unworthy of a reasonable 
mind ; but when such absurdities are propa- 
gated and dignified by the pen of Gregory the 
Great — of him whom the Roman Church 
reveres almost as the first among her saints, 
and wliose ^\Titings for so many centuries di- 
rected, and even still direct, the principles of 
her Ministers — it would be a neglect of his- 
torical duty to pass them over in complete 
silence, t 



*Eligius or Eloi, Bishop of Noyon (or Limoges,) 
a contemporary of Gregory, and also a Saint, acquired 
extraordinary celebrity by his ardor in searching after 
the bodies of martyrs, and his miraculous sagacity in 
the discovery of them. And as he thus became a 
person of influence in his day, we may venture to re- 
cord what, in his opinion, was the sum and substance 
of true religion. 'He is a good Christian (says St. 
EHgius) who goes frequently to church, and makes 
his oblations at God's altar; who never tastes of his 
own fruit until he has presented some to God; Avho,for 
many days before the solemn festivals, observes strict 
chastity, though he be married, that he may approach 
the altar with a safe conscience; lastly, who can re- 
peat the Creed and the Lord's Prayer. Redeem your 
souls from punishment whilst you have it in your 
power; offer your free gifts and tithes; contribute 
towards the luminaries in holy places; repair fre- 
quently to church, and humbly implore the protection 
of the Saints. If you observe these things, you may 
appear boldly at God's tribunal in the day of judg- 
ment, and say — Give, Lord, according as we have 
given.' The original is quoted by Mosh. Cent, vii., 
p. ii. c. iii. 

t The Dialogues of Gregory abound with mirac- 
ulous narratives ; and Fleury excuses this practice by 
pleading that he had not philosophers for his antago- 
nists, who needed argument for confiitation, but that 
the pagans then to be found were chiefly peasants, 
serfs, or soldiers, and were more moved by a mirac- 
ulous story tiian by the most conclusive syllogism. In 
process of time, Gregory, from being the relater, rose 
to be the performer of miracles. About one hundred 
and eighty years after his death, Paulus Diaconus re- 
cords, that a Roman lady, on some occasion, receiving 



The public worship of God was still cele- 
brated by every nation in its own language ; 
but its forms were enlarged from time to tmie 
by new prayers and offices, as well as hymns 
and psalmody, and such other additions as 
were found proper to enliven devotion. 
Gregory introduced a more imposing method 
of administering the Communion, with a 
magnificent assemblage of pompous ceremo- 
nies. This institution was called the Canon 
of the Mass ; and such as it appears in the 
Sacramentaries of St. Gregory, such, word 
for word (says Fleury,*) we say it still. Af- 
ter regulating the prayers, the Pope descend- 
ed to the modulation of the chant; and to 
give some permanency to his success in this 
matter, he established a school of chanters, 
which subsisted for at least three centuries 
after his death.f Other alterations were 
made by the same pontiff m the distribution 
of the parishes, the calendar of festivals, the 
order of processions, the service of the priests 
and deacons, the variety and change of sacer- 
dotal garments ; and as most of them were 
permanent, we may consider the system 
properly called Roman Catholic as having 
assumed its peculiar character at this time. 
And thus, while the Antiquit}'^ of the univer- 



the Communion from Gregory, and hearing him say 
the customary words, could not forbear smiling, when 
he called that the body of Christ which she had made 
with her own hands — for at that time the people used 
to bring to the Communion their own bread, which 
was a small, round, flat CEike. The Pope, perceiving 
her behaviour, took the bread out of her hands, and, 
having prayed over it, showed it to her tmned into 
flesh, in the sight of the whole people. 

* H. E. lib. xxxvi., s. xix, Fleury describes the 
alterations of Gregory at length and clearly. The 
great pains which the Pope took in these matters, 
and especially in the composition of his celebrated 
chant, are zealously related by Maimbourg, in his 
History of the Pontificate of St. Gregory. 

■f Fleury, lib. xxxvi., sect. xxi. * In the time of 
John the Deacon (about 900,) the original of his 
Antiphonarius was pi'eserved with great respect, as 
well as the couch on which he reposed while chanting, 
and the whip with which he menaced the children.' 
Pope Gelasius (says the same historian in sect, xv.) 
had made a collection of the office of the masses, into 
which St. Gregory introduced many changes and ad- 
ditions. He collected the whole in one volume, which 
is his Sacramentarius, for so they formerly called the 
book which contained the prayers used in the admin- 
istration of the sacraments, and chiefly of the Eu- 
charist. All that was to be chanted was marked in 
another volume, called the ' Antiphonaire, parce 
que I'on chantoit alternativement ; d'ouvient le nom 
d'antiphones ou antiennes (anthems) comme il a ete 
explique.' 



142 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



sal Church may justly be regarded as hav- 
ing ceased at the accession of Constantine, 
it is not a fanciful position that its Middle 
Age — that indistinct period, during which the 
principles that were hereafter to give it a 
more lasting and definite form were collect- 
ing strength, but were not yet developed — 
wag brought to a close by the splendid pon- 
tificate of Gregory. 

Elements of Papacy. If, then, it be not 
incorrect to date the modern history of the 
Catholic Church from this epoch, it will be 
reasonably inquired what elements then ex- 
isted, or, at least, what indications may be 
discovered, of the monarchical or papal gov- 
ernment, which formed the characteristic of 
the Communion in later ages? We shall, 
therefore, proceed to point out such of these 
as were most perceptible during the time of 
Gregory. We have noticed an early jealousy 
subsisting between the Sees of Rome and 
Constantinople, and the sort of superiority 
which was conferred upon the former by the 
council of Chalcedon. It appears, too, that 
St. Leo was addressed by certain oriental 
correspondents by the title of CEcumenic, or 
Universal Patriarch, though his immediate 
successors refrained from adopting that lofty 
appellation. Matters rested thus till the year 
588, when the Emperor Maurice conferred 
that same title upon his own Patriarch John, 
commonly called the Faster,* an austere and 
ambitious prelate. Pope Pelagius opposed 
those pretensions; and, eight years after- 
wards, the contest was much more vigorously 
renewed by Gregory. In 595, he addressed 
five epistles on this subject to John himself, 
to the Emperor and Empress, and to the ri- 
val Patriarchs of Alexandria and Autioch ; 
in all vehemently inveighing against the arro- 
gance of the Faster, and professing the very 
purest spirit of Christian humility. In his 
letter to the Emperor he declares that the 
public calamities are to be ascribed to no oth- 
er cause than the ambition of the Bishops. 
' We destroy (he says) by example that which 

* John the Faster, disputing an unmeaning title 
with Gregory, is assimilated by Baronius (ann, 595, 
sect, xxvii.) to the apostate angel rising ag;iinst the 
Most High God — a comparison not far removed from 
blasphemy. In more than thirty sections, which that 
historian devotes to the subject, he labors to depress 
the See of Constantinople even below that of Alexan- 
dria, and continually advances the obtrusiveness of 
Rome, as a proof of her rightful authority. However, 
it is true enough that the power of Rome was now 
growing real and substantial — a fact much more easily 
Bhown than either its antiquity or legitimacy. 



we preach in word ; our bones are consumed 
with fastings, and our soul is puffed up with 
pride ; beneath the meanest garments we 
conceal a haughty heart ; we repose on ash- 
es, and we pretend to grandeur ; under the 
aspect of the sheep we nourish the fangs of the 
wolf (He proceeds) 'The direction and 
primacy of the whole Church has been given 
to St. Peter ; nevertheless we do not call him 
the Universal Apostle, and yet the holy man 
John, my brother, is ambitious to be called 
the Universal Bishop.'* To Constantina he 
mournfully complains of the insult which 
has been offered to the See of Rome ; and 
while he humbly confesses ' that the sins of 
Gregory have merited such chastisement,' 
he reminds the Express that St. Peter at 
least is sinless, and undeserving the outrage 
which bad been offered him. From these 
and others, even among the few passages 
which we have cited from Gregory's writ- 
ings, it appears that the ground on which 
the Church of Rome rested its assertion of 
supremacy was already changed very essen- 
tially. In its early days the sort of superior- 
ity which it endeavored to assume was foun- 
ded for the most part on its imperial name 
and dignity ; but when that basis was over- 
thrown by the conquests of the barbarians, 
another was substituted, of which the purely 
spiritual nature was admirably calculated to 
impose upon the ignorant proselytes. The 
name of St. Peter became more venerable 
than that of Augustus or Trajan; and his 
chair, as it was occupied by the successors of 
the Apostle and the vicars of Christ, inspired 
a deeper awe into the blind and superstitious 
multitude, than the throne of all the Csesars. 
This change, no doubt, was gi-adual — it can- 
not entirely be ascribed to Gregory, or to any 
other individual ; indications of that assertion 
may even be discovered in very early eccle- 
siastical writers ; but that Pope exerted him- 
self more than any of his predecessors to con- 
firm it, and to give to that uncertain ground- 
woi'k a stability which has enabled it to sup- 
port the mighty papal edifice for so many 
ages. 

It has also been observed that Gregory was 
the first who asserted the power of the keys, 
as committed to the successor of St. Peter, 
rather than to the body of the bishops ; and 



* St. Gregory could not foresee that, within twelve 
years from that in which he was writing, the same 
title would be proudly worn by a successor to the 
chair of St. Peter (Boniface III.,) though granted to 
that pontiff by an Emperor who disgraced human 
nature. 



INTERNAL CONDITION OF CHRISTIANITY. 



143 



he betrayed on many occasions a very ridic- 
ulous eagerness to secure their honor. Con- 
sequently, he was profuse in his distribution 
of certain keys, endowed, as he was not 
ashamed to assert, with supernatural qualities ; 
he even ventured to insult Anastasius, the 
Patriarch of Antioch, by such a gift. ' I have 
sent you (he says) keys of the blessed Apostle 
Peter, your guardian, which, when placed 
upon the sick, are wont to be resplendent 
with numerous miracles.'* We may attribute 
this absurdity to the basest superstition, or to 
the most impudent hypocrisy ; and we would 
gladly have preferred the more excusable mo 
live, if the supposed advancement of the See, 
which was clearly concerned in these pre- 
sents, did not rather lead us to the latter. 

Two descriptions of papal agents rise into 
notice during the pontificate of Gregory — 
the Apocrisiarii (Correspondents), who acted 
as envoys, or legates, at the Court and at the 
See of Constantinople ; and the Defensores, 
or Advocates, who, besides their general 
commission to protect f the property of St. 
Peter, appear to have been vested with a 
kind of appellative jurisdiction, which might 
sometimes interfere with that of the bishops. 
The former of these appointments tended to 
raise the external dignity of the See ; the 
latter to extend its internal influence. Again, 
we find sufficient evidence in the records of 
this age, that a practice which afterwards 
proved one of the most fruitful sources of pa- 
pal power, was already gaining ground — that 
of appeal from episcopal decision to the Ro- 
man See. It does not, indeed, appear that it 
was founded on any general law, civil or ec- 
clesiastical ; but it proceeded very naturally 
from the prejudice attached to the name of 
Rome, and the chair of St. Peter ; and it was 
carefully encouraged by the See, whose au- 
thority was insensibly augmented by it. Be- 



* ' Amatoris vestri, beati Petri Apostoli, vobis 
claves transmlsi, qute super segros positee multis solent 
miraciilis coruscare.' He addresses nearly the same 
words to one Andreas, a nobleman, with a similar 
present. And in another epistle (to Theotistus) he 
coolly relates a prodigy which had once been per- 
formed by one of those keys upon a Lombard soldier. 
Baronius, ann. 585, sect, iv., ann. 597, sect, xiv., 
ann. 591., sect, vii., viii. The historian (in the first 
of those places) eagerly attaches to the keys the no- 
tion and omen of possession, which probably did not 
occur to a Pope (even to Pope Gregory) in the sixth 
century. 

f Baron, ann. 598, sect. xv. xix. Gibbon (chap, 
xlv.) considers them to have possessed not a civil only, 
but a criminal jurisdiction over the tenants and hus- 
bandmen of the Holy See. 



fore we quit the subject of papal aggrandise- 
ment, we shall mention one other circum- 
stance only.* Great relaxation in the mo- 
nastic disciplme of the age justified the very 
sedulous interference of Gregory to restrain 
it ; and so much address did that pontiflT com- 
bine with his diligence, as not only to reform 
the order, but also to secure and protect it. 
For, while he enforced the severity of the an- 
cient rules with judicious rigor,f he took 
measures to shelter it from episcopal oppres- 
sion, and taught it hereafter to look to Rome 
for redress and favor. As none are ignorant 
how firm a support to papal power was 
furnished in later ages by the devotion of 
the monasteries, it is important to record the 
origin of that connexion ; and it is difficult to 
discover any earlier trace of it than that 
which we have mentioned. 

Gibbon, who has dravvT.i Avith vigor and 
impartiality the character of Gregory, has 
probably over-rated his qualities when he" 
designates him as the greatest of that name. 
It is very true that the mixture of simplicity 
and cunning, of pride and humility ,J of sense 
and superstition, which singularly distinguish- 
ed him, was happily suited both to his station 
and to the temper of the times; and it might 
perhaps be pleaded, that he did no more than 
yield to that evil temper, when he gave sanc- 
tion to opinions and usages which were at 
variance with the spirit of Scripture. But 
this was to consult his present convenience 

* ' The bishops of Italy and the adjacent islands 
acknowledged the Roman Pontiff as their special 
Metropolitan. Even the existence, the union, and 
the translation of episcopal seats was decided by his 
absolute discretion; and his successful inroads into 
the provinces of Greece, of Spain, and of Gaul, 
might countenance the more lofty pretensions of suc- 
ceeding popes. He interposed to prevent the abuses 
of popular elections; his zealous care maintained the 
purity of faith and discipline; and the apostolic shep- 
herd assiduously watched over the faith and discipline 
of the subordinate pastors.' Gibbon, chap. xlv. 

t Fleury, H. E. lib. xxxvi. sect. 33 and 34. 

X His humility sometimes descended to baseness. 
The abject adulation with which he courted Phocas, the 
usurper of the Eastern tlironejthe most execrable par- 
ricide in history, proves (as Bayle has malignantly 
remarked) that those who prevailed with him to ac- 
cept the Popedom, knew him better than he knew 
himself. ' lis voyoient en lui le fonds de toutes lea 
ruses et de toutes les souplesses dont on a besoin pour 
se faire de grands protecteurs, et pour attirer sur 
I'Eglise les benedictions de la terre.' The motive 
of his flattery was jealousy of the Patriarch of Con- 
stantinople. He addressed, with the same servility, 
Brunehaud, a very wicked Queen of France, and 
again found his excuse in the interests of his Chm-ch. 



144 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



or popularity, not his perpetual fame. Those 
who follow the stream of prejudice may be 
excused or pitied, but they can establish no 
claim to greatness, no title to the respect or 
gratitude of a posterity to which they trans- 
mit, without correction, the errors or vices 
of their ancestors. So far as he applied 
himself to remedy those vices or imperfec- 
tions, so far as he reformed the discipline and 
repressed the asvarice of his clergy, and intro- 
duced such improvements into other depart- 
ments of the system as were consistent with 
the Gospel truth on which it stood, his name 
is deservedly celebrated by every honest 
Christian ; but his eagerness in the encourage- 
ment of superstitious corruptions (for he was 
not even contented to tolerate, still less did 
he make any effort to repress them) must not 
be treated with indifference or indulgence; 
because the diffusion of error* has afar more 
pernicious consequence in religious than in 
other matters. A mere speculative falsehood 
will mislead the understanding of the studi- 
ous, but it will not reach his principles of ac- 
tion ; a wrong political principle will unques- 
tionably influence for a time the liappiness of 
a nation ; but on the discovery of its falsity, it 
is not difficult to modify or reject it, because it 
can seldom become rooted in the habits or the 
prejudices of the people. But the religious 
impostures which were authorized and propa- 
gated by Gregory, affected not the belief on- 
ly, but the conduct and character of the great- 
er portion of Christendom through a long 
succession of ages ; and while their certain 
and necessary tendency was to debase the 
mass of believers, and to deliver them over 
in bhndness and bondage to the control of 
their spiritual tyrants, their final and most 
disastrous effect has been to enlarge the path 
of infidelity, by dissociating the use of reason 
from the belief in Revelation. 

* In his Epistle to the King of England, Gregory 
(cited by Baronius, Ann. 601. sect, xix.) thus ex- 
presses his own millennarian opinions. ' Besides, we 
wish you (vestram gloriam) to know as we learn from 
the words of Almighty God, in the Holy Scriptures, 
that the end of the present world is already near, and 
the kingdom of the Saints is at hand, which can 
know no end. But as the end of the world is now 
approaching, many things hang over us which before 
were not, — to wit, change of atmosphere, and terrors 
from Heaven, and unseasonable tempests, war, fam- 
ine, pestilence and earthquakes, — which however shall 
not all fall out in our days, but will certainly follow 
afterwards.' The caution of the concluding sentence 
would almost prove the Pope's distrust in his own 
prophecy. 



Changes from Gregory to CJiarlemagne. 
Ecclesiastical History is not distinguished by 
any character of very great eminence for the 
period of above a hundred and fifty years, 
which separates Gregory from Charlemagne ; 
nor is that period marked by any single oc- 
currence of striking importance, exceptmg 
the separation of the Roman states from the 
Eastern empire, and the Donation made by 
Pepin to the Holy See. Yet very considera- 
ble changes were gradually taking place in 
the constitution of the Church, which if is 
the more necessary to detect and notice, be- 
cause they are not discovered without some 
care, and have indeed commonly escaped the 
observation which is due to them. The con- 
quest of the Western Empire by the bai'ba- 
rians, its subdivision into numerous Princi- 
palities and Provinces, and the prevalence of 
the institutions and habits of the conquerors, 
could not fail to influence, in many respects, 
the religious establishment of those countries. 
And hence it is, that the distinction between 
the Eastern and Western Churches, which 
may be traced in name, at least, to the divi- 
sion of the Empire, was afterwards extended 
and widened by many substantial points of 
difference. In the former, indeed, very few 
alterations took place afi;er the time of Jus- 
tinian, even in the form of administering the 
Church, and none in the principles of its con- 
stitution : if some new privileges, or additional 
revenues, seemed to swell the importance of 
the clergy, yet the Emperors maintamed so 
firmly their undisputed supremacy,* and ex- 
erted, moreover, such frequent interference 
in spiritual affairs, that the power of the hier- 
archy received no real increase ; nor did any 
other circumstances accidentally intrude, to 
enlarge beyond its just limits their influence 
over the people. But the policy for the most 
part pursued by the Western kings was dif- 
ferent — they were usually watchful in preserv- 
ing their temporal rights over the Church, and 
even in usurping others which they did not 
possess, especially that of episcopal election ; 
but they abstained from all intervention in 
matters strictly spiritual, and in committing 
to the priesthood the entire regulation of doc- 
trine, and consigning to their uncontrolled 
direction the consciences of their ignorant 
and uncivilized subjects, they left to that Body 
much larger means of despotic and pemianent 
authority than any of those of which they 
deprived it. In the more enlightened provin- 
ces of the East, the discussion of theological 

* Giannone, Stov. di Nap, lib,, iii., cap, vi. 



INTERNAL CONDITION OF CHRISTIANITY. 



145 



subjects was not uncommonly shared by in- 
telligent laymen ; but in the West it became 
exclusively confined to the clergy, and their 
dictates, howsoever remote from scripture or 
reason, were submissively and blindly receiv- 
ed. Again, in the aristocratical assemblies, 
by which political affau's were chiefly regu- 
lated, the property and iiiteUigence of the 
Bishops acquired for them both rank and in- 
fluence ; and thus also were they placed in a 
different position from their brethren in the 
East, where the original spiritual character 
of the hierarchy was more rigidly preserved. 
It has been already remarked, that the limits 
of the spiritual and temporal powers were, 
even from the very establishment of Chris- 
tianity, liable to some confusion and per- 
plexity. They were long maintained, how- 
ever, with tolerable distinctness in the coun- 
tries which escaped from barbarian invasion ; 
but in the West, from the circumstances just 
mentioned, and from the unsettled and ar- 
bitrary form of the civil governments, the 
causes of discord, and temptations to mutual 
aggression were incalculably multiplied. 

The clergy were very early divided into 
the major and minor orders, of which the lat- 
ter consisted of the acolyths, porters, exor- 
cists, and readers: between the sixth and 
eighth century this lost its whole weight and 
almost name in the Church ; and even the 
higher order of subdeacons, deacons, and 
priests, suffered great degradation. The 
kings of the West, in theu* desire to devote 
the whole of their free subjects to military 
service, forbade the ordination of a freeman 
without their particular consent ; and hence 
proceeded the debasing, but not uncommon 
practice, of conferring the office of priesthood 
on serfs of the Church, emancipated for that 
purpose. Nor did the Bishops contend 
against this innovation so vigorously as the 
interests of the Church required, because 
their own authority was obviously augmented 
by the humiliation of the order next beloW 
them. Add to this, that the Priests were in 
some places, and perhaps generally, bound, 
on their ordination, by a solemn obligation to 
remain attached as it were to the Church, to 
which they were originally appointed — a sort 
of servitude which subjected even their per- 
sons to the authority of the Bishop. No such 
changes in the constitution of the clergy took 
place in the Easstern Church. 

Another order was rapidly increasing in the 

seventh and eighth centuries, which probably 

exercised more influence in Church matters 

than is usually attributed to it. The tonsure 

19 



was originally considered as a sign of desti- 
nation for orders, (signum destinationis ad 
ordinem,) and was given to those only who 
were intended for the sacred profession ; but 
in aftertimes it was less discriminately admin- 
istered, and was made the means of connect- 
ing with the Church a large body of persons 
who received some of the immunities without 
any of the restrictions of the sacerdotal con- 
dition, and became clerks without being ec- 
clesiastics. It may be true,*^ that they intro- 
duced to a certain extent a sort of lay influence 
into the ecclesiastical administration ; but they 
had probably a much gi*eater effect in diffus- 
ing that of the clergy among the private and 
sacred relations of domestic life. 

The grand principle of the ' Unity of the 
Church ' — existing as one mighty spiritual 
communion undivided by any diversity in 
place, time, language, government, or other 
ch-cumstances — though it was broached as 
early as the third century, did not enter into 
full operation till the dissolution of the West- 
era Empire. Its worst effects had, indeed, 
been developed before that time in the perse- 
cutions to which it gave birth on both sides 
of the Adriatic. But the good which it was 
capable of producing was not felt until the 
Western Provinces were broken up into nu- 
merous, and independent, and hostile states, 
with no political bond of union, and little 
friendly or commercial intercourse. It was 
then that the notion of one universal religious 
society contributed to supply the want of in- 
ternational sympathy and cooperation, and, 
through the means of a common belief, intro- 
duced the feeling of common interests, and 



* Guizot (Hist, de la Civilisation en France, 13 
Le^on) mentions four avenues through which the laity- 
still continued, in the seventh and eighth centuries, to 
exert an influence in ecclesiastical matters. (1.) The 
distinction between the Ordination and the Tonsure, 
and the numbers of tliosewho received the latter only. 
(2.) The founder of a Church or Chapel, whether 
Bishop or Layman, possessed the privilege of appoint- 
ing the minister to serve it. (3.) Chaplains were very 
commonly resident in noble families for the service of 
the private oratories. (4.) Certain laymen, under tlie 
names of Causidici,Tutores, and Vicedomini were ap- 
pointed at an early period for the protection of the 
Church property. They originated, it would seem, 
in the African Church; at Rome they were called 
Defensores, and they were afterwards employed in Gaul, 
under the title of Advocates. Fleury (end of liv. xliv,) 
mentions that they were originally Scholastics or 
Lawyers ; but that after the barbarian conquests they 
possessed also a military character — to the end that, 
in case of necessity, they might also be qualified to 
defend the interests of the Church by material 
weapons. 



146 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



the exercise of common virtues. Subse- 
quently, during the seventh and eighth cen- 
turies, the principle was more rapidly pro- 
gressive ; and it presently gave birth to a sec- 
ond principle, w^hich naturally sprang from 
it, that the one Body could have only one 
Head ; and the general footing which this 
acquired, at least, throughout the West, con- 
tributed in no small degree to prepare and 
smooth the way to papal despotism. 

Much of the history of this period is col- 
lected from the Canons of the Councils held 
in all the kingdoms of the West, and es- 
pecially in Spain — for the ecclesiastical af- 
fairs of Gaul * were also in part regulated by 
these last. Those of Toledo were the most 
celebrated and influential, and the attention 
which was paid to their proceedings even 
by the Roman See sufficiently proves the 
authority which they held in the Church. 
The fifteenth of these was assembled in 688, 
and the last, not long before the invasion of 
the Saracens, in 696. But upon the whole 
the number of Councils diminished during 
the seventh and eighth centuries, and in Gaul 
especially, we find that, whereas fifty-four 
were held in the sixth, twenty only assem- 
bled in the seventh century, and only seven 
duriTig the first half of the eighth. This 
gradual disuse of one of the most ancient and 
legitimate methods of governing the Church, 
and one of the best guarantees both for its 
inward purity and external independence, 
was a proof of its growing corruption, and a 
fearful omen for its future prosperity. It 
arose in some measure from a cause which 
we are about to mention. 

The early origin and office of the Metro- 
politans have already been noticed ; they 
were the Prelates resident in the capital of 
the Province, and their legitimate office was 
to preside in provincial councils; but they 
endeavored to extend their consequence by 
usurping a judicial authority in charges 
against Bishops, and other matters properly 
lying under the cognizance of the Council ; 
and they had some success until the sixth 
centuiy. But from this period we may date 
their downfall : the ambition of the Popes,f 



* The fourth Council of Toledo, held in 633, or- 
dains an uniformity of rites and ceremonies, prayer 
and psalmody, tliroughont Spain and Gaul — the same 
office of the mass, and other services. Fleury, 1, 
xxxvii., sect. 46. 

t The progress of this usurpation is so well de- 
scribed by Giannone, (Storia di Nap., lib. iii. c. vi.) 
that we shall here give the substance of his account. 
lu the fifth century the title of Patriarch was univer- 



always jealous of their power, and anxious 
to transfer it to the Holy See, pressed and 
assailed them from above : from below, the 
episcopal order, preferring a distant and in- 
dulgent control to the more rigid scrutiny 
of a domestic censor, were equally eager for 
their overthrow ; and this was greatly facil- 
itated by the minute subdivisions of some of 
the Western Provinces, which in many cases 
politically separated the Metropolitan from 
the Bishops who were placed under his 
superintendence, and thus at once annihila- 
ted his influence. From these causes the 
Metropolitan system fell into decay, so that 



sally acknowledged to belong, in common with the 
four oriental prelates, to the Bishop of Rome. His 
ordinai>y power indeed, did not e:xtend beyond the 
Provinces called Suburban (Suburbicarie,) those 
which obeyed the Vicar-General of Rome; and to 
these limits it was confined till the leign of Valentin- 
ian. But in process of time, as the prerogatives of 
primacy were united in his person, it was easy to 
stretch them farther. It belonged to him as Primate 
to have regard and attention ; on this ground he be- 
gan to send into such provinces as seemed to require 
such superintendence his own vicars; in lilyria first, 
afterwards in Thessaly and Macedonia, the delegates 
of the Roman Pontiff exercised Patriarchal authori- 
ty. This he presently afterwards extended over the 
whole of Italy, over Gaul and Spain ; as well as over 
all countries newly converted by his missionaries ; so 
that the Greeks themselves acknowledged him to be 
sole Patriarch of the West. The next step of the 
Popes, which occasioned no small disturbances, was to 
usurp the power of ordaining Bishops throughout all 
the Western Church, which was no less than to sub- 
vert the rights of all the Metropolitans. They pro- 
ceeded farther, and claimed the office of ordaining the 
Metropolitans themselves. 

The method tliey made use of to usurp the rights 
of tlie Metropolitans regarding ordination was, to 
send them the Vest or Pallium — for it was by means 
of this that the Metropolitans were invested by the 
Holy Pontiff with the power of ordaining the Bishops 
of the Province; whence it followed that such power 
was not possessed by them unless by this grant of the 
Pallium. Here another point was gained — the Metro- 
politans had not the power of exercising all the episco- 
pal functions until they had received the Pallium from 
the Pope. The last step naturally followed this — that 
the Pope would not grant the Pallium until the Metro- 
politans had taken an oath of fidelity such as he requir- 
ed. Another ground on which he advanced was this 
— he contrived that appeals from the decisions of the 
Metropolitans, especially relating to disputed elections 
of Bishops, should be brought before himself; that if 
the electors had been negligent, or the elected unfit, 
the election should devolve on the Pope ; that he alone 
should possess the right of accepting the cessions of 
Sees, of determining translations, and the coadjutor- 
ships in the next succession; and lastly, that the con- 
firmation of all episcopal elections should be vested in 
the Holy See. 



INTERNAL CONDITION OF CHRISTIANITY. 



147 



little more than its name remained at the end 
of the eighth century — and closely connected 
with its fall was the disuse of Provincial 
Councils. 

The great result which was brought about 
by the above circumstances, and which 
showed itself early in the West — as to the 
West were also confined the changes which 
we have mentioned — was the undue aggran- 
dizement of the episcopal order, and its con- 
sequent deformity and corruption. From 
the moment that the princes succeeded in 
usurping the appointment to vacant Sees, the 
mutual awe and dependence of the Bishop 
and his clergy were at an end. The original 
method of election, according to which the 
dignity was generally conferred on some emi- 
nent ecclesiastic who had long resided in the 
diocese, secured at least some degi'ee of de- 
ference m the elected to the office and priv- 
ileges of the priesthood ; but the practice of 
regal appointment broke that tie, and the 
stranger, who was frequently intruded, with 
few common interests or affections, gave 
loose without any restraint to his insolence 
or his avarice, in an age and condition of 
society in which public opinion had no in- 
fluence. Accordingly we collect, even from 
the Councils of those times which were en- 
tirely composed of Bishops, the violent ex- 
cesses to which many members of that order 
proceeded. ' We have learnt (says the Coun- 
cil of Toledo, in 589) that the Bishops treat 
their parishes not episcopally but cruell}^, and 
oppress then* dioceses with losses and exac- 
tions. Wherefore, let all that the Bishops 
would appropriate to themselves be refused, 
excepting that which the ancient constitutions 
grant to them ; and let the clergy, whether 
parochial or diocesan, who are tormented 
by the Bishop, carry their complaints to 
the Metropolitan, and let the Metropolitan 
hasten to repress such excesses.' Nearly 
a centuiy afterwards the fourth Coun- 
cil of Braga (in 675) inveighs against the 
brutality of certain Bishops who treated 
honorable men like robbers, and lacerated 
priests, abbots, and deacons, with personal 
chastisement. 'Avarice (says the Council of 
Toledo in 633) is the root of all evils, and 
that detestable thirst takes possession even 
of the hearts of Bishops. Many of the faithful, 
through the love of Christ and the martyrs, 
build chapels in the parishes of the Bishops, 
and leave offerings there ; but the Bishops 
Beize them and turn them to their own use. 
Hence it follows that Clerks are wanting to 
perform the divine offices, for they receive 



not their fees ; and the chapels when dilap- 
idated are not repaired, because sacerdotal 
avidity has carried away the resources, &c 
Besides these and similar proofs, which 
might be brought in great abundance, the 
tyrannical oppressions of the Bishops are 
sufficiently evinced by the conspiracies or 
coalitions of the priesthood to resist them, 
which are sometimes mentioned, of course 
with reprehension and menace, by the Coun- 
cils of the sixth and seventh centuries. 

Notwithstanding the measures taken to re- 
press it, the license and the demoralization 
of the episcopal order gradually increased, 
and towards the close of the eighth century 
it had reached perhaps the farthest limit to 
which it ever proceeded. The restraint 
which had formerly been im.posed by the 
watchful superintendence of provincial Coun- 
cils and Metropolitans, was feebly supplied by 
the rare, and cautious, and often ineffectual 
interference of the Roman See. The prac- 
tice of regal election freed the Bishop from 
any check with which either respect or grat- 
itude towards his clergy and people might 
otherwise have supplied him — and the pos- 
itive degradation of the clergy itself removed 
him still farther from any deference to the 
feelings, or even the rights, of that Body. 
Sole administrator of the revenues of the 
Church, he possessed the most ample means 
of plunder and usurpation ; while his close 
connexion with political transactions, and 
the weight which he exerted in the most im- 
portant deliberations of the State, so inter- 
wove the temporal with the spiritual office 
and duties, and also added to his legitimate 
authority so much temporal power, that there 
were few excesses which he might not hope 
to commit with impunity.^ It is therefore 
without surprise that we find him at onetime 
advancing to battle at the head of his armed 
attendants, and at another engaged in ma- 
rauding expeditions from motives of plunder 
or private hostility. His habits and his man- 
ners alike departed from the ecclesiastical 
character, and he grew to resemble the rude 
Barons who surrounded him, both in the ex- 
tent of his power, and the insolence Avitli 
which he exercised it. 

The Papal Principle. We now turn to 
Rome — the centre to which most of our at- 
tention must hereafter be directed— and hav- 



* It should not be forgotten, however, that this 
character was sometimes assumed on royal compul- 
sion ; nor was this the only stain which the Church 
received from its contact with the wild barbarism of 
those ages. 



148 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



iug showQ the progress of the religious aris- 
tocracy during the seventh and eiglith ages, 
let us observe whether any corresponding 
advance was made by the monarchical prin- 
ciple. Gregory the Great died in the year 
604 ; and certainly if his immediate suc- 
cessors had equalled him in energy and am- 
bition, the period of papal usurpation might 
have been gi*eatly anticipated. But the fact 
was so far otherwise, that through a dreary 
period of almost five centuries the Vatican 
was never ruled by any character of sufficient 
transcendency to assert its single superemi- 
nence, and seize the sceptre which was so 
long presented to it by superstition and igno- 
rance. But this accident, though it retarded 
the maturity of the Roman Church, did not 
prevent the gradual operation of the princi- 
ples on which it was now firmly founded ; 
and if it be the province of genius alone to 
create those commanding situations and cir- 
cumstances by which systems are formed or 
established, a very ordinary mind may turn 
them to advantage when created and pre- 
sented. And thus the long succession of ob- 
scure pontiffs, who presided in the West for 
the century and a half which followed, may 
have profited by such occasions as were of- 
fered to extend the authority of the Church 
and exalt the supremacy of its head. At least 
we have reason to beheve, that both the 
one and the other of those objects were, 
upon the whole, advanced during the period 
in question. 

Within fifty years from the death of Greg- 
ory, Pope St. Martin assembled a Council at 
Rome, in which, among various expositions 
of doctrine, he condemned a certain heresy 
at that time maintained by Constans, the 
Emperor of the East. That Prince, little 
disposed to pardon the offence, sent his Ex- 
arch into Italy with orders to seize the per- 
son of the Pontiff. By the employment of 
some addi-ess he succeeded in his mission ; 
in the year 653 St. Martin was carried away 
from Rome a captive to Constantinople, and 
thence, after enduring, according to the Cath- 
olic historians, a multitude of insults, he was 
exiled to the Chersonesus. In the year fol- 
lowing (655) he died there ; and his successor 
Eugenius was appointed by the Emperor. 
The singularity of this circumstance has 
ic^foiumended it to our notice, rather than 
its im{>«;rtance. It was an isolated event, de- 
pending solely on the political power which 
the Emperor of the day might happen to 
possess over his Italian subjects, and not at 
ull affcctinsr the influence v/liich the Holv See 



was now acquiring in every quarter of the 
West — for that was the ground on which its 
battles were to be fought and its conquests 
gained, and to that they were destined to be 
confined ; and so long as it suffered no re- 
verses in that field, it mattered little what 
might be the result of an occasional dispute 
either with the Patriarch or the Emperor of 
the East. 

We liave already mentioned that, during 
the seventh and eighth centuries, some suc- 
cessful inroads were made by the Popes on 
the privileges of Metropolitans, especially in 
their election or confirmation;* and the influ- 
ence of St. Boniface, the apostle of Germany, 
was warmly exerted about the year 742 
among the Bishops, of France and Germany, 
to extend the authority of the See. Another 
occurrence, which tended much more effect- 
ually, though by a very different course, to 
the same result, took place almost immedi- 
tely afterwards. 

Tke Donation of Pepin. Pepin, who was 
mayor of the palace to Childeric III., King 
of France, was desirous to dethrone his im- 
becile master, and to usurp the name, after 
having long exercised the power of royalty. 
Accordingly he assembled the States of the 
realm, and they gave it as their opinion that 
the Bishop of Rome should previously be 
consulted respecting the lawfulness of the 
project. In consequence, ambassadors were 
sent to Zachary with a question to the fol- 
lowing unport — ' Whether the divine law did 
not permit a valiant and warlike people to 
dethrone a pusillanimous and indolent mon- 
arch who was incapable of discharging any 
of the functions of royalty, and to substitute 
in his place one more worthy of rule, and 
who had already rendered most important 
services to, the State ? ' The answer of the 
Pope was such as the usurper desired : Chil- 
deric was stripped of royalty without any 
opposition, and Pepin took undisputed pos- 
session of the throne. 

This occurrence is generally related as the 
first instance of the temporal ambition of the 
Vatican, or at least of its interference with 
the rights of princes and the allegiance oi 

* The pallium or peculiar vest wass requested of the 
Pope by the Metropolitans, at first merely, as it 
would seem, in token of an honor to which no con- 
dition was annexed, but afterwards in attestation of 
iheir subjection to the See, and obedience to its ca- 
nonical commands. The virtues of the pallium are 
described at length in an Epistle from Pope Zacha- 
ry to Boniface. Baron, ann. 742, sect. v. See 
above. -^C!.^ — '^. 146. 



INTERNAL CONDITION OF CHRISTIANITY. 



i4y 



subjects — and therefore the conduct of the 
Pope has commonly been treated (by Protest- 
ant wi'iters) with unmeasured reprehension. 
But certainly if we consider the act of Zach- 
ary distinct from those subsequent usurpa- 
tions, to which in truth it did neither neces- 
sarily lead, nor even furnish a plausible pre- 
cedent — if we consider the act, as historical 
justice requires of us, with a fair regard to 
the circumstances of France and Italy, and 
to the principles of the times, we shall be 
surprised indeed that a Pope of the eighth 
century should so easily assent to the most 
popular principle of republicanism, and we 
may reject perhaps the political axiom which 
he has laid down ; but we shall not accuse 
him of ambitious or unchristian arrogance for 
having resolved a difficulty which he did 
not create ; for having answered a question 
which was proposed to him, as the highest 
human authority, and proposed without any 
interference or solicitation on his own part. 
It is true that the nature of his answer may 
have been influenced by his manifest inter- 
ests, and the necessity in which the See then 
stood of a powerful protector — but this is a 
consideration quite distinct from the original 
broad charge of intrusion in temporal con- 
cerns — and even in this matter, the mere ab- 
sence of that splendid disinterestedness, which 
is rare in every age, and almost impossible in 
bad ages, is not to be stigmatized as inexcus- 
ably criminal, nor to be placed on the same 
level with the active, intriguing intrusiveness 
of guilty ambition. 

It is not probable that Pope Zachary fore- 
saw all the advantages which soon afterwards 
accrued to the Holy See from his decision — 
but pressed by the Greeks on one hand, and 
the Lombards on the other, he was no doubt 
glad of the occasion to create a substantial 
friendship beyond the Alps. Tiie Lombards 
had gradually possessed themselves of those 
provinces of Italy which had remained long- 
est attached to the Greek empire, under the 
name of the Exarchate of Ravenna ; * and 
those warlike foreigners were now projecting 
the extension of their conquest to the whole 
peninsula. Stephen II., the successor of 
Zachary, applied to the Court of France for 
protection ; and instantly, Pepin, at the head 
of a numerous array, crossed the Alps, and 

* The strict limits of the Exaixhate were included 
in the territories of Ravenna, Bologna and Ferrara: 
dependent on it was the Pentapolis, which extended 
along the Adriatic from Rimini to Ancona, and ad- 
vanced into the interior as far as the ridges of the 
Apenniues. Gibbon c. 49. 



overthrew the Lombards, and recovered the 
Exarchate from their hands. Pepin might 
have restored this valuable spoil to the throne 
of Constantinople with great praise of justice ; 
or by the indulgence of ambition he might 
have retained permanent possession of it 
himself, without any reproach and with much 
profit — he did neither ; but, mindful of his 
obligation to the Holy See, and sensible of 
the advantage of intimate alliance with it, he 
transferred the sovereignty over the provinc- 
es in question to the Bishop of Rome. This 
celebrated donation took place in 754-5 ; and 
thus we observe that the earliest interference 
of the Vatican in temporal matters brought 
after it, in the course of three years only, a 
rich and solid reward of temporal povs^er, 
which has never since been either gi-eatly in- 
creased or greatly diminished. The degi-ee 
of authority which individual Pontiffs have 
exerted in their States has indeed been liable 
in different ages to extreme diversities ; still 
the authority itself has, in some shape, been 
perpetuated ; and it has survived the splendid 
pretensions of the spiritual despotism, by 
whose infancy it v/as created, whose maturitj 
it assisted to swell and pamper, and whose 
expiring influence will propably be confined 
to the same limits with itself. 

Charlemagne's liberality to the Church. The 
donation of Pepm awaited the confirmation 
of his son Charlemagne ; for in the year 774 
the Lombards again threatened the Roman 
territories ; the aid of France was again in- 
voked, and the monarch who now afforded 
it, did not pause till he had entirely and fin- 
ally subverted the empire of tiiose conquer- 
ors, and proclaimed himself then* King. 
Charlemagne was so far from disapproving 
his father's munificence to the Pope, that he 
renewed and even increased the grant by 
some accession of territory ; he drew still 
closer the bonds which allied him with a 
Bishop whose power was real and solid, how- 
ever fanciful may have been the claims on 
which it stood ; and thus he secured the 
zealous assistance of the See, when circum- 
stances at length allowed him to mature the 
projects of his own ambition, and to pro- 
claim himself, in the year 800, the Emperor 
of the West. 

Charlemagne did not confine his benefac- 
tions to the Bishop of Rome, but distributed 
them among all the orders of the hierarchy. 
He augmented their wealth, he enlarged their 
privileges, he exalted their dignitj^, he con- 
firmed and extended their immunities ; and 
were it not beyond conu-adiction established, 



150 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 



that he was one of the greatest and wisest 
princes who ever reigned, some writers 
would not have hesitated to place him among 
the weakest of mankind. But the motives 
of his liberality were such as became a mag- 
nanimous and a benevolent monarch. Su- 
perstition has never been accounted among 
them, nor any unfounded fears or undue 
reverence of the ecclesiastical order — from 
the former he was perhaps more nearly ex- 
empt than would have appeared possible in 
so rude an age ; and in his transactions v^^ith 
the clergy, even with the Pope himself, he 
never forgot, or allowed them to forget, his 
own supremacy. But he was desirous to 
civilize his barbarous subjects; he was anx- 
ious to influence their rude manners, and 
correct their vicious morals, by the more 
general diffusion and comprehension of the 
Christian truths ; and he was willing also to 
sow the seeds of secular learning, and dispel 
the ignorance which oppressed his people. 
As the first step towards this regeneration he 
presented to them the example of his own 
piety and his own learning.* But when he 
looked round for the means of communicat- 
ing those blessings, the first and the only one 
which presented itself was the agency of the 
clergy. All that was influential among his 
subjects was contained in the two orders, 
military and ecclesiastical ; and the wild tur- 
bulence of the former pointed them out rather 
as objects than instruments of reformation. 
The little of literary taste or acquirement 
which his kingdom contained was confined 
to the clergy ; and there he labored to en- 
courage its increase, and to distribute it, 

* Many writers assert that he yielded not to any 
contemporary in either of those merits ; the former, 
nowever, does not appear greatly to have influenced 
his moral practices; and as to his proficiency in the 
latter, we may at least venture to prefer to him his 
own master and preceptor Alcuin, an Englishman, 
the most celeVjrated divine of the day; and since we 
are assured that Charlemagne did not learn to write 
till late in life, doubtless we might make other excep- 
tions. Alcuin is regarded as the restorer of letters 
in France, or at least the principal instrument of 
Charles in that work. In a letter to that Prince he 
avers that it rested with those two alone to raise up 
in France a Christian Athens. And his own writings 
attest his industry in restoring almost every branch 
of study. (Flem-y, Hist. EccL, liv. 45, sect, xviii.) 
The devotion of Charlemagne to the services of reli- 
gion is not disputed ; through his whole life he was 
a regular attendant on the oflices, even the nocturnal 
ceremonies, of tlie Church, and his last days Avere 
passed in correcting the text of the Gospel with the 
assistance of certain Greeks and Syrians. Fleury, 
II. E. 1. 45, 3. viii. 



through the only channel that was open, for 
the moral improvement of his subjects. It 
was chiefly with this view that he augment- 
ed the power and revenues of the Church, 
and raised its ministers to a more exalted 
rank and influence — influence which they 
subsequently studied to improve by methods 
not ahvays honorable, but which, as circum- 
stances then existed, it was pardonable if not 
commendable, it was magnanimous if it was 
not also politic, in Charlemagne to bestow. 

Reformcdion of the Clergy. But we shall 
readily admit, that that monarch's munifi- 
cence would have been very dangerously be- 
stowed, had he not taken vigorous measures 
to reform, at the same time that he enriched, 
the ecclesiastical bqdy ; and some of those 
measures, though we had proposed to defer 
the particulars of his legislation till a subse- 
quent Chapter, may be mentioned with no 
less propriety in the present. In the year 
789, at an assembly at Aix-la-Chapelle, Char- 
lemagne published a Capitulary in eighty 
articles, chiefly with a view to restore the 
ancient discipline of the Church.* It was 
addressed to all ecclesiastics, and carried by 
the officers of the monarch into all the Prov- 
inces. The instructions which most nearly 
aflfected the peculiar abuses of the age were 
those, perhaps, which exhorted the Bishops 
to select their clergy from fi'eemen rather 
than from slaves ; and which forbade bishops 
and abbots and abbesses to possess dogs, or 
hawks, or buffoons, or jugglers. By the cele- 
brated Council of Francfort (Sur le Mein) 
held in 794, it was enacted, among many 
other wholesome regulations, that Bishops 
should not be translated from city to city; 
that the Bishop should never be absent from 
his Church for more than three weeks ; that 
he should so diligently instruct his clergy, 
that a worthy successor might ever be found 
among them ; and that after his death his 
heirs should only succeed to such portion of 
his property as he possessed before his ordi- 
nation — all acquisitions subsequently made 
were to return to his Church. Other articles 
regulated the discipline of the inferior clergy. 
We shall conclude with one additional and 
very singular instance. Towards the close 
of the year 803 the Emperor held a parlia- 
ment at Worms, when a petition was pre- 
sented to him by all the people of his States, 
of which the following was the substance — • 
' We pray your Majesty that henceforward 
Bishops may not be constrained to join the 

* Fleury, H. E. liv. 44, sect. 46, and liv. 45 
sect. 26. 



DISSENSIONS. 



15t 



army, as they have been hitherto. But when 
we march with you against the enemy, let 
them remain in their dioceses, occupied 
with their holy ministry, and praying for you 
and your army, singing masses, and making 
processions, and almsgiving. For we have 
beheld some among them wounded and kil- 
led in battle, God is our witness with how 
much terror ! and these accidents cause many 
to fly before the enemy. So that you will 
have more combatants if they remain in 
their dioceses, since many are employed in 
guai-ding them ; and they will aid you more 
effectually by their prayers, raising their 
hands to heaven, after the manner of Moses. 
We make the same petition with respect to 
the priests, that they come not to the army, 
unless by the choice of their Bishops, and 
that those be such in learning and morals 
that we may place full confidence in them, 
&c.' Charlemagne replied as follows — 'In 
our desire both to reform ourselv^es, and to 
leave an example to our successors, we ordain 
that no ecclesiastic shall join the army, ex- 
cept two or three Bishops chosen by the 
others, to give the benediction, preach and 
conciliate, and with them some chosen priests 
to impose penance, celebrate mass, take care 
of the sick, and give the unction of holy oil 
and the viaticum. But these shall carry no 
arms, neither shall they go to battle nor shed 
any blood, but shall be contented to carry 
relics and holy vessels, and to pray for the 
combatants. The other Bishops who remain 
at their churches shall send their vassals well 
armed with us or at our disposal, and shall 
pray for us and our army. For the people 
and the kings who have permitted their 
priests to fight along with them have not 
gained the advantage in then* wars, as we 
know from what has happened in Gaul, in 
Spain, and in Lombardy. In adopting the 
contrary practice we hope to obtain victory 
over the pagans, and finally everlasting life.' 



CHAPTER XL 

On the Dissensions of the Church from the^e 
of Constantine to that of Charlemagne. 

Division of the subject : — I. Schism of the Donatists — 
its real origin — progress — Circumcellions — conduct of 
Constantine — and his successor — of Julian — conference 
of Carthage — St. Augustin — the Vandals — Saracens — 
real extent of the offences of the Donatists : some ac- 
count of St. Augustin. — II. Priscillian — his persecution 
and death— probable opinions— the first Martyr to reli- 



gious dissent— how truly 5?o—Ithak{us— Martin of Tours 
— eflect of Priscillian's death on his followers.— III. Jo- 
vinian — his opinions — by whom chiefly opposed — Edict 
of Honorius — Vigilantius — his character — abuses oppos- 
ed by him— St. Jerome.— IV. Pelagian Controversy — its 
importance— and perplexity — Pelagius and Celestius — 
opposition of St. Augustin— Councils of Jerusalem and 
Diospolis— reference to Zosimus, Bishop of Rome — 
perseverance of St. Augustin— and his success—the 
sum of the Pelagian opinions — opposite doctrine of 
Fatalism — Semi-Pelagianism — Doctrine of the East — 
indifference of Greek Church to this Controversy. — V. 
Controversy respecting the Incarnation — early origin — 
Apollinaris — his doctrine — Nestorius — his rash asser- 
tion — Cyril of Alexandria — Council of Ephesus — con- 
demnation and banishment of Nestorius — progress of 
his opinions — what they really amounted to — Euty- 
ches — the Jlonophysite heresy — Dioscorus of Alexan- 
dria — second Council of Ephesus — interference of Pope 
Leo— Council of Chalcedon — condemnation and sub- 
sequent conduct of theEutychians — Henoticon of Zeno 
— its object — effect — Heraclius and the Monothelites — 
Council of Constantinople — general remarks on this 
Controversy — apology for those engaged in it — some 
of its consequences. — VI. Worship of Images — its spe- 
cious origin — its progress in East acd West — Leo the 
Isaurian — effects of his Edict — Constantine Coprony- 
mus — Synod of Constantinople — the Empress Irene 
— second Council of Nice, or Seventh General Council 
— Remarks on the Sev«n General Councils— Leo the Ar- 
menian—Michel—his Epistle to Louis le D^bonnaire — 
The Empress Theodora— Feast of Orthodoxy— general 
remarks— .Totin Damascenus— miracles— conduct of se- 
cular clergy — of monastic orders — of the common peo- 
ple—of Papal See— contrast between the Italian and 
French clergy. 

The controversies which occasioned the 
widest divisions in the Church during the five 
centuries following its establishment, were 
on two subjects — the Incarnation of our bles- 
sed Saviour, and the Worship of Images. 
Indeed, if we except the Pelagian opinions, 
there were none other than these which left 
any lasting consequences behind them. Still 
we are not justified in confining our notice 
entirely to those three, but we must extend 
it, though more concisely, to some other 
dissensions, of less importance and earlier 
date, which animated the passions of Church- 
men during the interval between the Arian 
and the Incarnation controversies. We shall 
mention them in the following order: — I. 
The schism of the Donatists ; 2. the heresy 
of the PrisciUianists ; 3. the opinions of the 
Reformers, Jovinian and Vigilantius; and 
shall then proceed to the doctrines of Pelagi- 
us and Celestius. To these we shall limit 
our curiosity ; for the various disputes, creat- 
ed directly or indirectly, by the writings of 
Origen, and the many real (or supposed) 
ramifications of the Manichasan heresy, are 
not such as to claim a place in this work. 

I. The Donatists. On the death of Men- 
surius. Bishop of Carthage, in 311, the clergy 
and people of that city and district elected in 



152 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



his place the Archdeacon Csecilianus, and 
proceeded to his consecration without wait- 
ing, as it would seem, for the consent of the 
Bishops of Numidia.a contiguous and subor- 
dinate province. Probably custom or cour- 
tesy was violated by this neglect ; but the 
Numidians considered it also as an infringe- 
ment of their right, and hastened to resent it 
as such. This was no doubt the real found- 
ation of the schism — an objection taken 
against the character * of one Felix, a Bishop 
who had been prominent in the consecration 
of Csecilianus, though it was repeatedly 
brought forward in the course of the contro- 
versy, was obviously a vain and contemptible 
pretext. The dissentients, headed by a cer- 
tain Donatus, assembled a Council of their 
own, condemned Csecilianus, and appointed 
his deacon, Majorinus, for his successor. 
Both parties then proceeded to great extrem- 
ities, and as there appeared no other pros- 
pect of reconciliation, they agreed to bring' 
the dispute before the Emperor Constantino, 
who had just then proclaimed the establish- 
ment of Christianity. Constantine inquired 
into the affair, first by means of a Synod at 
Rome, consisting of three Gaulish and fifteen 
Italian prelates,f at which the Bishop of the 
capital presided ; and presently afterwards, 
by an inquiry into the truth of the charges 
against Felix, before the civil magistrate 
JEA'mi), proconsul of Africa, assisted by seve- 
ral lay, and for the most part military asses- 
sors : the decision, on both investigations, 
was unfavorable to the Donatists. They 
were discontented ; seventy venerable Nu- 
midian prelates, assembled in council in the 
heart and light of Africa, had rejected the 
authority of Csecilianus — could so solemn an 
act be superseded by a commission of a small 
number of obscure Bishops meeting in a dif- 
ferent province, and perhaps ignorant of the 
leading circumstances ? They submitted the 
matter to the Emperor's reconsideration. 
His patience was not yet exhausted ; he im- 
mediately summoned a much more nume- 
rous synod at Aries, in Gaul, and here again, 
after much serious debate, the Donatists lost 
their cause. Still dissatisfied, they had re- 
course to the final expedient, an appeal to the 
personal justice of Constantine. The Empe- 
ror again consented to their request ; but on 
this occasion the motive of his indulgence 

* He -was accused of being a Traditor; i. e. of 
having delivered up copies of the Scriptures during 
Diocletian's persecution. 

f Flein-y, lib. x., sect. 11., records the namss of 
most of them; and the order of precedence. 



may be liable to some suspicion, since the 
very application admitted the power of the 
Emperor to reverse the decision of an ec- 
clesiastical council — a right which he might 
very naturally choose to assert at that mo- 
ment — at least it is certain that, in the year 
316, he condescended to investigate the affair 
at Milan, in the presence of the contending 
parties. He deliberately confirmed the for- 
mer decisions; and then, as these repeated 
condemnations had no other effect than to 
increase the perversity of the schismatics, he 
applied the secular power to their correction.* 
This measure led to some violent disturbanc- 
es; many joined, as persecuted, those whom 
they loved not as schismatics, and the confu- 
sion thus generally, occasioned gave license 
to a number of lawless ruffians, the refuse of 
Africa, of no sect, and probably of no faith, 
to range their weapons and their crimes on 
the side of the contumacious. These men, 
the soldiers of the Donatists, were called Cir- 
cumcellions ; and their savage excesses went 
very far to convert the schism into a rebel- 
lion. When the quarrel arrived at this point, 
it is well worthy of notice, that Constantine, 
instead of proceeding to extinguish the mal- 
contents by the sword, attended to the advice 
of the governors of Africa, so as to repeal the 
laws which had been enacted against them — 
and to allow the people full liberty to adhere 
to the party which they might prefer.f 

Not so his successor Constans : during his 
reign we read of the defeat of the Donatists 
at the battle of Bagnia, and of thirteen years 
of tumult and bloodshed, and uninterrupted 
persecution. These severe measures, which 
the fury of the Circumcellions could scarcely 
justify, destroyed many, and dispersed into 
other countries a still greater number of the 
perverse schismatics — but converted prob- 
ably none. 

The moment of reaction was not far 
distant ; the numerous and revengeful exiles 
were restored to their home by the suspicious 
justice of Julian; J and the sect appears to 



* He certainly exiled some, and is said to have de- 
prived them of their churches, and even to have shed 
some blood. See Mosh., cent, iv., p. ii., ch. v. 

f This change in his policy seems to have taken 
place in 321 — after five years experience of the oppo- 
site system. 

X The horrors which they committed on their res- 
toration are very vividly and seriously related by 
Fleury, (1. xv., s. 32.) ' They expelled the Catholic 
people, violated the women, and murdered the chil- 
dren. They threw the Eucharist to the dogs, but the 
dogs became mad, and turning against their masters 
tore them in pieces. One of them threw out of the 



DISSEi\SIONS. 



153 



have sprung up, during the few following 

years, to the highest eminence which it at 
any time attained. Towards the conclusion 
of the fourth century Africa was covered 
with its churches, and its spiritual interests 
were guarded by a body of four hundred 
Bishops. 

Let us observe the consequence of this 
prosperity — a violent division grew up among 
them, respecting some very insignificant 
person or thing, and opened a breach in their 
fortress to the persevering assaults of the 
Catholics. Besides which, the method of 
assault was now somewhat changed and re- 
fined ; the weapons of reason and disputation 
were now again admitted into the service of 
the Church; and they were not without ef- 
fect, since they were directed and sharpened 
by the genius of Augustin. The Bishop of 
Hippo* attacked the Donatists in his writ- 
ings, in his public discourses, in his private 
conversation ; and so vigorously exposed their 
dangerous and seditious spirit, as to lessen 
their popularity in Africa, and to destroy any 
sympathy which their former suflferings might 
have created in the rest of Christendom. 

From this period they fell gradually into 
dishonor ; somewhat they still endured from 
the unjust application of the laws against 
heresy, of which no one has ever accused 
tliem ; but a dangerous wound was inflicted 
by the celebrated conference held at Carthage 
in 411. The tribune Marcellinus was sent 
into Africa by the Emperor Honorius, with 
full power to terminate the controversy ; he 
convoked an assembly of the heads of both 
parties, and two hundred and eighty-six 
Catholic, and about two hundred and seven- 
ty-nine Donatist bishops, presented them- 
selves in defence of their respective opinions. 
The most solemn preparations were made to 
give weight and dignity to this meeting, and 
its deliberations were watched with profound 
anxiety by the people of Afi"ica.f For three 



window a phial of the holy ointment, which fell among 
the stones without breaking, &c. They exorcised 
the faithful in order to baptize them anew; they 
washed the walls of the Churches, and broke the al- 
tars and burnt them — for most of those in Africa 
were then of wood — they broke the consecrated 
chalices and melted them down, to convert them to 
other purposes — in a word they held as profane all 
that the Catholic Bishops had consecrated, &c.' 

* lie seems first to have taken the field while a 
simple presbyter, in the year 394. 

\ ' Let the Bishops (says Marcellinus in a previous 
proclamation) signify to the people in their sermons 
to keep themselves quiet and silent. 1 will publish 

20 



days the Tribune listened with respectful at- 
tention to the arguments advanced by both 
parties, and then proceeded to confirm the 
decisions of the former century, by pronounc- 
ing in favor of the Catholics. Augustin has 
deserved the glory of this spiritual triumph 
— and, that no means might be wanting to 
make it decisive, it was vigorously pursued 
by the myrmidons of civil authority, who in- 
flicted almost every punishment on the con- 
tumacious, excepting the last.* 

The survivors took breath under the gov- 
ernment of the Vandals, who conquered that 
part of Africa from the Romans about the 
year 427; and w^hen it was recovered by 
Belisarius, more than a hundred years after- 
wards, the sect of the Donatists was still 
found to exist there as a separate communion. 
It was again exposed to the jealousy of the 
Catholics, and particularly attracted the hos- 
tility of Gregory the Great ; but we do not 
learn that it suffered further persecution. 
We are told that it dwindled into insignifi- 
cance about the end of the sixth centm7 ; but 
it is not improbable, that the Saracen invad- 
ers of Numidia found them, some few years 
later, the remnant of a sect not ill-disposed 
to favor any invader, nor unmindful of the 
sufiferings of their ancestors. 

The Donatists have never been charged, 
with the slightest show of truth, with any 
error of doctrine, or any defect in Church 
government or discipline, or any depravity 
of moral practice ; they agreed in every re- 
spect with their adversaries, except in one — 
they did not acknowledge as legitimate the 
ministry of the African Church, but consid- 



my sentence and expose it to the judgment of all the 
people of Carthage.' St. Augustin himself addressed 
an epistle or tract on this controversy, to the Donatist 
laity. The particulars of the conference are detailed 
at great length by Fleury in his twenty-second book. 

* An exception little more than nominal ; for though 
tiie infliction of death, as the direct punishment of 
schism, is not enjoined by the Edict of Honorius, it 
necessarily followed, as the punishment of contumacy 
and rebellion. The Edict, however, even without 
that penalty, was so severe, and threatened to drive 
the Donatists to such extremities, that the civil mag- 
istrate, Dulcitius, hesitated to enforce it, until he 
should have taken counsel of Augustin. That prelate 
exhorted him to proceed — 'since it was much better 
(he said) that some should perish by their own fires, 
than that the whole body should burn in the everlast- 
ing flames of Gehenna, through the desert of their 
impious dissension.' Epist. 61, (alias 204.) Hono- 
rius' Edict appears in the Theodosian Code, and a 
very sufficient specimen of it may be found in Jortin, 
H. E. ad. ann. 414. 



154 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



ered their ov/ii body to be tlie true, imcor- 
rupted, universal Church. It is quite clear, 
that they pushed their schism to very great 
extremities — even to that of rejecting the 
communion of all who were in communion 
with the Church which they called false; but 
this was the extent of thek' spiritual offence, 
even from the assertion of their enemies. 
The excesses of the Circumceliions lost them 
much of the sympathy which would other- 
wise have been bestowed on their misfor- 
tunes; but the outrages and association of 
those outlaws were generally disclaimed by 
the most respectable leaders of the sect. One 
strange sin, indeed, they are accused of en- 
couraging, and of indulging with dreadful 
frequency — an uncontrollable inclination to 
suicide.* But suicide is the resource of the 
desperate ; and it is unlikely that it found any 
favor among them, until oppression had per- 
suaded them, that death was not the greatest 
among human evils. 

In the fortunes of the Donatists do we 
not trace the usual history of persecution ? 
In its commencement fearful and reluctant, 
and, as it were, conscious of its corrupt ori- 
gin, it irritates without depressing ; then it 
hesitates, and next suspends the attack ; 
thereon its object rises up and takes strength 
and courage. The same process is then re- 
peated, under circumstances slightly different 
— with the same result. Then follows the 
passionate and sanguinary assault which de- 
stroys the noblest among the recusants, while 
the most active and dangerous are preserved 
by hypocrisy or exile — and thus the sect 
spreads secretly and widely; it secures a 
sympathy which it may not have merited by 
its excellence, and on the first occasion breaks 
out again with fresh force and fuiy. Then 
indeed, if recourse be had to argument, if 
greater right be on the stronger side, and if 
the secular sword be only employed to pur- 
sue the victory of reason, the cause of the 
sufferers becomes more feeble and less pop- 
ular — but still, unless the pursuit be carried 
to absolute, individual extermination, the ex- 
tinction even of the silliest heresy can only 
be effected by time — and time itself will com- 



* Mosheim, cent, v., p. ii, ch. v. An authority for 
this fact is Augustin in his Epistle to Boniface, ch. iii. 
Quidara etiam se trucidandos armatis viatoribus inge- 
rebant, percussuros eos se, nisi ab iis perimerentur, 
terribiliter comminantes. Nonnunquam et ab judici- 
bus transeuntibus extorquebant violenter, ut a carnifi- 
cibus vel ab officio ferirentur. Jam vero per abrupta 
praecipitia, per aquas et flamrnas occidere seipsos 
quotidianus illis ludus fuit. 



plete its work, at least as much by calming 
passion as by correcting judgment. 

JVotice of St. Augustin. The above narra- 
tive has introduced us to the name of St. Au- 
gustin, who was the most celebrated amongst 
the ancient Christian fathers, and who de- 
serves even now a more than usual attention, 
from the influence which his writings have 
unceasingly exerted in the Roman Catholic 
Church. But the notice which can here be 
bestowed upon him must necessarily be con- 
fined to very few points. He was born in 
Numidia, in the year 354, and his early youth 
was distinguished by his aversion from all 
study, and especially that of the Greek lan- 
guage. But an ardent passion for poetry at 
length opened the gate through which he en- 
tered into the fields of general literature. 
From profane, he directed his attention to 
religious subjects ; and when we recollect 
that Tertullian, the greatest amongst his Af- 
rican predecessors, seceded from the Church 
in the maturity of his judgment and learning, 
in order to embrace the visions of a raving 
fanatic, we are scarcely astonished to learn, 
that the youthful imagination of Augustin 
was seduced by the Manicheean opinions. He 
appears to have retained them for nine or ten 
years, during which time his rhetorical tal- 
ents had raised him into notice ; and it was 
not till the year 386, that he was persuaded 
(as it is said) by the sermons of St. Ambrose, 
and the writings of St. Paul, to return to the 
communion of the Church. His baptism 
(he was previously a catechumen only) 
speedily followed his conversion ; his ordi- 
nation took place soon afterwards, and the 
city of Hippo, in Africa, which owes most of 
its celebrity to its association with his name, 
was that in which he first ministered as 
Priest, and afterwards presided as Bishop. 
He died in 430, in the thirty-fifth year of his 
episcopate. 

The first recorded exploit in his ecclesias- 
tical life was the destruction of an inveterate 
and consecrated abuse. We have mentioned 
the innocent origin of the Agapse or feasts of 
charity, and the good purposes to which, in 
early times, they contributed. But as the in- 
flux of the Pagan converts grew more rapid, 
and as these naturally sought in the new 
religion for any resemblance to the popular 
ceremonies of the old, the solemnity in ques- 
tion insensibly changed its character under 
their influence, and degenerated into the li- 
! cense and debauchery of a heathen festival. 
{ Augustin, while yet a presbyter, undertook 
i the difficult office of persuading the people to 



DISSENSIONS. 



155 



abandon a favorite and hereditary practice, 
and by the simple exertion of his eloquence 
he succeeded. Services of reading and 
chanting v^^ere substituted in its place ; and 
while the churches of the heretics* resound- 
ed with the customary revelry, the voice of 
devotion alone proceeded from the assem- 
blies of the Catholics. This change took 
place in the year 395 ; and from that moment 
the reputation of Agustin spread rapidly 
throughout the African Church, and thence, 
as his labors proceeded, was diffused with no 
less of splendor to the most distant part of 
Christendom. 

Besides the faithful discharge of his epis- 
copal and his private duties, the Bishop of 
Hippo engaged deeply in the controversies 
of the day ; and his attacks are chiefly direct- 
ed against the Manichaeans, the Donatists, 
and the Pelagians. His familiarity with the 
errors of the first may have qualified him 
more effectually to confute them — but it is at 
the same time curious to observe the motives 
which he advances for his own adhesion to 
the Catholic Church. They are the follow- 
ing : the consent of the people ; the authority 
which began in the faith of miracles, which 
was nourished by hope, augmented by char- 
ity, confirmed by antiquity ; the succession 
in the Chair of St. Peter ; and the name of 
Catholic so established, that if a stranger 
should ask where is the Catholic Church ? no 
heretic would certainly dare to claim that 
title for his own Church, f These argu- 
ments, and such as these, have been so com- 
monly repeated in later ages, that, without at 
all entering (for such is not our province) in- 
to the question of their real value, we are 
contented to record their high antiquity, and 
the sanction which they received from the 
name of Augustin. 

His exertions against the Donatists,^ which 
we have already noticed, have attached 
to the character of that father the stain of 



* Fleury, H. E., liv. xx., s. 11. This is the oc- 
casion on which it is recorded, that as long as his el- 
oquence was honored only by the acclamations of the 
listening multitudes, Augustin was sensible of its im- 
perfection, and despaired of success; and his hopes 
were only revived by the sight of their tears. 

t Fleury, liv. xx., s, 23. No heretic was so like- 
ly to have laid that claim as a Donatist — yet even a 
Donatist, while he maintained that the true Catho- 
lic spirit and purity was alone perpetuated and inher- 
ent in his own communion, would scarcely have af- 
firmed, that that was bona fide the universal Church, 
which did not extend beyond the shores of Africa, 
and which had not the majority even there. 

4: Cent, jv., p. ii., ch, iii. 



persecution. The maxim (says Mosheim, 
which justified the chastisement of religious 
errors by civil penalties, was confu'med and. 
estabhshed by the authority of Augustin, and 
thus transmitted to following ages. He can- 
not be vindicated from that charge ; * he un- 
questionably maintained the general princi- 
ple, that the Unity of the Church should be 
preserved by secular interference, and that 
its adversaries should be crushed by the ma- 
terial sword. But his natural humanity in 
some degree counteracted the barbarity of 
his ecclesiastical principles ; and there is still 
extant an epistle addressed by him to Mar- 
cellinus (in 412), in which he earnestly en- 
treated that magistrate to extend mercy to 
certain Donatists, who had been convicted 
of some sanguinary excesses against the 
Catholics ; but the misfortune was, that, 
while his private philanthropy preserved the 
lives perhaps of a few individuals, the effica- 
cy which he assisted in giving to the worst 
maxim of Church policy not only sharpened 
the shafts of injustice in his own time, but 
tempered them for long and fatal service in 
after ages. The Pelagians, the third class of 
his religious adversaries, will receive a sepa- 
rate notice in the following pages. Of the 
numerous works which he composed, uncon- 
nected with these controversies, that entitled 
De Civitate Dei has justly acquu-ed the great- 
est celebrity. We may also mention his 
book on the Trinity among his most impor- 
tant productions. He devoted much dili- 
gence and judgment to the interpretation of 
Scripture ; and his writings contain many 
excellent arguments for the truth of the re- 
ligion, and of the evangelical history ; but the 
mere barren enumeration of his works would 
convey neither ajiiusement nor profit to the 
reader, and we have no space for abstracts 
sufficiently copious to make him familiar 
with the mind of the author. 

Erasmus has drawn a parallel between Au- 
gustin and his great contemporary, the monk 
of Palestine, which is certainly too favorable 
to the latter. 'No one can deny (he says) 
that there is great importance in the country 
and education of men. Jerome was born at 
Stridona, which is so near to Italy, that the 
Italians claim him as a compatriot ; he was 
educated at Rome under very learned mas- 
ters. Augustin was born in Africa, a barbar- 



* Besides the epistle to Dulcitius, see his letter, or 
rather tract to Boniface, « de Correctione Donatista- 
rum;' and that to Vincentius (113, alias 48). The 
principle is avowed and defended in both — at least 
provided the animus be to correct, not to revenge! 



156 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



ous region, and singularly inJifTerent to liter- 
ary pursuits, as he avows in his epistles. Je- 
rome, a Christian, the child of Christians, 
imbibed with his very milk the philosophy 
of Christ: Augustin began to read St. Paul's 
epistles with no instructer when nearly thirty 
years of age. Jerome devoted his great tal- 
ents for thirty years to the study of the Scrip- 
tures : Augustin was immediately hurried to 
the episcopal office, and compelled to teach 
to others what he had not yet learned him- 
self. We observe then, even supposing a 
parity of country, talents, masters, education, 
how much more learning was brought to the 
task by Jerome ; for it is no trifling matter 
that he was skilled in the Greek and Hebrew 
languages ; since in those days all theology, 
as well as all philosophy, was in possession 
of the Greeks. Augustin was ignorant of 
Greek ;* at least the very trifling knowledge 
which he possessed of it was insuflacient for 
the study of the commentaries of the Greek 
writers.! The merit of more profound learn- 
ing was unquestionably on the side of Je- 
rome, but we cannot justly attribute to him 
any other superiority ; in soundness of reas- 
oning and in natural judgment he certainly 
yielded to the Bishop of Hippo, and in the 
only recorded point of difference | between 
them he was very properly corrected by that 



* Dr. Lardner makes, we think, a very ineffectual 
attempt to prove that Augustin knew much more of 
that language than he even himself professed to have 
known — for a few happy translations of Greek words, 
and even sentences, he was probably obliged to the 
learning of a friend or secretary. 

t Erasmus ends his comparison by affirming, * that 
for his own part he learns more of Christian philoso- 
phy from one page of Origen than from ten of Augus- 
tin^' and others, perhaps, will add, from their own 
experience, ' and from one page of Augustin, than 
from ten of Jerome.' 

i This dispute was on the verse (ch. ii., v. 11.) of 
St. Paul's epistle to the Galatians: 'When Peter 
came to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, be- 
cause he was to be blamed.' Jerome had published 
his opinion, that the apostles had this public differ- 
ence on a previous understanding, and by a charitable 
artifice; and that St. Paul in fact saw the policy, 
and propriety of St. Peter's adhesion to the Jews, at 
the moment when he professed to condemn it. Ac- 
cording to Augustin, this interpretation goes to over- 
throw the whole authority of Scripture; for if it is 
once allowed to admit there the existence of service- 
able falsehoods, and to say that St. Paul in that 
passage spoke what he did not mean, and treated St. 
Peter as reprehensible when he did not think him so, 
there is no passage which may not be similarly eluded. 
The heretics who condemn marriage would assert that 
St. Paul only approved it through condescension ixt 



prelate. In depth of moral feeling and ener- 
gy of affecting eloquence the advantage is al- 
so due to Augustin ; and the natural suavity 
of his disposition, which forms so strong a 
contrast with what might almost be desig- 
nated the ferocity of Jerome, tended to soften 
the acrimony of religious difference,* and to 
throw some sparks of charity into the con- 
troversies in which he found himself almost 
necessarily engaged. 

Some particulars relating to his private life 
are recorded by historians, on the evidence 
of his own writings, and other respectable 
authority. His furniture and his dress were 
plain, without affectation either of fineness or 
of poverty. He wore, like other people, a 
linen garment underneath, and one of wool 
without ; he wore shoes and stockings, and 
exhorted those, who thought better to obey 
the Gospel by walking with naked feet, to 
assume no merit from that practice. 'Let 
us observe charity, he said — I admire your 
courage — endure my weakness.' His table 
was frugal, and ordinarily served with vege- 
tables ; meat was seldom prepared, unless for 
guests or for the infirm, but there was always 
wine. Excepting his spoons, which were 
of silver, all the service was earthen, or of 
wood or marble, not by necessity, but from a 
love for poverty. On his table were written 
two verses, to forbid any scandal to be spok- 
en of the absent — proving that it was with- 
out a cloth, according to the usage of anti- 
quity. He never forgot the poor, and aided 
them from the same ftmd on which he sub- 
sisted with his clergy ; that' is, from the rev- 
enues of the Church or the oblations of the 
faithful. He paid great regard to hospitality, 
and held it as a maxim, that it was a much 
preferable error to entertain a rogue, than to 
refuse an honest man. His usual occupation 
was arbitration among Christians and per- 
sons of all religions, who submitted their dif- 
ferences to him. But he liked much better 
to decide between strangers than between his 
friends — ' for of the two strangers I may 
make one a friend ; of the two friends I shall 
make one an enemy.' He applied himself 
little to the temporal interests of the Church, 
but busied himself much more in study, and 
in the meditation of spiritual concerns.-] 

n. The Priscillianists. Priscillian, a Spa- 
nish Bishop of birth and fortune and clo- 
the imperfection of the first Christians — and so of others. 

* Compare, for instance, the manner of his opposi- 
tion to the opinions of Jovinian with that of Jerome. 

t Fleury, liv. xxiv., chap, xxxviii. xxxix. 



DISSENSIONS. 



157 



quence, was accused by certain other Bish- 
ops of the heresy of the Manichseans ; he was 
condemned by a Council held at Saragossa 
(in 380), and a rescript was then obtained for 
his banishment, from the Emperor Gratian; 
but he was speedily restored to his country 
and his dignity. Gratian was assassinated, 
and succeeded by Maximus, a tyrant worthy 
of the throne of Domitian ; and before him* 
Idacius and Ithakius, the two ecclesiastics 
most persevering in their zeal or malignity, 
again accused Priscillian. His followers 
were probably not very numerous, but they 
presented themselves to plead their cause 
and prove their innocence, before Daraasus, 
Bishop of Rome, and the celebrated Am- 
brose, at Milan, — from neither of them could 
they obtain a hearing.! Perhaps their un- 
fortunate instructer was not more successful 
at the court of Maximus ; at least it is certain 
that, in the year 384, he was put to death at 
Treves, with some of his associates, on no 
other pretext than his heretical ophiions. J 

It is now disputed what those opinions 
were ; and it is probable that the same dis- 
pute existed in his own time ; since no an- 
cient writer has given us any cl^ar account 
of them — and none of the works of Priscil- 
lian or any of his followers have reached us. 
It seems likely, however, that the Priscillian- 
ists made some approaches, perhaps very 
distant ones, to the wild errors of the ?uani- 
ch9eans,§ respecting the two principles, the 
doctrine of seons, or emanations from the di- 
vine nature, and the creation of the world. 
It is possible that they disputed the reality of 



*Sulpicius Severus mentions Magnus and Rufus as 
the two Bishops who were finally the successful agents 
in procuring the condemnation of Priscillian. 

t Their opinions may have been adopted by sever- 
al both among the nobility and the people, and by a 
vast multitude of women (as is also asserted) in 
Spain; but they obtained no footing elsewhere. 
They are said to have been introduced into that 
country by one Marc, an Egyptian of Mempiiis, and 
a Manichaean. 

X We need not pause to notice some monstrous 
charges of immorality — such as we have seen so com- 
monly affixed to an unpopular heresy. 

§ It is a curious reflection, that at the same mo- 
ment when Priscillian was suffering tiie pangs of 
death, for opinions resembling the Manichtean her- 
esy, St. Augustin, the destined bulwark of the Catho- 
lic Church, — the man whose future writings were to 
become a storehouse of the true doctrine for so many 
countries and ages — was actually and deeply involv- 
ed in tlie very intricacies of the heresy itself. He re- 
turned to reason — but Priscillian, who was nearer to 
it than himself, was hastilv executed. 



Christ's birth and incarnation — though they 
professed to receive the Scriptures both of 
the Old and New Testament. They are 
stated to have disbelieved the resurrection of 
the body, and they had some erroj-s concern- 
ing the nature and ftmctions of the soul. 
They are blamed for not consuming the Eu- 
charist at Church, and for some irregularity 
in the season of their fasts; and some of 
them were charged besides (strange charges 
to be brought by Catholic accusers!) with 
having deserted their social rank, in order to 
betake themselves to solitary devotion ; and 
with holding opinions favorable to celibacy. 
For these offences, or such as these, Priscil- 
lian suffered death ; and his fate has gained 
hin:t4:he more celebrity, because it is usual to 
consider him as the first martyr to religious 
dissent. Not perhaps truly so — for between 
the years 325 and 384 many an obscure vic- 
tim of the Arian heresy must have perished 
for his opinions, in silence and ignominy — 
but Arius himself escaped the storm ; and it 
cannot be disputed, that Priscillian was the 
first who atoned with his life for the danger- 
ous distinction of founding a religious sect.* 
It is some consolation to be enabled to add, 
that the principle by which he suffered was 
not yet in favor with the Christian Church ; 
the character of Ithakius, his most active 
enemy, is thus described by a contemporary 
historian ( Sulpicius Severus), — ' he was a 
man void of all principle; loquacious, im- 
pudent, expensive, a slave to gluttony — so 
senseless as to represent every holy person 
who delighted in religious studies, and prac- 
tised mortification and abstinence, as an as- 
sociate or a disciple of Priscillian.' On the 
other hand, the persecuted heretic found a 
powerful protector m one of the most vener- 
able prelates of that age, Martin of Tours, ' a 
man comparable to the apostles.' So long as 
Martin remained at the Court of Maximus, his 
authority was sufncient to prevent the medi- 
tated injustice ; he had even ventured to rep- 
resent to that usurper, that it was ' a new and 
unlawful attempt of the civil magistrate to 
take cognizance of an ecclesiastical cause ' 
— a boldness consistent with his peaceful vir- 
tues, and derived from the now acknowledg- 
ed dignity of his profession. The deed was 



* We sliciild mention, perhaps, the distinction that 
Priscillian suffered death for the opinions tliemselves 
— directly and avowedly — not, as thousands before 
him had suffered, for contumacy in persisting in thorn 
— a distinction which has no real value, except as 
marking the greater shamelessness of persecution ia 
at lens[th castinsr off her mask. 



158 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



perpetrated in his absence, and he then pro- 
tested against the act, and withdrew from the 
communion of the murderers. The memory 
of this excellent prelate has been disfigured 
oy the credulous historian, who intended to 
be his eulogist ; and we would willingly be- 
lieve, that the stupendous miracles so pro- 
fusely attributed to him were created by the 
veneration of the vulgar, or even by the en- 
thusiasm of the writer, not by the deliberate 
imposture of a pious Christian.* 

Sulpicius proceeds to say, that ' the death 
of Priscillian was so far from repressing the 
heresy of which he had been the author, that 
it conduced greatly to confirm and extend it ; 
for his followers, who before had reverenced 
him as a pious man, began to worship him as 
a martyr. The bodies of those who had 
suffered death were carried back to Spain, 
and interred with great solemnity ; and to 
swear by the name of Priscillian was prac- 
tised as a religious act.' Such were the im- 
mediate consequences of his execution ; it 
does not appear, however, that his opinions 
took any deep or lasting root, or ever agam 
became the occasion of offence or confusion 
to the Church. 

III. Jovinian. The same age, almost the 
same year, which witnessed the death of one 
heretic for opinions, among which was a 
rigid, undue admiration of bodily austerities 
and religious seclusion, beheld with less sur- 
prise the banishment of another heretic, for 
daring to raise his voice in disparagement 
of those same practices. Jovinian had re- 
ceived his education in an Italian convent, 
but the common feelings and principles of 
nature were not extinguished in him. He 
left his retirement, and published a volume 
in which he rashly endeavored to show, that 
those who followed the rules of the Gospel, 
amid the temptations and perplexities of so- 
cial life, possessed as just a claim to the re- 



* * Men of probity in other respects, and fully per- 
suaded of the truth of Christianity, (and such I take 
Martin, Paulinus, and Sulpicius to have been) hav- 
ing found in the populace a strong taste for the mar- 
vellous, and no capacity for better proofs, judged it 
expedient rather to leave them to their prejudices, 
and to make use of those pi'ejudices to confirm them 
m the true faith, than to undertake the vain task of 
curing them of their superstition, and run the risk of 
plunging them into vice and unbelief. Therefore 
ihey humored the trick, and complied with the fashion 
for the good of those who were deceived.' Le Clere, 
Bibl. Chois., ap. Jortin, ad. ann. 402. 'J'his seems to 
De the simplest solution of the difficulty. 



wards of futurity as those who observed the 
same rules in solitude ; that pleasures are 
not necessarily sins ; that temperance is as 
excellent a virtue as abstinence ; and that the 
chaste enjoyments of marriage are as agree* 
able to the eye of a benevolent Deity, as 
the mortifications of unnatural celibacy.* 
Jerome, ' the monk of the age,' poured out iu 
reply much passionate declamation in praise 
of the established superstitions, and some 
calumnious invective against the person of 
the reformer ; and as the current already ran 
too strongly in his favor, his clamors were 
echoed by the zealous multitude, while the 
wise were constrained to sorrow and si- 
lence, f Among Christian Churches the 
foremost in the extinction of reason and true 
Christianity was the Church of Rome. Her 
impatience to crush the dangerous innovator 
was emulated by St. Ambrose at Milan ; and 
the opinions of Jovinian were formally con- 
demned, in the year 390, by a Council there 
held by that Prelate. But the work was not 
yet complete ; the Emperor Honorius was 
prevailed upon to interpose the secular au- 
thority in the same cause ; and the following 
was his proclamation — ' The complaint of 
some Bishops mentions as a grievance that 
Jovinian assembles sacrilegious meetings 
without the walls of the most holy city. 
Wherefore we ordain that the above-men- 
tioned be seized and whipped, together with 
his abettors and attendants, and confined to 
some place of banishment ; and that the 
machinator himself be immediately sent 
away to the island of Boa. ' Boa was a 
wretched rock, near the Illyrian coast; and 
in this exile, Jovinian, during the remainder 
of his life, expiated the crime of proclaiming 
in the fourth century truths which no one had 
dreamed of disputing in the second, and which 
are defended with almost equal clearness by 
the authority of reason and of revelation. 

Vigilantius. This example did not pre- 
vent another and a bolder attempt at Refor- 
mation — for as the corruptions of that time 

* He was also charged with the speculative error, 
that all who have been regenerated by baptism, with 
perfect faith, were indefectible, and could not fail of 
their heavenly recompense. He may have held this 
opinion — but the points on wl)ich the controversy 
turned, were those which much more nearly affected 
the practice of mankind. 

f It should be mentioned that the reply of Jerome 
was not written till after the condemnation of the of- 
fender, in consequence of some progress which the 
opinions are said for the moment to have made at 
Rome. 



DISSExNSIONS. 



159 



had not yet subsided into habits ; as they 
could not yet plead prescription and long fa- 
miliar practice ; as they were not yet conse- 
crated by the claims of hereditary reverence, 
it was natural that the voice of reason should 
sometimes raise itself in faint opposition to 
their progress. Very early in the follow- 
ing century Vigilantius, a native of Gaul, 
who had performed the functions of presby- 
ter in Spain, and afterwards, by his travels 
through Egypt and Palestine, enlightened 
and enriched a vigorous understanding and 
character, boldly avowed his disgust at the 
growing abuses of the day. Nor did he 
confine his attack to one or two points ; he 
directed it against the castles and strong 
holds of superstition. He denied that the 
tombstones of the martyrs were proper ob- 
jects of homage and worship ; he denied the 
holiness of places so sanctified, and censured 
the pilgrimages that were made to them. 
He derided the prodigies by which the tem- 
ples of the martyrs were so much celebrat- 
ed, and condemned the vigils performed in 
them ; and he even ventured to assert that 
the custom of burning tapers at their tombs, 
in the face of day, was a foolish imitation of 
the Pagan practice. He denied the efficacy 
of prayers addressed to departed saints, and 
spake lightly of fasting and mortifications, 
and celibacy, and the various and useless 
austerities of the monastic life. And lastly, 
he disparaged the merit of that suspicious 
charity which lavished large sums for devout 
purposes, in fancied atonement for unrepent- 
ed sin. The clamorous guardian of ecclesias- 
tical depravity was again awakened by this 
second invasion of abuses so dear to him ; 
and immediately, from his monastery at 
Bethlehem, he assailed the Reformer with 
such overbearing vehemence of plausible and 
popular argument, that the good Vigilantius 
deemed it wiser to retire from the conflict 
than to expose himself to unprofitable martyr- 
dom. And in fact we find that this heresy 
(so it was designated) gained so little ground, 
that the interference of a Council was not re- 
quired to extmguish it. Tlie principal credit 
of both these triumphs is due to St. Jerome — 
than whom the Church, in her whole histo- 
ry, has not ever listened to a more pernicious 
counsellor. 

IV. The Pelagian Controversy. The con- 
troversy to which we next proceed was on a 
subject of the deepest and most permanent 
importance to the whole Christian world; 
and though, through the perverse misappli- 



cation of human ingenuity, dissensions have 
flovv^ed from it, to the great disturbance of 
former ages, and to the division even of the 
present, we cannot affect either surprise or 
regret, that a question of so much moment 
should have agitated thus early the minds 
of pious men — for it went to the bottom of 
the Christian doctrme respecting the original 
corruption of human nature, and the neces- 
sity of divine grace, to enlighten the under- 
standing and to purify the heart. 

It is in all cases extremely difficult, in the 
statement of those ancient controversies, to do 
justice to the arguments, or even to the opin- 
ions, maintained by either party — because 
these, in the process of the dispute, became 
closely, often inseparably, connected with 
consequences imputed to them by the adver- 
sary as necessary, and disclaimed by the ad- 
vocate as unfair and arbitrary. So that those 
very subtilties of reasoning, which professed 
to unfold and explain the difference, did in 
fact only produce perplexity. In the Pelagi- 
an controversy this difficulty is increased by 
two causes : first, that we know little of the 
opinions of the heretic, except from the writ- 
ings of his opponents; secondly, that the fear 
of public condemnation, and perhaps tempo- 
ral punishment, occasionally led him into un- 
worthy equivocation ; so that his expressions 
are sometimes such as seemingly to convey 
an assertion of orthodoxy at variance with 
the whole drift of his previous argument. 
Again, the mere facts of the controversy have 
been variously related, according as the opin- 
ions of the relators have been tinged, howev- 
er slightly, by the opposite colors of Pela- 
gianism or Fatalism. We must endeavor, 
however, to disentangle the truth from these 
intricacies. 

Pelagius was a native of Britain, probably 
of Wales; the associate of his travels, his 
heresy, and his celebrity, was Celestius, an 
Irishman : both were monks ; both, too, were 
men of considerable talents, and no just sus- 
picions have ever been thrown on the sanc- 
tity of their moral conduct. They arrived at 
Rome in the very beginning of the fifth cen- 
tury, and remained there in the undisturbed, 
and perhaps obscure, profession of their opin- 
ions till the year 410, when they retb-ed, on 
the Gothic invasion, the former to Palestine, 
the latter to Carthage. Here the peculiar 
doctrines of Celestius did not long escape 
detection ; they first attracted the attention 
of the Deacon, Paulinus of Milan, who ar- 
raigned and caused them to be condemned 
in a Council held at Carthage in the year 



160 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



412.* It does not appear that Augustin assist- 
ed at this Councilj as he was still engaged in 
pursuing his advantages over the Donatists ; 
however, he did not delay to enter the field 
against the new adversary, and very soon 
afterwards assailed the infant heresy, both by 
his sermons and writings.f Dissatisfied with 
the easy triumph which attended his exer- 
tions in his own Church, he followed the fu- 
gitive into the East, and having ascertained 
that Pelagius maintained the same errors in 
Palestine, he occasioned him to be accused 
before two Councils ; the one at Jerusalem,t 



* The errors here charged against Celestius were 
comprised in seven articles — 1. That Adam was cre- 
ated mortal, and would have died, whether he had 
fsinned or not; 2. that the sin of Adam injured him- 
self alone, not the human race; 3. that infants, at 
their birth, are in the condition of Adam before his 
sin; 4. that neither the death nor sin of Adam is the 
cause of man's mortality, nor the resurrection of 
Christ of his resurrection ; 5. that man may be saved 
by the Law as well as by the Gospel ; 6. that before 
the coming of Christ there had been men without sin ; 
7. that infants inherit eternal life without baptism. 
These were partly disclaimed or explained away, but 
enough remained to show the real nature of his opin- 
ions, though we may observe that the words free-will 
and grace do not yet appear in the controversy. 

t The natural causes of the opposition of the 
Church to the Pelagian opinions are ingeniously and 
reasonably discussed by Guizot (Cours d'Histoire 
Moderne, Legon V.) We shall transcribe one pas- 
sage, which deserves attention, and which cannot be 
condensed: — 'Augustin, who was the chief among 
the doctors of the Church, was peculiarly called upon 
to maintain the general system of its belief. Now, 
the notions of Pelagius and Celestius appeared to him 
to be in contradiction with some of the fundamental 
points of Christian faith, especially the doctrine of 
original sin and that of redemption. He attacked 
tliem, then, in three characters ; — as philosopher, be- 
cause their science of human nature was, in his view, 
narrow and incomplete ; as practical reformer and 
governor of the Church, because they weakened, in 
his mind, the most efficacious method of reform and 
government; as logician, because their ideas did not 
exactly square with the consequences which flo\\'ed 
from the essential principle of the faith. Observe, 
then, what gravity the dispute assumed from that mo- 
ment; every thing was engaged in it — philosophy, 
politics, and religion ; the opinions of St. Augustin, 
and his business, his vanity, and his duty. He aban- 
doned himself entirely to it, publishing treatises, writ- 
ing letters, collecting communications which flowed 
in upon him from all quarters, profuse in regulations 
and counsels, and carrying into all his Avritings and 
all his measures, that mixture of passion and mildness, 
of authority and sympatliy, of expanse of mind and 
logical strictness, which gave him such singular pow- 
er.' 

X On this occasion, being asked if he really main- 
tained opinions which Augustin had condemned, he 



the other at Diospolis. John, Bishop of Je- 
rusalem, was favorable to- the cause, perhaps 
to the tenets of Pelagius ; and thus, partly by 
his influence, partly from the absence of 
any fixed rule of orthodoxy on those partic- 
ular subjects in the Eastern Church, partly 
from the very modified statement of his own 
opinions delivered to the Councils by Pela- 
gius, that sectarian, in spite of the violent 
opposition of Jerome, was acquitted in both. 
This event took place in 415 ; and in the year 
following, Augustin, undaunted by this re- 
pulse, again assembled Councils in Africa 
and Numidia, and again condemned the of- 
fensive doctrines. 

The scene of action was then transferred 
to Rome, on the appeal, as it would seem, of 
the two heretics, and with the hope, perhaps, 
(not a reasonable hope,) that the authority 
of the Church of Jerusalem would have as 
much weight at the Vatican, as that of the 
Church of Carthage. Zosimus had been just 
raised to the pontificate ; to him the contro- 
versy was referred, with great show of hu- 
mility, by Celestius; and whether deceived 
by the artful composition of the creed pre- 
sented to him for approval, or overlooking 
the importance of a question to which his at- 
tention had not previously been much direct- 
ed, or flattered by the personal appeal to his 
justice and the acknowledged submission to 
the Chair of St. Peter, or influenced by all 
these reasons, Zosimus pronounced the inno- 
cence of the disputed doctrine. 

Augustin was not even thus discouraged ; 
and his ardent religious feelings, as well as 
his reputation, were now too deeply interest- 
ed in the controversy to allow him to rest 
here. Once more he assembled his Bishops, 
and after the public renewal of former de- 
clarations, he proceeded to inform the Pope 
more clearly as to the real nature and impor- 
tance of the question ; as to the errors which 
had been actually professed by the heretics ; 
and those which, though disingenuously dis- 
avowed, followed of coui-se from them. Zo- 
simus does not appear to have been much 
moved by these representations ; but in the 
meantime a more powerful avenger had 



replied, ' What is Augustin to me'? ' Many were of- 
fended, for Augustin was the most venerable authority 
of the age ; and some immediately proposed to excom- 
municate the spiritual rebel: but John averted tlie 
blow, and kindly addressed Pelagius, — ' It is I who 
am Augustin here; it is to me that j'ou shall answer.' 
Pelagius spoke Greek, and is said to have thus ob- 
tained some advantages over his accuser Orosius, who 
was ignorant of that lan<Tua?e. 



DISSENSIONS. 



161 



been roused by the perseverance of the Afri- 
cans. An imperial Edict descended from 
Constantinople, which banished both the de- 
linquents from Rome, and menaced with 
perpetual exile and confiscation of estates all 
who should maintain their doctrines in any 
place. This decisive blow was struck in the 
March of 418 ; in the May following, another 
and still more numerous Council * met at 
Carthage for the purpose of completing the 
triumph ; and then the Bishop of Rome was 
at length prevailed upon to place, in conjunc- 
tion w^ith his clergy, the final seal of heresy 
on the Pelagian opinions. The opinions 
themselves did not, indeed, expire from these 
successive wounds, but have frequently re- 
appeared under different forms and modifi- 
cations ; but no further attempts were made 
to extend them by their original authors. 

The sum of those opinions, was this : — 1, 
That the sins of our first parents are imput- 
ed to themselves alone, and not to their pos- 
terity ; that we derive no corruption from 
their fall ; that we inherit no depravity fi'om 
our origin ; but enter into the world as pure 
and unspotted as Adam at his creation. It 
was a necessary inference from this doctrine, 
that infant baptism is not a sign or seal of the 
remission of sins, but only a mark of admis- 
sion into the kingdom of Christ. 2. That 
our own powers are sufiicient for our own 
justification ; that as by our own fi-ee-will we 
run into sin, so, by the same voluntary exer- 
cise of our faculties, we are able to repent, 
and reform, and raise ourselves to the high- 
est degree of virtue and piety ; that we are, 
indeed, assisted by that external f grace of 
God which has taught us the truths of reve- 
lation ; which opens to us our prospects, and 
enlightens our understanding, and animates 
our exertions after godliness ; but that the 
internal and immediate operation of the 
Holy Spirit is not necessary, either to awaken 
us to religious feeling, or to further us in our 
progi-ess towards hohness; in short, that 
man, by the unassisted agency of his natural 
perfections under the guidance of his own 
free-will^ is enabled to work out his own sal- 
vation. 



* Two hundred and three, or, as some assert, two 
hundred and fourteen Bishops were present. 

t Pelagius artfully perplexed the subject, by his as- 
sertion of six different kinds of grace; and if there 
be any of his expressions which may seem to imply 
more than we here give them credit for, they are, at 
least, so vague, and, we think, purposely so vague, as 
to make it impossible to attach any definite meaning 
to them, 

21 



Regarding these doctrines, it is sufficient 
for a Christian to examine, whether or not 
they are in accordance with the obvious in- 
terpretation of Scripture ; and the long ex- 
perience of a fi-uitless controversy must at 
length have convinced us respecting such 
inscrutable subjects, that if we advance one 
step beyond the safe and substantial ground 
of revelation, we become entangled in the 
mazes of metaphysical disputation. In these 
matters, we are not to inquire what is 
probable, but what is written; and it has 
become a question, whether the presumptu- 
ous arrogance of reason, which is objected to 
the system of Pelagius, did not lead his op- 
ponents, who believed themselves humble, 
equally far away from that entire submission 
to the Gospel, which is the only tue hu- 
mility. 

Augustin maintained the Church doctrines 
of original sin and saving grace with great 
force and zeal, and the most unaffected sin- 
cerit}^; and his vvi-itings on this subject con- 
tinued for above twelve centuries to distrib- 
ute the waters of regeneration over the bar- 
ren surface of the Roman CathoKc Church. 
But Augustm himself, in the ardor of his op- 
position to free-will, did he not overstep the 
just limits of reason, and advance into the 
contrary extreme of fatalism ? It is true that 
he warmly disclaimed that doctrine, when 
nakedly objected to him as the obvious and 
inevitable result of those which he professed ; 
but it was not without some sacrifice of logi- 
cal severity that he declined the formidable 
conclusion. Nevertheless, more rigid logi- 
cians and more daring theologians were 
found, who pressed to their utmost conse- 
quences the opinions of their master, and de- 
duced from them the predestinarian dogma 
in its full extent. Again, the publication of 
the astounding tenet on such authority (for 
St. Augustin, as w^ell as his adversaries, was 
held responsible for the consequences of his 
positions*) became the occasion of another 
series of divisions in the Church, which more 
particularly distracted that of Gaul ; so that 
the discord which grew out of the Pelagian 
controversy was not confined to the original 



*In fact, St. Augustin attributed the progressive 
sanctification of man to the direct, immediate, and 
special action of God on the soul ; that is, to grace, 
properly so called ; grace to which man had, by his 
own powers, no title : and which proceeded from the 
absolutely gratuitous gift and free choice of tlie Divin- 
ity. His twelve fundamental points of the doctrine 
of grace are delivered in the epistle (to Vitalis) num- 
bered 217 or 107. 



162 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, 



ground of dispute, but spread with baneful 
luxuriance over the vineyard of Christ. 

The Semi-Pelagians. Among the opinions 
to which it gave bu'th, the most popular, and 
perhaps the most reasonable, were those of 
the Semi-Pelagians. They began to spread 
in the South of France about the year 428, 
and are attributed to an oriental, named Cas- 
sian, who resided in a monastery at Mar- 
seilles. These Sectarians * regarded with 
equal suspicion that absolute independence 
of the Divine aid, so rashly ascribed to the 
human soul by the Pelagian system, and its 
entire prostration and helplessness as exhibit- 
ed by the Fatalists ; and they consequently 
concluded, that, by holding a middle course 
between opposite errors, they should most 
nearly arrive at truth. And so they main- 
tained, on the one hand, that the Grace pur- 
chased by Christ was necessary for salvation, 
and that no man could persevere or advance 
in holiness without its perpetual support and 
assistance : on the other, that our natural fac- 
ulties were sufficient for the beginning of 
repentance and amendment ; that Christ died 
for all men, and that there was no particular 
dispensation of his grace in consequence of 
predestination, but that it w^as equally offer- 
ed to all men ; that man was born free, and 
therefore capable of receiving its influences, 
or resisting them. These doctrines were gen- 
erally condemned in the Western Church.f 
It is true, they have continued, with slight 
variations, to find many advocates there in 
every age ; but the Church faithfully follow- 
ed the line which had been traced by Au- 
gustin. By adopting his doctrines on grace, 
it condemned the heresy both of the Pela- 
gians and Semi-Pelagians ; and by rejecting 
the dogma of the Fatalists, it relieved itself 
from that, which would have proved a per- 
petuar source of internal dissatisfaction and 

* Guizot has justly observed, that none of these 
doctrines gave birth to a Sect, properly so called; 
those who held them were not formally separated 
from the Church and formed into a distinct religious 
society, nor had they any peculiar organization or 
worship. The doctrines were pure opinions debated 
among enlightened men, and varying both in their 
credit and in the degrees of their deviation from the 
Church, but never such as to menace a formal 
schism. 

t St. Augustin died about two years after their 
birth, but his work was followed up by Prosper and 
Hilary, who caused them to be condemned very soon 
afterwards by Pope Celestin. On the other hand, 
the opinions of the Predestinarians were also con- 
demned by the Councils of Aries (in 472), and of 
Lyons (i,n 473.) 



dissent. But in the East, if we may judge 
fi-om the writings of Chrysostom, * and the 
general tone of the Greek fathers, the Semi- 
Pelagian opinions had obtained an earlier 
and common prevalence, and they appear to 
have maintained it, with little interruption or 
dispute, to the present moment. The Greeks, 
however, engaged with little ardor in the Pe- 
lagian disputes; and the reason may have 
been, that the seeds of another contention, 
even more suited to the peculiarity of their 
metaphysical taste, were now ready to burst 
forth with abundant fertility. The great 
controversy respecting the Incarnation of 
Jesus Christ, which engaged, for about two 
hundred and fifty years, the ingenuity and 
the passions of the Eastern world, first dis- 
covered itself in the beginning of the fifth 
century, emerging, as it were, from the mists 
of some early heresies. We shall give as 
concise an account of it, as is consistent with 
the illustration of its more important fea- 
tures. 

V. Controversy on the Incarnation. The 
controversy respecting the Trinity was ter- 
minated by the Council of Constantinople 
in the year 381, which established the belief 
in the personality and divinity of the Holy 
Spirit, as the true doctrine of the Universal 
Church. The Arian heresy had been previ- 
ously condemned ; and about the end of the 
fourth century, the attention of speculative 
minds began to turn fi^om the momentous 
consideration of the eternal and celestial 
nature of Christ, and the consequent degree 
of worship which is due to him, to a subor- 
dinate inquiry into the probable nature of 
his existence during his temporary residence 
here on earth. This question had, indeed, 
been moved in the first ages of the Church, 
and some of the errors of Marcion, of Cer- 
mthus, Carpocrates, Basilides, and others, are 
connected with it ; but their opinions were so 
immediately derived from the absurd theories 
of Gnosticism, that they gained no great or 
lasting prevalence, nor have any claim on 
our present attention. And it will seem, in- 
deed, a very singular circumstance, that the 
first speculations on this subject, which nec- 
essarily fix our notice, should have proceed- 
ed from the friend and associate of Athana- 
sius — Apollinaris, Bishop of Laodicea, wheth- 
er carried into excess by his hostility to 



*The opinions of Chrysostom on the subject ap- 
pear to be fairly discussed by Dupin. Nouv. Bibl.^ 
in his Life of that Father. 



DISSENSIONS. 



163 



Arianism, or inextricably entangled in his 
own unnecessary siibtilties, so far lost sight 
of the moderation of reason, that in asserting 
the divinity of Christ he denied the reality 
of his human nature. For he held that the 
divine nature (the Logos) supphed in Him 
the place of the spiritual and intellectual 
principle, and constituted, in fact. His mind. 
In this sense he could not be considered as 
perfect man ; and in effect, the substitution 
of the Divine essence for the human soul, so 
far confused the tv70 natures of Christ, as to 
reduce them to ' one incarnate nature,' — a 
doctrine which, indeed, Apollinaris did not 
disavow. This opinion took deep root in the 
Egj^ptian Church, but it was condemned by 
the clergy of Asia and Syria. 

JVestorius. The question, however, not be- 
ing publicly pursued by the directors of the 
Church, rested in an unsettled state until the 
accession of Nestorius to the See of Con- 
stantinople in the year 428. That Prelate 
was a native of Antioch, and had been edu- 
cated in the Syi'ian schools ; and having then 
been strongly impressed with the distinction 
of the two natures and the dangerous en-or 
of confusing them, he inculcated so strongly 
the difference between the Son of God and 
the Son of Man, as to seem almost to extend 
the distinction of natures to a distinction of 
pei'sons, though he avowed no such intention. 
In consequence of these principles he defen- 
ded one of his presbyters, Anastasius, who in 
a public discourse had ventured to argue, that 
the Virgin Mary ought not properly to be 
called ' Mother of God ' {esor6y.og), but ' Moth- 
er of Christ ' {XQiaroToy.og), or even ' Mother 
of Man ' (^'AvBQwTioTdy.o;). Whatsoever may 
be the most appropriate appellation for the 
Mother of Jesus Christ, it was assuredly the 
proof of a narrow and contentious spirit, that 
the Head of the oriental Church should in 
any * way interfere in so vain a dispute. 
But Nestorius interfered with earnestness and 
ardor. It also happened, that the opinion 
which he undertook to protect was at vari- 
ance with the popular enthusiasm ; that had 
aheady set in the opposite direction, and it 
was easily urged on and roused into a tem- 
pest, when an insult was represented to have 



* In a letter addressed to John of Jerusalem, about 
two years afterwards, when the matter was inflamed 
almost beyond hope, Nestorius, indeed, attempts a 
justification, by saying that he found the religious 
world divided between Theotocos and Anthropoto- 
cos ; and that his only object was to unite both par- 
ties by the intermediate term Christotocos. But he 
had then discovered the folly of his attempt. 



been offered to the dignity and holiness of 
the Virgin. On one occasion, in the midst 
of a numerous assembly, one Eusebius (then 
a lawyer, and afterwards Bishop of Doryle- 
um) interrupted the sermon of the patriarch 
with these words : — ' It is the eternal Logos 
himself who has undergone a second birth 
according to the flesh, and by means of a 
woman.' The people were excited ; the 
subject occupied universal attention ; the pas- 
sions became inflamed, and Nestorius, in his 
owTi capital, was absurdly * accused of re- 
viving the heresies of Photinus and Paul 
of Samosata. But it was not among his do- 
mestic adversaries that he found his most 
formidable opponent. That opponent was 
Cyril, the patriarch of Alexandria — a man of 
learnmg and eloquence, and intolerable ar- 
rogance. And some jealousy which at that 
time subsisted, respecting the relative digni- 
ty of the two Sees, probably heightened the 
contention, and is believed by some to have 
caused it. Whether that be so or not, the two 
patriarchs anathematized each other with 
mutual violence ; and such troubles were 
raised, that the Emperor (Theodosius tlie 
younger) deemed it necessary to convoke a 
general Council for the purpose of appeasing 
them. It was assembled at Ephesus in the 
year 431, and stands in the annals of the 
Church as the third General Council. Cyril 
was appointed to preside, and consequently 
to judge the cause of his adversary ; and he 
carried into this office such little show of 
impartiality, that he refused even to wait for 
the arrival of the Bishop of Antioch and oth- 
ers, who were held friendly to Nestorius, and 
proceeded to pronounce sentence, while the 
meeting was yet incomplete. To secure or 
prosecute his advantages, he had brought 
with him from Egypt a number of robust and 
daring fanatics,f who acted as his soldiery ; 



* In a sermon, delivered in answer to a public at- 
tack made by Proclus, Bishop of Cyzicum, Nestori- 
us maintains that it is improper, ' nakedly to assert, 
that God was born of Mary ; but rather, that God, 
the Word of the Father, was joined to him who was 
born of Mary. It was the Man, and not the Word 
God, which rose again ; the Temple should be dis- 
tinguished from the God who dwells there.' (Fleury, 
liv. XXV. sect. 2.) It seems very probable, that if 
Nestorius had abstained from all mention of the Vir- 
gin Mary, or merely avoided the imprudence of in- 
terfering with the title of a being who was already 
becoming the object of superstition, the controversy 
would not have taken place at all. 

t These were chiefly monks — a race which swarm- 
ed with singular fecundity along the banks of the Nile, 



164 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



and it had been skilfully arranged, that Ephe- 
sus should be chosen for the decision of a 
difference respecting the dignity of the Vir- 
gin ; since popular tradition had buried her 
in that city, and the imperfect Christianity of 
its inhabitants had readily transferred to h j" 
the worship which their ancestors had of- 
fered to Diana. 

After publishing an unjust condemnation * 
of the undefended patriarch, and causing, 
through its own dissensions, some sanguinary 
tumult throughout the city, the third Gene- 
ral Council was at length dismissed by The- 
odosius in these words : — ' God is my wit- 
ness, that I am not the author of this confu- 
sion. His providence will discern and pun- 
ish the guilty. Return to your provinces; 
and may your private virtues repair the mis- 
chief and scandal of your meeting.' The 
banishment of Nestorius did not immediately 
follow his condemnation ; and four other 
years of intrigue and malevolence were ne- 
cessary, before he was dismissed, — first, to his 
original convent at Antioch, and finally to an 
island (Oasis) in the deserts of Upper Egypt. 
There he died ; and as he died a persecuted 
exile, he has a strong and natural claim on 
our sympathy ; but it is lessened by the recol- 
lection of his dangerous indiscretion ; and we 
are forbidden to forget or to conceal, that in 
his days of prosperity, while in the enjoy- 
ment of dignity and power, he had not refus- 
ed to inflict on the Arians and other heretics 
the calamities which were impending over 
himself f 

In the meantime his opinions extended 

and in the deserts of the Thebais. The influence which 
they possessed in the Egyptian Church is proved by 
the circumstance, that the first attack which Cyril 
made upon his brother-patriarch, appeared in the 
form of an Epistle General to the Monks of Egypt. 
Its success was very sensibly displayed at Ephesus. 
• * The first burst of the unanimous (if it was so) 
indignation of the Fathers M^as expressed nearly in 
these words : — ' Anathema to him who does not ana- 
thematize Nestorius ; the orthodox faith anathematizes 
him; the holy Council anathematizes him. We all 
anathematize the heretic Nestorius ; we anathematize 
all who communicate with him and liis impious belief. 
All the earth anathematizes the unholy religion of 
Nestorius. Anathema to him who does not anathe- 
matize Nestorius.' — Fleury, liv. xxv. sect. 39. 

■f During his banishment he was carried into cap- 
tivity by the Blemmyes ; and after his release by 
them, was hurried about from place to place by the 
governor of Upper Egypt, so that he had no repose 
even in exile. ' Enfin (i'ays Fleury) il mourut, acca- 
ble de vielUesse et d'infirmites; et on dit, que sa 
langue fut rongee de vers.' Of all Roman Catholic 
historians, Fleury is the most charitable. 



themselves rapidly throughout central Asia, 
along the Eastern extremities of Christen- 
dom. Through Chaldea, Persia, Syria, and 
Assyria ; in Arabia, India, Tartaiy, and even 
China, they took deep root during the fifth 
and following century ; and the numbers of 
their professors, their indignation against the 
persecutors of Nestorius, and their conse- 
quent enmity against the Church and name 
of Greece, prepared them, in a later age, for 
alliance with the Mahometan invader.* 

They assembled their councils at Seleucia, 
and their doctrine, as there determined, 
amounted to this — ' That in the Saviour of 
the world there were two persons or sub- 
stances [vTvoOTuaeig], of which the one was 
divine, the Eternal Word ; and the other, 
which was human, was the man Jesus ; that 
these two substances had only one aspect 
(barsopa, tiqoowtcov) ; that the union between 
the Son of God and the Son of man was not 
an anion of nature or of person, but only of 
will and affection ; that Christ was therefore 
to be carefully distinguished from God, who 
dwelt in him as in a temple ; that Mary was 
to be called the mother of Christ and not the 
mother of God.' From this exposition f of 
doctrine it has been suspected, and with great 
justice, tliat the difference between the Nes- 
torians and the Orthodox was in fact merely 
verbal ; and that the more rational disputants 
of both parties were maintaining, with some 
variation of expression, the very same opin- 
ions. Indeed, if hi that exposition we are to 
consider the word person as in both cases 
synonymous with Hypostasis, or substance, 
there remains little, if any thing, which could 
divide the most pugnacious polemics. 

Eutyches. In the history of this contro- 
versy, the name of Eutyches immediately 
succeeds to that of Nestorius. This person 
was the abbot of a convent at Constantinople, 
and an intemperate opposer of the opinions 

* ' The successors of Mahomet in Persia employed 
the Nestorians in the most important affairs, both of 
the cabinet and of the provinces, and suffered the pa- 
triarch of that sect only to reside in the kingdom of 
Babylon. The Monophysites enjoyed in Syria and 
Egypt an equal degree of favor and protection.' 
Mosh. (Cent. vii. p. ii. ch. v.) 

•j- It is taken from Mosheim ; and the peculiar word 
Barsopa may perhaps be properly translated aspect. 
Only render it person, and omit that same word when 
it is used synonymously with substance, and even the 
shadow of the difference is almost removed. It is at 
least certain that the Monothelites have commonly 
accused the Catholics of Nestorianisra, and have 
sometimes mistaken the one for the other. See Fleu- 
ry, xxvii,, sect. 23. 



DISSENSIONS. 



165 



of Nestorius. He carried the doctrine of the 
Egyptian school to its extreme interpretation, 
and appears to have exceeded the obscure 
limits of the error of Apolhnaris. * For that 
heresiarch affected to draw some distinction 
between an mtellectual and a sensitive soul, 
which, however subtile, may seem to remove 
his doctrine one step fi-om that of the Mo- 
nophysites; but Eutyclies at once boldly 
pronounced 'that in Christ there was but 
onef nature — that of the incarnate word.' 
Dioscorus, who had succeeded to the throne 
of Alexandria and to the character of Cyril, 
gave his decided support to Eutyches, and 
as both parties grew violent, Theodosius was 
exhorted to convoke another Council to de- 
termine the difference. He did so ; and, as 
if to prove the inefficacy of experience to 
confer wisdom, he again appointed Ephesus 
as the place of the meeting, and again select- 
ed the Bishop of Alexandria to preside in it. 
The tumults which had disgraced the Church 
in 431 were repeated with some additional 
brutalities in 449 ; the Egj'ptians again were 
triumphant ; and the assembly at length dis- 
persed, after having sanctioned the doctrine 
of Eutyches, and acquired the title, by which 
it has been stigmatized in every age of the 
Church, as 'The Assembly of Robbers.' 
This meeting, we should observe, has not 
obtained a place among the general Councils 
of the Church. :j: 

The western Bishops had hitherto inter- 
fered, not very warmly, in these disputes, 
which were indeed peculiarly oriental both 
in their origin and character. But Leo the 
Great, sensible of the scandal now brought 



* In the meantime, Eutyches was so far from 
acknowledging this resemblance, that in his letter to 
St. Leo, and in the presence of the Council, he 
anathematized Apollinaris, together with Valentinus, 
Manes, Nestorius, and Simon the magician. He 
had reached his seventy-first year, when his opinions 
\yeve attacked by the very same man who had first 
sounded the trumpet against Nestorius — Eusebius, 
now Bishop of Doryleum. 

•f A necessary consequence of this doctrine seems 
to be the ascription of the passion and sufferings of 
Christ to the Divine (the only) nature, and this could 
scarcely be avoided without taking refuge in the 
heresy of the Phantastics. In fact, the dissensions 
between the Corruptibles and Incorruptibles, in tlie 
reign of Justinian, were little else than a continuation 
of the Eutychian controversy, in its consequen- 
ces. These disputes chiefly prevailed in Egypt, the 
hot-bed of the Monophysite heresy. 

X 2vro$og 7.r^aToiy.}[, Conventus Latronum, Latro- 
cinium Ephesinum, are the terms in which it is usu- 
ally mentioned by the writers of both Churches. 



upon the whole Church even by the tempo- 
rary establishment of an erroneous doctrine, 
saw the necessity of more zealous interposi- 
tion. He therefore prevailed upon Marcian, 
the successor of Theodosius, to summon 
another Council on the same subject. It met 
at Chalcedon in 451 ; and the Pope's Legates 
(under the usual superintendence of the 
Imperial Officers) presided there. The pro- 
ceedings were conducted with gi*eater decen- 
cy ; Eutyches and Dioscorus were condemn- 
ed, and the orthodox* doctrine of 'Christ in 
one person and two natures ' was finally es- 
tablished, 

Henoticon of Zeno. As before with the 
Nestorians, so now with the followers of 
Eutyches, their energj^, and perhaps their 
numbers, increased on the public condemna- 
tion of their opinions. Some monks of that 
persuasion obtained possession of Jerusalem, 
and indulged in the most violent excesses; 
and the Catholic successor of Dioscorus, 
after a contention of five years with his Al- 
exandrian subjects, was at length sacrificed 
to their religious fury. Presently afterwards, 
in the year 482, the Emperor Zeno made a 
fruitless but memorable attempt to extinguish 
all religious dissension, by the publication of 
an Edict of Union, called the Henoticon. 
In this proclamation he confirmed the estab- 
lished doctrines, and anathematized alike the 
Arians, Phantastics, Nestorians, and Euty- 
chians ; but out of tenderness to the feelmgs 
of the last, he avoided any particular mention 
of the Council of Chalcedon. The more 
moderate men, both among the Catholics 
and Monophysites, f (still the two prevailing 
parties) subscribed this decree ; but the fruits 
of their moderation were not such as, by 
their principles and example, they deserved, 
and perhaps expected. Among the latter a 



* Admitting, as we do, that the opinions of Nesto- 
rius were in fact very little, if at all, removed from 
orthodoxy, we cannot at all assent to the reasoning 
of Le Clerc, who would persuade us (and who ap- 
pears to have persuaded both Jortin and Gibbon) 
that Eutyches also held the same doctrine with both 
Nestorius and tlie ortliodox — for in this last dispute 
there is no confusion of terms; in the very same 
words the one party plainly asserts one, the other 
two natures of Clirist ; and the same train and de- 
scription of argument, which is applied to reconcile 
this difference, would, in our mind, be equally suc- 
cessful in removing every religious difference. 

fThe Eutychians, or Monophysites, are also 
known in history by the appellation of Jacobites, 
from the name of one of their teachers, James Bara 
dseus. 



166 



HISIORY OF THE CHURCH. 



violent schism arose, and this speedily gave 
birth to numerous other schisms which 
divided into several sects the followers of 
Eutyches ; while among the Catholics very 
great and general indignation was excited, 
by the omission of the name of Chalcedon, 
against all who had signed so imperfect a 
declaration of orthodoxy. And thus, to the 
disgrace of the disputants, and almost to the 
scandal of human nature, it proved that an 
attempt, judiciously conceived by a benevo- 
lent Prince, to compose the religious differ- 
ences of his subjects, produced no other 
effect than to inflame the character and 
multiply the grounds of dissension. And 
that unhappy result was not in this case 
attributable to the infliction of any civil 
penalties in the arbitrary enforcement of the 
decree, but solely to the vehemence of the 
passions engaged on both sides, which had 
hardened the greater number against any 
representations of wisdom or reason, and 
even against the ordinary influence of their 
human feelings. 

The Monothelites. However, time effected 
much towards the healing of these animosi- 
ties, and th^y were diverted during the reign 
of Justinian into other channels. After the 
lapse of nearly two hundred years the agita- 
tions of the tempest had seemingly subsided, 
and the differences, and even the malevo- 
lence, which may still have existed, no long- 
er broke out into open outrage. The vain 
curiosity of the Emperor Heraclius threaten- 
ed the revival of those evils. On his return 
from the Persian war in the year 629, that 
Prince proposed to his Bishops the unprofit- 
able question — ' Whether Christ, of one per- 
son but two natures, was actuated by a single 
or a double will ? ' The Greeks in general 
favored the former opinion, but not with 
their usual impetuosity ; indeed they seem at 
length to have been so far exhausted by such 
fruitless contests, as to have considered the 
question trifling and superfluous. And it 
was not until the year 680, that, through the 
angry opposition of the Latins to this dogma, 
the Sixth General Council was assembled at 
Constantinople, which formally pronounced 
that two wills were harmonized in the person 
of Christ. Such is still the doctrine both of 
the Greek and Latin Churches; and with 
the establishment of that doctrine the contro- 
versy respecting the incarnation, after an in- 
terrupted duration of about three hundred 
j'^ears, expired.* 

* Accurately speaking, the Monolhelite Controver- 
sy was rather a consequence, than a part, of that 



The heretics who advocated the one will 
were called Monothelites, and by this name 
the dispute is generally known. It lasted 
about fifty years ; and it is a painful but ne- 
cessary reflection, that during its continuance, 
while the attention of Christendom was in 
some degree engaged by it, the Mahometans 
had found time to convert Arabia and to 
complete the conquest of Persia, Syria, Pal- 
estine, and Egypt: the three patriarchal 
thrones, Antioch, Alexandria, and Jerusalem, 
had fallen into their hands ; and Carthage it- 
self was already on the point of undergoing 
the same fate. 

Having treated the conduct of the parties 
engaged in these dissensions with unrestrain- 
ed freedom, we shall conclude with some 
considerations not unfavorable to them, and 
not less just than our censure. 1. None of 
the disputants at any time relapsed into any 
heresy respecting the Trinity — the doctrine 
which had been established by the first and 
second General Councils was followed with 
equal fidelity by those who deviated from the 
Church respecting the Incarnation, and by 
those who adhered to it. 2. As the manner, 
in which this controversy was conducted, 
exhibited the earnest devotion of all parties 
to then' respective opinions, so the origin of 
all those opinions may be traced to an anxie- 
ty (oftentimes indeed a very injudicious anx- 
iety) to acquire accurate notions respecting 
the Redeemer, so as neither to exaggerate 
nor disparage his dignity. It may be traced 
to an excess of the religious feeling, even to 
a tendency to superstitious enthusiasm, but 
at least it was free from the infection of that 
cold, indifferent apathy, which sometimes 
shelters itself under the name of philosophy, 
but which, in fact, is not far removed from 
skepticism. 3. The very individuals who, 
under the excitement of religious dissension 
and the bustle of public councils, heated too 
by the various passions which the mere spirit 
of resistance will create in the calmest tem- 
perament, ran loose into scandalous excesses, 
might very consistently be endued with the 
purest piety, and habituated, in the private 
exercise of their sacerdotal functions, to the 
fervent discharge of every Christian duty. 
It argues a very slight or a very partial view 



respecting the Incarnation, since those who adopted 
the doctrine of one will, did not in consequence reject 
the decisions either of Ephesus or Chalcedon, but 
adhered, on the contrary, to both, — so as to unite (in 
profession at least, if not in reason) the strictest or- 
thodoxy respecting tlie nature and person of Christ 
with their perverse opinion respecting his will, 



DISSENSIONS. 



167 



of human nature to infer, from the occasional 
extravagance of public feeling, the general 
destitution of moral principle or the absence 
of virtuous habits ; and we must be careful 
not to be misled by those historians who bid 
us judge the general character of the Eastern 
Clergy by their conduct at the Councils of 
Ephesus. Lastly, Whatever may have been 
the original policy of convoking General 
Councils for the suppression of rehgious 
difference, it cannot be asserted that such 
Councils were wholly useless — for besides 
the particular doctrine which they were call- 
ed upon to settle, and which on some occa- 
sions was fundamentally important, they also 
published numerous canons and ordinan- 
ces for the regulation and reform of the 
Church. These were disseminated and re- 
ceived through every part of Christendom, 
and very often proved of the highest utility ; 
and even as to the doctrines on such occa- 
sions established, we should obsei-ve, that 
after the first tumult of opposition had sub- 
sided, they met with general acquiescence ; 
that they were almost universally adopted in 
succeeding ages, and still constitute the creed 
of the great majority of Christians.* 

VI. Controversy on Images. We proceed 
to the contest respecting the Worship of 
Images, which claims our carefiil attention, 
partly from the extreme agitation which it 
excited throughout Christendom during the 
eighth and ninth centuries — partly, because 
it occasioned (should we not rather say ac- 
celerated ?) the separation of the Roman 
States from the Greek Empire. Among the 
various superstitions which had gradually 
grown up in the Church, and of which the 

* The Controversy, Avhich we have described, 
branched out into various theories respecting the 
manner of the union of the two natures, Avhich amu- 
sed lh6 refined imaginations of the Greeks. But it 
was reserved for the grosser absurdity of a German 
to originate the following offensive speculation: — 
' Eodem tempore aliud ex Germania certamen in 
Gallias inferebatur de modo quo Sanctissimus Sei'va- 
tor ex utero Matris in lucem prodiit. Germani qui- 
dam Jesum Christum non communi reliquorum homi- 
num lege, sed singular! et extraordinaria, utero 
Matris exiisse statuebant. Qua sententia in Galliam 
delata, Ratramnus earn oppugnabat, atque Christum 
per natural januara in niundum ingressum esse tueba- 
tur. Gennanis subveniebat Paschasius Radbertus, 
libro singulari, &c. &c.' Jortin, vol. iv., p. 489. 
This occurred about the year 840, and it is worthy 
of notice, if it were only that we find the great patron 
of Transubstantiation, Paschasius Radbertus, advo- 
cating such extravagant and impious nonsense. 



vestiges may, in some cases, be traced to its 
earliest ages, none had obtained such general 
influence and firm footing among the lower 
orders (especially in the East) as Image- 
worship. It was an idle distinction to up- 
hold a respect for images, as means and not 
as objects of devotion, when they were pre- 
sented to the uninstructed and undiscrimi- 
nating vulgar. When the understanding has 
never been enlightened, when the heart has 
never been informed with the genuine feel- 
ings of religion, the devotee will surely 
address his prayer to the Deity which is 
placed before his eyes, and turn, in the dark- 
ness of his intellect, to, that which is percep- 
tible by his mere senses. And it was there- 
fore the greatest among the crimes of the 
ancient directors of the Church, and that 
which appears more peculiarly to have 
brought down upon it the chastisement from 
Arabia, that they filled the temples with their 
detested idols, and obtruded them upon the 
eyes and into the hands of the most ignorant. 
Nor can their advocates plead the necessity 
of this conduct; for the example of the 
Mahometan faith alone has proved, that a 
people may be barbarous without being 
idolatrous, when idolatiy is discouraged by 
the ministers of religion. And if any excuse 
be furnished by the general and deeply-root- 
ed influence of the ancient superstition, it is 
at least none for those who exerted their 
power and then* talents to extend and per- 
petuate it Unhappily, those exertions were 
attended by too easy success; before the 
year 600, idolatry was firmly established in 
the Eastern Church, and during the follow- 
ing century it made a gradual and very gen^ 
eral progress in the West, where it had pre- 
viously gained some footing. 

Leo the Isaurian. It was not till the year 
726 that any vigorous attempt was made to 
disturb its sway, and then the minds of men 
were become weakened by long acquies- 
cence in superstitious maxims, even so far 
as to regard with submissive reverence the 
sins and follies of their ancestors. Never- 
theless, the Emperor Leo, surnamed the 
Isaurian, a prince of sense and energy, had 
the boldness to undertake,* in the face of so 



* Roman Catholic historians attribute Leo's reso- 
lution to the sudden appearance of a new island in 
the Archipelago, from volcanic causes. This phe- 
nomenon the superstitious Emperor ascribed to the 
Divine wrath, excited by the idolatrous impiety of 
his subjects. He is also supposed to have derived 
his pi-ejudice from the Mahometan religion, to which 
his attachment is more than insinuated. 



168 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



many difficulties, the purification of the 
Church ; and he began his pious enterprise 
by an attack on its most flagrant corruption. 
It is disputed, whether the first measure of 
Leo was prudently confined to the abolition 
of idolatrous worship, and the removal of its 
objects to higher and more distant situations 
in the Churches, wherein they were suspend- 
ed ; or whether, without any indulgence to 
prejudice, he entirely concealed them from 
view, and even destroyed them. The effect 
of the edict would rather lead us to the latter 
conclusion — for it immediately occasioned 
a civil war, both in the East and in the West. 
In the East, the islands of the Archipelago, 
and even a part of Asia, broke out into a 
tumultuous insurrection, which however was 
speedily suppressed; but in the West, the 
more deliberate resistance of the Bishop of 
Rome (Gregory II.) encouraged the rebellion 
of the Italian provinces (in 730,) and led to 
the defeat of the Imperial troops before 
Ravenna; the tribute paid to the Eastern 
Emperor was then withdrawn, and his au- 
thority was never afterwards acknowledged 
in the Ecclesiastical States. 

This reverse did not abate the zeal of Leo, 
who proceeded at least to enforce his resolu- 
tions, so far as his power extended ; and as 
he found the strongest opposition to proceed 
from the monastic orders, he extended his 
scheme of reformation to them. And in 
spite of various tumults, excited partly by 
their influence and partly through a popular 
prejudice in favor of superstition, he persist- 
ed in his project, wuth uncompromising 
perseverance, and even with some prospect 
of success, until his death. In the year 741 
he was succeeded by his son Constantine, 
surnamed Copronymus, who faithfully fol- 
lowed his footsteps. Thirteen years after- 
wards that Prince assembled a synod in the 
suburbs of Constantinople, at which three 
hundred and thirty-eight Bishops attended. 
They decreed the destruction of images,* 
and the decision, which has sometimes been 
attributed to their loyalty, may with equal 
justice be ascribed to their sense and their 
piety. They were called Iconoclasts, or 
image-breakers; and the execution of their 
decrees occasioned many calumnies against 



* Some of the arguments seriously advanced on 
this occasion by the Iconoclasts seem intended to 
surpass the absurdity of their adversaries ; according 
to them, even the painter is convicted of several and 
even the most opposite heresies. They may be found 
in Fleury, liv. xliii., sect. 7. 



the Emperor's character, and many tumults, 
which disturbed the peace and even endan- 
gered the security of his reign. Neverthe- 
less, that reign lasted thirty-four years; and 
the whole space was perseveringly employed 
in contention with idols, with the monks 
who protected them, and with the pernicious 
influence of Rome, which was active and 
constant in the support of both. 

Seventh General Council. Leo, who suc- 
ceeded, was guided by the principles of Con- 
stantine ; but he died soon afi:er his accession, 
and the education of his son, a boy of ten 
years old, as well as the direction of public 
aflairs, was entrusted to the Empress Irene. 
Immediately the religious policy of the pal- 
ace was changed ; and as fifty years of vigor- 
ous opposition had not availed to extirpate 
corruptions which were the gradual growth 
of four centuries, the change was hailed with 
delight by a large proportion of the people. 
In the year 787, a General Council was as- 
sembled at Nice, by which the images were 
reinstated in their former honors * through 
the united exertions of the monks and the 
mob, and the Pope and the Empress. This 
Council, the second of Nice, is accounted in 
the East as the seventh and last General 
Council, and its decisions completed the 
body of doctrine and discipline which con- 
stitutes the system of the Greek Church. 

It may be proper, in this place, very brief- 
ly, to remind our readers of the particular 
objects for which these seven celebrated 
councils were severally summoned ; not 
merely as matters of barren recollection, but 
because we perceive in them, if we are not 
greatly in error, an indication of the gradual 
departure of the Church, first from scriptural 
simplicity, and then from truth. Between 
the first and the last of them the space of 
462 years intervened, an interval full of im- 
portant, and for the most part, pernicious 



* The following is a part of the Confession of 
Faith published with the authority of this Council : — 
* We receive, besides the figure of the cross, the 
relics of saints, and their images ; we embrace them 
according to the ancient tradition of our fathers, 
who have placed them in all the Churches of God, 
and all the places where he is served. We honor 
and adore them, viz. that of Jesus Christ, of his 
holy Mother, of the angels, — for though they are 
incorporeal, they have revealed themselves in a hu- 
man form; those of the apostles, the prophets, the 
martyrs, and other saints; because those paintings 
recall to us the memory of the originals and make us 
participate in their sanctity.' Fleury, liv. xliv. 
sect 3^1, 



DISSENSIONS, 



169 



changes in the ecclesiastical constitution ; but 
most of these were imperceptibly introduced, 
especially into the Western Church, without 
the authority or cognizance of any general 
assembly, and they involved many circum- 
stances of power, property, or discipline, to 
which we do not here intend any reference. 
The professed purpose for which the general 
councils were in every instance convoked, 
was to compose the controversy of the day, 
and to pronounce a final decision upon the 
doctrine which happened to be disputed ; and 
thus, in the history of those councils, we fol- 
low the track of theological investigation, and 
observe it gradually receding from soberness 
and sense. 

(1.) The object for which the two first 
were assembled was to ascertain and promul- 
gate the scriptural doctrine of the Trinity ; 
and a more important inquiry, and one more 
worthy of the deliberate consideration of the 
directors of Christendom, was not ever pro- 
pounded to any religious assembly : and their 
decisions respecting this doctrine were in ac- 
cordance with the sense of Scripture, as it 
has been interpreted by the great majority 
of Christians in every following age. 

(2.) The questions proposed for the investi- 
gation of the third and fourth Councils were 
of less importance to truth, and, in the same 
proportion precisely, more difficult to com- 
prehend and determine, — the nature of 
Christ's existence on earth. The manner in 
which they were argued was not calculated 
to diminish this difficulty ; and the violence 
with which even the more decorous * of these 
meetings was disgraced was such as would 



* We might refer to the whole account of the ses- 
sions of the Council of Chalcedon, even as it is given 
by Fleury (lib. xx. 8.). One short passage may 
serve as a specimen. The assembly was divided into 
two parties; the Bishops of Egypt, Illyrium, and 
Palestine formed one ; those of the East — of Pontus, 
Asia, and Thrace — the other. Theodoret was 
obnoxious to the former party, as being suspected of 
the Nestorian heresy. Nevertheless, he was allowed 
a seat in the Council by the Emperor. When he 
took his place the Orientals cried out, * He is worthy 
of it.' The Egyptians exclaimed, ' Call him not 
Bishop — he is no Bishop ; expel the enemy of God — 
expel the Jew!' The Orientals cried, ' Expel the 
seditious — drive out the murderers! ' And they con- 
tinued for some time to vent such exclamations on 
both sides. At length the magistrates interfered: 
* These popular cries are unworthy of the episcopal 
character, and are of no use to either party — allow 
the paper to be read to you.' The Egyptians ex- 
claimed, ' Expel that one man only, and we will all 
listen: our voice is raised for the Catholic fSith,' &c. 



naturally result fi'om eager disputation on a 
matter of mysterious and almost impenetra- 
ble abstruseness. The subject of the labors 
of the Sixth Council gi-ew out of that which 
occupied the third and fourth ; and while it 
surpassed the other in metaphysical intrica- 
cy, it presented even less prospect of any 
practical advantage from its decision. 

(3.) The matters which employed the Fifl:h 
Council were derived from the individual 
opinions of Origen ; and if these should be 
thought by some not to have merited by their 
importance the cognizance of so solemn a tri- 
bunal, they had at least a far greater claim 
on general attention than the foolish specu- 
lation of the Monothelites. 

(4.) The seventh and last * established idol- 
atry as the law of the Christian Church : and 
thus was completed the structure of oriental 
orthodoxy. It rose from the most solid and 
substantial foundation ; it advanced, by the 
labors of a busy but unwise generation, 
through the mid air and mist of metaphysics, 
and terminated in a still blinder age, in clear 
and manifest superstition. 

The same seven Councils are also received 
by the Roman Church, but not as a perfect 
rule, either of faith or discipline ; and, indeed, 
when we consider that they were held, with- 
out exception, in the East, on the occasion of 
controversies originating in the East, and al- 
most confined to it ; that their deliberations 
were closely surveyed and influenced, if not 
directed, by the Eastern emperor ; and that 
the prelates who framed them were almost 
exclusively Orientals,f we shall be disposed, 
perhaps, to feel some surprise that the West- 
ern Church, with so many causes of variance 
with her rival, should have acquiesced so 
submissively in their decisions. 



* It would seem very strange, were we not accus- 
tomed to such phenomena, that the last public act of 
the united Greek and Latin Communions, the last 
which was, in truth, binding on the universal Church, 
was the establishment of the grossest practical corrup- 
tion which the religion has ever suffered. Let us add, 
too, that it was established solely on the authority of 
tradition, while it was that, of all others, for which 
even the traditional authority is most defective, since 
it cannot be traced higher than the fourth century. 

t At Nice, among 318 members, three were of the 
Western Church; at Constantinople (1), among 150, 
one only ; at Ephesus, among 68, one ; at Chalcedon, 
among 353, three; at Constantinople (2), among 164, 
six; at Constantinople (3) among 56, five; and even 
at the last, among the 377 who assisted, we can ob- 
serve no Occidentals, except the Pope's legates, a 
very small number of Sicilian Bishops, and a deputy 
of the Bishop of Sardinia. 



22 



170 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



The edicts of the last general Council did 
not secure immediate obedience. Leo the 
Armenian, who reigned from 814 to 820, re- 
lapsed into the heresy of the Isaurian. He 
fell an early victim to conspiracy ; but his 
successor, Michael, fearlessly proceeded in 
the same difficult endeavor ; and the earnest- 
ness of his wishes and the perplexities of his 
situation are naturally displayed in an epistle 
addressed by him to the son of Charlemagne, 
Louis, Emperor of the west. As this docu- 
ment throws great general light on the eccle- 
siastical history of that age, we shall transcribe 
it here. 

*Many of our clergy and laity, departing 
from the apostolical traditions, have intro- 
duced pernicious novelties. They took down 
the crosses in the churches and put images 
in their room, before which they lighted up 
lamps and burned incense, honoring them as 
the cross. They sang before them, worship- 
ped them, and implored their succor. Many 
dressed the female images with robes, and 
made them stand godmothers to their chil- 
dren. They offered up hair to them when 
they cut it off for the first time. Some 
Presbyters scratched off the paint from the 
images and mixed it with the holy Eucharist, 
and gave it in the Communion. Others put 
the body of the Lord into the hands* of the 
images, and made the communicants take it 
out thence. Others used boards with pic- 
tures painted on them, instead of an altar, 
on which they consecrated the elements ; 
and many such-like abuses were committed. 
Therefore, the orthodox Emperors and the 
most learned Bishops, assembled in council, 
have forbidden these enormities, and have 
removed the images to higher places in the 
church, where they stood formerly, and when 
they were not worshipped, as they have been 
of late, by ignorant people. 

^Some of the complainers are gone to 
Rome to calumniate us there ; but we are 
orthodox ; we believe the Trinity, one God 
in three persons, the incarnation of the Word, 
his two wills and two operations ; we implore 
the intercession of the Holy Virgin, the 
mother of God, and of all the Saints ; we 
reverence their relics; we receive all the 



* Thus it appears that the distinction at present so 
broadly drawn by the Greek Church between the 
worship of painted and of graven images did not 
then exist. The distinction is, indeed, very old in the 
writings of the Church; but it is probable that it was 
not practically introduced until after the Mahometan 
conquest. 



apostolical traditions and the decrees of the 
six Councils.'* 

The spirit of appeal and justification in 
which the above epistle is conceived, indi- 
cates the weakness of a falling cause ; and so, 
indeed, it proved : for in the year 842 the 
Empress Theodora reestablished the author- 
ity of the Seventh Council, and replaced the 
images with so firm a hand that they have 
never since been shaken. In celebration of 
this achievement, a new festival was institut- 
ed under the name of the ' Feast of Ortho- 
doxy,' f and the most riotous enthusiasm 
generally attended the proclamation of idola- 
try. 

The malice of historians has not failed to 
observe, that as the first success over the 
reviving reason and religion had been obtain- 
ed under the auspices of Irene ; so the second 
and mortal wound was inflicted by the rash- 
ness of a second woman. | ' The charge is 
true and remarkable ; but the strenuous and 
systematic exertions of a long succession of 
Popes in the same cause will easily excuse 
the blindness of two empresses. Indeed, a 
general view of history rather tends to raise 
our astonishment that so many princes were 
found wise and bold enough to stem the 
popular torrent. But this attempt at reform- 
ation commenced so late, and under circum- 
stances so unfavorable, that even another 
century of judicious exertion, continued with- 
out pause or vacillation, might scarcely have 
sufficed for its success. 

We shall conclude the chapter with a few 
additional remarks on this controversy. The 

* See Jortin, Eccl. Hist, ad ann. 814. From this 
concluding confession we observe how many were the 
abuses to which even a reformer of the Church felt 
obliged to publish his adhesion. 

f There seems some reason to believe that this feast 
was not established until after the Council which was 
assembled by Photius, in 879, in further confirmation 
of idolatry. 

:j: In favor at least of the consistency of that sex, 
we must mention that it declared itself for idolatry 
from the very commencement of the contest, and very 
strongly too, as will be seen. Leo the Isaurian began 
his enterprise by an attack upon a very celebrated 
image of Jesus Christ, called the Antiphonetes, or 
Respondent; and he despatched one of his officers, 
named Jovinus, to break it down. Several women 
who were present endeavored to avert his design by 
their supplications; but Jovinus, nothing moved by 
them, ascended a ladder and dealt some severe blows 
on the image. On this the women became furious ; 
they pulled down the ladder, massacred the officer on 
the spot, and tore him in pieces. The image fell 
notwithstanding, and the women wer« led away to 
execution. 



DISSENSIONS. 



in 



best writer in the Eastern Church during this 
most critical period in its history, — indeed, 
the only writer of any reputation even in his 
own day, — was John Damascenus ; * and 
with his name the long list of Greek Fathers 
may properly be said to terminate. His la- 
borious and subtile vj^orks (of which the prin- 
cipal are 'Four Books concerning the Or- 
thodox Faith,' and ' Sacred Parallels ') are 
tainted by the infection of the Aristotelian 
philosophy, and by a strong superstitious ten- 
dency ; and, therefore, we are not surprised 
to observe that his eloquence and influence 
were zealously engaged in the defence of 
images. He possessed considerable learning ; 
and his sophistry, no less than his authority, 
may really have blinded the reason of some, 
while many more would feed, under the shel- 
ter of his name, a previous inclination to idol- 
atry.f 

We believe it to be true, that of the mir- 
acles which are recorded to have abundant- 
ly signalized this prolonged dispute, the veiy 
great proportion, if we should not rather say 
the whole, were performed by the friends of 
the idols, — a fact which, while it proves the 
higher principles of the other party, will also 
assist in accounting for their unpopularity. 
The people in the East were not, indeed, at 
this time so stupid and unenlightened as the 
serfs of the Western Empire ; but they were 
by nature more dispos"ed to fanaticism ; they 
were familiar, by long habits of deception, 
with preternatural appearances, and disposed, 
by a controlling imagination, to eager credu- 
lity. 

The Bishops, and, in general, the secular 
clergy of the East, appear to have taken no 
violent part in the contest. Indeed, we are 
persuaded that that numerous body contained 



* He was a monk, and contemporary with Leo the 
Isaurian, against whom he vented his indignation 
with great impunity, as his ordinary residence was the 
monastery of St. Sabas, near Jerusalem, beyond the 
limits of the imperial control. He condescends to ap- 
peal to the authority of older fathers in his defence of im- 
ages — to that of Basil, Gregory of Nyssa, Chrysostom, 
Ambrose, Anastasius of Antioch, and others. But 
we believe that he has not even affected to advance 
any name of higher antiquity than the fourth century, 
— not, by the way, that his cause would have been 
much better if he had. He was anathematized by the 
Iconoclast Council in 754. 

t Theodore Studites, a monk and abbot, has ac- 
quired great reputation in the history of the Eastern 
Church by his obstinate defence of the orthodox prac- 
tice, chiefly during the second contest. Exile was the 
punishment of his zeal, and severer punishment was 
very seldom, if ever, inflicted on the coutiiraaci(Ais. 



many pious and rational individuals who 
were shocked by the degradation of Chris- 
tianity and human nature, and who watched 
with an anxious eye the endeavors which 
were made to remove it. But such charac- 
ters, which are among the best of the sacred 
profession, are seldom busy or ambitious ; and 
the anxiety of those excellent men may have 
been often confined to their own bosoms, or 
at least to the narrow limits of their diocese. 
On the other hand, the monastic orders have 
too generally attested the spuriousness of 
their origin by their alliance with impurity 
and imposture. And thus, in the present in- 
stance, they were furious advocates for a sys- 
tem so necessary to their influence and their 
avarice ; and it is chiefly, no doubt, to their 
perseverance that we are to attribute the evil 
result of the conflict. 

The common people, partly from a natural 
tendency to a sensible worship, partly from 
the inveteracy of long habit, were strongly 
disposed to the same party ; and that dispo- 
sition was effectually improved by the monks, 
who, from a greater show of austerity, had 
the greatest hold upon their minds. Nor is 
the circumstance to be slightly noticed, that 
the contest in this case was for an intelligible 
and visible object. Unlike the metaphysical 
intricacies of some former controversies, it 
carried a direct appeal to the understanding 
of the vulgar, because its subject was the sub- 
ject of their senses. If they positively wor- 
shipped the image, its destruction deprived 
them of their god ; and even if the worship 
was only relative, it was extremely easy to 
persuade them that, in parting with the sym- 
bols of their faith, with the book of their re- 
ligion, they were rashly casting away religion 
itself. Their enthusiasm was heated by false 
miracles ; and when we think of the violence 
which the populace of the East were wont 
to exhibit even at their public spectacles, in 
the frivolous contests of the Hippodrome, 
we shall understand to what excesses they 
might be hurried by the agitation of religious 
excitement. 

The Papal Chair perseveringly supported 
the cause of superstition ; and this, perhaps, 
is the first occasion on which the close alli- 
ance of principle between the Pope and the 
monastic orders displayed itself The Pope's 
legates were present at the last general Coun- 
cil, and his Italian clergy appear to have 
given him very cordial assistance. Not so 
the more rational Prelates of France. Less 
awed by the presence of the spiritual direct- 
or, more so by the dictates of real piety, they 



172 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



established, under the guidance of Charle- 
magne,* a very broad distinction between 
positive and relative worship ; and without 
entirely disclaiming the authority of the Sev- 
enth Council, they endeavored to obviate, as 
much as possible, the great practical evil 
which directly flowed from it. This differ- 
ence in the conduct of the French and Itahan 
Churches on so great a question is a fact of 
some importance in history and deserving of 
attentive notice ; and it is but justice to our 
own ancestors, as well as to the German di- 
vines of the age, to admit that they gener- 
ally endeavored to follow the same difficult 
course. But their resistance was not long 
eflTectual, nor indeed could it reasonably ex- 
pect success ; because, by permitting the use 
of images and their presence in the congre- 
gations of the converts, they made that first 
concession to error, of which all the others 
were remote, perhaps, but necessary conse- 
quences, f 



CHAPTER XII. 

On the Schism between the Greek and Latin 
Churches. 

Preliminary considerations— political causes — Ecclesias- 
tical — Origin of the Dispute — Dignity and Jurisdiction 
of the See of Constantinople — Council of Chalcedon — 
Ambition of the Patriarch — Oriental dissensions — prof- 
itable to the Pope— Popish legate at Constantinople- 
Disputes between the two Sees — Title of CEcumenical 
Bishop assumed by John the Faster — Opposition of 
Gregory the Great — Emperor Phocas — Limits of papal 
influence in Greece — Ground of controversy changed — 
Procession of the Holy Spirit— the original doctrine — 
Process of the change — Spain — France — Charlemagne — 
Moderation of Pope Leo III. — Perseverance of the 
Greeks — Forgery of the Latins — the Patriarch Photius 
— his character — his excommunication of Pope Nicholas 
I. — Five heresies charged on the Roman Church — 
Transfer of several provinces from papal to patriarchal 
jurisdiction — Bulgaria — Dissensions of the Greeks — 
Fortunes of Photius — Connexion of Rome vi'ith Greek 
parties — defeat of the designs of the former — Subse- 
quent differences — Michael Cerularius — Anathema of 
Leo IX. by his legates at Constantinople. 

We have so frequently had occasion, espec- 
ially in our later pages, to distinguish between 

* The Council of Francfort, whose deliberations 
were held under the eye of that monarch, vi^ent, in- 
deed, somewhat further than this, and, though it per- 
mitted the images to remain, forbade any sort of ado- 
ration to be addressed to them. 

+ Dupin (Nouv. Bibl. on second Council of Nice) 
gives a tolerably fair historical view of the subject 
of image worship. He admits that, during the three 
first ages and the beginning of the fomth, images were 



the conduct and character of the Greek and 
Roman Churches, that it becomes necessary to 
enter still further into the causes of this dis- 
tinction, and to trace the differences which 
had for some time disturbed their harmony, 
and which ended in their entire separation. 
In so doing, we must, in the first place, be 
careful not to confound the division of the 
churches with that of the empires ; for the 
former, in fact, did not take place until more 
than a century after the final alienation of the 
ecclesiastical States from the sceptre of Leo 
the Isaurian. Nor, on the other hand, should 
we be correct in considering these events as 
perfectly unconnected. Doubtless, political 
causes had great influence both in opening 
and widening the spiritual breach. The di- 
vision of the empire under Arcadius and Ho- 
norius, though not immediately affecting the 
unity of the Church, operated indirectly to 
its disturbance by weakening the bonds of 
connexion and destroying the complete com- 
munity of interests which more naturally 
subsists under a single government. Again, 
the circumstance that the seat of the Western 
Empire was removed from Rome to Ravenna 
communicated that sort of independence to 
the Roman Bishop, which, though it confer- 
red not, in fact, any temporal authority, fail- 
ed not to give nourishment to his pride and 
some countenance to his general claims of 
supremacy. A further alienation was neces- 
sarily occasioned by the barbarian conquest 
of the West; because this event not only an- 
nihilated the former relations and the reci* 
procal dependence of the two empires, but 
also produced a great and rapid change in 
the character of the Western clergy, and 
even in the principles of the Church. 

Lastly, the common violence and mutual 
insults of Leo the Isaurian and Pope Greg- 
ory II., the civil war which broke out be- 
tween them, the complete triumph of the lat- 
ter and the consequent transfer of certain j u- 



very rare among Christians; that towards the end 
of the fifth, pictures and images made their appear- 
ance, chiefly in the East, and became common in the 
sixth ; they represented combats of martyrs and oth- 
er sacred stories, for the instruction of those who 
were unable to read. The simple vulgar were touch- 
ed by these representations ; and when they beheld the 
Saints so vividly, and, as it were, bodily presented 
to them, they could not prevent themselves from tes- 
tifying, by exterior signs, the esteem, the respect, 
and the veneration which they felt for them. Thus 
the worship of images insensibly established itself, and 
it was still further confirmed by the miracles which 
were atU'ibuted to tiiera. 



GREEK AiND LATIN CHURCHES. 



173 



risdiction in Sicily and the South of Italy, 
from the Roman to the Constantinopolitan 
See, greatly tended to weaken the spirit 
which had hitherto identified the Churches, 
and to remove any notion of their insepara- 
bility. These are some of the political caus- 
es which undoubtedly prepared the way for 
the Grand Schism, and contributed to accel- 
erate and inflame it. But there are others, 
of a nature purely ecclesiastical, to which 
it is more usually ascribed, and which had 
doubtless the principal share in its accom- 
plishment. 

The earliest recorded difference between 
the churches was that already noticed by us 
respecting the celebration of Easter ; and we 
also remarked the tone of authority which 
the Bishop of the imperial city arrogated even 
in those days ; but their connexion, and even 
their harmony, was not seriously endangered 
by that dispute, nor, indeed, can we trace the 
origin of the fatal controversy with any cer- 
tainty to an earlier period than the fifth cen- 
tury. On the foundation of the new capital 
at Byzantium, the Bishop was, of course, in- 
vested with some power and dignity, which 
gradually increased through the consent or 
the neglect of the immediate successors of 
Constantine ; however, the superior rank and 
precedence of the Roman Pontiff was not yet 
disputed. But in the beginning of the fifth 
century the spiritual jurisdiction of the See of 
Constantinople was much more widely ex- 
tended ; it then comprehended Asia, Thrace, 
and Pontus, and advanced on the west with- 
in the confines of Illyricum ; and in 451 the 
Council of Chalcedon not only confirmed 
that jurisdiction, but conferred on the Bish- 
op of Constantinople the same honors and 
privileges which were already possessed by 
that of Rome ; the equality of the Pontiffs 
was justified by the equal dignity and lustre 
of the two capitals. The legates of Leo the 
Great were present, and had considerable in- 
fluence in that council ; but neither their ex- 
ertions, nor those of the Pope himself, were 
able to prevent this affront to his dignity. 
Having attained so elevated a situation, the 
patriarch very soon proceeded to exalt him- 
self still higher ; the method which he took 
to extend his authority was, to humble, if 
possible, his brethren of Antioch and Alex- 
andria,* and thus the same ambition was 



* It was not till a little before this time that Juve- 
nal, Bishop of Jerusalem, usurped the title of patri- 
arch, which, however, was confirmed to him by The- 
odosius the Younger. 



found to pursue the same course at Constan- 
tinople as at Rome. But there it was liable 
to severer mortifications and more effectual 
control from the immediate presence of the 
Emperor, from his power and supremac}'', 
and his habitual interference in church affairs. 

Again, the grasping ambition of the patri- 
arch, and the dissensions which, from other 
causes no less than fi'om that, so continually 
disturbed the Oriental Church, were product- 
ive of great influence to the Pope, not only 
through the positive weakness occasioned to 
that Church by such divisions, but chiefly 
because the injured or discontented party 
very generally made its appeal to the Roman 
See, where it met with most willing and par- 
tial attention. We may recollect that Atha- 
nasius, when persecuted in the east, fled to 
the western Church for refuge ; and this ex- 
ample was not lost on those who thought 
themselves aggrieved in after ages. It is true 
that Roman interference was, on every occa- 
sion, indignantly rejected by the rival Pontiff; 
nevertheless the habit of interposing would 
lead many to suppose that it was founded on 
some indefinite, unacknowledged right, and 
disaffection was encouraged in the east by 
the certainty of a powerful protector. 

Very soon after the Council of Chalcedon, 
Leo appointed a resident legate at Constanti- 
nople to watch over the papal interests, and 
to communicate with the Vatican on matters 
of spiritual importance. That useful priv- 
ilege, as we have already seen, was not aban- 
doned by succeeding Popes: and those ec- 
clesiastical ambassadors, or ' Correspondents,' 
continued for some time to represent the Pa- 
pal chair in the eastern capital. 

For the next hundred and thirty years the 
disputes respecting the equality of the two 
Sees, as well as the limits of their jurisdiction, 
were carried on with little interruption per- 
haps, but with little violence. But in 588, 
at a Synod called at Constantinople respect- 
ing the conduct of a patriarch of Antioch, 
John, surnamed the Faster, who was then 
Primate of the East, adopted, as we have ob- 
served, the title of QEcumenical, or Universal 
Bishop. It appears that this title had been 
conferred on the patriarchs by the Emperors 
Leo and Justinian, without any accession of 
power ; nor was it, in fact, understood to in- 
dicate any claim to supremacy beyond the 
limits of the Eastern Church. But Gregory 
could not brook such assumption in an East- 
ern Prelate, and used every endeavor to de- 
prive his rival of the obnoxious title, and at 
the same time to establish his own superi- 



174 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



ority. He failed in both these attempts — at 
least his success in the latter was confined to 
the Western clergy, and to the interested and 
precarious assent of the discontented subjects 
of the Eastern Church. 

The quarrel proceeded during the seventh 
century, and Roman Catholic writers confi- 
dently assert, that the Emperor Phocas (a 
sanguinary usurper) through the mfluence of 
Pope Boniface III. transferred the disputed 
title from the Greek to the Roman Pontiff. 
It seems probable that he acknowledged the 
preeminence of the latter — and early usage 
justified him m so doing — without at all de- 
rogating from the independence of the for- 
mer. But the alliance of the Eastern Empe- 
ror with a foreign Bishop against his own 
patriarch could not possibly be of long dura- 
tion ; and, accordingly, throughout the con- 
troversy about images (which presently fol- 
lowed) we find the Pope in direct and open 
opposition to the Emperor, and to the power- 
ful party in his Church which favored him. 

On the other hand, the ecclesiastical orders 
in the East were so widely and passionately 
divided on the subject of this dispute, and 
the hopes of the w^eaker and more violent 
party were obliged for so many years to fix 
themselves on Rome, that the Pope must 
again have acquired great influence in that 
quarter. It was great, but it was temporary 
only ; for the popular prejudice, especially in 
Greece itself, was still strong and general 
against any acknowledgment of papal supre- 
macy, and the national vanity was still jeal- 
ous of the name and ascendency of Rome. 
And thus the actual influence of the Pope 
was generally confined to those who stood 
in need of his assistance, and seldom survived 
the crisis during which they needed it. 

Thus far the disputes between the Pope 
and the Patriarch were confined almost en- 
tirely to the question of supremacy in the 
Universal Church, pertinaciously claimed by 
the one, and perseveringly refused by the 
other ; and to this difference we need not 
doubt that a great proportion of the violence 
which disgraced the controversy may be as- 
cribed. But during the eighth century the 
contention assumed a different aspect, and 
took a ground and character less discreditable 
to either party. 

The double Procession. According to the 
original creed of the Latin as well as of the 
Greek Church, the Holy Spirit was believ- 
ed to proceed from the Father only ; and the 
question, though of gi^eat theological impor- 
tance, does not appear to have been generally 



investigated until the eighth century — at leasi 
to that period we must refer the origin of the 
controversy respecting it. It is true that the 
change in the established doctrine was first in 
troduced into the Church of Spain,* an event 
which must have taken place before the Ma- 
hometan conquest. Thence it proceeded in- 
to France, and in the year 767 it was agitated 
in the Council of Gentilli, near Paris ; it then 
received the assent of the French clergy. 
Soon afterwards it was warmly advocated 
by Charlemagne himself; and in the year 809, 
at the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle,f Pope Leo 
III. acknowledged the truth of the doctrine, 
but still objected to making it an article of 
faith, observing, with great reason, ' that every 
doctrine which is true should not, for that 
reason, be inserted in a creed ; ' nevertheless, 
as it had previously obtained place in the 
Latin creeds, his authority, or his inclination, 
was not sufficiently strong to effect its gen- 
eral erasure. It was maintamed in France, 
and its rejection by Rome was feeble and tem- 
poraiy. 

But the Greeks obstinately adhered to 
their original faith, as established by the 
Council of Constantinople ; and what gave 
them great advantage in the subsequent con- 
troversy was, that their adversaries had be- 
gun the contest by abandoning the defensible 
ground of argument ; they forgot the author- 
ity of scripture, and took refuge under a fals- 
ified copy of the Canons of that Council, into 
which (through that obtuse craft which be- 
comes a principle in ignorant ages) the words 
Filioque [and the Son) had been interpolated. 
The fraud was instantly detected, and the 
homage which they had thus reluctantly of- 
fered to the Council in question was convert- 
ed into a conclusive argument by an adver- 
sary, who rested his own faith on no better 
ground than its antiquity. 

Photius. A controversy conducted on such 
principles could hope for no rational discus- 
sion, nor anj^ friendly termination, its only 
effect was to inflame the enmity already too 
hotly kindled, and to accelerate the certain 
hour of separation. This consummation was 
presently secured by the promotion of a very 

* Baronius asserts, that the words Filioque were 
first added by the Council of Toledo, by the author- 
ity of Pope Leo I., about the year 447; but he con- 
fesses that the doctrine was not expressly received by 
the Roman Church until some ages afterwards. 

i FJeury, Hist. Eccl. liv. xlv. sect. 48. The Pope 
defended liis opinion by the argument, that two Gen- 
eral Councils, that of Chalcedon and the Fifth, had 
fovbidden any addition to the creed 



GREEK AND LATIN CHURCHES. 



175 



extraordinary person to the patriarchal throne. 
In the year 853, Photius,* a layman of splen- 
did talents, unusual extent of erudition both 
secular and theological, and unimpeachable 
moral character, was raised to that dignity 
by the Emperor Michael, who, with that 
view, removed and banished the actual Bish- 
op, [gnatius. The exile appealed to Rome. 
And if the jealousy of the Vatican was excit- 
ed by the splendid reputation of the new 
patriarch, its anxiety might also be awakened 
by his ambitious and fearless character : 
therefore Pope Nicholas I., who was as proud 
and aspiring as his rival, listened to the ap- 
peal, and eagerly espoused the cause of Igna- 
tius. He assembled a Council at Rome f in 
862, in which he pronounced the election of 
Photius illegal, and excommunicated him 
with all his abettors. The patriarch was not 
much disturbed by this violence, and four 
years afterwards, in a Council summoned at 
Constantinople, he retorted the anathemas of 
his rival, pronounced his deposition, and re- 
moved him from the communion of all Chris- 
tians. 

Photius justified this extremely bold mea- 
sure by a circular letter addressed to his 
brother patriarchs, in which, besides some 
strong reflections on other grievances, he 
charged the Roman Church with five direct 
heresies. We shall here enumerate them, 
both that we may more clearly show what 
were held to be the principal points on which 
the Churches were divided, and also that we 
may observe how low the malevolence of 
controversy will sometimes condescend to 
stoop : 1. That the Romans fasted on the Sab- 
bath, or seventh day of the week ; 2. that in 
the first week of Lent they permitted the use 
of milk and cheese ; 3. that they prohibited 
their priests to marry, and separated from 
their wives such as were married when they 
went into orders ; 4. that they authorized the 
Bishops alone to anoint baptized persons with 



* ' Photius, than whom Greece, the parent of so 
much genius, has never produced, perhaps, a more 
accomplished man, is singularly recommended by 
talents applicable to every object, sound judgment, 
extreme acuteness, infinite reading, incredible dili- 
gence. He had held nearly all the offices of state, he 
had thoroughly investigated all the records of the 
Church ; in his Bibliotheca alone still extant, he has 
brought together nearly two hundred and eighty 
writers, chiefly ecclesiastical, which he has studied, 
reviewed, and abstracted, and pronounced a most 
accurate judgment on their arguments, style, fidelity, 
authority.' Caoe, ap. Jortin, in A. D, 861. 

t Moeheim, cent. ix. p. ii., c. iii. 



the holy chrism, withholding that power from 
Presbyters ; 5. that they had interpolated the 
creed of Constantinople by the insertion of 
the words Filioque, and held the doctrine of 
the procession of the Holy Spirit from th 
Son as well as the Father. 

These charges, and the consequent recrim- 
inations, imbittered as they also were by 
national animosity, had, of course, no other 
eflfect than to exasperate the violence of both 
parties; but we should be mistaken if we 
were wholly to attribute that fury to the dif- 
ferences either in doctrine or discipline. Its 
deepest motive is, perhaps, to be traced to 
another source. The Emperor, with the as- 
sistance, and probably through the influence 
of his ambitious Primate, had lately and defin- 
itively withdrawn fi-om the papal jurisdiction 
various provinces to the east of the Adriatic, 
Illyricum, Macedonia, Epirus, Achaia, Thes- 
saly, and either transferred them to the pa- 
triarch, or (for the point is disputed) confirm- 
ed his previous authority over them ; and 
this, indeed, was an ecclesiastical offence of 
a description little calculated to find forgive- 
ness at Rome. Moreover, it happened that 
this sensible injury was immediately succeed- 
ed by another of the same nature. The 
heathen inhabitants of Bulgaria, a province 
of the Eastern Empire not far distant from 
Constantinople, had very lately been convert- 
ed to Christianity by Greek missionaries ; or, 
if it be admitted that some very imperfect ef- 
forts had been previously made there by the 
emissaries of Charlemagne, the Greeks at 
least had the merit of completing the spirit- 
ual conquest : * consequently, Photius placed 
Bulgaria under his own jurisdiction; nor will 
the impartial historian blame that Prelate for 
his endeavor to make the limits of the Church 
coextensive with those of the empire, and to 
repel the intrusive invasions of Rome. 

But the influence of the Pope was still 
maintained, and nourished by the dissensions 
of the Greeks ; and the flame of controversy 
had not at all abated, when Basilius, the Ma- 
cedonian, on his accession to the throne, de- 
posed Photius, and restored Ignatius to his 
former dignity. This act was confirmed by a 
Council assembled at Constantinople in 869, 

* It appears, indeed, from Roman Catholic histo- 
rians, that the Pope maintained a sort of communica- 
tion with the Bulgarians, by means of missionaries, 
and that their King actually sent his son to Rome in 
acknowledgment (as those assert) of spiritual obedi- 
ence. The utmost that can be truly alleged is, that 
the field, which both parties had exerted themselves 
to cultivate, was the subject of equal claims. 



176 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



in which the papal legates had great influ- 
ence, and which the Roman Church still ac- 
knowledges as the Eighth General Council. 
In 878 Photius was recalled, and in 886 again 
deposed ; but neither his recall nor his depo- 
sition had the effect of conferring on the pa- 
pal chair the jurisdiction for which it had 
struggled so pertinaciously. And, indeed, we 
may again observe, that throughout her long 
succession of interferences in the religious 
affairs of Greece, Rome has, on no occasion, 
gained any substantial or permanent advan- 
tage. In fact, even at the moment when she 
seemed to be playing her part most ai'tfully, 
she was little more than a tool in the more 
artful hands of a Greek party, who flattered 
her as long as their own interests required 
her support, but were always ready to reject 
her intervention when they required it no 
longer. 

Cerularius. We might have closed the 
account of this controversy with the mutual 
excommunications of Photius and Nicholas ; 
indeed the schism did properly commence 
at that period; and though the Popes contin- 
ued to prosecute, through the two succeed- 
ing centuries, their unsuccessful schemes of 
ambition, they produced little mischief, and 
have, consequently, little attracted the notice 
of history. About the middle of the eleventh 
century the attention of Rome seems to have 
been particularly directed to the reduction of 
the Bishops of Alexandria ancf Antioch under 
its own supremacy. * Michael Cerularius, 
a man of lofty, perhaps turbulent, spirit, was 
at that time patriarch, and after some angry 
correspondence between him and Pope Leo 
IX., the latter pronounced at Rome the sen- 
tence of excommunication. Nevertheless, 
his legates were invited to Constantinople 
with a view to heal the schism ;. there they 
asserted some insolent claims, which Cerula- 
rius indignantly rejected ; as the conference 
continued, the differences grew deeper and 
wider, and at length the legates in the heart ! 
of Constantinople, in the Church of St. So 



phia, publicly excommunicated the patriarch 
and all his adherents. They then solemnly 
deposited the written act of their anathema 
on the grand altar of the Temple, and, having 
shaken off the dust from their feet, departed. 
This event took place in 1054, and con- 
firmed and consummated the separation ; and 
though some degree of friendly intercourse 
has been occasionally resumed since that 
time, as political rather than religious exi- 
gences have required it, the imputed errors 
of the Greeks (of which the most offensive 
was their independence) have never been se- 
riously retracted by their Church, nor ever 
have been pardoned by its rival. 



* While the Pontiffs were contending for authority, 
the Churches were debating with extreme ardor a 
point of difference posterior in origin to the time of 
Photius, viz. whether the bread used at the Eucharist 
should be leavened or unleavened'? The Greek clergj' 
held the former opinion, and objected the latter to the 
Latins as an unpardonable error. Some other abuses 
are also imputed to them by Cerularius, and they are 
among the most frivolous which could have been select- 
ed out of the long and dark list of their corruptions — 
a proof that the spirit of the Greek Church in that 
age was as far from the true comprehension of Christ- 
ianity as that of its rival. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

The Constitution of the Church as fixed by 
Charlemagne. 

I. Review of the anfe-Nicene Church — Its construction 
and government— its real character and utility — Doc- 
trines and heresies — moral excellences- — Origin of 
various abuses — Early false miracles — their nature and 
object — Exorcism — Literary forgeries — Distinction of 
the converts — mysteries — Original Sacraments — their 
gradual corruption— Reverence for martyrs— celebration 
of their nativities — Prayers and offerings for the dead 
— Fasts, occasional and general — Certain terms and 
I usages borrowed from Jewish and Pagan systems — In- 
[ ferences — the ante-Nicene Church had imperfections 
I which might easily have been remedied. — II. From 
! Coiistantine to Gregory the Great — (1.) Some particular 
innovations — Celibacy of the Clergy — practices of the 
I Eastern and Western Churches— Gregory I. and VII. — 
! Relaxation of Penitential discipline — Purgatory — Use 
} and consequent worship of images — (2.) The Church 
j in connexion with the State — Origin of distinction 
between temporal and spiritual power — sources of 
ecclesiastical povrer and influence— increased authority 
of the Church — abuse of civil power for spiritual pur- 
poses — (3.) Internal government of the Church — 
decrease of popular, increase of episcopal, power — 
causes of this change — Elements of the Papal system — 
! the most obvious causes of its rise and progress. — III. 
From Gregory to Charlemagne — Differences between 
1 the Eastern and Western Churches — Further growth 
I of episcopal authority in the latter — Further exaltation 
I of the See of Rome — The Athanasian creed. — IV. 
■ Jurisdiction and immunities of the Clergy — Arbitration 
' of ancient Bishops — confirmed by Constantine — en- 
! larged by Justinian— Great extent of privilege conferred 
I by Charlemagne — his probable motives — The False 
! Decretals— Donation of Constantine— their objects and 
i effects.— V. Revenues of the Church— oblations— fixed 
I property — Donations — various descriptions and objects 
I of— other sources of wealth — Early distribution and 
! application of ecclesiastical funds- Payment and esta- 
j blishment of Tithes — Various advantages conferred 
i upon the world by the Church during the ages preceding 
I Charlemagne. 

We shall depart from that important position 

in our history which is occupied by the acts 

of Charlemagne, with a clearer view of their 

j nature and a better comprehension of ihe 



THE ANTE-NICENE CHURCH. 



177 



character of the Homan Church, if we pre- 
viously throw even a hasty retrospect over 
some portion of the path vdiich we have 
traced; and thus, after faintly retouching 
some parts which may not have been suffi- 
ciently illustrated, and noticing others with 
more care than has yet been bestowed on 
them, we shall complete the account which 
we propose to give of the first eight centuries 
of the Church. Some particulars also will 
be introduced, of which all mention has pur- 
posely been deferred till this occasion, in 
order to bring them into contact with those 
more remarkable events to which they are 
allied in principle, though separated by time 
or other circumstances. We shall commence 
this review from the earliest ages. 

I. The Ante-J^/icene Church. The Primi- 
tive Assemblies {iyy.;L,laiai) of the converts 
were called Churches. These, in the first 
instance, were scattered, as the rehgion spread 
itself, in perfect equality and independence, 
and their affairs were, for the most part, regu- 
lated by a body of presbyters, who acted with 
the consent of the people, and under the 
guidance of the Apostles. This form of gov- 
ernment was, to a certain extent, modelled 
on that of the Jewish Synagogues, and it was 
natural that it should be so ; since most of 
the first converts were Jews; since Christ 
himself had not laid down any general rules 
of ecclesiastical polity ; and since his Apostles 
were more intent on enlarging the numbers 
of the believers, and informing their piety, 
than on constructiiig partial laws for the 
external constitution of a society which was 
destined to comprehend every race and vari- 
ety of Man. 

Over two at least among the original 
Churches presidents were apostolically ap- 
pointed under the name of Bishops ; and 
presently, as the Apostles were gradually 
withdrawn, it is certain that all the principal 
Churches, with one or two exceptions, elected 
for themselves a superintendent under the 
same name. That custom prevailed very 
commonly even before the death of St. John, 
and became almost univeisal before the end 
of the first century ; still, for a certain time 
longer, the various Churches continued to 
conduct their own affairs without any mutual 
dependence, and with litde other correspond- 
ence than that of counsel and charity ; and 
the Bishop, in almost all matters, acted in 
concert with the Presbytery in the internal 
administration of each. 

Thus, in the unsettled constitution of the 
23 



Primitive Church, we may observe the ele- 
ments of three * forms of government subsist- 
ing under apostolical dh-ection, the Episcopal, 
the Presbyterian, and the Independent. But 
of these the second scarcely survived the de- 
parture of the inspii-ed directors, and imme- 
diately subsided into a limited episcopacy ; 
and the thu'd, though it continued somewhat 
longer, so coalesced with the other two, that 
the greater part, if not the whole, of the Inde- 
pendent Churches during the first half of the 
second centur}'-, were ruled by a Bishop and 
a Presbytery: that is to say, the various 
societies which constituted the body of Chris- 
tendom were so ruled, though as yet they 
exercised no control over each other. i 

In a very short time, as new circumstances 
rapidly sprang up, it was found necessary for 
the common interest to facilitate a more gen- 
eral communication between societies, which, 
though separate in government, were united 
by far more powerful ties. This was most 
reasonably accomplished by the assembling 
of occasional Councils, called Synods, com- 
posed for the most part of Bishops, each of 
whom represented his own Church, and ac- 
knovv'ledged no superiority of power or rank 
in any of his brethren. These associations 
of Churches cannot be traced to the first cen- 
tury ; but before the time of Tertullian f they 
were very common and extensive, at least in 
Greece, and the custom rapidly spread over 
every part of Christendom. The rules or 
canons enacted by these Synods were re- 
ceived as laws of the Church throughout the 
province which had sent its deputies to the 
meeting ; they were frequently published and 
communicated to other provinces, and the 
correspondence and co-operation thus created 
united, in a certain measure, the whole body, 
and combined the many scattered Churches 
into that one^ which, even in those early days, 
was called the Catholic\ Church. But from 
this description we observe both the inde- 
pendent equality of the members composing 
it, and also, that it had no acknowledged^ 

* Perhaps we might even say four — at least those, 
who maintain the siifticiency of the occasional and 
spontaiieous exhortation of anj^ zealous inembei' of any 
congregation for spiritual instruction, also seek their 
authority in the partial and ti'ausient practice of the 
Primiti\e Church. 

t De Jejuuiis. — ' Aguntur per Grsecias ilia in Jocis 
concilia ex universis ecclesiis, per qute et altiora 
quseque in commune tractantur, et ipsa repreesentatio 
totius noniinis Christian! magna veneratione celebra- 
tur.' 

\ See BingluiiJii(_Antiq. b. i., c. i. sect. 7. 



1-78 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



chief or head. For though the Metropolitans 
might assume, each in his own province, 
some superiority in rank, perhaps even in 
authority, yet these among themselves were 
equal, and their precedence and power were 
strictly confined to their own district. 

The principal bond which united the orig- 
inal Catholic Church was the possession of a 
common canon or catalogue of sacred books ; 
and thus, when everywhere tried by the same 
test, the opinions which might be stigmatized 
as heretical by any one of the Churches 
were, for the same reason, condemned by the 
Universal Church ; and the spiritual delin- 
quentSy who were removed from the com- 
munion by a part of the Catholic body, were 
eonsequently repudiated by the whole. It is 
true, that those who combined and directed 
this external system of Catholicism were the 
ecclesiastical ministers, and chiefly the Bish- 
ops; it is also true, that the influence of all 
these over the people, and the power of the 
latter in the government of their dioceses, were 
augmented beyond their original moderation 
by the circumstances which led the clergy to 
so general a co-operation. But, on the other 
hand, it is extremely doubtful whether, with- 
out such a confederation, the faith itself, 
loosely scattered over so broad a space, could 
have Vi^ith stood the various tempests which 
were levelled against it ; and it certainly was 
not possible, that any general confederation 
could have been formed among the Churches, 
unless by the exertions of their directors — 
a«d thoscy too, in each instance invested with 
some personal authority ; so that if there are 
any who inveigh against the original Catholic 
Church as the first corruption of Christianity, 
and the parent of all that have followed, they 
do not appear sufficiently to consider either 
the simple objects and character of that 
Church, or the perilous circumstances under 
which it coalesced, and combined many de- 
fenceless members into one powerful body. 
Under aw^ circumstances, a close association 
an4 unity among religious societies possessing 
the same canon of faith and the same form 
of administration would have been natural 
and desirable; but, under the pressure of 
common danger and calamity, it was not only 
reasonable, but necessary. * 



* Semler (Observationes Novje m Historiam HI. 
primor. sgec.> considers it to have been the worst 
consequence of the formation of the earlj Church as a 
single body, that it resiraiiied the liberty of individual 
judgment, or what he calls internal religion; that 
it imposed certain rules, both of doctrine and disci- 
pline,, upon tlie more ignorant aiKl worldly Cla-istians, 



The writings of the ante-Nicene fathers 
contain all the most important doctrines of 
Christianity; but we should vainly search 
those books for a complete and consistent 
system of theology. In fact, their writers 
did not commonly handle the dogmas of 
faith, unless with a view to the confutation 
of some new or prevalent heresy. * Thus 
their arguments were usually directed to a 
particular purpose, and addressed to the 
views and prejudices of the time or place in 
which they were published. Many of them 
were uninstructed in the art of reasoning, 
and almost all were, in some degree, infected 
either with the narrow spirit of Judaism, or 
the loose and speculative genius of philoso- 
phy ; so that, in correcting the errors of 
others, they often deviated very widely from 
sense and truth themselves, f Those contro- 



and discouraged any laxity, or, as he would say, 
freedom, of interpretation or practice. And on that 
principle he exalts the character of the bolder and 
more mystical writers, Clemens Aiexandrinus and 
Origen, who were not partisans of the Church, at the 
expense of TertuHian, Cyprian, and others, and 
praises the independence of the heretics in thinking 
and reasoning for themselves. We are not, however, 
able to discover that the expositions of Scripture con- 
tained in the Alexandrian, are, upon the whole, more 
sound and rational than those of the Carthaginian, 
Fathers, Avhile they certainly abound with many fanci- 
ful extravagances from which the latter are free; and 
we have shown that tlie tenets of many of the early 
heretics were incalculably remote from the precincts 
of reason and Scripture. At the same time, we are 
willing to agree with Seinler, that it were better far 
for religion to endure all those irregular absurdities, 
than to support the Unity of the Church as it was 
proclaimed in the Roman. Catholic sense, and as it 
was upheld by execution and massacre. But it can- 
not be asserted that the papal system was the necessa- 
ry offspring of the early Catliolic Church ; for, if so, 
it would have arisen in the Eastern as surely as in the 
Western communion. The worst principles of that 
system proceeded from causes posterior far to the 
second century : and the union of the religious socie- 
ties which at that time constituted the Church was, 
in our opinion, an instrument in God's hands both for 
the preservation of sound doctrine amidst the numerous 
and irrational deviations of heresy, and also for the 
association of the faithful in discipline, and in devoted 
resistance to the attacks of persecution. 

* ' C'est la matiere de tons les Sermons des Peres 
la morale et les heresies du terns. Sans cette clef 
souvent on ne les entend pas; ou du inoins on ne les 
peut gouter. Et c'est encore une utilite considerable 
de I'Histoire Ecclesiastique. Car quand on scait les 
heresies qui regnoient en chaque teins et en cliaque 
pais on voit pourquoi les peres revcnoient toujour* 
a certains points de doctrine.' Fleury, Disc. 1. sur 
PHist. Eccles.,s. xiv. 

■f Even Irengcus, almost the earliest among them, 1% 



THE ANTE-NICENE CHURCH. 



179 



versies, however, though not always conduct- 
ed with becoming moderation, were not, per- 
hap-s, without their use even in those days, 
since they warmed the zeal and animated the 
industry of the parties without endangering 
their personal security. And to us their re- 
trospect may bring some increase of charity, 
if the consideration of the very broad and 
essential points, on which they turned, should 
haply lead us to attach less weight to those less 
momentous differences, which have raised 
such heats in later times^ and which even yet 
have not entirely lost their bitterness. 

It is certain that a very important moral 
miprovement was immediately introduced 
by Christianity, wheresoever it gained foot- 
ing. The earliest societies of the converts 
furnished an example of rigid, but simple 
and unaffected piety, to which the history of 
man can, perhaps, produce no parallel ; and 
even in the following century we need not 
hesitate to assert the incomparable superiori- 
ty of the Christians over their Pagan contem- 
poraries : the principles of their religion, the 
severity of their discipline, the pecuharity of 
their civil condition, confirm the evidence 
which assures us that such was the fact. 
But the golden days of Christianity were 
confined to its infancy, and it is a great delu- 
sion to imagine that its perfect integrity con- 
tinued throughout the whole period of its 
persecution, or to refer indiscriminately to 
the history of the three first centuries for a 
model of Evangelical purity. We must also 
be careful not to exaggerate the merits of the 
early Church, nor to extenuate the abuses 
which it certainly admitted, nor to exculpate 
the ministers who created or encouraged 
them. 

So iar, indeed, are we from any such inten- 
tion, that we consider the present as a proper 
opportunity to examine with more specific 
notice the innovations which successively ap- 
peared either in doctrine or discipline : that 
we may ascribe to its proper age each of the 
several abuses which at length combined to 
deform the structure of the Catholic Church ; 
and that we may perceive how gradual was 
their growth, and how deep and ancient the 
root from which many of them proceeded. 

That to which we shall first recall the 
reader's attention (for there are few, if any, 
of which some mention has not already been 
made) is the claim to miraculous power, as 



not exempt from this charge; his errors are enume- 
I'Hted by Dupin, Nouv. Biblioth., Vie S. Irenee, vol. 
i. p. 73. 



inherent in the Church, which was asserted 
by several among the early Christians, from 
Justin Martyr downwards, and asserted (as 
evidence and reason have persuaded us) * 
without any truth. According to the Apolo- 
gists, and other writers of the second and 
third centuries, the sick were commonly 
healed, the dead were raised,f and evil spirits 
cast out, through the prayers of the faithful 
in the name of Jesus. Men of unquestiona* 
ble piety eagerly retailed, and may possibly 
have believed, each other's fabrications. Vis- 
ions and dreams became the motives of action 
or belief, and the commonest feelings and res- 
olutions were ascribed to the immediate im- 
pulse and inspiration of the Deity. Some 
nominal converts may thus have been en- 
rolled under the banners of the Church ; 



* See Chap. ii. p. 40. 
t The following is part of the celebrated testimony 
of Irenaeus (lib. ii. cap. 31 or 57) as cited by Euse- 
bius (lib. V. cap. 7):— oi uh yuQ daiuorag iXavvovon 
^Sf'Saiwg xal ocXifiMg- ujoTs noXXuxig y.ai morevsiv 
avTovg fxsirovg xa6aQio6ivrag ano tmv tcov^qojv 
nvEVLiurwv y.al that iv rij iy.y.Xi]aia- ot 5k xal 
nqoyviuaiv t /ovaiTcov ^(.i7.).6vr(xiv,y.aL onraoiag y.al 
Qt'jOsig TTQOtprjTixixg' u7.).oi Ss rovg yuurovrag Stu 
T/Jg TfSv j(eiomv tJTi&iOsojg Lcorxai, xal VYurg 
arroya&iOTaotv. ijSt] Si xa&u>g scpaus^' y.al rsyQoi 
iYfQ&rjaav, y.al Tcaqhinvav avv \uiv ixavorg 'etsOi. 
ICuL Tt yuq; ovy. 'eOTiv ocQi^uor si/rsiv X(7>v /aqiau- 
uT(x)v u)v y.uTce Tcarrhg Tov xiauov ( fxy.XrjOlu naqa 
Qiov Xa^ovaa, &c. &c. " Some effectually expel 
devils, so that the very persons who are cleansed 
from evil spirits believe and are in the Church; 
others have foreknowledge of the future, and visions 
and prophetic declai-ations ; others heal the sick by 
imposition of hands; and it has happened (as \V8 
have said) that the dead have been raised and con- 
tinued among us for some years. It is impossible to 
enumerate the grace which the Church throughout 
the whole world has received from God, &c." 

We shall here only remark (as Jortin has remarked! 
before us) that in speaking of resurrection, the writer 
uses the past tense, while the other miracles are de- 
scribed as in the actual course of present occurrence; 
yet the words avv j;i/rv cannot, without great violence, 
be understood of any preceding generation, and we 
doubt not that Ireneeus intended to assert that dead 
persons had been brought to life in his own time. In 
a subsequent paragraph, that father also claims the 
gift of tongues for his age. xa&iog xal nokkfov 
axovouiv adsXcfcov h rY] ixy.}.i]o[a n^ocpijrixu 
/anlauara i/ovrwi', xal TravTodairaig ?.a?.ovvTU)V 
ihlx ITtsvitaTog yXwoaatg. After this passage, there 
is scarcely any mention made of that gift in ecclesias- 
tical history. We should observe, that Eusebiua 
makes the above citation in proof of his assertion 
'that miraculous powers iv fxx?.r,aiatg rtaiv vtts- 
ksiTCTO as late as the time of Irenaeus.' He does not 
appear disposed to claim them /or the Ckiirch at any 
later period. 



180 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



but the evil of the practice overbalanced its ( 
profit, even its momentary profit ; since the | 
Bimds of men w^ere thereby hurried away 
from the proper understanding of the Gospel, 
and the true character of the religion, to gaze ; 
after marvels and prodigies, and prepared to 
ascribe to fallacious impressions a belief, I 
which can only be sound w^hen it is founded 
in reason. It is proper, however, to point out 
one general distinction between these early 
miracles and those which clouded the Church ' 
in later ages ; for, though it is insufficient to 
establish their credit, it may lead us to regard 
their authors with more charity. There ap- 
pears to have been nothing absurd or super- 
stitious in the manner of their performance, 
nor base or wicked in their object. They are 
related to have been usually wrought by the 
simple invocation of Christ's name; and it 
does not appear that their accomplishment 
directly tended to feed avarice or individual 
ambition — neither to augment the power of 
the clergy, nor to decide religious controversy, 
nor to subvert any obnoxious heresy, nor to 
establish any new doctrine, nor to recom- 
mend any foolish practice or superstitious 
observance. * We can seldom trace them to 
any other motive than an injudicious zeal fori 
the propagation of the faith. 

The triumphs of the Exorcists over the 
powers of darkness are so loudly and perpet- 
ually celebrated by the oldest Church writers, 
that they may deserve a separate notice. It 
seems, indeed, probable that the Jews, espe- 
cially after their intercourse with the Chal- 
dseans during the captivity, attributed to the 
direct operation of evil spirits a great number 
of those disorders of which the causes were 
not obvious ; and such particularly as were 
attended by distortion of body, or extraordi- 
nary mental agitation and frenzy, f This 
delusion necessarily created a large and vari- 
ous multitude of ' Dsemoniacs,' whose mani- 
fold diseases could hope for no relief from 
ordinary remedies, as they proceeded not 
from human accidents. The language even 
of Scripture, when literally understood, ap- 
pears to sanction such an opinion, and the 
literal interpretation has had its advocates 
among the learned and pious in every age of 
the Church. But the notion of real Dsemo- 
niacal agency was carried to an extreme of 
absurdity, and led, we fear, to many acts of 
deceit in the second and third centuries. 

* This subject is very fairly treated by Di-. Jortin 
in tlie beginning of his second book. 
t See Lightfoot- Horse Hebraicse- 



' Oh, could you but hear (says Cyprian)* and 
see those daemons when they are tortured by 
us, and afilicted with spiritual chastisement 
and verbal anguish, and thus ejected from the 
bodies of the possessed [obsessorum ;) moan- 
ing and lamenting with human voice, through 
the power divine, as they feel the rods and 
stripes, they confess the judgment to come. 
The exorcists rule with commanding right 
over the whole army of the insolent adversa- 
ry. Oftentimes the devil promises to depart, 
but departs not ; but when we come to bap- 
tism, then indeed we ought to be assured and 
confident, because the daemon is then op- 
pressed, and the man is consecrated to God 
and liberated.' The invocation of Christ, at- 
tended by the sign of the cross, and pro- 
nounced by persons formally appointed to the 
office, was the method by which those stu- 
pendous effects were usually produced ; and 
one among the many evils which proceeded 
from this absurd practice was an opinion, 
which gained some prevalence among the 
less enlightened converts, that the object of 
Christ's mission was to emancipate mankind 
from the yoke of their invisible enemy, and 
that the promised Redemption was nothing 
more than a sensible liberation from the 
manifest influence of evil spirits. 

Of the literary forgeries which corrupted 
and disgraced the ante-Nicene Church, we 
havfe made frequent and sorrowful mention ; 
and the great number f and popularity of such 
apocryphal works seem indeed to prove that 
the Canon of the New Testament, though 
very early received among the clergy, was 
not in general circulation among the people. 
They arose in the second, even more, per- 
haps, than in the following age, and originat- 
ed partly in the still remaining influence of 
Judaism, partly in the connexion between 
Christianity and philosophy, which at that 
time commenced. Almost all the Church 
writers partook more or less of one or the 
other of these tendencies ; Justin Martyr, 
Tatian, Irenseus, and even Tertullian himself, 



* Epist. 76. Both IrenaeiTs and Tertullian are very 
animated on the same subject. 

t Among these, besides the Epistte to Abgarus, the 
works ascribed to Hermes Trisraegistus, the Sibyl- 
line Prophesies, Hydaspis^ the Apostolical Canons 
and Constitutions, we may mention various apocry- 
phal histories of Jesus, of Mary, and his other rela- 
tives — of Tiberius, Nicodemus, and Joseph of Arima- 
thea — of the Apostles, especially St. Peter — the origin 
of the Apostles' Creed — the Synods of the Apostles — • 
the Epistle of Seneca to Paul— the Acts of Piiatt?, 
&c. &c. 



THE ANTE-NICENE CHURCH. 



181 



were in some degree tainted by the former 
infection, and Clemens Alexandrinus and Or- 
igen were deeply vitiated by the latter. But 
we do not intend to ascribe the forgeries in 
question to those respectable fathers, nor 
even wholly to any membei-s of the Church, 
though we admit that some of them received 
undue countenance from that quarter. We 
shall here only remark, without pausing again 
to condemn the principle which created them, 
that their immediate effect was exceedingly 
injurious, since they contributed, together 
with the other abuses just mentioned, to dis- 
seminate false and unworthy notions respect- 
ing the nature of Christianity. Foremost 
among them, the gross Millenarian doctrine, 
which was the firstborn child of tradition, 
was supported and diffused by those writ- 
ings ; and it did not cease to exercise, ui va- 
rious parts of Christendom, a pernicious and 
perhaps powerful influence, until it was 
checked by the pen of Origen and succeed- 
ing writers. 

The distinction of the converts into ' Cat- 
echumens,' and ' Faithful,' or ' Believers,' 
(moTol) was introduced after the age of Jus- 
tin, and before or during that of Tertullian.* 
Its motive was probably twofold ; — first, to 
prove the sincerity, to instruct the ignorance, 
to ascertain or correct the morality of the 
ruder proselytes, who were now numerous 
and eager for baptism, and so to restrain the 
indiscrimmate performance of that rite ; next, 
to conciliate reverence and excite curiosity 
by the temporary concealment of the most 
solemn ceremonies of the new rehgion. To 
this end the Catechumens were only admit- 
ted to the previous part of the service, and, 
before the celebration of the Holy Sacra- 
ments, were dismissed : f all that followed 



* De Prescrip. adv. Haeret. cap. 41. He censures 
the heretics for not making the distinction in question 
in their congregations. 

-^ Ite, Missa est. (i. e. Ecclesia.) Go — it is dis- 
missed. This seems, upon the whole, the most prob- 
able origin of the words. Missal, Mass; though many 
others have been proposed. (See Bingham, b. xiii., 
chap, i.) Ot cey.oivojvyjToi, TCtQiTtart'jGaTE — -JNon- 
communicants, depart — was the Greek form of sepa- 
rating the two classes. Bingham is very minute, and 
probably very faithful, in describing the nature of the 
Missa Catechumenorum and the Missa Fidelium, or 
Communion Service — though the forms, as he gives 
them, probably belonged to the fourth and the subse- 
quent, rather than the preceding, centuries. But a 
summary of the instructions delivered to the fonner is 
given by the author of the Constit. ApostoL, lib. vii., 
c. 39. It embraces the knowledge of the Trinity, the 
order of tlie world's a-eation and series of Divine 



was strictly veiled from them, until the time 
of their own initiation. Even from the above 
short description it is easy to discover in this 
early Christian practice an imitation of the 
system of Pagan mysteries. These, as is well 
kno^vn, were twofold in number and impor- 
tance — the first or lesser being of common 
notoriety, and easy access to all conditions 
and ages, while the greater were revealed, 
with considerable discrimination, to such 
only as were thought qualified for the privi- 
lege, by their rank, or knowledge, or virtue. 
The name also passed mto the Liturgies of 
the Church; and the Sacraments, which 
were withdrawn from the profane eye of the 
Catechumens, were denominated mysteries. 

These mysteries continued for some time, 
perhaps till the beginning of the fourth centu- 
ry, to be two only. Baptism and the Eucharist, 
We have proofs, indeed, that in that age the 
ceremonies, at least of Penitential Absolution, 
of Ordination, and Confirmation,* were con- 
cealed fi'om the uninitiated, as carefully as 
the two original Sacraments ; and hence no 
doubt arose the error which has sanctified 
them by the same name. Regarding the rite 
of Baptism, we have noticed in a former 
chapter a misapprehension of its tme nature 
and object, which gained very early footing 
in the Church ; and the consequent abuse of 
deferring it until the hour of death was clear- 
ly customary before the days of Constantino ; 
we need not pause to point out the evils 
which obviously proceeded from it. f The 
original simple character of the eucharistical 
assemblies of the primitive Christians, such 
as they are described by Justin Martyr, 

Providence, as exhibited in the Old Testament: tire 
Doctrine of Clirist's Incarnation, Passion, Resurrec- 
tion, and Assumption, and what it is to renounce the 
devil and to enter into the Covenant of Christ. 

* The passages which respectively prove these 
three facts are from Optatus contr. Parmen., liv. ii., 
p. 57; Chrjsostom Hom., 18, in ii. Cor. p. 872; 
and Innocent I., Epist. i., ad Decentium Eugubin : 
and are cited by Bingham, Antiq,, book x., chapter 
V. St. Basil (De Spir. Sanct., c. 27) places the Oil 
of Chrism among the things which the uninitiated 
might not look upon; while St. Augustin (Comm, in 
Psalm ciii., Concio. i.) says, ' Quid est quod occul- 
tum est et non publicum in Ecclesial Sacramentum 
Baptismi, Sacramentum Eucharisti(B. Opera nos- 
tra bona vident et Pagani, Sacramenta vero occultan- 
tur illis.' The practice probably varied in different 
Churches ; but the whole proves that the Seven Sac- 
raments were not yet acknowledged in any. 

t Gibbon somewhere proposes a question, which 
we profess our inability to resolve, whether this per- 
nicious practice was at any time condemned by any 
Coimcil of the Church 1 



182 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



was first exalted by the strong and almost 
ambiguous language of Irenaeus, and still 
further by the exaggerated though vague ex- 
pressions of subsequent writers. * By such 
means the Eucharist gradually rose to be 
considered the most abstruse and awful of 
the mysteries. Yet is it still doubtful wheth- 
er this grew to be a great abuse before the 
establishment of the Church ; though the 
secrecy and exclusiveness which surrounded 
its most holy ceremony offended the open 
character of the religion, and even lessened 
its estimation among the wise and virtuous, 
by introducing an unworthy assimilation to 
the mummeries of Paganism. 

It was an opinion in the third century, 
originating, perhaps, with TertulHan, but 
more expressly declared by Dionysius, ' That 
the holy martyrs were the assessors of Christ 
and participators in his kingdom, and partak- 
ers in his judgment, sitting in judgment with 
him.' f While we read this extravagant con- 
ceit of that early age, we might almost be 
disposed to praise the moderation of later 
times, which were contented to invest those 
holy sufferers with the character of media- 
tors. But long even before the age of Dio- 
nysius, and probably before any thought had 
been raised respecting their immediate exal- 
tation or beatification, it had been a natural 
and even pious custom to celebrate the biiih- 
days of those who had offered themselves up 
as sacrifices for their religion. By their birth- 
days (their yivi&Xia) were understood, not the 
days of their introduction to the sins and af- 
flictions of earth, but of their release from 
such bondage and their resurrection to glory. 
These days of their nativity to everlasting 
life were observed (as indeed it was fit) in 
joyous commemoration of the piety of the 
departed, and of the example which they had 
bequeathed to posterity. Assemblies were 
held for this purpose at the tombs of the mar- 
tyrs, or on the spots where they had perished, 
and their frequency is attested by Tertullian, 
Cyprian, Origen, and others of the oldest 
fathers. The Muqtvqojv yivi&lia were the 
saints' days of the early Christians, and may 
be traced at least as far back as the execution 



* The passages in Irenaeus which have given occa- 
sion to the warmest controversy, and not wholly with- 
out ground, are lib. iv., c. 17 (or 32) and 18 (or 34), 
and lib. v., c. 2, Miracula Sacraj Coense vel Cyprianus 
audet narrare. Semler. Observ. Nov., &c. 

t Tertull. de Resurrectione Carnis, cap. 43. Nemo 
enira peregrinatus a corpore statim immoratur penes 
Dominum, nisi ex martyrii prerogativa, Paradiso 
scilicet no« Inferis deversurus. And lib, de Anima, 



of Polycarp ; * and as the places of meeting 
were not then consecrated by chapels or 
sanctuaries, and as the mortal, whose eutha- 
nasia was commemorated, was not yet made 
an object of superstitious adoration, it would 
be too severe to charge upon those innocent 
demonstrations of popular reverence the sys- 
tem of idolatrous impiety which was built in 
later ages on that foundation, f 

The use of prayers and even of offerings 
for the dead was earlier than the age of Ter- 
tullian ; X nor is it any wonder that the nu- 
merous converts from Paganism should bring 
over with them some fragments of their for- 
mer observances. But there is no just rea- 
son to suspect that the ante-Nicene Church 
studied to turn them to its own profit, or at 
least that they were made to minister to the 
avarice of the clergy. If they were encour- 
aged, it was rather through the hope of in 
creasing by such indulgence the number of 
the proselytes. 

The mortification of occasional fasting was 
probably enjoined in the earliest age. For 
the ceremony of Baptism, as we learn from 
Justin, both the neophyte and the congrega- 
tion were prepared by abstinence ; and in the 
time of Tertullian, the Bishops, if he belies § 
them not, found their advantage in increasing 
the number of such observances. The first 
general fast was on Good Friday, and it does 
not appear that any others were very soon 
added, or at least universally received. Yet 

cap. 55. Dionys. ap. Euseb., liv. vi., cap. 42. 
rov XoiOTov 7TuQB(^()oi, y.al rfjg paai?.£iag avrov 
y.oivonot Hal iniro/oi rijg y.Qiaswg avrov, y.al 
ovvtir/iutovTsg avTM . 

* In the Epistle of the Church of Smyrna to that 
of Phiiomelium (in Euseb., liv. iv., cap. 15), the 
writers, after mention of the martyrdom of Polycarp, 
express their intention, ' by God's permission, to 
meet at his tomb and celebrate his birth-day.' See 
Cave, Primitive Christianity, p. ii., ch. 7. 

f We do not mean that there was no tendency to 
superstition in the honors paid to martyrs even in 
the third century. Relics were already coming into 
consideration, the blood of the sufferers was eagerly 
collected in sponges, and other similar extravagances 
are recorded; but these were the natural excesses of 
popular enthusiasm, and would have ceased wilh the 
cessation of persecution, if they had not afterwards 
been perpetuated and systematized by the arts of a 
corrupt priesthood. 

X Tertull. de Monogamia, c. 10. 

§ He may do so, for in his ' Liber de Jejuniis ' he 
is writing in favor of Montanism against the Church. 
Bene autem quod et Episcopi universae plebi mandare 
jejunia assolent ; non dico de industria stipium 
confer endarum, ut vestrcB captures est, sed inter- 
dum et ex aliqua solicitudinis Ecclesiasticae causa, 
See Thomassin, Traite d«s Jeunes de I'EgUse. 



THE ANTE-NICENE CHURCH. 



183 



there can be rfb doubt, that long before the 
fourth century at least some * part of Lent 
was strictly observed, and a partial fast (till 
three in the afternoon) on the fourth and 
sixth days of every week, is by some referred 
to very high antiquity. Upon the whole it 
would seem, however, that, until the esta- 
blishment of the Church, a great variety pre- 
vailed in this department of its discipline, 
dependent in some measure on the circum- 
stances of particular provinces, and the indi- 
vidual regulations of the Bishops presiding 
there. 

When we consider m what countries the 
religion was revealed, and among what peo- 
ple it first spread, it is natural to search for 
the oldest forms of its external economy in 
the Jewish, and for those somewhat less an- 
cient in the Pagan, system ; — and thus we 
find them to have originated, so far at least 
as the origin of either can be discovered with 
any certainty. There can be little doubt, for 
instance, that the very early distinction be- 
tween Clergy and Laity was immediately de- 
rived from the corresponding institution of 
Judaism. The gradations and offices of the 
original Priesthood, and the power of the 
Presbytery, proceeded from the same source,f 
and the subsequent introduction of the more 
dignified term Sacerdos attested the continu- 
ation of the same influence. Again, ' There 
seems to be nothing more uncontested among 
learned men than that the Jews had set 
forms of worship in all parts of Divine Ser- 
vice, and that the Apostles freely used these 
in all instances in which they thought it nec- 
essary or becoming to join with them. Their 
ordinary service was of two sorts — the ser- 
vice of the Temple and the service of the 
Synagogue. These differed in many re- 
spects ; but both agreed in this, that the pub- 
he prayers in both were offered up in a 
certain constant form of words.' | To what 



* The Quadragesimal Fast {naaaqaxoarii) is by 
some supposed to indicate the number of hours of 
abstinence which preceded the festival of the Resur- 
rection. But in the time of Chrysostom (who calls 
Lent ' the remedy and physic of the soul ') and of 
Theodosius the Great (who suspended all criminal 
proceedings and punishments during its continuance) 
the entire period was unquestionably observed. See 
Cave on the Early Church, chapter vii. 

t There is a passage in St. Clement's First Epistle 
to the Corinthians, chap. 40, in which the system of 
Jewish discipline is indirectly proposed as a model 
for the imitation of Christians. 

% Bingham (Church Antiq. Book xiii., chap, v.) 
in prosecution of this subject, exhibits too warmly 
XkiQ zeal of an advocate. 



extent this practice was imitated in the prim- 
itive Church remains extremely uncertain, 
notwithstanding the controversial labors of 
many learned men. Perhaps this very un- 
certainty should be sufficient to convince us, 
that the earliest forms of services were ex- 
tremely short and variable — otherwise more 
ample specimens of them would have reach- 
ed posterity. On the other hand, the scanty 
passages which are adduced from Ignatius, 
Justin, IrensBus, and Tertullian, certainly 
prove, that there were some fixed prayers in 
use in some of the ancient Churches, which 
may or may not have been common to them 
all. And this usage was an imitation, imper- 
fect as it was, of the Jewish offices. On the 
other hand there are many of the early Ec- 
clesiastical terms, and some few ceremonies 
chiefly of the third century, which are more 
usually considered of Pagan derivation, though 
some of them may with equal Justice be as- 
cribed to a Jewish original. The oldest name 
for the chancel was ^voiaonlqiov, Ara Dei, or 
Altare ; oblations were made there, and ' the 
unbloody sacrifice ' offered up, and frankin- 
cense smoked, and lamps were lighted, even 
during the persecutions of the Church ; even 
votive donations (donaria — ava&)';uara) were 
suspended in the yet rude and ill-constructed 
temples of Christ. But the simple superstition 
of the Faithful in those ages did not proceed 
to more dangerous excesses. It was reserved 
for the following century to fill those temples 
with images, and to introduce into the Sanc- 
tuaries of God the predominating spirit of 
Paganism. 

In reference to the facts which we have 
now stated, and which carry with them the 
plain conclusions to which we proceed, it 
seems only necessary to observe — Jirst, that 
we are not to attend to those writers who 
represent the ante-Nicene Church as the per- 
fect model of a Christian society — as the 
unfailing storehouse whence universal and 
perpetual rules of doctrine and discipline 
may be derived with confidence, and follow- 
ed with submission. The truth is far other- 
wise ; and though we ought assuredly to 
distinguish the authority of the apostolical 
from that of the later uninspired writers, still 
even the works of those first Fathers are not 
without much imperfection, and furnish, be- 
sides, very insuffi"cient materials for the con- 
struction or defence of any system ; and in 
the extensive variety both of opinions and 
arguments which distinguishes their success- 
ors from Justin to Eusebius, we cannot faU 
to observe, that the former are sometimes 



184 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



erroneous, and the latter very commonly 
feeble and inconsequential. From such facts 
we are compelled to infer, that the true na- 
ture and design of Christ's mission on earth 
were not yet very perfectly comprehended 
by the mass of Christians in the second and 
third centuries. Indeed, it was scarcely pos- 
sible that it could be otherwise, since they 
consisted of converts, or the children of con- 
verts, many of whom were imbued with the 
deep and unbending prejudices of Judaism, 
and the others attached by long hereditary 
affection to the splendid ceremonies of Pa- 
ganism. To either of these classes it was 
necessary to address a peculiar form of argu- 
ment, and to present a peculiar view of the 
rehgion, that there might be any just hope of 
persuading them to embrace it. We should 
also mention that some of the errors of the 
third, and even of the second century, may 
be ascribed to the undue weight already at- 
tached to apostolical tradition, and the au- 
thority that was blindly attributed to any 
precept or usage, however obscurely traced 
to that uncertain source. 

But, in the second place, we are equally 
bound to remark, that the fundamental doc- 
trines of Christianity shine with a steady and 
continuous light through the strange mists in 
which the ante-Nicene Church has some- 
times involved them ; it was a great advan- 
tage v/hich that age possessed over those 
which followed, that it confined itself to 
plain and scriptural expressions, and was 
contented to deliver the truths of God in the 
language of the holy wi'itings. Moreover, 
we should add, that among the abuses which 
we have described, though some were shame- 
ful to their inventors, and injurious to the 
cause, there were many which, in their ori- 
gin, were comparatively, if not absolutely, 
innocent : in many instances they arose rath- 
er from the circumstances of the converts 
than from the design of the priesthood, and 
there were fev/, if any, among them which 
might not have been arrested after the esta- 
blishment of Christianity, if that security 
which gave power to the ministers of re- 
ligion had conferred wisdom and true piety 
along with it. 

To conclude, then : — a general view of the 
Church of the three first ages presents to us 
a body always unconnected with the State, 
frequently at variance with it ; surrounded 
by multitudes of heresies, many of them 
very monstrous, which it combated with the 
sword of the Spirit alone ; under a govern- 
ment in which the gradually-increasing in- 



fluence of the Bishop was still for the most 
part extremely limited by the power of his 
presbytery ; with a rule of faith not curiously 
definite on abstruse questions, but simply 
conceived and scripturally expressed — rising 
into strength and confirming its consistency, 
and, finally, making good its long-neglected 
claims to toleration and respect. A closer 
examination of the same body discloses to us 
a number of stains and defects, proceeding at 
different moments from various causes, and 
spreading, in some degree, as that advanced 
in magnitude : but they had not yet pene- 
trated to its heart, they might still have been 
checked, and even removed, by an influential 
and truly Christian priesthood. It is true 
that the substantial and. fatal corruptions of 
afler ages sprang, in many instances, directly 
from the in ; but the crime of those conse- 
quences must rest, for the most part, with 
those who combined and perpetuated the 
first abuses ; for these were indeed rather the 
produce of circumstances than the work of 
men. We have also observed, in the vari- 
ous conditions of apostolical Christianity, the 
scattered elements of some forms of govern- 
ment and discipline, which, though they were 
very early absorbed by the episcopal system, 
should not be passed over in silence, since 
they are still pleaded as precedents and imi- 
tated as models by many excellent Christians. 

II. From Constantine to Gregory the Great, 
Fleury, who is the most moderate and rea- 
sonable of the Roman Catholic historians, 
laments that after the first six centuries the 
brightest days of the Church were passed 
away. * In his first Discourse he represents 
the brilliancy of that period in vivid and 
exaggerated colors. The reverence due to 
the sanctified martyr— the solemn aspect of 
monastic solitude — the piety and disinterest- 
ed poverty of the early prelates — the purity 
of their election — the austerity of their life — 
the magnificence of the offices — the severity 
of discipline — the venerable names of tradi- 
tion f and antiquity — are objects of his warm 



* Discours sur I'Hist. Eccles. depuis Pan 600 jus- 
ques a Fan 1100. ' Les beaux jours de I'Eglise sont 
passes, mais Dieu n'a pas rejette son peuple ni oublie 
ses promesses,' &c. &c. 

t ' It was one of the rules of discipline not to com- 
mit it to writing, but to preserve it hy a secret tra- 
dition among the Bishops and Priests, chiefly that 
regarding the administration of the sacraments; and 
the better to keep that secret, that the Bishops should 
confide their ecclesiastical letters to the Clergy only. 
So, when the ancients speak of observing the canons. 



PARTICULAR INNOVATIONS. 



185 



and indiscriminate eulogy. But it was an 
error (for to Fleury we would not willingly 
ascribe the intention of deceiving) to con- 
found the three earliest with the three fol- 
lowing centuries ; as if the same had been 
the government, disciphne, spirit of the Cath- 
oiic Church from the age of St. Clement to 
that of St. Gregory. Even the first of those 
periods was somewhat removed from apos- 
tolical perfection : but in the second the dis- 
tance was incalculably multiplied, and that, 
not only according to the customary progress 
of unreformed abuse, but also through a 
change of principles in the administration of 
the Church, which proceeded from other 
causes. 

Particular Innovations. At present, before 
we enter on any general review of the out- 
ward form and position of the Church, or 
even of its internal administration, we shall 
mention^ as in continuation of the subject 
which has been most lately treated, some 
particular innovations in belief and disciphne 
which either began or were established dur- 
ing the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries. The 
first, and by far the most important of these, 
was the institution of the monastic system, of 
which it cannot be properly said that there 
existed any vestige before the beginning of 
the fourth age, and which, before its termina- 
tion, had fixed its roots deeply, and struck 
them with pernicious vitality into the very 
heart of Christendom. Its origin and pro- 
gress will be the object of future inquiry ; at 
present we shall confine our notice to a sub- 
ject very closely connected with it — the celi- 
bacy of the Clergy. In the first ages the 
Church Vv^riters advocated the universal law- 
fulness of marriage against the heretical rigor 
of the Encratites, of Saturninus and Basil- 
ides, of the Montanists, and even the Nova- 
tians ; so that any undue respect for celibacy 
which may have prevailed during the three 
first ages cannot justly be attributed to the 
Church : it was also very partial and vague 
in its nature, and wholly unsupported by ca- 



imagine not that they speak of written canons; they 
speak of all that was pi'actised through a constant 
tradition. For we must believe, according to the 
maxim of St. Augustin, that that which the Church 
has observed at every time, and in evei^y place, is 
apostolical tradition. In fact, from what other source 
could have come those universal practices, such as the 
veneration of relics, the prayer for the dead, the ob- 
sei-vance of Lentl' Fleury, Discours sur PHist. des 
Six Premiers Siecles, &c. &c. — Of the three prac- 
tices here Instanced, two at least were much posterior 
to the times of the Apostles. 

2i 



nonical regulations. Afterwards, there can be 
no question that the cause which first gave 
impulse to the principle, and carried it into 
practice, and subjected it to repeated legisla- 
tion, was the growing prevalence of Mona- 
chism, and the popular veneration which was 
found to attach to excessive austerities. Al- 
ready at the Council of Nice ^ it was propos- 
ed to forbid the marriage of the Clergy ; but 
through the opposition of an Egyptian Bish- 
op, named Paphnutius, it was only enacted, 
that all Clerks who had been married before 
they took orders should be allowed to retain 
their wives, according to the ancient tradition 
of the Church, but that they should not mar- 
ry a second time.f Such continued both the 
rule and practice of the Eastern Church ; it 
was confirmed by the Council in Trullo in 
the year 692, with an exception against Bish- 
ops, who were obliged, on their promotion, 
to separate from their wives ; and this law 
was never afterw^ards altered. But in the 
West, where the spirit of sacerdotal domina- 
tion more strongly prevailed, many attempts 
were made in those days to enforce perfect 
celibacy on all the orders of the ministry, 
and their constant repetition proves their in- 
efficacy. Siricius, who held the See of Rome 
from 385 to 398, published some letters or 
decretals, which have acquired the weight of 
canons in the Roman Church. One of his 
great objects was to discourage the marriage 
of the Clergy, but it does not appear I that 
his regulations much exceeded the severity 
of those of Nice. However, it must be ad- 
mitted, that the perseverance of his succes- 
sors was not fruitless, at least so far as their 
immediate influence extended; and we are 
assured that at the end of the fifth century, 
the rule of celibacy was very commonly ob- 
served by the Clergy of Rome. § But a hun- 



* Eleven years earlier it was enacted, by the tenth 
canon of the Council of Ancyra, that Avhen a Deacon 
declared his intention to marry, at the time of his or- 
dination, he might be allowed to do so, but not other- 
wise. Dupin. Nouv. Bib), tome ii. p. 312. Bingham, 
Church Antiq. b. iv. ch. v. — Dupin, Nouv. Biblioth., 
tome i. (Abrege de la Discipline) mentions, as the 
rule of the early (ante-Nicene) Church, that it was 
permitted to a Priest to keep his wife, but not to 
marry again : on a Deacon there was no such restraint. 
It is impossible to trace that, which is mentioned as 
being imposed upon the Priest, to the first ages; but 
in the beginning of the fourth century, perhaps some- 
what earlier, it was undoubtedly established, diat no 
man who was ordained Priest could marry. 

t Socrates, lib. i., c. 11. Sozomen, lib. i., c. 23. 

i Dupin, Nouv. Bibl., Vie de SIrice. 

§ A distiuctjon in this respect was observed a cen- 



186 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



dred years afterwards, Gregory, as we have 
seen, was still engaged in the same struggle 
against the natural affections and the com- 
mon reason of man, and he transmitted it, 
still unfinished, to his distant* posterity. His 
object was clerical celibacy in the strictest 
sense ; but we should remark that no ordin- 
ance going to that extent had yet been enact- 
ed by any general Council, even of the West- 
ern Church, and that the common practice 
was still in opposition to it ; a great number, 
probably far the larger proportion, of the Ger- 
man, French, English, and Spanish Clergy 
continued to avail themselves at least of that 
portion of their scriptural right, which the 
Council of Nice had left them. 

The penitential discipline of the ante- 
Nicene Church was exceedingly severe, even 
in the season of persecution, and it was by 
rigor rather than indulgence that it sought to 
secure the fidelity and increase the number 
of its members. For the space of fifteen, or 
sometimes of twenty years, it might be for 
his whole life, the repentant sinner was ex- 
cluded from the precincts of the Church, and 
exposed to the contempt or compassion of 
every beholder. After this long endurance, 
when the gates of the sanctuary were at 
length unclased to him, it was only, perhaps, 
that he might worship there for some addi- 
tional years in the attitude of prostration, 
mufHed and unshaven, fasting and covered 
with ashes, f A discipline which, in some 
ages, would be deemed barbarous if it were 
not impracticable, was found very effectual 
in those early times, both in preserving indi- 
vidual morality, and in upholding the exter- 
nal show and dignity of the Church. It 
seems to have been maintained in its original 
spirit throughout the fourth century, | and its 

tiiry earlier between the Catholic and the Arian Clergy ; 
the laxity of the latter, who were almost universally 
married, was made matter of reproach by their more 
rigid adversaries. 

* In the ninth century (about the year 860) we ob- 
serve Hulderic, Bishop of Augsburg, vigorously re- 
sisting the Edicts of Pope Nicholas; and two hundred 
and twenty years afterwards, when Gregory VII. at 
length achieved the object which had foiled his prede- 
cessors for above six centuries, he encountered an 
opposition which could scarcely have been surmounted 
by a less extraordinary character. 

t Fleury, Discours sur les Six Premiers Siecles, 
&c. et passim. Cyprian is the most ancient Father 
who is mentioned as having laid down rules of pen- 
ance. But some derive such rules from the discipline 
imposed in the Pagan system previous to initiation in 
the great mysteries. 

^ See Dupin, Nouv. Bibl. tome ii. p. 247, Vie de 



rigor was still further aggravated by the ne- 
cessity of public confession. The measure 
of Pope Leo, which substituted private con- 
fession, may have been made necessary by 
the universal profession of Christianity, and 
the degeneracy of many who professed it. 
But not only was it attended by an immedi- 
ate relaxation in the penitential discipline of 
t^iG Church (for secret penance very speedily 
followed secret confession,) but it became, in 
process of time, one of the most abundant 
sources of sacerdotal influence. 

During the four first centuries there was 
no mention or thought of Purgatory — neither 
St. Ambrose, nor even St. Jerome, had any 
belief in such an intermediate state. But 
St. Augustin* expi-esses himself somewhat 
more ambiguously ; for if, in some passages, 
he rejects the supposition as vain and improb- 
able, in others he admits that the truth cannot 
be certainly ascertained, but may deserve in- 
vestigation. During the two following ages, 
the plausible scheme gained some little credit 
among the Clergy of the West, and most es- 
pecially among the monastic orders ; but the 
credit of establishing it among the unques- 
tionable truths of the Church is due to the 
superstition or the craft of Gregory the Great. 
In the Fourth Book of his Dialogues he main- 
tains the existence of a purgatory for the ex- 
piation of the more venial offences of persons, 
whose general excellence may have deserved 
such indulgence. He then takes occasion to 
remark, that many discoveries had lately been 
made respecting the condition of souls afler 
death, which had not been penetrated by an- 
tiquity, and for this reason — ^thatas this world 
was approaching to its end, men saw more 
closely into the secrets of the nextf A theory 

S. Ambroise. 1. Sinners were expected to request 
that they might be admitted to penance. 2. The cir- 
cumstance of their doing penance separated them from 
the Communion. 3. They did penance publicly. 

4. They practised a number of fastings, austerities, 
and humiliations during the whole time of penance. 

5. They could be admitted to that penance once only. 
Of course the penance here mentioned was the severest 
which the Church ever inflicted for the most enormous 
sins. 

* Mosheim (cent. v. p. ii. c. iii.) remarks that 
< the famous Pagan doctrine concerning the purifica- 
tion of departed souls by means of a certain kind of 
fire was more amply explained and confirmed now 
than it had hitherto been,' and he refers to St. Augus- 
tin, De vi)i. Questionibus ad Dulcitium N. xiii. tome 
vi. De Fide et Operibus, cap. xvi. p. 182. DeFide, 
Si^e et Charitate, sect. 118, p. 222. Enarrat. Psalm 
XXXV. s, 3. 

t See Dupin, Nouv. Bibl., Vie de St. Gr^goire I. 



FAiinCULAR INNOVATIONS. 



187 



Which had been tolerated by St. Augustin, 
and defended, however absurdly, by St. Gre- 
gory, found easy acceptance in the Western 
Church ; it was eagerly seized by the Bene- 
dictine Monks, and was presently perceived 
to be so profitable in its operation on the 
people, that it soon became one of the dear- 
est and most necessary tenets of the Roman 
Communion. 

The general influence of Paganism on the 
Christian ceremonies was already discover- 
able in the second and third ages; and the 
particular practice which, in its abuse, was 
especially destined to assimilate two forms of 
worship essentially dissociable, and to bring 
them together, too, on that very point where 
their difference had been the widest, may be 
traced, perhaps, to the early but innocent rev- 
erence which was paid to martyrs. During 
the progress of the fourth and fifth centuries 
many new concessions were made, on vari- 
ous and important points, to the popular 
genius of the old superstition. Expiatory 
processions and supplications were framed 
and conducted after the ancient models. 
The sanctity which had been inherent in the 
Temples of the Gods was now transferred to 
the Christian Churches, * which began to 
rival tlie splendor and magnitude, if they 
failed to emulate the elegance, of their pro- 
fane competitors. If any inspiration had 
been communicated to the devout Pagan by 
sleeping within the holy precincts, the same 
descended upon the Convert when he re- 
posed upon a martyr's tomb. If any purity 
had been conferred by customary lustration, 
it was compensated by the frequent use of 
holy water. Other such compromises might 
be mentioned ; and so completely was the 
spirit of the rejected worship transfused into 
the system which succeeded it, that the very 
miracles which the Christian writers of those 
days credulously retailed concerning their 
saints and martyrs wex'e, in many instances, 
only ungraceful copies of the long-exploded 
fables of heathenism : f so poisonous was the 
expiring breath of that base superstition, and 
so fatal the garment which it cast, even dur- 
ing its latest struggles, over its heavenly de- 
stroyer. But in no respect was its malice so 
lastingly pernicious as when it fastened upon 

* The ancient privilege of sanctuary was conferred 
upon Christian Churches by Constantine, and after- 
wards extended by Theodosius II. to the consecrated 
precincts. 

t See Jortin, Eccl. Hist. vol. iv. p. 73, 124, 220, 
238, &c. &c. ; and Middleton's Letter from Rome, 
passim. 



Christianity the badge of his own character 
by the communication of idolatrous worship. 
It is true that in the ante-Nicene Church 
martyrs were reverenced, and even relics 
held in some estimation ; but no description 
of image, whether carved or painted, was 
tolerated in the Churches of Christ, and it 
was through that distinction chiefly that they 
claimed exclusive sanctity. In the fourth 
and fifth centuries the previous veneration 
for the saints was exalted into actual worship, 
their lives and their miracles were recited 
and devoured with ardent credulity, aston- 
ishing prodigies were performed by frag- 
ments of their bones or garments, distant and 
dangerous pilgrimages were undertaken to 
obtain their ashes, or only to pray at their 
tombs ; and this rage was encouraged by the 
unanimous acclamation of the ecclesiastical 
directors. Yet does it not ap[)ear that any 
one, even the least considerate among those 
writers, warmly advocated the worship, or 
even the use, of images ; * the opinions and 
practice of some of them were certainly op- 
posed to it. Among the Emperors, both 
Valens and Theodosius enacted laws against 
the painting or graving the likeness of Christ. 
Nevertheless we perceive (from passages in 
Gregory of Nyssa, St. Cyril, St. Basil, and 
others) that representations of the combats of 
the martyrs, and of some scriptural scenes, 
had already obtained place in some of the 
Churches, though they were not yet in gene^ 
ral honor. Thus the seeds were soavii, and 
as they were watered by the enthusiasm of 
the vulgar, ever prone to some sort of sensible 
worship, and fondly nourished by the head- 



* St. Epiphanius, in his letter to John of Jerusa- 
lem, translated by St. Jerome, and written towards 
the end of the fourth century, writes as follows: — 
' Having entered into a church in a village in Pales- 
tine, named Anablatha, I found there a veil which was^ 
suspended at the door, and painted with a represen- 
tation, whether of Jesus Christ or of some Saint, for 
I do not well recollect whose image it was, but seeing 
that, in opposition to the authority of Scripture, there 
was a human image in the Church of Jesus Christ, I 
tore it in pieces, and gave order to those who had 
care of that Church to bury a corpse with the veil. 
And as they grumbled out some answer, that " since 
he has chosen to tear the veil he might as well find 
another," I. promised them one, and I now discharge 
that promise.' Baronius, Bellarmiue, and some oth- 
ers, have disputed the genuineness of this passage by 
arguments, which have been very easily and candidly 
confuted by Dupin, Nouv. Bibl. Vie de S. Epiphane. 
St. Augustin somewhere praises the religious severity 
of the ancient Romans, wlio worshipped God without 
images, 



188 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



strong prejudice of the heathen converts ; 
and as the fathers of the Church did not in- 
terpose to root them out, they spread with 
rapid, though, perhaps, silent gi'owth, and 
before the end of the sixth century the use of 
images was very generally permitted through- 
out the Christian world. During the pontifi- 
cate of Gregory the Great, Severus, Bishop 
of Marseilles, observing that the people wor- 
sliipped the images which were placed in his 
Church, tore them down and destroyed them : 
on this occasion the Pope addressed to him 
two epistles, in which, while he praised the 
zeal that combated any show of idolatry, 
he maintained the propriety of filling the 
Churches with idols; 'for there is a great 
difference,' he says, 'between worshipping 
an image, and learning, from the history rep- 1 
resented by that image, what it is that we j 
ought to worship ; for that which wi'iting I 
teaches to those who can read, painting makes j 
intelligible to all who have eyes to see. It is ; 
in such representation that the ignorant per- 
ceive what they ought to follow; it is the 
book of the illiterate. On this account it is 
of great service to the barbarians, to which 
circumstance you, who are placed in the 
midst of barbarians, should be peculiarly at- 
tentive, so as to cause them no scandal by an 
indiscreet zeal.' This pas'^age probably dis- 
closes the principal motive of that attachment 
to the cause of the images which was after- 
wards so warmly manifested by the Church 
of Rome ; at least, it teaches us, that the 
places, which they had gradually usurped 
during the three preceding ages in the Chris- 
tian Churches, were at length confirmed to 
them, and secured by the highest authority. 
We may pause once more to condemn the 
sophistry which distinguished between the 
use and the worship, and coldly forbade the 
ignorant barbarian to adore an object which 
could not seriously be placed in his hands 
with any other prospect. 

The Church in connexion with the State. 
From the above review of the principal 
abuses in doctrine and discipline * which 

* Dupin has collected from the works of Athanasius 
a sort of summary of the discipline of tliat age. Among 
the particulars we observe, that there were Priests, 
and even Bishops, who were married, though in small 
number; that the people and Clergy continued to 
choose their Bishops; that there were no transla- 
tions ; that Lent was observed as a fast ; Easter as a 
solemn festival; that the Gospel was read in the 
vulgar tongue. It is St. Jerome who has somewhere 
declared, that fasting is not so truly called a virtue 
as tlie foundation of every virtue. 



took root in the Church .during the three 
centuries following its establishment, let us 
proceed to consider that body ; first, in re- 
gard to its connexion with the state ; secondlj^, 
in respect to its own internal administration. 
As the Pagan system was merely an engine 
of State, so its entire regulation, even to the 
performance of its most sacred rights and 
offices, was consistently and properly intrust- 
ed to the control and exercise of the civil 
magistrate. The power which directed it, 
the power which its ministers possessed to 
enforce their decrees, was not distinguished 
from that with which they were invested 
for any other purpose, — it was strictly and 
exclusively temporal. Christianity rose from 
a very different foundation ; it claimed to be 
a direct revelation from Heaven ; its truth, 
not its utility, was the fact which its profess- 
ors unbendingly asserted by their arguments 
and their sufferings ; they believed that it was 
the work of God which they were forward- 
ing, and that their souls were placed for ever 
in his retributive hands. From this lofty 
gronnd they were enabled to discern that 
there w^as a limit to all human authority, and 
that there was a Power above, which was 
greater than the might of Emperors. That 
heavenly power they considered to be, ia 
some degree, communicated to Christ's min- 
isters on earth, and associated with then* 
spiritual office. 

During the period preceding the accession 
of Constantine, the exercise of this power 
was confined to preserving the purity of the 
apostolical doctrine, to augmenting the num- 
ber, enforcing the morality, and preventing 
the apostasy of the converts. It was working 
silently among the faithful, and had already 
established a solemn and indissoluble con- 
nexion between the clergy and the lower 
orders ; but it had not hitherto, on any occa- 
sion, been brought into open communication 
with the temporal power, either to co-operate 
or to contend with it, nor, indeed, was its 
existence yet acknowledged, or perhaps per- 
ceived, by the latter. * Let us now advance 

* Paul of Samosata was the subject and favorite of 
Zenobia, and that Queen was engaged in hostile de- 
signs against the Roman empire at the time when 
Aurelian, on the solicitation of the Italian Bishops, 
deposed the heretic. Semler (Observat. Novae, sec. 
iii. sec. Iv.) seems to infer from this coincidence, that 
the whole accusation against Paul proceeded from 
political rather than from spiritual differences, which 
is not probable ; but we so far agree with him as to 
attribute the interference of the Emperor entirely to 
that motive. It Ls an isolated fact in the history of 



INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION. 



189 



one century, and consider the position of the 
Church as it then stood in connexion with 
the State. Its real substantial weight pro- 
ceeded, in fact, from one cause, and from one 
only, — the influence of the Clergy over the 
people. Many circumstances at this time 
contributed to confirm and consolidate that 
influence — the judicial authority and ac- 
knowledged dignity of the Bishops, the in- 
crease in their number and wealth, the pop- 
ular character of their election, their public 
and powerful eloquence. Moreover, there 
can be no question that even the spu'it- 
ual control of the ecclesiastics was exerted 
with greater confidence, when the civil pow- 
er was at hand to support them ; while their 
zeal was wamily and successfiilly employed 
in asserting the Vast superiority of that con- 
trol, and the interests connected with it, over 
any that were merely temporal and worldly. 
To these considerations we should add, that 
during the three preceding centuries the no- 
bility of the Roman emph*e had, for the most 
part, fallen mto decay ; no body had grown 
up in the State to supply the defect of the ar- 
istocratical influence, and hence it rose that 
the vacant place in the social system was 
occupied by the Christian hierarchy. This 
order, sometimes powerful from other causes, 
always possessed peculiar advantages for the 
acquisition of popular influence, through the 
very ofiice which forces it into contact with 
the lower classes, and through the attractive 
character of its duties, which are such as can 
never fail, when faithfully and discreetly dis- 
charged, to conciliate the affections of those 
for whose happiness alone they are imposed. 
From the above and similar causes, the 
authority of the Church grew with gi-eat ra- 
pidity even during the first century after its 
alliance with the State ; of the boldness thus 
communicated to its individual Ministers, 
both m speech and action, some instances 
have been mentioned, and many might be 
added. Indeed, the mere existence of eigh- 
teen hundred magistrates (to speak of the 
Bishops only) who held their offices for life, 
over whose nomination the civil power had 
no direct control, who were connected by in- 
timate relations with the people, and who, for 
the most part, were bound together by com- 
mon opinions and principles and interests, 
was alone su^cient to estabhsh a counter- 
poise against the weight of imperial despot- 



the ante-Nicene Church, and probably only proves 
Aurelian's willingness to avail himself of any charge 
to punish a inagistrate who was in favor with his 
enemy. 



ism. In fact, under the uncertain sceptre of 
the successors of Constantine, it might have 
been difficult to moderate the progress of ec- 
clesiastical power, had it not been checked 
and dissipated by the perpetual dissensions 
which divided the Church itself. 

The same cause which restrained the vigor, 
polluted the character, of the Church ; for be- 
ing unable immediately to repress by its own 
spiritual weapons the violent animosities of 
its ministers, and impatient of the gradual in- 
fluence of time and reason, in a dark and dis- 
astrous moment it had recourse to that tem- 
poral sword which was not intended for its 
sei'vice, and which it has never yet employed 
without disgrace or with impunity. Thus 
was it, indeed, a blind, if not suspicious aflFec- 
tion, which led even the most orthodox Em- 
perors to labor for the 'Unity of the Church ;' 
since it was the unfailing effect of their meas- 
ures to influence and nourish the intolerance 
of the ruling party, without entirely quench- 
ing even one among the thousand eternal 
fountains of dissent. We repeat that the most 
fatal consequence which has in any age result- 
ed from the connexion between Church and 
State, is the apphcation of the penalties of the 
one to the disorders of the other, — the correc- 
tion of spiritual offences by temporal chas- 
tisements. But that abuse of the civil power 
is so far from being the necessary conse- 
quence of that connexion, that it is manifestly 
injurious to the interests of both ; and since 
its wickedness and its folly have been expos- 
ed and acknowledged, there can now be no 
circumstances under which a wise govern- 
ment would employ such interference, or an 
enlightened priesthood desire it. 

Interned administration of the Church. It 
has been observed that in the ante-Nicene 
Church the power of the Bishop was closely 
limited by that of the Presbytery of his dio- 
cese, though less so in the third, as it would 
seem, than in the preceding century. During 
the three following ages that restraint was 
gi-adiially loosened, though not yet entirely 
cast away. The affairs of the diocese were 
still, in name at least, conducted ' with the as- 
sent of the clergy' (cum assensu clericorum;) 
and their influence, in many places, was prob- 
ably more than nominal. Still we cannot fail 
to observe that a higher and more independ- 
ent authority was assumed by the Prelates ; 
a broader interval was interposed between 
the different ranks of the hierarchy ; the gov- 
ernment lost most of the remains of its pop- 
ular character, and assumed the form of an 
active and powerful aristocraoy. Some of 



190 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



the causes of this change have been incident- 
ally mentioned in the preceding pages ; and 
among them we should particularly notice 
the prevalence of councils, both general and 
provincial, by which the public affairs of the 
Church were now regulated, and in which 
the only influential members were the Bish- 
ops.* The legislative authority thus exercis- 
ed by the order, added to the judicial power 
which was vested in the individual, raised the 
prelacy to a necessary and legal preeminence 
before the next inferior gi-ade of the ministry. 
It would appear, moreover, especially from 
the records of the fifth and sixth centuries, 
that the greater portion of the learning of those 
times was in possession of the episcopal or- 
der. Such reasons are sufficient to account 
for the aggrandizement of that order : while, 
at the same time, they show us, that the steps 
by which it rose were neither unlawful nor 
dishonorable. The change in the form of 
Church government naturally followed the 
change in other circumstances ; and it would 
be unjust to qualify that as usurpation, which 
proceeded from causes independent of private 
interest or professional ambition. It is not 
denied that such motives may frequently have 
stimulated many to individual encroachment; 
but the elevation of the body was the natural 
effect of ecclesiastical, of political, and even 
of moral combinations. 

Having observed in what respect the alter- 
ation in the general administration of the 
Church extended to the economy of its sev- 
eral dioceses, we shall shortly retrace some 
of those early vestiges of the monarchical form 
of administration, which were already dis- 
cernible during the rise and progress of the 
religious aristocracy ; or, in other words, we 
shall search among the component parts of 
the episcopal system for some elements of the 
papal government. Before the establishment 
of the Church, notwithstanding one or two 
attempts at aggression on the part of Rome, 
which were immediately repelled, the various 

* Fifteen Councils are recorded to have been held 
in France alone during the fourth, aud five-and-tvven- 
ty during the fifth century. The Bishops still attend- 
ed as the deputies of their people, but Presbyters 
appear now to have been never present, unless as 
representatives of their Bishop. Many canons of the 
Councils of the fifth century (especially of that of Or- 
ange held in 441) declare that no Council shall ever 
separfite without appointing the time of the next 
meeting. The ancient canonical regulation for meet- 
ing twice a year was still in force, but in those dis- 
turbed ages it was not easily observed. See Guizot, 
Cours d'Histoire Moderne, le^on iii. 



Sees were, without any acknowledged dis- 
tinction, equal and independent. Thus far 
at least, the Bishop of that city had no superi- 
ority, or even claim to superiority, above his 
brethren ; and it was to the imperial dignity 
of his See that he owed any accidental and 
voluntary deference which may have been 
offered to him. The next circumstance, 
second in time and very considerable in in- 
fluence, which contributed to his exaltation, 
was the name (for it was little more than the 
name) of Patriarch. This title was conferred 
first upon three, subsequently upon four, of 
the Prelates of the Eastern Church ; but in 
the West it was confined to the Bishop of 
Rome : and the distinction was not without 
effect in creating, especially among the dis- 
tant and the ignorant, that sort of blind and 
indefinite respect which is so easily converted 
into submission. 

The next event which may be mentioned 
as having augmented the authority of the See 
was the removal of the civil government from 
Rome to Ravenna by Honorius. The do- 
mestic importance of the Bishop was essen- 
tially increased, and facilities for usurpation 
were created by the absence of the Emperor. 

That which follows, perhaps, next in time 
(for we are disposed to place it towards the end 
of the fifth century,) but which yields to none 
in importance, was the special protection 
vouchsafed by St. Peter to the same See, and 
at this time loudly asserted by it. While some 
have invented circumstantial fables respect- 
ing the marvellous success of that apostle in 
Italy and at Rome, others have advanced in- 
genious arguments to show that he never at 
all visited that city. To us, so far as any 
opinion can be formed on so obscure a mat- 
ter, it appears probable that St. Peter died at 
Rome, as well as St. Paul ; and during their 
previous residence there, it is not impossible 
that the one may have presided over the 
Jewish, while the other superintended the 
heathen, converts. But the question itself 
can now possess so little importance in the 
mind of any reasonable being, that we care 
not to leave it in uncertainty. However, it in 
undisputed, that in the fifth and the following 
ages a vast accession of honor and sanctity 
accrued to the See of Rome from its perse- 
verance in that claim. In times when the 
particular protection of heaven was believed 
to attend the possession of the meanest relic 
of the most obscure martyr ; when stupend- 
ous prodigies were performed by the fragment 
of the garment of some nameless saint, or the 
dust which had been brought from his tomb, 



FROIVI GREGORY TO CHARLEMAGNE. 



191 



was it strange that a peculiar impression of 
holiness should attach to that spot where the 
chief of the Apostles had suffered a barbarous 
death, and where his bones still lay unviolated 
in sacred repose ? But this was not all — the 
martyr of Christ had been at the same time 
the Bishop of Rome ; and the keys which had 
been confided to his inspired wisdom were 
still preserved, through a long and uninter- 
rupted chain, to the Bishops his successors. 
Such assertions were first advanced about 
this period, or very soon afterwards ; and it 
is one of the most certain proofs of the credit 
they obtained, that applications now began 
very commonly to be made, from many parts 
of Europe, for counsel or opinion, on points 
of discipline or faith to the Roman See. It 
might, indeed, not rarely happen, that its re- 
scripts were not obeyed or respected ; but 
still the appeal was becoming customary, and 
each successive reference confirmed a prac- 
tice which could not fail in time to give some 
authority to the decision. These are some 
of the leading circumstances which were so 
far improved by the genius of two among the 
Popes, and the perseverance of almost all, 
that, at the death of Gregory the Great, the 
Bisliop of Rome, though he might in vain 
dispute the name of universal supremacy 
v;ith the Patriarch of Constantinople, was 
unquestionably acknowledged to be the lead- 
ing member of the ecclesiastical aristocracy 
of Europe, the spiritual head or president of 
the Western hierarchy. * 

III. From Gregory to Charlemagne. An 
account of the general changes which took 
place in the Church, during the two centuries 
between Gregory and Charlemagne, has been 
given in a preceding chapter ; and in respect 
to particular abuses in belief or discipline, it 
appears not that any remarkable novelty pre- 
sented itself during this period. Among its 
leading features, we have observed, Jirst, an 



* Still it is not asserted that his authority was 
generally acknowledged even in the West. Fleury 
(lib. XXXV. s. 19.) fairly admits that Gregory exer- 
cised no definite jurisdiction beyond the Churches 
which immediately depended on the Holy See, and 
were therefore called Suburbicarian (Giannon. Stor. 
di Nap. lib. ii. c. 8.) those of the South of Italy, 
Sicily, and some other islands. It is true that the 
Bishop of Aries was his vicar in Gaul, as that of 
Thessalonica was in Western Ulyria; and that he 
exercised some inspection over the Churches of Africa 
for the assembling of Councils and the observation 
of the canons ; but he possessed no ordinary official 
authority over those Churches, nor did they yet ac- 
knowledge any direct positive dependence on Rome. 



increasing dissimilarity in character and in- 
stitutions between the Eastern and Western 
Churches, which gradually loosened the 
bonds of their union, and prepared them for 
dissolution. The alterations which caused 
the distinction originated for the most part in 
the West, and are chiefly to be ascribed to 
the entire social revolution which was effect- 
ed by the barbarian conquests : whereas, in 
the East, the undisputed supremacy of the 
civil power and the unvarying character of 
the government prevented any important in- 
novations. They prevailed, indeed, to such 
an extent, that even the divisions which dur- 
ing this period disturbed the Oriental Com- 
munion,— those respecting the ' two wills of 
Christ,' and the 'worship of images,' — receiv- 
ed in both instances their first impulse from 
the throne. In the West the subdivision of 
the empire into numerous and variously- 
constituted kingdoms, the peculiar institu- 
tions, the superstitions and the ignorance of 
the people, opened an extensive field for ec- 
clesiastical exertion. That many among the 
clergy availed themselves of these circum- 
stances for personal or professional aggrand- 
izement, the voice of history is ever forward 
to proclaim to us ; but the private piety of 
the more numerous and obscure members of 
that order, who interposed, not ineffectually, 
their religious offices to alleviate the wretch- 
edness and soften the barbarism of those 
dreary times, is slightly and incidentally re- 
corded, though better deserving of celebrity, 
since its claims are on the gratitude of the 
latest posterity. 

The second characteristic of this period 
(and we here confine ourselves to the West- 
ern Church) was the continued and even in- 
ordinate growth of episcopal authority. A 
great number of causes contributed to that 
result, some of which had been in continual 
operation since the establishment of Chris- 
tianity ', others had grown up in later ages. 
The most direct and effectual were the ex- 
tensive and increasing domains of the Bish- 
ops; the judicial and even municipal power 
which they exercised in their metropolis; 
their political influence in the great national 
assemblies ; the exclusive possession of a 
contracted learning, which still was mistaken 
for wisdom in an age nearly destitute of both. 
To these we may add the removal of some 
restraints. The superintendence of the me- 
tropolitans was abolished, and it was supplied 
by no other ; for the civil governments were 
then too weak and unstable to enforce a dis- 
puted authority, while that of the Pope was 



192 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



distant and indefinite, even where it was 
acknowledged to be rightful. * On the other 
hand, the degraded condition of the priest- 
hood and the independence conferred on the 
prelate by the disuse of popular election, 
placed him above any apprehension of oppo- 
sition or censure from the lower ranks of the 
clergy. And since the Councils, to whose 
legislation he v/as liable, were entirely com- 
posed of his own order, he had little reason 
to expect severity from that quarter. We 
have observed into what great license that 
unbridled episcopal power was carried. 

Thirdly. The Bishop of Rome failed not 
to profit, at least in an equal degree, by the 
various causes which conspired to the exalta- 
tion of his brethren ; and let us add to these, 
since we can add it with truth, that the con- 
duct of the Popes during this period was for 
the most part such as inspired respect, and 
even commanded gratitude. If they were 
stained with the superstitions of the day, they 
lost nothing in popular opinion by that fail- 
ing ; born at Rome and at once elevated fi'om 
the native priesthood, not translated from a 
foreign See, they began with some claims on 
the attachment of their subjects, and they 
maintained them by the severe and uncor- 
rupted sanctity of their morals. But besides 
these circumstances, we should also recollect 
that two events occurred in the eighth cen- 
tury, which exclusively promoted the ad- 
vancem.ent of that See — the political separa- 
tion of Rome from the Eastern empire, and 
the donation of Pepin. During the short re- 
public which followed the former, the nations 
(as Gibbon has remarked) began once more 
' to. seek, on the banks of the Tiber, the kings, 
the laws, and the oracles of their fate ;' and 
the solid power conferred by the latter, and 
confirmed by Charlemagne, did much more 
than compensate for the loss of a recent and 
precarious independence. Once more asso- 
ciated as a powerful member of the Western 
empire, Rome reoccupied the proper field 
of her ambition and her triumphs. It is 
true that the nature of her warfare, and the 
character of her weapons, were now wholly 
changed ; nevertheless, the temporalities so 
profusely conferred upon her, failed not to 
give great additional efficacy to her sphitual 

* It would scarcely appear, for instance, that the 
Pope had any official communication with the Church 
of Gaul betweoi Gregory I. and Gregory II., i. e. 
for about a hundred and ten years. Yet tlie Bishop 
of Aries presided over that Church in the character, 
or rather under the name, of his Vicar. See Guir-ot, 
Hist, de la Civil, de la France, le^on xix. 



claims — claims which slie had already ad- 
vanced with some boldness, but which she 
was now qualified to press, if disposed so to 
press them, to the last extremity of usurpation. 

The Athanasian Creed. Before we take 
leave of this period, it is proper to mention, 
that the first appearance of the Creed, com- 
monly called Athanasian, is ascribed to it 
with great probability.* There can be no 
doubt that this exposition of faith was com- 
posed in the West, and in Latin ; but the 
exact date of its composition has been the 
subject of much difference. The very defi- 
nite terms, in which it expresses the Church 
doctrine of the Incarnation, are sufficient to 
prove it posterior to the Councils of Ephesus 
and Chalcedon, or, later than the middle of 
the fifth century. Again, if we are to con- 
sider the doctrine of the double procession of 
the Holy Spirit as being expressly declared 
in it since that mystery was scarcely made 
matter of public controversy until the eighth 
century, it might seem difficult to refer a 
creed, positively asserting the more recent 
doctrine, to an earlier age. But the historical 
monuments of the Church do not quite sup- 
port this supposition ; the Creed, such prob- 
ably as it now exists, is mentioned by the 
Council of Autun f in the year 670, and its 
faithful repetition by the Clergy enjoined ; 
and we find the same injunction repeated in 
the beginning of the ninth age. Thus it 
gradually gained ground ; nevertheless, there 
seems to be great reason for the opinion, that 
it was not universally received even in the 
Western Church until nearly two centuries 
afterwards. 

Considered as an exposition of doctrine, 

* Bishop Pearson, Archbishop Usher, Haniond, - 
L 'Estrange, Dr. Cave, Schelstrate, Pagi, and Du 
Pin, are all of opinion that this creed was composed, 
not by Athanasius, but by a later and a Latin writer. 
Vossius, Quesnel, and others, go so far as to ascribe 
it to Vigilius Tapsensis, an African Bishop, who 
lived at the end of the fifdi century. This last posi- 
tion, however, is not indisputable; tliough Vigilius 
certainly published some writings under tlie name of 
Athanasius, with which this creed is frequently 
joined. 

f ' Siquis Presbyter, Diaconus, Subdiaconus, vel 
Clericus, Sjonbolum, quod inspirante S. Spiritu 
Apostoli tradiderant, vel Fidem S. Athanasii Fra- 
sulis irreprehensibiliter non recensuerit ab Episcopo 
condamnetur. ' Cone. Augustodun. Can. ult., as 
cited by Bingham. At a Council, held at Toledo i>» 
675, an exposition of this Trinitarian doctrine was» 
published, very nearly resembling that contained in 
the Athanasian Creed. (Semler. Cent. vii. cap. iii.) 
In 794Theodulphus Aurelianensis again mentions ths 
Creed as Athanasius's. 



JURISDICTION OF THE CLERGY. 



193 



the Athanasian creed contains a faithful sum- 
mary of the high mysteries of Christianity as 
interpreted by the Church of Rome. Con- 
sidered as a rule of necessary faith enforced 
by the penalty of eternal condemnation, the 
same creed again expresses one of the most 
rigid principles of the same Church. The 
Unity of the Church comprehended unity of 
belief: there could be no salvation out of it ; 
nor any hope for those who deviated even 
from the most mysterious among its tenets. 
And thus, by constant familiarity vs^ith the 
declaration of an exclusive faith, the heart of 
many a Romish priest may have been closed 
against the sufferings of the heretic, rescued 
(as he might think) by the merciful chastise- 
ment of the Church from the flames which 
are never quenbhed ! 

It would be iiTelevant in this work, and 
wholly unprofitable, to inquu-e, how far any 
temporary circumstances may have justified 
the introduction of the Athanasian creed into 
the Liturgy of our own Church — constructed 
as that Church is on the very opposite princi- 
ple of universal charity. But we cannot for- 
bear to offer one remark, naturally suggested 
by the character and history of this creed, 
that if, at any future time, it should be judged 
expedient to expunge it, there is no reason, 
there is scarcely any prejudice, which could 
be offended by such erasure. * The sublime 
truths which it contains are not ex])ressed in 
the language of Holy Scripture ; nor could 
they possibly have been so expressed, since 
the inspired writers were not studious mi- 
nutely to expound inscrutable mysteries. 
Neither can it ]ilead any sanctity from high 
antiquity or even traditional authority ; since 

* The opinions of some of our owm Churchmen on 
this subject, are collected by Clarke in his Book on 
the Trinity. The expression of Bishop Tomline 
cannot be too generally known — 'We know (he 
says) tliat different persons hase deduced different 
and even opposite doctrines from the words of Scrip- 
ture, and consequently there must be many errors 
among Christians ; but since the Gospel nov/here in- 
forms us what degree of error will exclude from eter- 
nal happiness, I am ready to acknowledge that in my 
judgment, nothwithstanding the authority of former 
limes, our Church would have acted more wisely and 
more consistently with its general principles of mild- 
ness and toleration, if it had not adopted the damna- 
tory clauses of the Athanasian Creed. Though I 
firmly believe that the doctrines themselves of this 
Creed are all founded in Scripture, I cannot but con- 
ceive it to be both unnecessary and presumptuous to 
say, that " except every one do keep them whole and 
undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlasting- 
ly." ' Exposition, part iii. art. viii. 
25 



it was composed many centuries after the 
time of the apostles, in a very corrupt age of 
a corrupt Church, and composed in so much 
obscurity, that the very pen from which it 

proceeded is not certainly known to us 

The inventions of men, when they have been 
associated for ages with the exercise of re- 
ligion, should indeed be touched with respect 
and discretion ; but it is a dangerous error to 
treat them as inviolable ; and it is something 
worse than error to confound them in holi- 
ness and reverence with the words and 
things of God. 

IV. There are two subjects which we 
have hitherto refrained from noticing, not- 
withstanding their great importance — the 
Jurisdiction and Judicial Immunities of the 
Clergy, and the Revenues of the Church. 
We have purposely deferred them until this 
occasion ; because both were deeply influ- 
enced by the ecclesiastical policy of Charle- 
magne ; and the former can scarcely be said 
to have assumed any definite or tangible form 
before his reign. United, they constituted 
the temporal power of the Clergy ; and that 
object will be so constantly before our eyes 
in the future pages of this History, that we 
must no longer delay to examine the materi- 
als which formed it. 

Jurisdiction of the Clergy. The arbitrative 
authority of the Primitive Bishops was tole- 
rated or overlooked by the Pagan Emperors ; 
if it received no direct discouragement from 
the civil power, it was never aided nor even 
recognised by it. It reached of course only 
those who voluntarily sought it, and was 
binding upon none who chose to appeal 
from it to the secular courts. The ecclesi- 
astical offences of Bishops were subject to 
the decision of provincial councils ; but in 
respect to all temporal matters, they were on 
the same footing with the other subjects of 
the empire. 

The arbitration of the Bishops was ratified 
by Constantine ; and the magistrates were 
instructed to execute the episcopal decrees. * 
At the same time it seems certain that this 
power was for some time confined (1.) to 
spiritual differences and offences; (2.) to 
such questions of a temporal nature as were 
brought before the Bishop by the joint refer- 

* Gibbon (who quotes Euseb. Vit. Const, iv. 27i 
and Sozom. i. 9) has treated this subject in his twen- 
tieth chapter ; but in the following account we have 
chiefly followed Fleury, in his Seventh Discourse; 
and Giannone., Storia di Napoli, 1. ii. c. 8; 1. iii. c 
6; I. vi. c. 7. 



194 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



ence of both parties ; (3.) to civil suits, in 
which both parties were Clerks. And it is 
even probable, that, in the second of these, 
the decision of the Bishop was then liable to 
an appeal to the civil tribunals. The suc- 
ceeding Emperors, for nearly two hundred 
years, were contented to publish such occa- 
sional edicts, as seem rather intended to 
check any encroachments by which the ec- 
clesiastical privileges may have gained or 
suffered, than to alter the nature of the laws 
on that su^bject. For instance, in the year 
398, Honorius proclaimed that it was permit- 
ted to those who desired it, to plead before 
the Bishop, but in civil matters only ; and in 
408, he ordered the arbitrative sentence of 
the Bishop to be executed without appeal to 
the civil officers. In 456, Marcian ordained, 
that a plaintiff who should object to bring a 
Clerk before the Archbishop had no resource, 
except to summon him before the Prastorian 
Prefect, which he might do. In 452, Valen- 
tinian III. declared, that the Bishop had no 
power to judge even Clerks, unless by their 
own consent, and in virtue of a compromise ; 
because ecclesiastics had no tribunal estab- 
lished by law, nor any legal cognizance, 
except of religious matters. There were 
constitutions of Arcadius and Honorius and 
of Theodosius to the same effect. Thus far, 
then, it seems clear, that the Episcopal 
Courts (if we are to give them that name) 
possessed no coercive authority over laymen, 
nor indeed any which could properly be de- 
signated jurisdiction. 

The first change was introduced by Jus- 
tinian ; and it is important to observe exactly 
to what extent it went. That legi&lator, wil- 
ling to enlarge the privileges of the Church, 
enacted (1.), That in Civil actions Monks and 
Clerks should, in the first instance, go before 
the Bishop, who should decide the difference 
without any publicity or judicial parade ; 
still, if either party, within ten days, declared 
himself discontented with the decision, that 
the civil magistrate should take cognizance 
of the cause, not as a superior, in form of 
appeal, but as an equal, examining a new 
question. Their agreement was conclusive ; 
if they differed, an appeal was open to the 
Imperial court. (2.) In criminal causes a 
Clerk might be sued either before the Bishop 
or in the ordinary Courts ; but if the defend- 
ant should be found guilty by a lay judge, 
still the sentence could not be executed, nor 
the priest degraded, without the approbation 
of the Bishop. In case that was refused, 
there was a direct appeal to the Emperor. ^ 



(3.) The Bishops were entirely exempted 
from lay jurisdiction. It may seem scarcely 
necessary to add, that all cognizance of spir- 
itual matters, from the crime of Heresy down 
to what were held the more venial offences 
of Simony, clerical insubordination, and even 
the violation of the ecclesiastical discipline 
hy laymen, was confided^ as it had always 
been, to the unrestricted authority of the 
Church. Still we should observe, that as 
temporal power was yet entrusted to the 
spiritual judges for the enforcement of their 
sentence, the penalties which they could im- 
mediately inflict were censure, suspension, 
deposition, fasting, penance, excommunica- 
tion — penalties which, in those ages, not only 
inspired terror, but involved much positive 
suffering — ^but to touch the person or proper- 
ty of the culprit the aid of the secular author- 
ity was still necessary. 

After the time of Justinian, we are not 
informed that any material change was intro- 
duced into this department of the constitutioji 
of the Eastern Church ; in fact and practice 
it is not probable that the Clergy then en- 
croached with any success on the civil, which 
was so nearly identified with the imperial, 
•power, and which at all times was jealously 
maintained. In the West, during the period 
of dark confusion which divided Justinian 
fi-om Charlemagne, some additions were 
made to the immunities of the Clergy in most 
of the provinces, and especially in Gaul ; but 
neither were these universally acknowledged, 
nor securely enjoyed ; and it was not till the 
great restorer of the Western Empire had 
leisure to legislate for the happiness (as he 
believed) of his subjects, that the character 
of ecclesiastical jurisdiction and immunity 
was wholly and permanently altered. Char- 
lemagne voluntarily conceded to the Church 
(1.) that the jurisdiction of the Bishop should 
extend to all causes which either of the par- 
ties, whether Clerks or not, chose to refer to 
it, and that there should be no appeal from 
his decision ; * (2.) that the whole body of 
the Clergy should be entirely exempt from 
secular jurisdiction. The enormous extent 
of power f conferred by the first of these 
Capitularies was confirmed by the right of 
imprisonment (the Jus Carceris), which was 
also granted to the episcopal Judge ; so that 



* Tiie testimony of one bishop was received in 
every cause as conclusive. 

t By the Council held at Aries in 813, the edicts 
of which were confirmed by Charlemagne, it was or- 
dained, ' that, if judges and people in power do not 
pay deference to the bishop's instructions, he shall 



JURISDICTION OF THE CLERGY. 



195 



the meaus which he thus possessed of execut- 
ing his own decisions, rendered him, in a 
great degree, independent of the civil author- 
ities. The effect of the second was to widen 
the distinction, already too broad, which sub- 
sisted between Clerks and Laymen, and to 
increase the distrust with which the sacred 
orders already began to be regarded, by en- 
tirely withdrawing their offences from the 
cognizance of secular justice. It seems, in- 
deed, to be true, that Charlemagne thus grant- 
ed to the Clergy both greater power and 
greater immunity, than the existing state of 
society permitted them to exert or enjoy. 
Such, nevertheless, were become their rights ; i 
and in so far as the mere possession of them 
was the object of the straggles which they 
maintained in after ages, we cannot jusdy 
censure them. Neither ought we to forget, 
that a different, and even a more solid ground- 
work of judicial authority began to fall into 
their occupation during this period. Many 
of the Sees were already enriched with large 
territorial endowments, and consequently ex- 
ercised all the rights in those days annexed 
to them ; and not the least valuable among 
these was the administration of justice. By 
this circumstance the character of the Ec- 
clesiastical jurisdiction became inextricably 
complicated; and the lines, by which it was 
separated from the authority of the civil tribu- 
nals, were rendered so indistinct even where 
they really existed, that incessant and una- 
voidable occasions were afforded for artful 
encroachment on the one hand, and violent 
aggression on the other. But these were 
the evils of after ages ; the design of Charle- 
magne was probably no more, than to vest 
extensive judicial power in the most enlight- 
tened body in his empire ; and no doubt he 
trusted to prevent its abuse by the vigorous 
exercise of his own supremacy. 

In the mean time, while the Episcopal 
order was thus generally strengthened and 
aggrandized, the particular interests of the 
Bishop of Rome were especially promoted. 
Adrian I., a man of great talents and much 
influence with the French King, occupied 
the Papal Chair at this crisis ; and while he 
profited, as he was justified in doing, by the 
voluntary and legitimate donations of that 
Monarch, he also adopted (as some historians 
think) a less ingenuous method of exalting his 

give information thereof to the king. All the people 

shall obey the bishop, even the counts and judges ; and 

tliey shall act in concert for the maintenance of peace ! 

, and justice." SeeFleury, H. E. 1. 46, sect. ii. ' 



own See. So much, at least, is certain, that 
two instruments, now denominated the ' False 
Decretals,' and the ' Donation of Constantine,' 
the two most celebrated monuments of hu- 
man imposture and credulity, were put forth 
about the conclusion of the eighth century, 
and immediately and universally received as 
genuine. Probably they were the composi- 
tion of some monk or scribe of that age.* 
Their direct object was the unlimited ad- 
vancement of the Roman See ; and for that 
purpose, the Decretals furnished the spiritual, 
the donation the temporal, authority ; the for- 
mer, professing to be a compilation of the 
epistles and decrees of primitive Popes and 
early Emperors, derived from the first ages 
the ghostly omnipotence of Rome.f While 
the latter proclaimed no less than that Con- 
stantine, on removing the seat of government 
to the East, had consigned the Western Em- 
pire to the temporal as well as spiritual gov- 
ernment of the Bishop of Rome — unbounded 
dominion over Churches, and nations, and 
kings, was delegated to the successor of St. 
Peter and the Vicar of Christ. It was assert- 
ed that the original deed of the Emperor had 
been recently discovered : the monstrous for- 
geiy went forth, and spread itself through the 
world without confutation, seemingly without 
suspicion ; and it continued for above six 
hundred years to form the most prominent, 
and not the least solid, among the bulwarks 
of Papacy. 

If, indeed, Charlemagne shared in this 
matter the credulity of his subjects, we may 
reasonably infer the very narrow extent of his 
own learning, and his little familiarity with 

* See Mosh. Cent. viii. p. ii. chap. ii. The former 
of these forgeries is frequently called the ' Decretals of 
Isidore.' There was a celebrated Bishop of Seville of 
that name in the sixth century, and it was probably 
thought, that it would add some authority to the Col- 
lection, if it could be received as his work. But, 
unfortunately, it contains some mention of the Sixth 
General Council, which was later than the death of 
that Isidore. The clumsiness of the fabrication is ac- 
knowledged and exposed by Fleury,liv. xliv. sect. 22. 

f The false Decretals advanced to this end, to the 
great detriment both of Church and State, chiefly by 
three methods: (1.) They diminished the frequency 
of provincial councils by asserting for the Pope the 
exclusive right to summon them; and those councils 
contributed very usefully both to the discipline and 
independence of the Church. (2.) They gave great 
encouragement to Episcopal license by subjecting the 
Bishops to Papal authority only, and thus offermg 
them a fair prospect of impunity. (3.) They disturb- 
ed the course, and diverted the efficacy, of justice, by 
promoting the practice of appeal to the Roman Seo, 



I9& 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



the annals of the preceding ages. That he 
did so is not impossible ; at least, it appears 
certain, that his capitulary respecting Epis- 
copal jurisdiction was in part founded on an- 
other forgery — a Constitution which was for 
many ages attached, under the name of Con- 
stantine, to the Theodosian Code, but which 
has long been condemned as a production of 
the eighth or preceding century. The credit 
of this preliminary fraud may have embold- 
ened its patrons to make a more audacious 
attempt on his facility. Upon the whole, 
however, we are very far from attributing so 
decided a course of policy in so great a 
Prince to the success of an ecclesiastical im- 
posture. Without any knowledge of the pre- 
tensions or existence of those fabrications, 
there were reasons sufficient why Charle- 
magne should be willing to aggrandize a 
Prelate whose interests were closely connect- 
ed with his own ; and to propitiate an order * 
of which the power was very considerable, 
and the influence still greater than the power ; 
from which he was receiving and expecting 
eminent personal as well as political services ; 
which he considei-ed as a counterpoise to the 
licentiousness of his nobles, and to which he 
looked for the gradual improvement and civ- 
ilization of his subjects. It should be I'emem- 
bered, too, that during the whole of his long 
reign he maintained the royal authority in- 
disputably paramount to every other, and that 
if his posterity, some of whom were the fee- 
blest of the human race, had inherited any 
share of his talent or vigor^ the subsequent 
usurpations of the Clergy could not have been 
accomplished, and might not have been med- 
itated ; while the advantages, which Charle- 
magne reasonably anticipated for the State 
from their subordinate co-operation with the 
Prince, would have been certainly and splen- 
didly realized. 

V. Revenues of the Church. During the 
tliree first centuries the clergy were support- 



* The increase of Papal power was very feiirly 
balanced within the Church by the general augmen- 
tation of Episcopal authority and influence which ae- 
eompanied it, Tlie entire Ecclesiastical body was 
exceedingly aggrandized, but in such measare that the 
head did not immediately exceed the proportion of 
the other principal members. It is true that, by the 
seeds then sown, the disease o^f after ages was engen- 
dered; but time was required to give them efficacy, 
and during the century which followed Charlemagne, 
the power of t\te Bishops, or (as they called it) their 
independence, was boldly and not uncommonly as- 
serted. 



ed by the voluntary oblations of the faithful ', 
these were, in the first instance, daily or 
weekly : they were offered on the altar, and 
for the most part by communicants. This 
example led at an early period to the pay- 
ment of monthly offerings, which were placed 
in the treasury of the Church. ' Every one ' 
(says Tertullian*) 'bi'ings a moderate contri- 
bution once a month, or when he chooses, 
and only if he chooses and is able ; for there 
is no compulsion, but the gift is spontaneous 
— being, as it were, the deposit of piety.** 
The sums which were thus presented by the 
generous devotion of the converts^ and which, 
in the third century at least, were far from in- 
considerable, were entrusted to the adminis- 
tration of the Bishop ; and employed in the 
maintenance of the clergy, f in the support 
of public worship, in the relief of widows and 
orphans, and persons suffering persecution. 
It also appears, that, before the reign of Dio- 
cletian, the Church had become pos^ssed of 
some fixed property, which that Emperor con- 
fiscated ; we do not learn whether it was ob- 
tained by purchase or donation ; \ in either 
case it must have borne a very trifling pro- 
portion to the revenues derived from custom- 
ary oblation. 

Constantino restored and confirmed to the 
Church such property as it had acquired 
under the heathen Emperors, and then enact- 
ed laws to permit and encourage its increase. 
Thus the sources of ecclesiastical wealth 
were varied and multiplied, and the work 



* Apolog. c. 29. His words are these — ' Neque pre- 
tio uUa res Dei constat. Etiam siquod Arcae genus 
est, non de oneraria summa quasi rederaptee religionis 
congregatur: modicam unusquisque stipem menstrua 
die, vel cum velit, et si modo velit et si modo possit, ap- 
ponit. Nam nemo eompellitur,sedspouteconfert. H?ec 
quasi depositapietatis sunt.' The term (stipem) is bor- 
rowed from the use of the heathen in the collections 
made by them for religious purposes. Tertullian pro- 
ceeds to enumerate several charitable objects to which 
the Christian offerings were applied. ' Egeeis alendis 
humamiisque, et pueris ac puellis re et parentibus des- 
titutis, a^tateque domitis senibus, item naufragis et si 
qui in metallis et si qui in insulis vel in custodiis dun- 
taxat ex causa Dei sectae alumni confessionis suae 
fiunt.' 

f The monthly salaries given to the Ministers of 
the Gospel are mentioned by Cyprian by the name of 
Mensurnse Divisiones. 

I Padre Paolo (Hist. Eccles. Benefices) ascribes it 
to donations made during the confusion which pre- 
vailed in the empire after the imprisonment of Valeri- 
an, when the general Roman law, which forbade tlie 
bequeathing of real estates to any college, society, or 
corporation, without the approbation of tlie Senate or 
the Prince, may have been violated witlt safety 



REVENUES. 



197 



which was begun by Constantine was some- 
what advanced by his immediate successors. 
Occasional allowances were advanced from 
the exchequer; the estates of martyrs and 
confessors dying without heirs were settled 
on the Church ; presently those of all clergy- 
men so dying were similarly disposed of; * 
and while some Princes transferred to the 
Christian establishment the temples of the 
Heathen and their revenues, there were oth- 
ers who extended the same principle to the 
Churches of the heretics. At the same time, 
the original oblations continued to be abun- 
dantly supplied ; and a still broader field was 
opened by the general and unlimited permis- 
sion which was given to bestow real property 
upon the Church, both by donation and lega- 
cy. The disposition not uncommonly exist- 
ing to act on that permission was encouraged 
by the baser portion of the clergy ; and their 
persuasions were sometimes conducted with 
so little decency, that it became necessary to 
impose a legal restraint f upon their cupidity. 
Nevertheless, in spite of occasional inteiTup- 
tion, the tide flowed onward ; the partial de- 
relictions of the ecclesiastical body were 
forgotten in their general power, their dignity, 
and their virtues ; | and, before the close of 

* The former by a law of Constantine, tlie latter 
by one of Theodosius 11. and Valeutinian III. See 
Bingham's Antiq. book v. ch. iv. 

t There is a remarkable law of Valentinian (made 
in 370, and particularly addressed to Daiuasus, 
Bishop of Rome), which forbids Churchmen to fre- 
quent the houses of widows and orphans, or to receive 
aay gifts, directly or indirectly, by will or donation, 
from women to whom they might have attached them- 
selves under pretext of religion. * Ecclesiastici aut 
ex ecclesiaticis vidiiarum et pupillorum domus non 
adeant, sed publicis exterminentur judiciis, si eos 
affines eorura vel propinqui putaverint deferendos. 
Censemus etiam ut memorati nihil de ejus mulieris, 
cui se privatim sub pretextu reiigionis adjunxerint, 
liberalitate quacunque vel extremo judicio possint 
adipisci, et omne in tantum inefficax sit quod alicui 
liorum ab his fuerit derelictum, ut nee per subjectam 
personam valeant alirjuid vel donatione vel testamento 
recipere.' (Lege 20. Cod. Theod. de Episc, et Ec- 
cles.) This was presently (in 3M) followed by an- 
other to the same effect, but more generally expressed. 
The former would not seem to preclude gifts to the 
Qiureh, as a body, only to individual ministers; the 
latter goes so far as to ordain ' nullam Ecclesiam, 
nullum Clericum, nullum pauperem scribat hseredes.' 
We may here also observe, that Charlemagne made a 
law to prevent the Church from receiving any gifts 
which disinherited children and kindred. See Padre 
Paolo, ch. vi. 

% The most pious among the Fathers raised their 
voices very early against the practice of making 
over fixed property to the Church. St. Chrysostom 



the fifth century, the Church had very amply 
profited by the pious generosity of the faiih- 
fiil. 

The increase of ecclesiastical revenues was 
further aided by certain exemptions granted 
to the clergy by the first Christian Emperors. 
These, though not so general as some have 
supposed, were numerous and important.. It 
appears certain that Church lands were liable 
to the ordinary tax (census agrorum) or ca- 
nonical tribute ; * and also, that they contin- 
ued subject after donation to all burdens 
which might have been previously charged 
upon them ; but a law of Theodosius II. 
exempted them from all extraordinary im- 
positions. Moreover, ecclesiastics were not 
liable, even from the time of Constantine, to 
the census capitum or capitation tax; they 
were also excepted (by Honorius and Theo- 
dosius II.) from the payment of a number of 
occasional imposts, many of which are speci- 
fied by Bingham ; and it was not a trifling 
privilege, even in a pecuniary view, that they 
were relieved from the discharge of all the 
civil offices of whatsoever degree, which 
were attached to the possession of fixed pro- 
perty. So studious were those early princes 
to observe the distinction between the spirit- 
ual and the temporal character, and, while 
they prevented the encroachments of the 
clergy on that which did not belong to them, 
to give them the full benefit of that which 
was peculiarly their own. 

The ancient manner of dispensing the 
revenues of the Church was for some time 
maintained without any remarkable altera- 
tion. All alms and incomes arising from 



(Horail. 86. in Matt.) attributes the great corruption 
of the Bishops and other Churchmen to the possession 
of lands and fixed revenues ; since they forsook th^ 
spiritual occupations to sell their corn and wine, to 
increase the value of their property, or to defend it in 
courts of law. He looks back with admiration on 
the Apostolical purity of the Church, when it was 
nourished only by oblation and charity. It is like- 
wise related of St. Augustin, that he would neither 
purchase land, nor even accept inheritances whioh 
were left to the Church ; also maintaining, that the 
system of oblation and lithe would be better calculat- 
ed to preserve the peculiar character of the clergy. 
P. Simon observes that the possession of any great 
wealth was for a long time confined to the Churches 
of the principal cities. The opulence of the Bishop 
of Rome, as mentioned by Ammianus Marcelhnus 
(lib. xxvii.), must have been derived almost entirely 
from oblation ; but towards the end of the sixth cen- 
tury we find that Prelate in enjoyment of ample 
' Patrimonies,' not in Italy only, but far beyond its 
limits. See Fleuiy, liv. xxxv. sect. 15. 
* See Bingham, book v. ch. iii. 



198 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



real * estates were yet in common, under the 
immediate care of Deacons and Subdeacons, 
but under the control and at tlie discretion of 
the Bishop, who ordered all the distributions. 
The whole of the clergy in every Church 
was maintained from the general funds of 
that Church; and in many places we find 
that great multitudes of poor were nourished 
Ijy the same resources. 

We are not informed that any material 
change in the application of its revenues at 
any time took place in the Eastern Church ; 
and we may even be allowed to doubt, 
whether its property received any very great 
augmentation after the fifth or sixth century. 
At least such increase was incessantly watch- 
ed by a powerful and jealous Sovereign ; f 
and the political revolutions, which finally 
raised the hierarchy of the West to such in- 
ordinate opulence, extended neither in act 
nor influence beyond the Adriatic. The 
prevalence of the monastic spirit did not 
fail, indeed, to create new establishments, 
enriched by new endowments ; but even that 
spirit, after two or three centuries from the 
days of St. Basil, blazed with little compara- 
tive ardor in the East, where it was neither 
renovated by perpetual reformations, nor 
nourished and diversified by the interested 
patronage of Papacy. 

But in the West, the confusion introduced 
by the invaders made it necessary, even in 
the fifth century, to legislate more expressly 
respecting the revenues of the Church. It 
was discovered that the confidence, placed 
from the earliest ages in the discretion of the 
Bishop, was now occasionally abused, and 
began to require the restraint of some canon- 
ical regulations. It was, therefore, ordained 
about the year 470 1 that the revenue should 



* See Padre Paolo, Eccles. Benef. ch. vi. 

t At an early period stewards were appointed to 
superintend the temporalities of the Churches, and 
were chosen by the Bishop. But as abuses were 
found to proceed from this arrangement, the Council 
of Chalcedon decreed, that the stewards should for 
the future be chosen from among the clergy, and that 
the administration of the revenues should no longer 
be left in the power of the Bishop. That office be- 
came afterwards so considerable in the Church of 
Constantinople, that the Emperors took from the 
clergy the nomination of the stewards into their own 
hands. This practice lasted till the time of Isaac 
Comnenus, who remitted that right to the discretion 
of the Patriarch. See P. Simon's History of Eccle- 
siastical Revenues. 

X We follow the probable conclusion of Padre 
Paolo, without being ignorant that this division has 
been sometimes ascribed to Pope Sylvester (who 



be divided into four parts; the first for tne 
Bishop, the second for the rest of the Clergy, 
the third for the fabric of the Church, the 
fourth for the poor. The duties of hospital- 
ity, which included the entertainment of 
indigent strangers, were annexed to the 
Episcopal office. This distribution related 
only to the income of the several Churches: 
the funds whence they proceeded, whether 
immovables, oblations, or alms, continued, 
as heretofore, the common property of the 
body. In the meantime, it would be incor- 
rect to suppose that the above division was 
necessarily made into four equal portions: 
the great variation in the number of the cler- 
gy and of the poor, in the size and splendor 
of the fabrics, in the extent of the diocese, 
must have subjected so very broad a rule to 
very frequent modification. 

During the tumultuous ages which follow- 
ed, it is asserted, without any improbability, 
that the bishops and clergy in many places 
enlarged their own portions to the neglect of 
the sacred buildings and the destitution of 
the poor; that the minister frequently con- 
verted to his own use the offerings deposited 
in his own church ; and, in some places, that 
the lands themselves were divided for the 
usufruct of particular individuals. These 
innovations may have gained footing insen- 
sibly at different times, in different places ; 
and the last was ultimately absorbed in that 
great change in the nature and distribution 
of church property which was introduced by 
the vsystem of. feudalities. 

Those estates, which the Franks and Lom- 
bards called Fiefs, were, by the Latins, de- 
signated Beneficia, as being held by the 
bounty of the Prince. This term was orig- 
inally confined to baronial or military ten- 
ures, and thence it afterwards passed into 
the service of the church. To the endow- 
ments of sees or churches, in those times so 
commonly made by princes, the word ' Ben- 
efice ' was applied, perhaps without impro- 
priety ; it was easily extended to such digni- 
ties as were conferred by the bishops with 
the permission of the princes ; and thus it 
became common to all the separate portions 
of the ecclesiastical estates. These altera- 
tions, though not completed till a much later 
period, * were in gradual process during the 



lived one hundred and fifty years before), on the 
faith of some v/ritings falsely attributed to him. 

* Some footsteps of the foundations of Benefices 
and the right of patronage may perhaps be discovered 
in the lOlh Canon of the First Council of Orange, 



REVENUES. 



]9d 



seventh and eighth centuries ; in the mean- 
tmie the territorial possessions of the Church 
were spreading widely ; and they had already 
swelled to a bulk too great for their security, 
when Charlemagne ascended the throne of 
the Western empire. 

Some portion of those possessions was un- 
questionably acquired by methods disgi-aceful 
to individual churchmen, or through the cor- 
ruptions of the Church itself; and this was 
more especially the case (for reasons which 
we have already given) in the Latin com- 
munion. As to the former means — the gross 
ignorance of the barbarian conquerors, and 
their hereditary reverence for the ministers 
of religion, offered irrisistible temptation to 
the astute avarice of the French and Italian 
clergy : for thus, besides that general abuse of 
spiritual influence for the spoliation of weak, 
or superstitious, or dying persons, which was 
common to them with their Eastern brethren, 
peculiar facilities and invitations to impostiu'e 
v/ere almost pressed upon them by the pop- 
ular credulity. The efficacy of gifts to expiate 
offences was a profitable principle, for which 
the minds of the converts were already pre- 
pared by their previous prejudices : the wild 
rapacity of the savage is visually associated 
with reckless profusion ; and we cannot doubt 
that many individuals of the sacred order suc- 
cessfully availed themselves of dispositions 
so favorable to their own temporal interests. 
Respecting the corruptions of the Church, it 
would probably be too much to assert, that 
masses for the release of souls and the fruit- 
fiil fable of Purgatory were actually invented 
for the purpose of enriching that body ; but 
we need not hesitate to assign that among the 
leading causes of the encouragement which 
was given to them. The pernicious swarm 
of superstitious practices, such as the wor- 
ship of images, the adoration of Saints, and, 
above all, the demoralizing custom of pilgrim- 
held in 441: — 'But the custom of that time (as P. 
Simon remai'ks) was far different from the present 
practice.' Again, about the year 500, under Pope 
Symmachus, it appears that to some Churchmen por- 
tions of land were assigned to be enjoyed by them for 
life', this appears from an Epistle of that Pope to 
Csesarius, where he prohibits the alienation of Chnrch 
lands, unless it should be in favor of Clerks mji itlng 
such reward — ' nisi Clericis honorem meritis, aut 
Monasterils, reiigionis intuitu, aut certe peiegrinis 
necessitas largari suaserit — sic tamen ut ha3e ipsa non 
perpetuo, sed temporaliter, donee vixerint, perfruan- 
lur.' But the establishment of the modern system of 
Benefices is not commonly referred to an earlier pe- 
riod than the end of the tenth, or the beginning of the 
eleventh century. 



age,* was nourished and multiplied princi- 
pally with that object; and the state of the 
Church at that period affords just grounds for 
the melancholy reflection, that the grossest 
perversions of religious truth were carefully 
fostered, if they were not actually produced, 
by the m.ost sordid of human motives. 

The Monastic orders did not lag behind 
their secular competitors in the race of ava- 
rice ; it appears indeed that a great proportion 
of the rewards, at least during the seventh and 
eighth centuries, flowed into their establish- 
ments ; and though their members did not 
possess the same facilities of private acquisi- 
tion, the communities have obtained their full 
share of the profits of ecclesiastical corruption 
in all ages of the Churcli. 

It would be unjust, however, to suppose 
that any very material part of the property 
of the Church was amassed by the shameful 
methods which we have mentioned; they 
have contributed, indeed, somewhat to swell 
its treasiires and greatly to soil its reputation ; 
but the most solid, and by far the largest por- 
tion of its riches was derived from sources 
not only lawftil but honorable. The most 
abundant of these was the pious or politic 
munificence of those Princes who employed 
the Clergy as the means of improving, or of 
governing, their people. Such were extreme- 
ly common during the sixth, seventh, and 
eighth centuries ; and the respect and prefer- 
ence which they thus demonstrated for the 
sacred order, evince its moral as well as in- 
tellectual superiority over other classes of 
their subjects. Again, the voluntary dona- 
tions of wealthy individuals were not always 
made from superstitious hope or idle persua- 
sion ; but much more frequently, because the 
Chiu'ch was the only channel through which 
the charity of the rich could effectually re- 
lieve the poor. This object was connected 
with many even of the earliest donations, and 



* Pilgriixtages, chiefly to the shvines of St. Peter 
at Rome, and St. Martin at Tours, were, in the 
eighth age, so common, that it is made a matter al- 
most of reproach to Charlemagne himself (by his 
historian Eginhart,) that in the course of his long 
reign he had undertaken only four. The Council of 
Chalons (in 813) acknowledges the abuses of pilgrim- 
age. ' The clergy pretend thereby to purge them- 
selves from sin, and to be restored to their functions; 
the laity to acquire impunity for sins past or future; 
the powerful convert them into a pj-el,ex-t of extor- 
tion, the poor of mendicity. Sti41j we praise the 
devotion of those, who, to accomplish the penance 
which their priest has imposed on them, make such 
pilgrimages accompanied by prayer, alms, and cor- 
rection of morals ' Fleury, H. E., 1. xlvi., sect, v 



200 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, 



is conspicuous in the numerous monuments 
of the eighth and ninth centuries ;* and the 
large sums which were thus entrusted to reh- 
gious persons or establishments for tliat pur- 
pose, while they multiplied and maintained the 
indigent dependants of the Church, became the 
safest and the noblest gi-ound of its influence 
and popularity. Again, a great proportion 
of the territorial endowments of the cathedrals 
and monasteries consisted of unappropriated 
and uncultivated lands. These were gradu- 
ally brought to fertility by the superior skill 
and industry of their new possessors ; and 
they thus acquired the most substantial right 
of possession by labors which were beneficial 
to society. Lastly — the abundance of some 
establishments and the economy of others 
frequently enabled the community to amass 
sums which were expended from time to 
time in the purchase of additional estates. 
These were annexed to the original patrimo- 
ny ; and since, in the general insecurity of 
property prevailing in turbulent ages, there 
were few individuals who exercised foresight 
or economy, these virtues, almost peculiar to 
the ecclesiastical establishments, were a sure 
and effective instrument of their prosperity. 

On the other hand, they were peculiarly 
exposed to the evils of that turbulence, both 
by their wealth and their defencelessness. 
Amidst the tumults of unsettled governments 
and uncivilized society, what had been lav- 
ished by the bounty of one was frequently 
torn away by the rapacity of another ; and 
not the nobles only, and other powerful sub- 
jects engaged in the work of spoliation, but 
even princes f would sometimes reward their 
greedy followers by grants of Church proper- 
ty. By such injustice its increasing dimen- 
sions were restrained ; and if we have suffi- 
cient reason to lament that the means by 
which it was acquired were not all without 
reproach, there may at least be room for rea- 
sonable doubt, whether, upon the whole, the 
Church did not suffer as much by violence 
as it gained by fraud, in ages equally favor- 
able to the exercise of both. 



* See Muratori's Dissert, xxxvii. De Hospitali- 
bus, &c, ; and also bis Ivith, De Religione per Itali- 
am, post anil. 500. 

f Charles Martel, for instance, very amply com- 
pensated his military followers for their successful 
defence of Christianity by the monasteries and other 
ecclesiastical endowments, which he distributed among 
them. He thus incurred the indignation of St. Boni- 
face: but as to the celebrated vision of Pulcheriiis, 
there seems great reason to doubt whether the Bishop 
did not precede the Prince in the race of mortality. 
See Baron, apud Selden, ch. v 



There is another source of ecclesiastical 
wealth which we have not yet mentioned, 
because it acquired no certain existence be- 
fore the reign of Charlemagne — the posses- 
sion of Tithes ; but it is here proper to employ 
a few sentences on that subject. It seems 
quite clear that no sort of tithe was paid to 
the ante-Nicene Church, nor imposed by any 
of its councils, nor even directly claimed 
by its leading ministers. The Levitical insti- 
tution is indeed mentioned both by Cyprian 
and Origen ; by the former * slightly and al- 
most incidentally ; by the latter with rather 
more fulness, f in a homily respecting the 
first-fruits in the law. But even Origen goes 
no farther in his conclusion, than 'that the 
command concerning, the first-fruits of corn 
and cattle should still be observed according 
to the letter ;' and we have no evidence to 
persuade us that even that limited position 
was carried into general practice. 

In the records of Constantino's generosity 
to the new establishment there is no mention 
made of tithes : nevertheless, the expressions 
both of St. Ambrose and St. Augustin on this 
subject forbid us to doubt, that such payment 
was voluntarily, though perhaps very partially 
made, at least in the Western Church, before 
the end of the fourth century. St. Ambrose 
boldly claims it as due by the law of God — 
' It is not enough that we bear the name of 
Christians, if we do not Christian works : the 
Lord exacts of us the annual tithe of all our 
corn, cattle,' &c. &c. ' Whosoever is con- 
scious that he hath not faithfully given his 
tithes, let him supply what is deficient; and 
what is the faithful payment of tithes, except 
to offer to God neither more nor less than 
that portion, whether of your corn or your 
wine, or the fruit of your trees, or your catde, 
or of the produce of your garden, your busi- 

* Epist. 66. De Unitat. Eccles. sec. xxiii. In the 
former place he is reproaching one Geminius Fausti- 
nus, a priest, for having undei'taken the discharge of a 
secular office — 'quge nunc ratio et forma in Clero ten- 
etur, ut qui in Ecclesia Domini ad ordinationem Cler- 
icalem promoventur, nullo modo ab administratioue 
divina avocentur, sed, in honore sportulantiura fra- 
trum, tanquam Decimas ex fructibus accipientes ab 
altari et sacrificiis non recedant. . . .' In the latter, 
while deploring the lukewarm devotion of the faith- 
ful, he complains, ' at nunc de patrimonio nee deci- 
m.as damus.' See Selden, chap. 4. 

f This may surprise those historians who distin- 
"■uish Origen from the Church writers, and exalt him 
accordingly. Had Cyprian published a homily to in- 
culcate the divine obligation of paying first-fruits to 
the priest, he would have been stigmatized as the most 
avaricious (he is already denounced as the most am 
\ bilious) among those eaily churchmen. 



REVENUES. 



201 



ness, or your hunting ? Of all substance 
which God has given to man, he has reserved 
the tenth part to himself, and, therefore, man 
may not retain that w^hich God has appro- 
priated to his own use.' St. Augustin, in a 
homily on that subject, presses the same right 
to the same extent, * in terms not less posi- 
tive; with this difference, however, that he 
puts forward more zealously the charitable 
purpose of the institution. About the same 
time St. Chrysostom and St. Jerome added 
their exhortations to the same effect, though 
they did not specify so exactly the nature of 
the contribution, nor insist so strongly on the 
divine obligation. There can be no question 
that the exertions of individual ministers ef- 
fectually influenced the more devout among 
their listeners, especially in the Western na- 
tions, and in somewhat later ages : according- 
ly we find that in sundry places Tithes f were 
paid both to monasteries, to the poor, and to 
the clergy, by many pious individuals during 
the four centuries which followed. It has 
also been asserted (though the evidence is 
not sufficiently clear) that they already en- 
gaged the attention, and even claimed the 
authority, of one or two provincial J councils. 
Moreover, it seems probable, that some spe- 
cial endowments of them were made on par- 
ticular Churches before the time of Charle- 
magne, though these were few in number, 
and scarcely earlier than the end of the 
seventh age. But, on the other hand, it is 
unquestionably certain that no canon or 
other law for the purpose of compelling the 
payment of tithes were generally received 
before the concluding part of the eighth cen- 
tury. The offerings hitherto contributed un- 
der that name were made in compliance with 
the doctrine which pleaded the divine right, 

* Quodcunque te pascit ingenium Dei est; et inde 
decimas expetit unde vivis ; de militia, de negotio, de 
artificio redde decimas: aliiid euim pro terra dependi- 
mus, aliud pro usura vitae pensamus. Selden appears 
to share in a doubt which has been raised, whether 
the Homily in question be really the production of 
Augustin. 

f These may not have been in fact exactly tenths, 
but some indefinite proportion of things titheable, va- 
rying according to the abundance or devotion of tlie 
contributor. 

4: We refer particularly to Selden's 5th chap., and 
his remarks on the Council of Mascon (in 586). 
Thomassin (Vetus et Nova Ecclesiae Discipliua, P. 
III. 1. i. c. vi.) presses the authority of the Second j 
Council of Tours. At any rate the prelates on that 
occasion proceeded no farther than exhortation — 
commonemus, — those of Macon decree — statuimus 
et decern inius. 

26 



or with the precepts, or perhaps even with 
the practice of particular Churches, but they 
were not yet exacted either by civil or eccle- 
siastical legislation — not even in the West ; 
and in the Eastern Church we have not ob- 
served that any law has at any time been 
promulgated on this subject. 

The first strictly legislative act which con- 
ferred on the clergy the right to tithe was 
passed by Charlemagne. In the year 778, 
the eleventh of his reign over France and 
Germany, in a general assembly of estates, 
both spiritual and temporal, held under him, 
it was ordained, ' That every one should give 
his tenth, and that it should be disposed of 
according to the orders of his bishop.' * 
Other constitutions to the same effect were 
afterwards published by the same prince, and 
repeated and confirmed by some of his de- 
scendants ; they were iterated by the canons 
of numerous provincial councils,! and re- 
echoed from the pulpits of France and Italy. 
Nevertheless, it was found exceedingly dif- 
ficult to enforce them. X The laity were 



* Ut unusquisque suam decimam donet; atque per 
jussionem Episcopi sui (or Pontificis, as some copies 
read) dispensetur. This must be understood with 
some limitation, since the tripartite division of tithes 
seems to be properly ascribed to Charlemagne ; that 
of one share for the bishop, and clergy, a second for 
the poor, a third for the fabric of the Church. It 
seems uncertain what part of these was at first in>. 
tended for the maintenance of a resident clergy. 
Parochial divisions, such as they now exist, were 
still not very common, though they may be traced to 
the endowment of churches by individuals as early as 
the time of Justinian. The rural churches were, iq 
the first instance, chapels dependent on the neighbor- 
ing cathedral, and were served by itinerant ministers 
of the bishop's appointment. It was some time be- 
fore any of them obtained the privileges of baptism 
and burial ; but these were indeed accompanied by a 
fixed share of the tithes, and appear to have implied 
in each case the independence of the Church and the 
residence of a minister. 

t The celebrated Council of Francfort (in 794) 
published a canon for the universal payment of tithes, 
besides the rents due to the Church for benefices, 
See Fleury, 1. xliv. s. Ix. and Thomassin, P. III. 1 
i. cap. vii. 

I There is an epistle of Alcuin, in which he exhorts 
his master not yet to impose upon the tender faith of 
his new converts, the Saxons and Huns, what he 
calls the ' yoke of tithes.' The passage deserves ci- 
tation — ' Vestra sanctissima pietas sapienti consiiio 
prgevideat, si melius sit rudibus populis in principio 
fidei jugum imponere Decimarum, ut plena fiat per 
singulas domus exactio illarum; an apostoli quoque 
ab ipso Deo Christo edocti et ad praedicandum mundo 
missi exactiones Decimarum exegissent, vel alicui 
demandasseut dari, considerandum est. Scimus quia 



202 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



strongly disposed to disobey such commands 
as went to diminish their revenues, and the 
violation of any law was easy in those disor- 
•dered times. But the long and lawful perse- 
verance of the clergy at length prevailed ; 
and, during a contest of nearly four centuries, 
they gradually entered into the possession of 
ail nnpopiilar, but unquestioned right. 

We can scarcely consider the payment of 
tithes to have been universally enforced until 
the end of the twelfth century, when ecclesi- 
astical authority had risen to a great height, 
through the exaltation of the See of Rome. 
The first of the General Coimcils which men- 
tions them is the Ninth, that of Lateran, held 
under Calixtus II., about the year 1119 ; but 
even there they are spoken of only as they 
were received by special consecrations. Nor 
does it appear that the payment was expressly 
commanded as 'a duty of common * right' 
before the Pontifical Council held in the year 
1215. It was held under Innocent III. ; and 
in that age, and especially during that pon- 
tificate, the canons of the church were not 
lightly received nor contemned with security. 

Such are the principal quarters from which 
the revenues of the Western church were 
derived. They varied in fruitfulness in dif- 
ferent times and provinces, according to the 
extent of ecclesiastical influence, or the de- 
gree of civil anarchy which prevailed. In 
the ages immediately following the barbarian 
conquests, they may have lost by the violence 
of the invaders more than they gained by 
their piety or superstition ; but those losses 
were afterwards compensated by a liberality 



Deeimatio substantive Hostrae valde bona est. Sed 
melius est illam amittere quam fidern perdere. Nos 
vero in fide Catholica nati, nuttiti et edocti vix con- 
sentimus substantiam nostrain pleniter decirnari ; 
quanto magis tenera fides et infantilis animus et 
avara mens illorum laigitati non consentitl' The 
passage is quoted by Selden in Cliapter v. 

* See Selden., chap- vi. There were various pon- 
tifical decrees respecting Tithes by Nicholas K., 
Alexander II., and Gregory VII. in the eleventh 
century. Selden mentions the direct command of 
Nicholas in 1059. ' Praecipiuuis ut Decimae et Prim- 
itiae sen oblationes vivorum et mortuorum Ecclesiis 
Dei fideliter reddantur a Laicis, et ut in dispositione 
Episcoporum sint: quas qui retinuerint a S. Ecclesiae 
Commumone separentur.' Ten years earlier we ob- 
serve that Leo IX., in his council against Simony, 
*'estored Tithes to all the Churches, with the admis- 
sion, ' that no mention was at that time made of them 
in Apulia, and some other parts of the world.' A 
double division of them is on that occasion mentioned 
• — between the Bishop, and the Altar, or Minister of 
the Church. See Wibertus, ap. Pagi., Vit. Leo IX. 



which was sometimes heedless, sometimes 
political; and, upon the whole, in spite of oc- 
casional spoliations, the funds of the Church 
continued to extend themselves. They did 
not, however, reach any unreasonable extent 
until the reign of Charlemagne and those of 
his successors; but thenceforward, as their 
security increased with their magnitude, they 
swelled to such inordinate dimensions, and 
assumed so substantial a shape, that they are 
not incredibly asserted to have comprehended, 
in the twelfth century, one half of the culti- 
vated soil of Europe. Nevertheless, it is im- 
possible to dispute, that by far the greater 
proportion of that property was acquired by 
just and lawful means; and that we may not 
depart from this inquiry with the impression, 
that the prosperity of the Church was either 
universally abuser!, or wholly unmerited, it 
is proper to mention some of the blessings 
which it conferred upon society, during a 
period when the condition of man stood most 
in need of aid and consolation. 

General Benefits conferred by the Church. 
We do not here propose to enumerate the 
beneficial effects of the religion itself, which 
are scarcely contested by any one ; but only 
to mention some of the good fruits of the 
Institution caWed the Church — benefits pro- 
duced in subservience to Christianity, in as 
far as its principles and motives were derived 
from that source, but in contradistinction to 
it, in as far as its outward form, government 
and discipline were of human creation. With 
all its earthly imperfections and impurities, 
the Church was still a powerful, if not neces- 
sary, instrument for the support of the relig- 
ion and the diffusion of its principles ; and 
even among those very imperfections there 
were some which it pleased Providence to 
turn to its own honor, by converting them to 
the service of man. 

Before the end of the fifth century, tlie 
ecclesiastical body was in possession of very 
considerable dignity and power throughout 
the whole of Christendom ; and in that body 
the episcopal order had risen into a pre- 
eminence, not indeed in unison with its an- 
cient humility, but attributable to its activity 
and its virtues more than to its ambition, and 
perhaps to the circumstances of the empire 
even more than to either. In the enjoyment 
of extensive revenues, of some * municipal 

* See Cod. Justin. 1. i., tit. iv. De Episcopal! 
Audientia, s. 26, 30. The superintendence of public 
works, and of the funds for defraying their expenses, 
was intrusted to the bishop, together with some of the 
leading men in the city. 



BENEFITS CONFERRED BY THE CHURCH. 



203 



authority, of certain judicial privileges and 
immunities, of high rank and reputation, and 
of very powerful influence over the people, 
and united for all grand purposes by common 
principles and common interests, the hierar- 
chy occupied the first station among the sub- 
jects of the empire. Its weight was felt and 
acknowledged by every rank of society, from 
the court downwards: the more so, as it 
formed the only moral tie which bound them 
together. The Unity of the Church was not 
tnerely the watchword of bigotry, the signal 
for injustice and oppression, but also a princi- 
ple of some effect in maintaining the unity of 
Christendom. Such was the position of the 
Church, and such the means at its disposal, 
when the Westerrt Empire was overthrown 
and occupied by unbelieving barbarians. 

At this crisis it is not too much to assert, 
that the Church was the instrument of Heav- 
en for the preservation of the Religion. Chris- 
tianity itself (unless miraculously sustained) 
would have been swept away from the surface 
of the West,* had it not been rescued by an 
established body of ministers, or had that 
body been less zealous or less influential. 
x\raong the conquered, the common people 
were, for the most part, recent and not always 
very serious converts from polytheism ; the 
higher classes were neither numerous nor 
powerful, nor had any interest in the support 
of Christianity : the clergy alone composed 
the vital and efficient portion of the aristocra- 
cy. Among the conquerors, the rudest sol- 
dier brought with him a superstitious rever- 
ence for the office aud person of a religious 
minister, which prepared him for adhesion to 
the religion itself, especially where the minis- 
tei-s were honored and the ceremonies splen- 
did ; and the illiterate prince readily gave 
attention to the counsels of the bishops, who 

* Guizot — who treats ecclesiastical matters with 
profoundness, ingenuity, and judgment, aud has 
brought to that subject (a rarer merit) a mind unbias- 
sed by the prejudices of a churchman, or the antipa- 
thies of a sectarian or an infidel, and that fearless, 
uncompromising candor which becomes a philosopher 
and a historian — Guizot (Histoire Generale, &c. Le- 
^on II.) has expressed tlie same opinion with the 
same confidence. ' Je ne crois pas trop dire en af- 
firmant qu'a la fin du quatrieme et commencement du 
cinquieme siecle, c'est I'Eglise Chretinne qui a sauve 
le Christanisme. C'est I'Eglise, avec ses institutions, 
ses magistrats, son pouvoir qui s'est defendue vigour- 
eusemeut contre la dissolution interieure de I'empire, 
contre la Barbaric ; qui a conquis les barbares, qui 
est devenue le lien, le moyen, le priucipe de civilisa- 
iion entre le monde Romain et le monde barbai-e,' 
&c. &c. 



were the most learned and the most respected 
among his new subjects. Thence resulted 
the gradual conversion * of the invaders, by 
the agency of the visible Church. Without 
those means — bad Christianity then existed 
as a mere individual belief, or even under a 
less vigorous form of human government — 
the religious society would have possessed 
neither the energy nor discipline necessary for 
resistance to the deluge which endangered it. 
Let us next inquire, what influence did the 
Church afterwards exert on the society which 
it had assembled in the name of Christ ? by 
what exertions, by what habits, did it enforce 
the principles of the religion which it had 
preserved ? First — by the general exercise of 
charity. The generosity of its benefactoi-s 
had often been directed, in part at least, to 
that purpose. That excellent rule which had 
been received from the earliest ages was not 
discontinued ; the relief of the poor was as- 
sociated with the ministry of religion ; the 
worldly necessities of the wretched were al- 
leviated by their spiritual Pastors, and the 
most excellent virtue of Christianity was in- 
culcated by the practice of its Ministers. We 
intend not to exalt the merit of that body in 
dispensing among the indigent the funds en- 
trusted to them for that purpose ; we only as- 
sert its great utility as a channel for the trans- 
mission of blessings, which in those ages 
could not otherwise have reached their object 
— as a sacred repository, where the treasures 
of the devout were stored up for the mitiga- 
tion of misery which had no other resource 
or hope. Secondly — the penitential discipline 
of the Church was extremely efficacious in 
enforcing the moral precepts of the religion ; 
and whatsoever advantage may have been 
conferred on ancient Rome by the venerable 
office of the Censor, whatsoever restraints 
may have been imposed on the habits of a 
high-minded people by the fear of ignomini- 
ous reproach ; awe more deep and lasting 
must have been impressed upon the supersti- 
tious crowd by the terrible denunciations of 
the Church, by the deep humiliation of the 
penitent, by his prolonged exposure to public 
shame, by the bitterness and intensity of his 
remorse. Without affecting to regret, as 
some have done, the present disuse of the 
penitential system in the present enlightened 



* That their conversion was, in the first instance, 
imperfect, perhaps in many cases merely nominal, has 
been already admitted. Still, where the affair was 
with a nation, and that too a very barbarous nation, 
it was impossible, humanly speaking, tliat it could 
,i have been otherwise tlmn imperfect. 



204 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, 



state both of society and religion, we cannot 
close our eyes against its extraordinary pow- 
er, as aD instrument of moral improvement, 
in ages when the true spirit of religion was 
less felt and comprehended ; when education 
furnished very slender means for self-correc- 
tion ; and when even the secular laws were 
feebly or partially executed. Thirdly — After 
the fifth century the office of Legislaiion 
throughout the Western provinces devolved 
in a great measure on the ecclesiastical body 
—directly, in so far as they composed, or as- 
sisted in, public assemblies ; indirectly, as 
they influenced the councils of Princes and 
their nobility. Their power was effectually 
exerted for the improvement of the barbarous 
system of the invaders, the suppression of ab- 
surd practices, and the substitution of reason- 
able principles. 'I have already spoken,' 
says Guizot, 'of the difference which may be 
observed between the laws of the Visigoths, 
proceeding in a great measure from the Coun- 
cils of Toledo, and those of the other barba- 
rians. It is impossible to compare them with- 
out being struck by the immense superiority 
m the ideas of the Church in matters of legis- 
lation and justice, in all that affects the pursuit 
of truth and the destiny of man. It is true 
that the greater part of these ideas were bor- 
rowed from the Roman legislation ; but if the 
Church had not preserved and defended them, 
jf it had not labored to propagate them, they 
would have perished.' Fourthly — In further- 
ance of this faithful discharge of its duties 
to the human race, the Church unceasingly 
strove to correct the vices of the social sys- 
tem. The worst of these, and the principal 
object of her hostility, was the abomination 
of slavery ; and if it be too much entirely to 
attribute its final extirpation to the persever- 
ance of the Church in pressing the principles 
of the Faith, and if it has been speciously in- 
sinuated that her motives in the contest were 
not always disinterested, at least it is impossi- 
ble to dispute either her zeal in the righteous 
cause, or the power and success with which 
ehe pleaded it,* or the great probability that. 



* II y en a une preuve irrecusable : la plupart des 
formules d'afifranchissement, k diverses epoques, se 



without such advocacy so steadily pursued 
through so long and hopeless a period, the 
complete emancipation of the lowest classes 
would have been accomplished much later, 
perhaps not wholly accomplished even at this 
moment. Fifthly — The same spirit which 
was so well directed to improve the internal 
fabric of society turned itself also to the pre- 
vention of civil outrage and even of interna- 
tional warfare. In this attempt, indeed, it 
had not equal success, since it had to contend 
with the most intractable of human passions; 
but the pages even of profane history abound 
with proofs of the pacific policy and interpo- 
sitions of the Church: nor were they entirely 
suspended even after the fatal moment, when 
it engaged as a party in the temporal affairs 
of Europe, and so frequently found its own 
policy and strength and triumph in the dis- 
cord, devastation, and misery of its neigh- 
bors. Lastly — From considerations which 
are more immediately connected with the 
happiness of mankind, we may descend to 
mention a theme of praise which is seldom 
withheld from the Church by any description 
of historians — that of having preserved many 
valuable monuments of ancient genius ; and 
also of having nourished, even in the worst 
times, such sort of literary instruction and 
acquirement as was then perhaps attainable. 
It is true that these advantages were not gen- 
erally diffused among the people ; that little 
desire was evinced by the Clergy to com- 
municate such knowledge, or by the Laity to 
share in it : still was it a possession useful, as 
well as honorable, to those who cherished 
and maintained it, and through them, in some 
degree, to their fellow-subjects. Some lan- 
guid rays it must have reflected even at the 
moment upon the surface of society; at least 
it was preserved as a certain pledge of future 
improvement, as an inviolable and everlasting 
treasure, consecrated to the brighter destinies 
of ages to come. 



fondent sur iin motif religieux; c'est au nom des idees 
religieuses, des esperances de raveuir, de I'egalite 
religieuse des homines, que I'afFranchissement est 
presque toujours prononce. — Guizot, Hist. Generale, 
Le^on VI. 



INDEPENDENCE OF PAPAL ELECTION. 



205 



PART III. 



FROM THE DEATH OF CHARLEMAGNE TO THAT OF 
POPE GREGORY Aai. 814—1085. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

On the Government and Projects of the Church 
during the JVinth and Tenth Centuries. 

Division of the Subject into Three Parts. (I.) Indepen- 
dence of Papal Election — Original Law and Practice — 
First Violation — Posterity of Charlemagne — Charles the 
Bald— Otho the Great— Henry III. — Alterations under 
Nicholas 1 1.— Reflections. (II.) Encroachment of Eccle- 
siastical on Civil Authority— Indistinct Limits of Tem- 
poral and Spiritual Power — Till the time of Charle- 
magne — After that time — Influence of Feudal System 
— Kind of Authority conferred by it on the Clergy — 
Military Service — of Church Vassals — of Clergy — lat- 
ter forbidden by Charlemagne — Superstitious Methods 
of Trial — By Hot Iron — the Cross — the Eucharist — Po- 
litical Offices of the Clergy — Influence from Intellectual 
Superiority— Plunder of Church Property— Lay Impro- 
priators — Advocates — Louis le Debonnaire — his Pe- 
nance — Council at Paris in 820 — Charles the Bald — 
Council of Aix la Chapelle— Lothaire, King of Lorraine 
— his Excommunication — Hincmar, Archbishop of 
Rheims — his Conduct on two occasions — Charles the 
Bald accepts the Empire from the Pope — General Re- 
flections — Robert, King of France — his Excommunica- 
tion and Submission— Episcopal distinct from Papal 
Encroachment. (III.) Internal Usurpation of the Ro- 
man See — Its Original Dignity — Metropolitan Privileges 
— Appellant Jurisdiction of Pope— The False Decretals 
— Contest between Gregory IV. and the French Bish- 
ops — between Adrian II. and Hincmar — Character of 
Hincmar — Consequence of regular Appeals to the Pope 
— Vicars of the Roman See — Exemption of Monasteries 
from Episcopal Superintendence — Remarks. 

That we may avoid the confusion usually 
attending the compression of a long series 
of incidents, we shall here endeavor to dis- 
tinguish the points which chiefly claim our 
notice, rather than follow chronologically the 
course of events ; and though it may not be 
possible, nor even desirable, to prevent the 
occasional encroachments of subjects in some 
respects similar, yet in others very different, 
we shall not allow it to perplex our narra- 
tive. It is an obscure and melancholy region 
into which we now enter ; but it is not al- 
together destitute of interest and instruction, 
since we can discern, through the ambiguous 
twilight, those misshapen masses and dis- 
orderly elements out of which the fabric of 
Papal despotism presently arose, and even 
trace the irregular progress of that stupen- 
dous structure. 

We shall best attain this end by giving a se- 
parate consideration to three subjects, which 
will be found to include the whole ecclesias- 



ti cal policy of the nmth and tenth centuries. 
Other matters relating to that period, and 
possessing perhaps even greater general im- 
portance, will be treated in the next chapter ; 
but at present we shall confine our inquiry 
to the following objects : — I. The endeavors 
of the Popes to free their own election from 
Imperial interference of every description, 
whether to nominate or to confirm. TI. The 
efforts of the Church to usurp dominion over 
the Western empire ; and generally to ad- 
vaiice the spiritual as loftier and more legiti- 
mate than the highest temporal authority. 
III. The exertions of the See of Rome to sub- 
due to itself the ecclesiastical body, and thus 
to establish a despotism within the Church. 
In the two first of these objects we may re- 
gard the Church as waging for the most part 
an external warfare : the last occasioned her 
intestine or domestic struggles , and the ex- 
amination of them will necessarily lead to 
some mention of the peculiarities introduced 
by the feudal system ; of its influence on the 
manners, morals, and property of the clergy, 

I. On the independency of Papal election^ 
The original law and practice in this matter 
had passed, with some variations but little 
lasting alteration, through the succession both 
of the Greek and barbarian sovereigns of 
Rome, from the time of Constantine to that 
of Charlemagne, and that Prince also trans- 
mitted it unchanged to his posteritj^. It was 
this — that the Pope should be elected by the 
priests, nobles, and people of Rome, but that 
he should not be consecrated without the 
consent of the Emperor. This arrangement 
was found, for above eight centuries, to be 
consistent with the dignity of the Roman 
Bishop, and it was not till his spiritual pride 
had been inflated by temporal power, that it 
was discovered to be doubly objectionable- 
it was no longer to be endured, either that 
laymen should interfere in the election of the 
Pope, or the Emperor in his consecration. 
Both these restraints became offensive to the 
lofty principles of ecclesiastical independence^ 
but the latter was that which it was first at- 
tempted to remove. 

Charlemagne was succeeded by his son 



206 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Lewis, commonly called the Meek, a feeble 
and superstitious monarch ; and of these de- 
fects both Stephen V.* and Pascal I. so far 
availed themselves, as to exercise the pontifi- 
cal functions without awaiting his confirma- 
tion. But when Eugene II. would have 
followed their example, Lothaire, who was 
associated to the empire, complained of the 
usurpation and resumed the Imperial right. 
Lewis died in 840, and was succeeded on the 
throne of t'rance by Charles the Bald. 

That Prince reigned for thirty-seven years 
with scarcely greater vigor than his prede- 
cessor ; but his reign is on several accounts 
important in the history of Popery, and chief- 
ly on the following. Two years before his 
death the Imperial throne became vacant. 
Charles was ambitious to possess it ; he went 
to Rome, accepted it at the hands of John 
VIII. ; and then, that he might make a wor- 
thy return for this office, he released the See 
from the necessity of Imperial consent to the 
consecration of its Bishop. The claims which 
were derived by subsequent Popes from 
John's assumed donation of the empire will 
be mentioned hereafter, and it will appear 
on how slight a ground they rested ; but the 
interference of the Emperor in Papal elec- 
tions was on this occasion directly and un- 
equivocally withdrawn. 

Neither the interests nor the honor of the 
See gained any thing by its independence. 
From that time (the event took place in 875) 
till 960, the most disgraceful confusion pre- 
vailed in the elections, and clearly proved 
that the restraint heretofore imposed by civil 
superintendence, had been salutary ; and if 
the emperors during that stormy period did 
not reclaim their former right, we should 
rather attribute the neglect to their weakness 
than to their acknowledged cession of it. For 
in the year 960, Otho the Great, on the invi- 
tation of John XII., resumed the Imperial 
authority in Italy, and exercised, as long as 
he lived, the most arbitrary discretion in the 
election, and even appointment, of the Pon- 
tiff. He presently degraded John, and sub- 
stituted in his place Leo Vtll. ; and under 
that Pope (or anti-Pope — for it is disputed) 
a Lateran council f was held in 964, which 
conferred on Otho and all his successors not 
merely the kingdom of Italy, but the regula- 
tion of the Holy See and the arbitrary elec- 
tion of its bishops. And for the guidance of 



* Generally called Stephen IV. See Baron, anu. 
816. s. 96. 

f Giannone, Stor. Nap., lib. viii., cap. vi. 



their successors, Otho left an edict prohib- 
iting the election of any Pope without the 
previous^ knowledge and consent of the em- 
peror, which was enforced during the next 
eighty years by all who possessed the power 
to do so. But in the century following, in 
the year 1047, we observe that the same right 
was once more conceded to an emperor, Hen- 
ry III. ; and on this occasion an artful dis- 
tinction was drawn by the Italians, which 
led, no doubt, to the ultimate independence 
of election : the privilege of nominating the 
Pope was granted to Henry personally, f not 
to the throne. 

This important advantage was followed 
almost immediately by another of still great- 
er consequence. Nicholas II., under the di- 
rection of Hildebrand, found means to restore 
the original principle of election, modified as 
follows : the right of appointment was vested 
in the College of cardinals, with the consent 
of the people, and the approbation of the em- 
peror. But the last mentioned restriction 
was expressly understood to extend only to 
the emperor of the time being, and to such 
of his successors as should personally obtain 
the privilege. This grand measure was ac- 
complished in a council held at Rome in 
1059, fourteen years before the accession of 
Gregory VII. ; and so the matter rested, 
when he took possession of the chair. 

We obsei-ve from this short account, that, 
after an interrupted struggle of two hundred 
and fifty years, an absolute independence 
of election was not yet confessedly effected. 
The contest had fluctuated very consider- 
ably ; the fir^t advantages were entirely on 
the side of the Pope ; in fact, at the death of 
Charles the Bald, the victory seemed perfect- 
ly secure : and the century which followed 
was so clouded by the mutual dissensions of 
the princes ; it was marked by such positive 
weakness in their states, such vices in their 
personal character and internal administra- 
tion, as to be in the highest degree favor- 
able to the confirmation and extension of 
papal privileges. Why then was it, that the 
privilege in question was not at that time 
extended nor even permanently confirmed ? 
Why was it even that the next interference 
of the emperor took place at the solicitation 
of a Pope ? Chiefly because the removal of 
Imperial superintendence had thrown the 
election entirely into the hands of an unprin- 

♦Mosheim, Cent, x., p. ii.,c. ii. 
t He had occasion to exert it three times. See 
below, chap. xvi. 



1 



ECCLESIASTICAL ENCROACHMENTS. 



207 



cipled nobility,* an intriguing clergy, and a ve- 
nal populace, whose united fraud and violence 
usually favored the most flagitious candi- 
date, and promoted his success by means the 
most shameful. And, therefore, through this 
lawless period we read of Popes tumultuous- 
ly chosen and hastily deposed ; hurried from 
the monastery to the chau-, from the chair to 
prison or to death. Their reigns were usual- 
ly short and wasted in fruitless endeavors to 
prolong them ; their sacred duties were for- 
gotten or despised, and their personal char- 
acters were even more detestable than those 
of the princes their contemporaries. Fur- 
ther, we may observe, that when the Church 
began to recover from the delirium of the 
tenth century ; when one great man did at 
length arise within it, Hildebrand, the future 
Gregory, his influence was immediately ex- 
erted, not only against Imperial interference 
to confirm, but against popular license to 
elect : for he had learned from long and late 
experience, that no scheme for the universal 
extension of Papal authority could be made 
effective, until the Popes tliemselves were 
secured from the capricious insolence of a 
domestic tyrant. If things had not been 

* From the deposition of the last Cailovingian 
king to the reign of Othothe Great, (a space of near- 
ly fifty years,) the authority of the princes who held 
the imperial title was always vacillating and con- 
tested. In the meantime the city of Rome was no 
part of the kingdom of Italy, but depended on the 
imperial crown only; so that during the vacancy of 
the empire it recovered its independence, and thus 
fell under the turbulent oligarchy of its own nobles. 
These provided the candidates for the pontifical 
thi'one; and whosoever among them succeeded in 
obtaining it, secured, by means of the church rev- 
enues, a great preponderance over all the others, and 
became as it were the chiefs of the republic. (See 
Sismondi, Repub. Ital. chap, iii.; to whose work 
we are compelled to refer the reader for the few facts 
which are ascertained respecting the revolutions of 
the Roman Government during this period.) For 
the further degradation of the Roman See the influ- 
ence of female arts and charms was triumphantly ex- 
erted. ' Jamais les femmes n'eurent autant de credit 
sur aucun gouvernement que celles de Rome en ob- 
tinrent, dans le dixieme siecle, sur celui de leur pa- 
trie. Or auroit dit que la beaute avoit succede a 
tous les droits de 1' empire.' The names and scandals 
of Theodora and Marozia are distinguished in the 
ecclesiastical annals of the tenth century. In the 
rapid succession of popes, those most marked by dis- 
grace or misfortune may have been Leo V., John X., 
John XL, John XII., Benedict VI., John XIV.; 
but to pursue the details of their history would be 
alike painful and unprofitable: for their crimes would 
teach us no lessons, and even their sufferings would 
Bcarcely raise our compassion. 



thus — if Papal elections had been regularly 
and conscientiously conducted when the 
civil governments of Europe were at the 
lowest point of contentious and stupid im- 
becihty — the sera of Pontifical despotism 
would have been anticipated by nearly three 
centiu'ies, and the empire of opinion would 
have been more oppressive and more last- 
ing, as the age was more deeply immersed 
in ignorance and barbarism. 

II. Encroachment of Ecclesiastical on Civil 
Authority. We proceed to examine the en- 
croachments of Church upon State during 
the same period ; and this part of our subject 
might again be subdivided under three heads 
— the general usurpations of the See of Rome 
on any temporal rights — the particular usur- 
pations of national councils of Bishops on the 
civil authorities — and the individual usurpa- 
tions of the episcopal office on that of the 
secular magistrate. But, not to perplex this 
matter by an attempt at exceeding minute- 
ness, we shall rather follow the course of 
events and illustrate them with such obser- 
vations as they may appear severally to de- 
mand. The first edict which permitted legal 
jurisdiction to the Episcopal order, and sup- 
ported its decisions by civil authority, sowed 
the seeds of that confusion which afterwards 
involved and nearly obliterated the limits 
of temporal and spiritual power. There is 
scarcely any crime which an ingenious cas- 
uist might not construe into an offence against 
religion, and subject to ecclesiastical cogni- 
zance, in a rude and illiterate age ; while, on 
the other hand, the best defined and most 
certain rights of an unarmed and dependent 
authority were liable to continual outrage 
either from a sovereign possessing no fixed 
principles of government, or from a lawless 
aristocracy more powerful than the sove- 
reign. In the Eastern empire, indeed, this 
evil was greatly neutralized by the decided 
and unvarying supreiriacy of the civil power,, 
nor was it immediately felt even in the West , 
at least we read little or nothing about the 
usurpation of the Clergy, until after the death 
of Charlemagne. The Popes, it is true, had 
displayed, from a very early period, great 
anxiety to enlarge their authority; but the 
eflTorts of Leo and even of Gregory were 
confined to the acquisition of some privilege 
from their own Metropolitans, or some title 
or province from their rival at Constanti- 
nople. The dream of universal empire seems 
at no time to have warmed the imagination 
of those more moderate Pontiffs, It is not 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



tlmt we may not occasionally discover both 
in the writings and in the conduct of the pre- 
lates of earlier days an abundance of spiritual 
zeal ever ready to overflow its just bounds, 
and gain somewhat upon the secular empire. 
The latter, too, found its occasions to retort ; 
but we may remark, that while its operations 
were generally violent and interrupted, those 
of the clergy w^ere more systematic and con- 
linuous. In the meantime the distinction be- 
tween the two parties was becoming wider, 
and their differences were approaching near 
to dissension, before, and even during, the 
reign of Charlemagne : howbeit, the vigor- 
ous grasp of that monarch so firmly wielded 
the double sceptre, that the rent which was 
beginning to divide it * was barely percepti- 
ble, when it fell from his hand ; but scarcely 
had it begun to tremble with the feeble touch 
of Lewis his son, wlien its ill-cemented ma- 
terials exhibited a wide and irreparable in- 
coherence. 

The extraordinary change which had tak- 
en place in the institutions of the Western 
Empire during the two preceding, and which 
was progressive during the two present, cen- 
turies, greatly increased both to church and 
state the facility of mutual encroachment. 
Until the permanent settlement of the north- 
ern nations generally introduced the feudal 
system of government, the Clergy, though 
enjoying great immunities and ample pos- 
sessions, yet, as they lived under absolute 
rule, had little real, and no independent pow- 
er, excepting such as indirectly accrued to 

* In the ' Capitularies of Interrogations' proposed 
by Charlemagne, three years before his death, — 
* First,' (he says) ' I will separate the bishops, the 
abbots, and the secular nobles, and speak to them in 
private. I will ask them why thoy are not willing 
to assist each other, whether at home or in the 
camp, when the interests of their country demand it'? 
Whence come those frequent complaints which I 
hear, either concerning their property or the vassals 
which pass from the one to the otherl In what the 
ecclesiastics impede the service of die laity, the laity 
that of the ecclesiastics'? To what extent a bishop 
or abbot ought to interfere in secular affairs; or a 
count or other layman in ecclesiastical matters,' &c. 
(Fleury, H. Eccl. 1. xiv. sect. 51. Guizot, Hist. Mod. 
Le9on 21.) Soon afterwards, in 826, the Council 
of Paris, after proposing some very extravagant epis- 
copal claims, observes, as one great obstacle to har- 
mony, that the princes have long mixed too much in 
ecclesiastical matters, and that the clergy, whether 
through avarice or ignorance, take unbecoming in- 
terest in secular matters. Again, at the Synod of 
Aix-la-Chapelle (in 836) all the evils of the time are 
expressly attributed to the mutual encroachments of 
the spiritual and secular povvere. 



them through their influence. If they had 
lands, no jurisdiction wa& necessarily annex- 
ed to them ; they had no place in legislative 
assemblies ; they had no control, as a body, 
in the direction of the state. 

The devout spirit of the Barbarians pres- 
ently increased the extent of their landed 
possessions without withholding from them 
any of the rights which, according to their 
system, were inseparable from land ; and thus 
they entered upon temporal jurisdiction co- 
extensive with their estates. By these means 
the Episcopal Courts became possessed of 
a double jurisdiction — over the Clergy and 
Laity of their diocese for the cognizance of 
crimes against the ecclesiastical law, and over 
the vassals of their barony as lords para- 
mount ; and these two departments they fre- 
quently so far confounded as to use the spirit- 
ual weapon of excommunication to enforce 
the judgments of both.* In the next place the 
Clergy became an order in the state, and thus 
entered into the enjoyment of privileges en- 
tirely unconnected with their spiritual char- 
acter. Yet the necessary effect of the union 
of ecclesiastical with secular dignities was to 
blend two powers in the same person almost 
undistinguishably ; and to confound, by in- 
discriminate use, the prerogatives of the bish- 
op with those of the baron. Again, the Bish- 
ops being once established as feudal lords, 
had great advantages in increasing their pos- 
sessions, owing to the influence which neces- 
sarily devolved on them, not only from their 
greater virtues and knowledge, but also from 
the command of spiritual authority. And 
as the vassals of the Church grew gradually 
to be better secured from oppression and out- 
rage than those of the lay nobility, its pro- 
tection was more courted and its patrimonial 
domain more amply extended. 

At the first establishment of the system, 
vassalage to an ecclesiastic conferred exemp- 
tion from military service ; but, among rude 
and warlike nations, when the greater force 
was generally the better law, this privilege 

* This subject is treated clearly, though shortly, by 
Burke, in his Abridgment of English History. Mos- 
heini, who ascribes the secular encroachnients of 
the Bishops to their acquisition of secular titles, de- 
nies that such titles were conferred on them before 
the tenth age. Louis Thomassin (De Disciplin. 
Eccles. Vet. et Nova) endeavors to trace the prac- 
tice to the ninth and even to the eighth century. 
Whatever may be the fact respecting the titles, tlie 
jurisdiction certainly gained great ground during the 
ninth age; more, perhaps, through the superstition 
of the people, and the weakness of the princes, tlian 
by its own legitimacy. 



ECCLESIASTICAL ENCROACHMENTS. 



209 



could not possibly be of long duration. It 
was withdrawn universally, at different times, 
by different princes, according to their power 
or their necessities. The Church fiefdoms 
thus assumed a very different appearance, 
and the spirituality of the sacred character 
became still further corrupted ; for, as soon 
as the vassals became military, it was found 
difficult to hold them in subjection to an un- 
armed lord, and the Clergy were, in many 
instances, obliged to descend from their 
peaceful condition, assume the sword and 
helmet, and conduct their subjects into bat- 
tle: in many instances they did so without 
any such obligation. * This direct derelic- 
tion of the pastoral character became the im- 
mediate means of securing their property f 
and increasmg their power; but, notwith- 
standing the contempt to which the peaceful 
virtues are occasionally exposed among rude 
and military nations, it is probable that they 
lost thereby as much in influence as they 
gained in power. 

Again, the strange and irrational method 
of Trials which even now came generally 
into use, must have tended, by the inter- 
mixture of superstition, to enlarge the do- 
minion of ecclesiastical influence. The or- 
dinary proofs by fire, by water, by hot iron, 
indicate some imposture perhaps only prac- 
ticable by the more informed craft of the 
clergy. The proofs of the Cross and the 
Eucharist bear more obvious marks of sa- 
cerdotal superintendence. I The clergy dis- 
graced themselves by upholding such abuses 



* The practice crept, without the same excuse, and 
of course with much less frequency, into the Greek 
Church. In the year 713 a Subdeacon commanded 
the troops of Naples ; and the Admiral of the Em- 
peror's fleet was a Deacon. (Fleury, ix. 172, &c.) 
But the low ecclesiastical rank which these officers 
held would prove, if it were necessary, that they did 
not take the field as feudal lords. In the West this 
practice appears to have commenced soon after the 
admission of barbarians to the clerical order; which, 
if we are to judge by names, scarcely took place be- 
fore the seventh century. 

■f In the address (ah'eady mentioned) which was 
presented on this subject to Charlemagne by his peo- 
ple, it is remarkable that the petitioners felt it neces- 
sary to offer a solemn assurance, that their motive 
for disarming the Clergy was not (as might, it seems, 
have been suspected) a design to plunder their prop- 
erty. We may add, that the indecent violation of 
the sacerdotal character is a reason, which seems to 
have been overlooked by both parties. 

4: Even the trial by Duel, which seems the farthest 

removed from priestly interference, Avas preceded by 

some religious forms ; great precautions were taken 

to prevent the arms from being enchanted; and in 

27 



of their judicial authority, and they divide 
that disgi-ace with the Kings and the civil 
magistrates of the time ; but they had not 
the crime of introducing them. They re- 
ceived and executed tb em as they were hand- 
ed down from a remote and blind antiquity ; 
and it is but justice to add, that they made 
frequent attempts to abolish them. * 

Moreover, through the free spirit which 
formed the only merit of the feudal system, 
the affairs of the state were more or less 
regulated by public assemblies, and the high- 
er ranks of the clergy found a place in these. 
Thus, again, were they placed in contact 
with the great temporal interests of their 
country, and invited to examine and direct 
them ; and no doubt their feudal temporal- 
ities, as well as their sphitual influence, added 
weight and authority to their counsel. But, 
besides these, which some might overbear 
and others might affect to despise, their po- 
litical consideration was derived from an- 
other — a more honorable and a more certain 
instrument of powder — their intellectual su- 
periority. The learning of the age continued 
still to be confined to their order ; f few 
among the laity could even read, and there- 
fore few were qualified for any public duty, 
and thus the various ofiices requu'ing any 
degi-ee of literature fell necessarily into the 
hands of the clergy. Those who consider 
their advance to such ofiices as usurpations 
do not sufficiently weigh the circumstances 
of the times ; they do not reflect that there 
are moral as well as physical necessities, and 
that a state of society is not even possible, in 

case of any injustice a miracle was constantly ex- 
pected to remedy it. 

* A council held at Attigni, probably in 822, un- 
der Lewis the Meek, especially prohibited the Trial 
by the Cross ; according to Avhich, the two parties 
stood up before a cross, and whichever of them fell 
first lost his cause. Again, at the Council of Worms 
(in 829,) these judgments Avere strongly discouraged. 
Agobard, Archbishop of Lyons, an influential pre- 
late, had written expressly against them. The Coun- 
cil of Valence, held in 855, published the following 
canon. ' Duels shall not be suffered, though author- 
ized by custom. He who shall have slain his adver- 
sary shall be subject to the penance of homicide ; he 
who shall have been slain, shall be deprived of the 
prayers and sepulture of the church. The Emperor 
shall be prayed to abolish that abuse by public ordi- 
nance.' See Fleuiy, 1. xlvi., s. 48. 1. xlvii, s. 30. I. 
xlix., s. 23. 

f In many of the councils held during the ninth 
century, canons were enacted enjoining the Bishop to 
suspend a Priest for ignorance, and to promote ana 
regulate the schools which were established for the 
education of the clergy. 



:10 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



which the only persons at all qualified to fill 
the ofHces of the state should be the only 
persons excluded fi*om them. It is far from 
our intention to advocate any general depar- 
ture from the spiritual character in the sacred 
orders; and the divines of the ninth and 
tenth centuries vs^ould undoubtedly have been 
great gaieera both in virtue and in happiness, 
had they preserved that character pure and 
uncontaminated. But it was made impos- 
sible by the political system under which 
they lived, that it could be so ; and without 
seeking any excuse for the individual mis- 
conduct of thousands among them, we can- 
not avoid perceiving, that their interference 
in temporal affairs, to a certain extent, was 
absolutely unavoidable — and where and by 
whom, in those unsettled ages, were the lim- 
its of that interference to be drawn and pre- 
served ? 

If the clergy were in many respects gainers 
by the imperfection of civil government, it 
would he partial to conceal, that they were 
sufferers by it also. In times of confusion 
(and those days were seldom tranquil) the 
property of the Church was the constant ob- 
ject of cupidity and invasion.* On such oc- 
casions no inconsiderable portion of its rev- 
enues passed into the hands of lay impropri- 
ators, who employed curates at the cheapest 
rate, f And both Bishops and Monasteries 
were obliged to invest powerful lay protec- 

* The councils of the ninth century abound with 
complaints of tlie spoliation of Church property by 
laymen, who are frequently specified; and new Ca- 
pitularies were continually enacted to prevent or allay 
differences between the Clergy and the laity. The 
confusion generally prevalent is proved by the capit- 
ularies published at Quercy (in 857,) by which every 
diocesan is exhorted to preach against pillage and 
violence, as well as by the Letters of Hincmar pub- 
lished in 859, and that of the Bisliops of France to 
King Lewis, attributed to the same prelate. The 
frecjuency too of personal assaults on the Clergy is 
evinced by various regulations for their protection, 
and even more so, perhaps, by the slight punishment 
attached to such offences. Some promulgated in 
France (probably in 822) ordain as follows — 'the 
murderer of a Deacon or Priest is condemned to a 
penance of twelve years and a fine of 900 sous ; the 
murderer of a Bishop is to abstain from flesh and 
wine for the whole of his life, to quit the profession of 
arms, and abstain from marriage.' Yet the confir- 
mation of this canon was thought highly important 
by the episcopal order. Fleury 1. xlvi, s. 48; l.xlix, 
^s.40. 

f An abuse (as Mr. Hallam remarks) which has 
never ceased in the Church. Middle Ages, chap. vii. 
We take this opportunity of acknowledging various 
obligations to tlv^t historian. 



tors, under the name of Advocates, mth corr- 
siderable fiefs, as the price of their protection 
against depredators. But those Advocates 
became themselves too often the spoilers, and 
oppressed the helpless ecclesiastics for whose 
defence they had been engaged. 

We have thouglit it right, though at the 
risk of some repetition, to premise this gen- 
eral view of the relative situation of the cler- 
gy and laity during the period which we are 
describing ; otherwise it would be difficult to 
form any just and impartial views, or even 
any very definite notions, of the real charac- 
ter of the events which it contains. 

Penance of Lewis the Meek. In the civil 
war which took place in the year 833 be- 
tween Lewis the Meek * and his sons, Pope 
Gregoiy IV. presented himself in France at 
the camp of the rebels. The motive which 
he pretended was to reconcile the combatants 
and terminate a dissension f so scandalous 
to Christendom ', and such really may have 
been his design. At least it is certain that 
his interference was a single and inconse- 
quent act, unaccompanied by any insolence 
of pretension ; the Pope offered his media- 
tion, and, though we may suspect his impar- 
tiality, he advanced no claim of apostolical 
authority to dispose of the crown. We shall, 
therefore, pass on from this event to one 
which immediately followed it, and which 
French historians consider as the first in- 
stance of ecclesiastical aggression on the 
rights of their sovereign. Lewis was betray- 
ed by his soldiers into the hands of his sous, 
who immediately deposed him and divided 
the empire amongst themselves : but fearing 
that he might hereafter be restored by popu- 
lar favor, they determined to inflict upon him 
a still deeper and even hopeless humiliation. 
An assembly held at Compiegne condemned 
hhn to perform public penance, and he sub- 
mitted with some reluctance to the sentence. 
Having received a paper containing the list 

* Charlemagne died in 814; Lewis the Meek in 
840, and his successor, Charles the Bald, in 877. 
The empire passed from Charlemagne's descendants 
to the German Conrad just a century after his death ; 
and in 987 his dynasty was extinguished in France 
by the accession of Hugh Capet. 

fBaro4i., ann. 833, s. v. Gregory held the See 
from 828 to 844. It was made a complaint against 
the Emperor by Agobard, the Archbishop of Lyons 
(ap. Baron., ann. 833, s. vi.) that he did not address 
the Pope with the due expressions of respect— since 
he saluted him, in a letter, Brother and Papa iudis- 
criminately: the paternal appellatioa should alone, i\ 
seems, have been adopted. 



ECCLESIASTICAL ENCROACHMENTS. 



211 



of his pretended crimes, and confessed his 
guilt, he prostrated himself on a rough mat 
at the foot of the altar, cast aside his baldric, 
his sword, and his secular vestments, and as- 
sumed the garb of a penitent. And, after the 
Bishops had placed their hands on him, and 
the customary psalms and prayers had been 
performed, he was conducted in sackcloth to 
the cell assigned for his perpetual residence. 
It was intended by those who condemned 
him to this ignominy, thereby to disqualify 
their former sovereign for every office both 
civil and military. But neither does it ap- 
pear that such was the necessary conse- 
quence of canonical penance, unless when 
imposed for life ; * nor could they have for- 
gotten that eleven years previously the same 
monarch had already performed a public 
penance, for certain political offences then 
charged on him. It proved then, as might 
have been expected, that the ceremony de- 
scribed had no more important effect than the 
temporary humiliation of the royal person. 
Probably his popularity was increased by the 
show of persecution ; and, as soon as politi- 
cal circumstances changed in his favor, the 
Bishops immediately reconciled the penitent 
to the Church, and replaced him on the 
throne, f 

This stretch of Episcopal power is blamed 
hy many Roman Catholic historians, who, 
at the same time, are careful to show that it 
was simply an act of penance, not of deposi- 
tion, justified by the memorable submission 
of Theodosius to ecclesiastical discipline. 
Nevertheless, we cannot injustice otherwise 
consider it, than as a daring outrage commit- 
ted on the highest temporal authority, with 
the intention of perpetuating the deposition 
of Lewis by the pretext of penance. Yet it 
liad been surpassed in an earlier age and in 
a different country, by a measure of episcopal 
usurpation which is less generally recorded. 
At the twelfth Council of Toledo, in 682, the 
bishops undertook to decide on the succes- 
sion to the crown. Vamba, king of the Vis- 
igoths, having done penance and assumed the 
monastic habit, formally abdicated in favor 
of Epvigius ; on which matter the prelates 
pronounced as follows — ' We have read this 



* The prohibition to carry arms or discharge civil 
offices did not extend beyond the duration of the pen- 
ance. See Fleury, 1. xlvii. s. 40. Baron, ann. 882. 
s. i.; ann. 833. s. xix. 

fWe read in Baronius (ann. 834, s. i.,)that, dur- 
ing the time of his deposition, violent and unseason- 
able tempests prevailed, which instantly dispersed at 
his restoration. 



act and think right to give it our confirmation. 
Wherefore we declare that the people is ab- 
solved from all obligation and oath by which it 
was engaged to Vamba, and that it should re- 
cognise for its only master Ervigius, whom 
God has chosen, whom his predecessor has 
appointed, and, what is still more, whom the 
whole people desires.' * Still we may observe 
that, even in this instance, the prelates did 
not professedly proceed to the whole length 
of deposition, though such was unquestion- 
ably the real nature of the measure. We 
may also remind the reader, that the aggres- 
sions which have been thus far mentioned 
were entirely the work of the episcopal or- 
der, not in any way directed or influenced by 
the See of Rome. It is very true that they 
may have prepared the way for the more 
extensive usurpations of Papacy, and the au- 
thority which had been insulted by provincial 
bishops could scarcely hope to be long held 
sacred by the Chief of the whole body: still 
the Pope had not yet found himself sufficient- 
ly powerful to engage in the enterprise. 

Charles the Bald. The long reign of Charles 
the Bald furnishes more numerous instances 
of the exercise of ecclesiastical influence in 
affairs of state, some of which deserve our 
notice. That prince and Lewis of Bavaria 
being desirous to dispossess their brother 
Lothaire of a portion of his dominions, did 
not presume, notwithstanding great military 
advantages which they had obtained over 
him, to proceed in then- design without the 
sanction of the Clergy. To that end they 
summoned a council of Bishops and Priests f 
at Aix-la-Chapelle, in the year 842, and sub- 
mitted the question to their consideration. 
The assembly condemned the crimes and 
incapacity of Lothaire, and declared that 
God had justly withdrawn his protection 
from him ; but it would not permit his bro- 
thers to occupy his kingdom until they had 
made a public vow to govern it, not after the 
example of Lothaire, but according to the 
will of God. The Bishops then pronounced 
their final decision in these words — ' Receive 
the kingdom by the authority of God, and 
govern it according to his will ; we counsel, 
we exhort, we command you to do so.' The 
effect of this sentence was not, indeed, the 
entire spoliation of Lothaire, who retained his 
throne to the end of his life ; but certain pro- 
vinces, already in the occupation of the con- 

* It is the first canon of the Council, and is cited 
by Fleury, 1. xl. s. 29. 

t Fleury, H. E. 1. xlviii. s. 11. Baron., ann. 842. 
s. 1,2,8. 



212 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



querors, were immediately, and, as it would 
seem, permanently transferred to their scep- 
tre in consequence of the episcopal award. 

In the year 859 Charles presented to the 
Council of Savonieres a formal complaint 
against Venilo, Archbishop of Sens, which 
breathes the lowest spirit of humiliation. 'By 
his own election' (the King says,) ' and that 
of the other Bishops, and by the will and 
consent and acclamation of the rest of my 
subjects, Venilo, with the other Bishops and 
Archbishops, consecrated me King, accord- 
ing to the tradition of the Church, and anoint- 
ed me to the kingdom with the holy chrism, 
and raised me to the throne with the diadem 
and sceptre. After which consecration and 
regal elevation I ought to have been degraded 
by no one without the hearing and judgment 
of the Bishops, by whose ministry I was 
consecrated to royalty, who are called the 
thrones of God. In them God sits ; by them 
he makes known his judgments ; and to tlieir 
paternal corrections and penal authority I 
was prepared to subject myself, and am now 
subject' * These words (as Fleury admits) 
are remarkable in the mouth of a king, and es- 
pecially of a king of France ; but the example 
of his predecessor, enforced by his own mis- 
fortunes f and feebleness, may have reduced 
Charles to the necessity of such degradation. 
But, on the other hand, can we feel astonish- 
ment that the Hierarchy took advantage of 
what appeared the voluntary and gratuitous 
prostration of royalty ? When we blame the 
ambition of those who received ttie offering, 
should we forget the weakness and pusillan- 
imity of those who presented it ? 

A year or two afterwards, Lothaire, King 
of Lorraine, grandson of Lewis the Meek, 
divorced his wife in order to espouse his con- 
cubine. It appears that no less than three 
Councils of Bishops sanctioned the act of 
their monarch ; nevertheless the repudiated 
queen made her appeal to Rome. Nicholas 
I. was then Pope, and he interfered in her 
favour with his usual vehemence and per- 

*The original is cited by Baronius, ann. 859. s. 
xxvi. The Bishops liad a very simple process of 
reasoning, by which they proved their supremacy. 
A Bishop can consecrate a King, but a King cannot 
consecrate a Bishop: therefore a Bishop is superior 
to a King. We might well wonder that any serious 
attention should ever have been paid to such undis- 
guised nonsense, if we did not recollect what undue 
weight is always attached to ceremony in ignorant 
ages. 

t It should also be recollected that this was the 
crisis of the general dissolution of government and 
society into the feudal fornix 



severance : the threat of excommunication 
was long suspended over the king, who em- 
ployed submissive language and persisted in 
disobedience. There is some * reason to be- 
lieve that the Pope, towards the end of his 
life, executed his menace ; and if so, it may 
seem a strange return for the generosity of 
Charlemagne to the Holy See, that the first 
discharge of its deadliest bolt should have 
been directed, within fifty years irom his 
death, against one of his own descendants. 
But he had in some degree secured this re- 
tribution by his own imprudence : for it was 
his custom to engage the Bishops to pervert 
the ecclesiastical censures to the service of the 
civil government. The confusion between 
the two powers was thus augmented ; and 
the misapplication of the great spiritual wea- 
pon to the purposes of the state naturally led 
to the second abuse, which turned it, for 
Church purposes, against the state. 

On the death of Lothaire, Adrian II. en^r 
deavored to exclude Charles the Bald from 
the succession to his states, and to confer 
them on the Emperor Lewis. To eflTect this 
object he addressed one letter to the nobles 
of the kingdom of Lothaire, in which he ex- 
horted them to adhere to the Emperor on 
pain of anathema and excommunication ; and 
a second to the subjects of Charles, in which 
he eulogized the Emperor, and repeated the 
same menaces. He continued to the follow- 
ing purpose ; — ' If any one shall oppose him- 
self to the just pretensions of the Emperor, 
let him know that the Holy See is in favor 
of that Prince, and that the arms which God 
has placed in our hands are prepared for his 
defence.' We may consider this as the first 
attempt of papal ambition to regulate the 
successions of princes. It was unsuccessful ; 
Charles, with the aid of Hincmar, Archbishop 
of Rheims, and other Prelates, had already 
placed himself in possession of the throne 
when the legates of Adrian arrived ; and the 
subsequent efforts of the Pontiff to obhge him 
to abdication were repelled with courage and 
constancy both by the king and his metro- 
politan, f 



* Fleury (1. li. s. 7.) collects the fact from the 
Pope's letter to Charles, in favor of Heltrude, widow 
of Count Berenger, and sister of Lothaire. But many 
historians are silent respecting it, and in the first in- 
tercourse between Lothaire and Adrian 11. the suc- 
cessor of Nicholas, we can discover no proof that the 
King was then lying under the sentence. 

t The Pope commanded Hincmar to abstain from 
the communion of Charles, if he continued refractory. 
The Archbishop (professedly in the name of his fel- 



ECCLESIASTICAL ENCROACHMENTS. 



213 



Lewis III. and Hincmar o/Rheims. These 
events took place about the year 870 ; and 
ten years afterwards the same Hincmar was 
equally firm in defending the rights of the 
Church when they were in opposition to the 
claims of the king, Lewis IIL That Prince 
was desirous to intrude into the See of Beau- 
vais an unworthy minister, and pressed his 
appointment by supplication and menace. 
Hincmar defended the original liberty of elec- 
tions which had been restored by Lewis the 
Meek, and the independence of the Church. 
* That you are the master of the elections, and 
of the ecclesiastical property, are assertions 
proceeding from hell and from the mouth of 
the serpent. Remember the promise which 
you made at your consecration, which you 
subscribed with your hand, and presented to 
God on the altar in the presence of the Bish- 
ops. Reconsider it with the aid of your 
Council, and pretend not to introduce into the 
Church that which the mighty Emperors, 
your predecessors, pretended not in their 
time. I trust that I shall always preserve 
towards you the fidelity and devotion which 
are due ; I labored much for your election ; 
do not then return me evil for good by per- 
suading me to abandon in my old age the ho- 
ly regulations which I have followed, through 

low-subjects) replied, among other matters, — ' Let tlie 
Pope consider that he is not at the same time king 
and bishop; that his predecessors have regulated the 
Church, which is their concern — not the State, which 
is the heritage of kings; and consequently that he 
should neither command us to obey a king too distant 
to protect us against the sudden attacks of the Pagans, 

nor pretend to subjugate us — us who are Franks 

If a Bishop excommunicates a Christian, contrary to 
rule, he abuses his power; but he can deprive no one 
of eternal life who is not deprived of it by his sins. 
It is improper in a Bishop to say that any man not 
incorrigible should be separated from the Christian 
same and consigned to condemnation ; and that too, 
not on account of his crimes, but for the sake of with- 
holding or conferring a temporal sovereignty. If then 
the Pope is really desirous to establish concord, let 
him not attempt it by fomenting dissensions ; for he 
will never persuade us that we cannot arrive at the 
kingdom of Heaven except by receiving the king 
-whom he may choose to give us on earth.' Again, in 
an answer of Charles to an epistle of Adrian, that 
Prince argues respecting the distinction between the 
temporal and the spiritual power, and also alleges the 
peculiar supremacy of the kings of France. To prove 
-these and similar points, he refers not oaly to the 
Archives of the Roman Church, but to the writings of 
St. Gelasius, St. Leo, St. Gregory, and even St. Au- 
gustin himself. (See Hist. Litteraire de la France. 
Fleury, 1. lii., s. 8, 22.) Hincniar wrote many of 
that king's letters, and may probably have been the 
author of this. 



the grace of God, during six and thirty years 

of episcopacy ' A subsequent letter 

by the same Prelate contained even stronger 
expressions to the following effect — 'It is 
not you who have chosen me to govern the 
Church ; but it is I and my colleagues and 
the rest of the faithful who have chosen you 
to govern the kingdom, on the condition of 
observing the laws. We fear not to give 
account of our conduct before the Bishops, 
because we have not violated the Canons. 
But as to you, if you change not what you 
have ill done, God will redress it in his own 
good time. The Emperor Lewis lived not so 
long as his father Charles ; your grandfather 
Charles lived not so long as his father, nor 
your father * as his father ; and when you are 
at Compiegne, where they repose, cast down 
your eyes and look where lies your father 
and where your grandfather is buried^ and 
presume not to exalt yoiu'self in the presence 
of Him who died for you and for us all, and 

who was raised again, and dies no more 

You will pass away speedily ; but the Holy 
Church and its ministers under Jesus Christ 
their Chief will subsist eternally according to 
his promise.' This vain menace of temporal 
retribution (for as such it was obviously in- 
tended) was however singularly accomplish- 
ed ; Lewis, in the vigor of youth, died in the 
following year ; and the strange coincidence 
may have encouraged future Prelates to in- 
dulge in similar predictions which proved not 
equally fortunate. 

We have already mentioned that Charles 
the Bald, about fifteen years after his contest 
with Pope Nicholas, condescended to accept 
the vacant empire as the donation of John 
VHL The immediate result of this act was, 
that the government of Italy and the Imperial 
throne were, for some years afterwards, placed 
in a great measure at the disposal of the 
Pope, who shamelessly abused his influence.! 
But it had a more lasting and still more per- 
nicious consequence, in so far as it furnished 
to the more powerful Pontiffs of after ages 
one of their pretexts for interference in the 
succession to the Imperial throne. The cere- 
mony of coronation to which Charlemagne 
had consented to submit at Rome was their 
only foundation for the pretension that the 
empire had been transferred from the Greeks 
to the Latins by papal authority ; and on the 
same ground it was subsequently transferred 



* Lewis the Stammerer, 
t See Mosh. Cent. ix. p. ii 
Stor. Nap. lib. viii. Introduct. 



Giannone, 



214 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



by the same agency from the French to the 
Italians, from the Italians to Otho I. and the 
Germans. The mere act of ministry in a 
customary, and, as was then thought, a neces- 
sary solemnity, was exalted into a display of 
superiority and an exercise of power ; and 
many among the ignorant vulgar were really 
led to believe that the rights of sovereignty 
were conferred by the form of consecration. 
But the condescension of Charles the Bald, 
though conceding no very definite privilege, 
nor any which could be reasonably binding 
on his successors, yet furnished a pretence 
which was somewhat more substantial than a 
mere ceremony.* 

On a review of this short narrative, we 
perceive that the Prelates of the ninth century 
advanced, for the first time, claims of temporal 
authority ; that such claims were asserted by 
national assemblies of Bishops even more 
daringly than by the Popes ; and that they 
were so immoderate as to be inconsistent with 
the necessary rights of Princes, and the vigor 
and stability of civil government. We ob- 
serve, moreover, that the Hierarchy, though 
on some particular occasions their efforts were 
frustrated, had made, during the period of 
sixty-three years from the death of Charle- 
magne to that of Charles the Bald, very con- 
siderable strides in the advancement of their 
power and privileges. The immediate suc- 
cessor of Charles, Lewis the Stammerer, was 
consecrated to the throne of France by the 
Pope ; and a Council of Bishops assembled at 
Troyes about the same time (in 878,) publish- 
ed, as the first Canon, 'that the Powers of the 
world should treat the Bishops with every 
sort of respect, and that no one should pre- 
sume to sit down in their presence unless by 
their command ; ' as the last, ' that all those 
Canons be observed, under pain of deposition 
for clerks, and privation of all dignity for 
laymen. ' The Pope and the King were both 



* Some of the expressions of the Pope delivered on 
this occasion should be cited. ' Unde nos, tantis 
indiciJs divinitus incumbentibus, luce clarius agnitis, 
superni decreti consilium manifest^ cognovimus. Et 
quia pridem Apostolicse memoriae Decessori nostro 
Papse Nicolao idipsum jam inspiratione divina 
revelatum fuisse comperimus, elegimus merito et 
approbavimus una cum annisu et voto omnium Fra- 
trura et Coepiscoporum nostrorura et aliorum Sanctee 
Rom. Ecclesife Ministrorum, amplique senatus, toti- 
usque Rom. populi gentisque togatse, et secundum pris- 
cam consuetudinem, solemniter ad Imperii Romani 
Sceptra proveximus, et Augustali nomine decoravi- 
mus, ungeutes eum oleo extrinsecus, ut interioris 
quoque Spiritus Sancti unctionis monstraremus virtu- 
Jem, &c ' See Baron. Ann. S76, s. 6. 



present at this Council, and the latter appears 
to have sanctioned the very bold usurpatioa 
contained in the last clause. 

Soon after this period the Popes became s > 
much embarrassed by domestic inquietud»j 
and disorder, that they had little leisure to 
extend their conquests abroad ; and thus fof 
above a century the thunders of the Vaticac: 
murmured with extreme faintness, or alto- 
gether slept. But the principle of ecclesias- 
tical supremacy, and the disposition to submit 
to it were not extinguished in the tumults of 
the tenth age ; and the storm, when it again 
broke forth, seemed even to have gained 
strength from the sullen repose which had 
preceded it. The occasion was this — Robert, 
King of France, had married a relative, four 
degrees removed, ihdeed, but still too near 
akin for the severity of canonical morality. 
Gregory V. in a Council of Italian Bishops, 
held at Rome in the year 998, launched a 
peremptory order, that the king should put 
away his wife, and both parties perform seven 
years of penance. The king resisted ; but so 
united was the Church at that time, and so 
powerfiil, that he was presently excommuni- 
cated by his own Prelates, and shunned by 
his nobles and people. At length, after some 
ineffectual struggles, he submitted to anathe- 
mas so generally respected and enforced,* 
and complied with both the injunctions of the 
Pontiff. This is the third instance of an 
authoritative interference on the part of the 
Popes in the concerns of sovereigns which 
we have had occasion to mention, and we 
may here remind the reader that two of them 
were on the ground of uncanonical mar- 
riages. 

It is not our intention to enumerate the 
many trifling occasions on which the claims 
of the Church were brought into collision 
with the rights or dignity of monarchs: the 
instances which have been produced are the 
most important, and they are worthy of more 
particular reflection than can here be bes- 
towed on them. But at present it must suffice 
to have noticed, even thus briefly, the earliest 
movements by which the spirit of ecclesias- 



* Petrus Damiani, who wrote about sixty years 
afterwards, relates, that the ecclesiastical censure was 
so exactly observed, that no one would hold any com- 
munion with the kiug, excepting two servants who 
carried him the necessaries of life, and that even these 
burnt the vessels which he had used. But that au- 
thor throws suspicion on a narration not improbable, 
by adding that the fruit of the marriage was a mon- 
ster which had the head and neck of a goose. See 
Fleury, 1. lvii,,s. 57. 



USURPATIONS OF THE ROMAN SEE. 



215 



tical ambition pressed towards universal do- 
mination, and to have called some attention 
to those bold, but irregular, encroachments, 
vv^hich furnished to after ages precedents for 
voider and more systematic usurpation. 

III. Internal usurpations of the Roman See. 
We have already mentioned that, from a very 
early period, the Bishop of Rome possessed 
the fii-st rank among the rulers of the Church ; 
and if, after the Council of Chalcedon, it was 
disputed with him by the Patriarch of Con- 
stantinople, it was at no time contested (at 
least after the time of Constantine) in the 
western Churches. It is equally true, that 
his preeminence in rank was unattended by 
any sort of authority beyond the limits of his 
own diocese ; and the sort of superintendence 
which it might seem his duty to exercise over 
ecclesiastical affairs, was confined to the sim- 
ple right of remonstrance. More than this 
is not asserted by moderate Catholics, nor can 
an impartial Protestant concede less. 

We have also noticed some of the steps 
which were taken by early Popes, not onl)^ to 
extend the boundaries of their jurisdiction, 
but to establish an absolute authority within 
them. Their earliest success was the transfer 
to the Holy See of the Metropolitan privileges 
throughout the diocese. Among these the 
most important were the consecration of 
bishops, the convocation of synods, and the 
ultimate decision of appeals — privileges which 
might obviously be applied to restrain the 
power and independence of the bishops. 
During the fifth and sixth centuries some lit- 
tle progress was made towards that object. 
Valentinian III. made to Leo I. some conces- 
sions which were valuable, though that Pope 
had no means of enforcing them ; but the 
acquisitions of Gregory the Great were more 
substantial, and that most especially so was 
the establishment of the appellant jurisdiction 
of the see. A more general subjection of 
Metropolitan to Papal authority was intro- 
duced by the Council of Frankfort; and such 
was the relative situation of the parties on the 
accession of Charlemagne to the empire. 
But presently afterwards, as if impatient of 
the tedious progress of gi-adual usui*pation, 
the Spirit of Papacy called into existence, by 
an effort of amazing audacity, a new system 
of government, and a new code of principles, 
which led by a single step to the most abso- 
lute power. The false Decretals were im- 
posed on the credulity * of mankind. Still 

* Hincmar was not, indeed, blindly submissive to 



the moment w^ not yet arrived in which it 
was possible to enforce all the rights so boldly 
claimed on their authority; and though some 
ground was gained by Pope Nicholas I., their 
efforts were not brought into full operation 
till the pontificate of Gregory VII. 

In recording some instances of the temporal 
interference of the Church, we have remarked 
the success of episcopal, as distinct fi*om papal 
presumption, and observed the independence, 
as well as the force, with which the Councils 
of Bishops acted against the secular powers. 
The ninth has been peculiarly characterized 
as the Age of the Bishops; it becomes there- 
fore more important to examine the relation 
in which they then stood, even in the moment 
of their highest glory, to the power which was 
now spreading in every direction from Rome. 
It has been mentioned that when the sons of 
Lewis the Meek were in revolt against their 
father. Pope Gregory IV. presented himself 
(as has been mentioned) at the camp of the 
rebels, and under pretence of mediation, fa- 
vored (as was thought) their party. On this 
occasion, certain French prelates, who re- 
mained faithful to Lewis, addressedi^n epistle 
to the Pope, wherein they accused him of 
having violated the oath which he had taken 
to the Emperor ; they denied his power to 
excommunicate any person, or make any 
disposition in their dioceses, without their 
permission ; they boldly declared that if he 
came with the intention of excommunicating 
them, he should return himself excommuni- 
cated ; and even proceeded so far as to threat- 
en him with deposition. The Pope was 
alarmed ; but, on the assurance of his attend- 
ants that he had received power from God to 
superintend the affairs of all nations and the 
concord of all Churches, and that, with au- 
thority to judge every one, he was not himself 
subject to any judgment, he wrote in answer, 
that ecclesiastical is placed high above secular 
power, and that the obedience of the Bishops 
was due to him rather than to the Emperor; 
that he could not better discharge his oath 
than by restoring concord ; and that none 
could withdraw themselves from the Church 
of Rome without incurring the guilt of schism. 
The irritation of the parties is sufficiently 
discovered in their letters ; but their firmness 
was not put to trial ; for the rebels obtained 
by treachery a temporary success, and the 

the Decretals ; but it was their authority which he 
questioned ratlier than their authenticity — proving 
that his national or episcopal spirit of independence 
was greater than his critical sagacity. 



216 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Pope returned to Italy without either pro- 
TMJuncing or receiving excommunication. 

The occurrence which we shall next men- 
tion took place thirty years afterwards ; and 
it is the more remarkable, because the two 
greatest ecclesiastics of that age, Nicholas I. 
and Hincmar of Rheims, were placed in di- 
rect opposition to each other. The circum- 
stances were nearly the following. A Bishop 
of Soissons, named Rothadus, incurred the 
displeasure of Hincmar, and after being con- 
demned in two Councils held at Soissons in 
862, under the direction of the Metropolitan, 
was first excommunicated, and very soon af- 
terwards deposed and imprisoned. Rothadus, 
on the first sentence, appealed to the see of 
Rome, and found a very willing and proba- 
bly partial judge in Nicholas. The Pope in- 
stantly despatched to Hincmar a peremptory 
order, either to restore Rothadus within thirty 
days, or to appear at Rome in person or by 
legate for the determination of the difference, 
on pain of suspension from his ministry. In 
the year following, Hincmar sent Odo, Bishop 
of Beauvais, to Rome, with the commission 
to request the Pope's confirmation of the acts 
of the synod of Soissons. But Nicholas, on 
the co'itrary, rescinded its decisions, and de- 
mand^, with repeated menaces, the imme- 
diate liberation of Rothadus, in order to the 
person? I prosecution of his appeal at Rome. 
Through the interference of Charles the 
Bald, tie prisoner was released; and after 
some delays, the deputies of Hincmar also 
appeared before the pontifical tribunal. The 
decision was such as all probably anticipated : 
all the charges against Rothadus were ascrib- 
ed to the malice and perfidy of his enemy ; 
he was ordered to resume the episcopal vest- 
ments, and a legate was sent to escort him on 
his return to his country and his see. It does 
not appear, from the particulars * of this con- 
test, that Hincmar and the Bishops who sup- 
ported him went so far as to deny the right of 
a deposed Bishop to appeal to Rome against 
the sentence of his Metropolitan ; indeed, they 
rested their defence on much lower ground, 

* Besides the ecclesiastical historians, see the Life 
of Nicholas in the Breviarium Pontif. Romanor. R. 
P. Francisci Pagi, tome ii. That Pope, in his Epis- 
tle ' Ad iiniveisos Gallise Episcopos,' admits, how- 
ever, that the authority of the Decretals was not yet 
universally received in the GalJican Church. We 
read in the same author, that Adrian II. commanded 
the Gallican Bishops to raise Actardus of Nantes to 
the first Metropolitan see which might be vacant ; and 
that, in the year 871, he was raised to that of Tours, 
but with the addition — Regc, clero, ac populo postu- 
lantibus. 



and thus conceded that which was most im- 
portant. At any rate, the triumph of Nich- 
olas was complete ; and though the right in 
question was first advanced by him, and on 
no more solid authority than the (forged) 'De- 
cretals of the Ancient Pontiflfs,' he prevailed 
with scarcely any difficulty against the most 
learned canonist and the most independent 
ecclesiastic of those days. 

About five years after the restoration of 
Rothadus, Hincmar found himself once more 
in contest with the Holy See ; * and his zeal 
on this occasion may possibly have been an- 
imated by the recollection of his former hu- 
miliation. His vigorous opposition to Adrian 
II., respecting the succession to the crown 
of Lorraine, has been already noticed; and 
if he failed when he would have vindicated 
the independence of the Church of France 
from Roman superintendence, his success 
was even more remarkable when he defend- 
ed the rights of the throne from similar in- 
vasion. 

The visit of John VIII. to France, during 
the year 878, certainly confirmed, and prob- 
ably extended, papal authority in that coun- 
try. Before the Council had assembled at 
Troyes, he obtained the consent of the king 
to some regulations, one of which was, that 
no metropolitan should be permitted to or- 
dain, until he had received the paUium or 
vest from Rome. During the Session of the 
Council we observe the following declaration 
to have been made by Hincmar himself: — • In 
obedience to the Holy Canons, I condemn 
those whom the Holy See has condemned, 
and receive those whom it receives, and hold 
that which it holds in conformity with Scrip- 
ture and the Canons.' The Bishops who 
were present professed the strictest unanimity 
with the Pontiff; and the good understand- 
ing which was then, perhaps, established be- 
tween the Churches of Rome and France, 
and which assumed the inferiority, f if not 



* In 853, Hincmar had deposed a number of Clerks 
ordained by his predecessor, whose canonical right to 
the See was disputed. In 866, Pope Nicholas order- 
ed a revision of that aifair; Hincmar maintained the 
sentence vigorously; but Nicholas, having Charles on 
his side, obtained once more a complete triumph, and 
restored the Ecclesiastics to their rank in the Church. 
In both these disputes it would appear that the popu- 
lar voice was against Hincmar. 

t The following is the substance of an Address to 
the Pope, made by the Bishops at this Council — the 
original may be found in Baronius. Ann. 878, s. 17, 
&c. : ' We, the Bishops of Gaul and Belgium, yotir 
sons, servants, and disciples, deeply suffer through 
the wounds which have been inflicted upon our Holy 



USURPATIONS OF THE ROMAN SEE. 



217 



the dependence of the latter, appears to have 
subsisted long, with no material interruption. 
Character of Hincmar. Hincmar died a 
few years afterwards. He was descended 
from a noble family ; and the early part of 
his life he so divided between the Court and 
the Cloister, and displayed so much ability 
and enthusiasm in the discharge of the duties 
attached to either situation, as to combine the 
practical penetration of a Statesman with the 
rigor of a zealous Ecclesiastic. He was rais- 
ed to the See of Rheims in the year 845, at 
the age of thirty-nine, and filled it for nearly 
forty years with firmness and vigor. In the 
ninth century, when the mightiest events 
were brought about by ecclesiastical guid- 
ance, he stands among the leading charac- 
ters, if, indeed, we should not rather consider 
him as the most eminent. He was the great 
Churchman of the age: on all public occa- 
sions of weighty deliberation, at all public 
ceremonies of coronation or consecration, 
Hincmar is invariably to be found as the ac- 
tive and directing spirit. His great know- 
ledge of canonical law enabled him to rule 
the Councils of the Clergy ; his universal 
talents rendered him necessary to the state, 
and gave him more influence in political af- 
fairs than any other subject: while his cor- 
respondence * attests his close intercourse 
with all the leading characters of his age. In 
the management of his Diocese, he was no 
less careful to instruct and enlighten than 
strict to regulate ; and while he issued and 
enforced his Capitularies of Discipline with 
the air and authority of a civil despot, he 
waged incessant warfare with ignorance. It 
is indeed probable that he possessed less the- 
ological learning than his less celebrated con- 
temporary, Rabanus Maurus ; but he had 
much more of that active energy of character 

Mother, tlie mistress of all Churches, and unanimous- 
ly repeat the sentence which you have launched against 
your enemies, excommunicating those whom you have 
excommunicated, and anathematizing those whom you 

have anathematized And since we also have 

matter for lamentation in our own Churches, we hum- 
bly supplicate you to assist us with your authority, 
and promulgate an ordinance (Capitulum) to show in 
what manner we ought to act against the spoliators 
of the Church ; that, being fortified by the censure of 
the Apostolical 8ee, we may be more powerful and 
confident,' &c. 

* Frodoard mentions 423 letters of Hincmar, be- 
sides many others not specified. He was present at 
thirty-nine important Councils, at most of which he 
presided. His history and character are very well 
illustrated by Guizot in his 28th Lecon de la Civil, 
en France. 

28 



so seldom associated with contemplative hab- 
its. It is also true that he was crafty, imperi- 
ous, and intolerant ; that he paid his sedulous 
devotions to the Virgin,* and was infected 
with other superstitions of his age. His 
occasional resistance to the see of Rome has 
acquired for him much of his celebrity ; but 
if Divine Providence had so disposed, that 
Hincmar had been Bishop of Rome for as 
long a space as he was Primate of France, 
he would unquestionably have exalted papal 
supremacy with more courage, consistency, 
and success, than he opposed it. 

Popish usurpations. We have observed that 
one of the most successful means of papal 
usurpation within the Church was the en- 
couragement of appeals to Rome. It is in- 
deed scarcely possible to measure the advan- 
tages which the see derived from that prac- 
tice ; and perhaps we do not value it too 
highly when we ascribe to it chiefly a vague 
notion of the Pope's omnipotence, which seems 
to have made some impression among the 
laity during the ninth century. Before we 
quit this subject, we should mention a remon- 
strance from the pen of Hincmar, which was 
addressed to the Pope under the name of 
Charles the Bald, and towards the end of his 
life. In this letter the Emperor is made to 
complain, that it is no longer deemed suffi- 
cient that Bishops, condemned by their Metro- 
politans, should cross the Alps for redress, but 
that every Priest, who has been canonically 
sentenced by his Bishop, now hurries to Rome 
for a repeal of the sentence. The origin of 
appeals to Rome is traced to the Council of 
Sardica ; but by that authority they were 
properly liable to two restrictions — they were 
permitted to Bishops only, and were necessa- 
rily determined on the spot. The inferior 
orders were amenable to their respective 
Bishops, who judged in conjunction with 
their Clergy ; and the only lawful appeal from 
the decision was to a Provincial Council. 
The second restriction had been confirmed 
by the Canons of the African Church, which 
in former days had defended its independence 
against the aggressions of Rome, and which 
now furnished weapons to the Prelates of 
Gaul, invaded after so long an interval by the 
persevering ambition of the same adversary. 

Another method of papal encroachment 
was the appointment of a Vicar in distant 
provinces, to whom the Pope delegated his 
assumed authority, and by whose acknow- 

* This appears from his epitaph, written by himself, 
in some very indifferent hexameter and pentameter 



218 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



ledgment the existence of that authority was 
in fact admitted. 

In the year 876, John VIII. designated the 
Archbishop of Sens as Primate of the Gauls 
and Germany, and Vicar of the Pope for the 
Convocation of Councils and other ecclesias- 
tical affairs ; and especially to promulgate the 
pontifical edicts, and superintend their execu- 
tion. The Bishops of France hesitated to 
receive the yoke so manifestly prepared for 
them ; and on this occasion we again observe 
Hincmar of Rheims defending and directing 
their opposition. He protested before the 
assembled Council, that this attempt was 
contrary to the Holy Canons ; he appealed to 
the regulations of Nice, which subjected every 
province to its own Metropohtan, and con- 
firmed the original privileges of the Church- 
es ; he fortified the decisions of Nice by the 
authority of St. Leo and other Popes ; he 
denied that the particular jurisdiction which 
the Pontiff confessedly exercised over certain 
distant provinces (as Macedonia and parts of 
Illyria) absorbed the rights of the Metropoli- 
tans ; and, while he admitted that the Popes 
had more than once established their Vicars 
in Gaul itself, he contended that the office 
was temporary, instituted for occasional and 
specific purposes, such as the prevention of 
simony, the conversion of unbelievers, the 
restoration of discipline, and that it ceased 
with rbe particular abuses which had made it 
necessary.* The weight of antiquity, which 
furnishes a conclusive argument in ignorant 
ages, was, without question, on the side of 
Hincmar. On the other hand, the Pope had 
engaged the Emperor in tlie defence of his 
claims; and, as it was one part of his policy 
to coalesce with the national hierarchy when- 
ever the rights of princes could be assailed 
with advantage, so was it another to draw 
the princes into his own designs against the 
power and independence of their Clergy. 

And here it is proper to notice another 
privilege, which, though its origin may be 
traced to Gregory the Great, was little exer- 
cised by the Popes until the ninth, or the 
beginning of the tenth age. Hitherto the 
monasteries, with very few exceptions, were 
subject to the Bishop of the diocese in which 
they stood, and who in many cases had been 
their founders. Exemptions from episcopal 
jurisdiction were now granted with some 
frequency, and the establishments thus privi- 



*Fleury, H. E. lib. lii., s. 33. Frodoardus (in a 
passage cited by Baronius, Ann. 876. s. 24) admits 
the powerful resistance of Hincmar on this occasion. 



ledged acknowledged a direct dependence on 
the Pope. He had many motives for this 
policy, but that which most concerns our 
present subject is the following. To secure 
his triumph over the liberties of the Church, 
it was necessary to divide it ; and his scheme 
of reducing the higher ranks of the Clergy 
was mainly promoted by a practice which 
curtailed their authority in a very important 
branch, which transferred that authority to 
himself, and at the same time created lasting 
jealousy and dissension between the regular 
and secular orders. 

Two other objects may be mentioned to 
which the ambition of Rome was steadily and 
eflfectually directed — to establish the princi- 
ple that Bishops derived their power entirely 
from the Pope, and to prevent the convoca- 
tion of Councils without his express command. 
Towards the accomplishment of the second, 
very great though very gradual progress was 
made during the ninth age by a series of 
usurpations, of which the earliest served as 
precedents whereon to found the practice. 
The greater obscurity and confusion of the 
tenth century were more favorable to the suc- 
cess of the first ; * and if it be true that, even 
after that time, there were to be found some 
bolder Prelates, both in France and Germany, 
who disputed these and others among the 
pontifical claims, it cannot be questioned that 
they had then acquired so much prevalence, 
and had struck so deeply into the prejudices 
and habits of men, that a powerful hand alone 
was wanted to call them into light and action, 
and to give them the most fatal efficacy. 

The preceding pages have presented to us 
a variety of incidents hitherto nearly novel in 
the history of the Church, but with which 
experience will presently render us familiar. 
We have been astonished by the arrogant 
claims of the Episcopal Order and the extent 
of political power which it actually possessed, 
and shocked by the ill purpose to which it 
sometimes applied that power. But our most 
thoughtful attention has still been fixed upon 
the proceedings of the Pope. We have ob- 
served him, in the first place, contending with 
the Emperor for the independence of his own 
election with a great degree of success ; next 
we have beheld him engaged in occasional 
contests with the most powerful Sovereigns 
of the age, not only in those domestic concerns 
which might seem to give some plea for 
ecclesiastical interference, but about affairs 
strictly secular, and the very successions to 



* See Mosheim, Cent, x., p. 2, c. 2. 



ITS OPINIONS. 



219 



their thrones; and, lastly, we have noticed 
the movements of that more confined, but 
scarcely more legitimate ambition, which 
pretended to depress the superior ranks of 
the Clergy, to despoil them of their privi- 
leges, and to remove them to so humble a 
distance from the Roman See, that the Pope 
might seem to concentrate (if it were possi- 
ble) in his own person the entire authority of 
the ecclesiastical order. The particular facts 
by which these designs were manifested be- 
long, for the most part, to the ninth century ; 
but the grand pontifical principles, if they 
suffered a partial suspension, yet lost none of 
their force and vitality during that which fol- 
lowed. And upon the whole it is a true and 
unavoidable observation, that the period dur- 
ing which the mighty scheme first grew and 
developed itself, embraced that portion of pa- 
pal history which, above all others, is most 
scandalously eminent for the disorders * of 
the See, and for the weakness and undis- 
guised profligacy of those who occupied it. f 



CHAPTER XV. 

On the Opinions, lAterature, Discipline, and 
External Fortunes of the Church. 

I. On the Eucharist — Original Opinions of the Church — 
Doctrine of Paschasius Radbert combated by Ratram 
and John Scotus — Conclusion of the Controversy — Pre- 
destination — Opinions and persecution of Gotteschal- 
cus — Millennarianism in the Tenth Century — its 
strange and general Effect. II. Literature — Rabanus 
Rlaurus, John Scotus, Alfred — its Progress among the 
Saracens — Spain — South of Italy — France — Rome — 
Pope Sylvester II. III. Discipline of the Church- 
Conduct of Charlemagne and his Successors — St. Ben- 
edict of Aniane. Institution of Canons regular — Epis- 
copal election — Translations by Bishops prohibited. 
Pope Stephen VI. — Claudius Bishop of Turin — Peniten- 
tial System. IV. Conversion of the North of Europe 
— of Denmark, Sweden, Russia — of Poland and Hun- 
garj' — how accomplished and to what Extent — The 
Normans — The Turks. 

The particulars contained in the preceding 
Chapter present an imperfect picture of the 



* This is more particularly true of the tenth cen- 
tury, but even the ninth was not exempt from the 
same charge. To this age belongs the popular story 
of the female Pope; the pontificate of Joan is record- 
ed to have commenced on the death of Leo IV., in 
855, and to have lasted for about two years. Histori- 
ans agree that very great confusion prevailed at Rome 
respecting the election of Leo's successor, and that 
Benedict III. did not prevail without a severe and 
tumultuous struggle with a rival named Anastasius. 
The rule of Pope Joan is now indeed generally dis- 
credited; but the early invention of the tale, and the 
belief so long attached to it, attest a condition of 
tilings which made it at least possible. 

tThe Lives of the Popes (Liber Pontificalis) were 



condition of Religion during the ninth and 
tenth centuries. They are sufficient, perhaps, 
to exhibit the outlines of the visible Church, 
as it was gradually changing its shape and 
constitution, and passing through a region of 
disorder and darkness, from a state of con- 
tested rights and restricted authority to a sit- 
uation of acknowledged might and unbound- 
ed pretension. They may also have discov- 
ered to us, in some manner, the process of the 
change, and certain of the less obvious means 
and causes through which it was accomplish- 
ed : still the inquiry has been confined to the 
external Church ; it has gone to examine a 
human and perishable institution — no far- 
ther ; it has illustrated the outworks which 
man had thrown up for the protection (as he 
imagined) of God's fortress — nothing more. 
It remains, then, to complete the task, and to 
notice some circumstances in the history of 
this period unconnected with the ambitious 
struggles of Popes or Bishops. 

It is observable that, during the seventh 
and eighth ages. Religion lost much of its 
vigor and efficacy in France and Italy, while 
it took root and spread in Britain ; during 
the ninth, it arose, through the institutions 
of Charlemagne, with renovated power in 
France; in tlie course of the tenth, its pro- 
gress in Germany made some amends for 
its general degradation. These fluctuations 
corresponded, upon the whole, with the lite- 
rary revolutions of those countries. Learning 
was, in those days, the only faithful ally and 
supi)ort of religion, and the causes which 
withered the one never failed to blight the 
other. Indeed, as learning was then almost 
wholly confined to the Clergy, it naturally 
partook of a theological character ; and as the 
season of scholastic sophistry had not yet set 
in, the theology did not so commonly ob- 
scure, it even commonly illustrated, the re- 
ligion. 

Religious zeal, when informed by imper- 
fect education, and unrestrained by a mod- 
erate and charitable temper, is rarely unat- 
tended by religious dissension ; and thus it 
happened, that, while the intellectual torpor 
of the tenth century was little or nothing 
agitated by such disputes, the ninth, which 
was partially enlightened, witnessed three 

written by Anastasius, a librarian, who died before 
882; they reach as far as the death of Nicholas I. in 
867. The lives of some other Popes, as far as 889, 

j were added by another librarian named Guillaume. 

I From 889 to 1050 (where the Collection of Cardinal 
d'Aragon begins) there is a suspension of pontifical 

I biography. 



220 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



important controversies. The first was that 
which Photius carried on with the Roman 
See, regarding Image worship and other 
differences, the work of preceding genera- 
tions ; and it has been already treated. The 
other two respected the manner of Christ's 
presence at the Eucharist, and the doctrine 
of Salvation by Grace, and they shall now be 
noticed : it will afterwards be necessary to 
say a few words on the Discipline of the 
Church ; and we shall then observe the pro- 
gress of Christianity among distant and bar- 
barous nations, as well as the severe reverse 
w^hich afflicted it. 

I. Ecclesiastical Controversies. Mosheim * 
asserts without hesitation, that it had been 
hitherto the unanimous opinion of the 
Church, that the body and blood of Christ 
were really administered to those who re- 
ceived the Sacrament, and that they were 
consequently 'present at the administration, 
but that the sentiments of Christians concern- 
ing the nature and manner of this presence 
were various and contradictory. No Council 
Lad yet determined with precision the man- 
ner in which that presence was to be under- 
stood ; both reason and folly were hitherto 
left free in this matter : nor had any imperi- 
ous mode of faith suspended the exercise of 
the one, or controlled the extravagance of the 
other. The historian's first position is laid 
down, perhaps, somewhat too peremptorily ; 
for though many passages may be adduced 
from very ancient fathers in affirmation of the 
bodily presence, the obscurity or different 
tendency of others would rather persuade us, 
•that even that doctrine was also left a good 
-deal to individual judgment. The second is 
.strictly true ; and the question which had 
escaped the vain and intrusive curiosity of 
oriental theologians, was at length engendered 
in a Convent in Gaul. In the year 831, Pas- 
chasius Radbert, a Benedictine Monk, after- 
wards Abbot of Corbie, published a treatise 
^ concerning the Sacrament of the Body and 
Blood of Christ,' which he presented, fifteen 
years afterwards, carefully revised and aug- 
mented, to Charles the Bald. The doctrine 
advanced by Paschasius may be expressed in 
the two following propositions : — First, that 
after the consecration of the bread and wine, 
nothing remains of those symbols except the 
outward figure, under which the body and 
blood of Christ were really and locally pres- 
ent. Secondly, that the body of Christ, thus 
present, is the same body which was born of 

* Cent. ix. p. 2, c. 3. 



the Virgin, which suffered upon the cross, 
and was raised from the dead.* Charles ap- 
pears decidedly to have disapproved of this 
doctrine. And it might perhaps have been 
expected that, after the example of so many 
princes, he would have summoned a Council, 
stigmatized it as heresy, and persecuted its 
author. He did not do so ; but, on the con- 
trary, adopted a method of opposition worthy 
of a wiser Prince and a more enlightened 
age. He commissioned two of the ablest 
writers of the day, Ratramn f and Johannes 
Scotus, \ to investigate by arguments the sus- 



* Pachasius derived three consequences from his 
doctrine. 1. That Jesus Christ was immolated anew 
every day, in reality but in mystery. 2. That the 
Eucharist is both truth and figure together. 3. That 
it is not liable to the consequences of digestion. The 
first of these positions assumes a new and express 
creation on every occasion of the celebration of the 
Sacrament. The disputes arising from the third af- 
terwards gave birth to the heresy named Stercoranisra. 
— Fleury, 1. xlvii., s. 35. Semler (sec. ix. cap. iii.) 
is willing to deduce Paschasius' doctrine from the 
Monophysite Controversy, and the opinions respect- 
ing ' one incarnate nature of Christ,' which had still 
some prevalence in the East. 

t A monk of Corbie. His book was long received 
under the name of Bertram ; and some have even 
supposed it to be the work of John Scotus on the 
same subject, but clearly without reason. Dupin, 
Hist. Eccl., Cent. ix. c. vii. Fleury, 1. xlix., s. 52, 
53. Semler, loc. cit. Ratramn proposes the sub- 
ject in the following manner: — " Your Majesty in- 
quires whether the body and blood of Jesus Christ, 
which is received in the Church by the mouth of the 
faithful, is made in mystery — that is, if it contains 
any thing secret which only appears to the eyes of 
faith — or if, without any veil of mystery, the eyes of 
the body perceive without, that which the view of the 
spirit perceives within; so that all which is made is 
manifestly apparent. You inquire besides, whether 
it is the same body which was born of the Virgin 
Mary, which suffered, died, and was buried; and 
which, after its resurrection, ascended to Heaven, 
and sat on the right hand of the Father." Respect- 
ing the second question., the opimon of Ratramn was 
in direct opposition to that of Paschasius; but, in 
the treatment of the first, it would be diificult certain- 
ly to pronounce on what they differed, or indeed on 
what they agreed. There is moreover extant an 
anonymous composition, which combats the second 
proposition of Paschasius— first in ilself, and then in 
its consequence — that Jesus Christ suffers anew Oa 
every occasion that mass is celebrated. The writer 
acknowledges the real presence as a necessarj' tenet. 
' Every Christian' (thus he commences) ' ought to 
believe and confess that the body and blood of the 
Lord is true flesh and true blood; whoever denies 
this proves himself to be without faith.' It appears 
indeed true that Paschasius' second proposition gave 
much more general offence than the first. 

X John Scotus Erigena (i. e. John the Irishman) 



ITS OPINIONS. 



221 



picious opinion. The composition of the 
former is still extant, and has exercised the 
ingenuity of the learned even in recent times ; 
but they have not succeeded in extricating 
from the perplexities of his reasoning, and, 
perhaps, the uncertainty of his belief, the real 
opinions of the author. The work of Johan- 
nes Scotus is lost; but we learn that his 
arguments were more direct, and his senti- 
ments more perspicuous and consistent ; he 
plainly declared, that the bread and wine 
were no more th-an symbols of the absent 
body and blood of Christ, and memorials of 
the last supper. Other theologians engaged 
in the dispute, and a decided superiority, both 
in number and talents,* was opposed to the 
doctrine of Paschasius — yet so opposed, that 
there was little unanimity among its adversa- 
ries, and no very perfect consistency even in 
their several writings.f 

The controversy died away before the end 
of the ninth century, without having occa- 
sioned any great mischief, and the subject 
was left open to individual inquiry or neglect, 
as it had ever been. The mtellectual lethargy 
of the century following was not to be dis- 
turbed by an argument demanding some 
acuteness, and susceptible of much sophistry ; 
and an age of entire ignorance has at least 
this advantage over one of superficial learn- 
ing, :|: that it suffers nothing from the abuse 
of the human understanding. But very early 
in the eleventh century, the dispute was again 
awakened; it assumed, under different cir- 
cumstances and other principles, another 
aspect and character, and closed in a very 

was a layman of great acuteness and much profane learn- 
ing, and irreproachable moral character. He was in 
high estimation at the court of Charles the Bald, and 
honored by the personal partiality of that prince. He 
is described in the Hist. Litt. de la France, to have 
been of ' tres petite taille, vif, penetrant, et enjoue.' 
Fleury (1. xlviii., s. 48) disputes the great extent of 
his theological acquirements, and perhaps with justice. 
His book on the Eucharist was burnt about two hun- 
dred years afterwards by the hand of bis disciple 
Berenger, on ecclesiastical compulsion. 

*Hincmar appears to have held the doctrine of the 
real presence ; and it is difficult to pronounce whether 
or not he confined his meaning to a spiritual presence. 

t The worship of the elements is not mentioned by 
any of the disputants — it was an extravagance of 
superstition too violent for the controversialists of the 
ninth century. 

:{:As early as the conclusion of the eighth century, 
a heresy respecting the nature of Jesus Christ appear- 
ed in the Western Church — that of the Adoptians. 
It was condemned by Charlemagne in three Councils, 
between the years 790 and 800, and presently disap- 
peared. 



different termination. But as this event be- 
longs more properly to the life of Gregory 
VII. we shall not anticipate the triumph of 
that Pontiff", nor deprive his name of any ray 
of that ambiguous splendor which illustrates it. 
Opinions of Godeschalcus. The subject of 
Predestination and Divine Grace, which had 
already * been controverted in France with 
some acuteness, and, what is much better, 
with candor and charity, was subjected to 
another investigation in the ninth century. 
Godeschalcus, otherwise called Fulgentius, 
was a native of Germany, and a monk of 
Orbais, in the diocese of Soissons. He was 
admitted to orders, during the vacancy of the 
See, by the Chorepiscopus — a circumstance 
to which the subsequent animosity of Hinc- 
mar is sometimes attributed. He possessed 
considerable learning, but a mind withal too 
prone to pursue abstruse and unprofitable 
inquiries. Early in life he consulted Lupus, 
Abbot of Ferrara, on the question, whether, 
after the resurrection, the blessed shall see 
God with the eyes of the body ? The Abbot 
concluded a reluctant reply to the following 
effect : — ' I exhort you, my venerable brother, 
no longer to weary your spirit with suchlike 
speculations, lest, through too great devotion 
to them, you become incapacitated for exam- 
ining and teaching things more useful. Why 
waste so many researches on matters, which 
it is not yet, perhaps, expedient that we should 
know ? Let us rather exercise our talents in 
the spacious fields of Holy Writ ; let us apply 
entirely to that meditation, and let prayer be 
associated to our studies. God will not fail 
in his goodness to manifest himself in the 
manner which shall be best for us, though we 
should cease to pry into things which are placed 
above us.' The speculations of Godeschalcus 
were diverted by this judicious rebuke, but 
not repressed ; and the books of Scripture 
were still rivalled or superseded in his atten- 
tion by those of Augustin. Accordingly he 
involved himself deeply and inextricably m 
the mazes of fatalism. About the year 846j^ 
he made a pilgrimage to Rome,, and on his 
return, soon afterwards, he expressed his 
opinions on that subject very publicly in the 
diocese of Verona. Information was instant- 
ly conveyed to Rabanus Maurus, Archbishop 
of Mayence, the most profound theologian of 
the age. That Prelate immediately replied ; 
and in combating the errror of a professed 
Augustinian, protected himself also by the 
authority of Augustin.f 

* In the fifth century. — See chap. xi. 

tRabanus was the most profound divine in the 



J222 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Happy had it been for the author of the 
controversy, if his adversary had allowed it to 
remain on that footing ; but the doctrine was 
becoming too popular, and threatened moral 
effects too pernicious * to be overlooked by 
the Church. Rabanus assembled, in 848, a 
Council at Mayence, at which the king was 
present, and Godeschalcus was summoned 
before it. Here he defended, in a written 
treatise, the doctrine of double predestination 
— that of the elect, to eternal life by the free 
Grace of God — that of the wicked, to ever- 
lasting damnation through their own sins. 
His explanations did not satisfy the Council, 
and the tenet was rejected and condemned ; 
but its advocate was not considered amenable 
to that tribunal, as he had been ordained in 
the diocese of Rheims ; wherefore Rabanus 
consigned him to the final custody of Hinc- 
mar, who then held that See. 

The unfortunate heretic (he had now de- 
served that appellation) profited nothing by 
this change in jurisdiction. Hincmar, in the 
following year, caused him to be accused 
before the Council of Q,uiercy sur Oise, when 
he was pronounced incorrigible, and deposed 
from the priesthood. Moreover, as the pen- 
alty of his insolence and contumacy, he was 
condemned to public flagellation and perpetual 
imprisonment. The sentence was rigidly ex- 
ecuted, and Charles was not ashamed to 
countenance it by his royal presence. It is 
affirmed, that under the prolonged agony of 
severe torture, the sufferer yielded so far as 
to commit to the flames the Texts which he 
had collected in defence of his opinions ; and 
if he did so, it was human and excusable 
weakness, f But it is certain that he was 

ninth century, as Augustin was in the fifth, but the 
spirit of the one age was original thought and reason- 
ing — that of the other, blind and servile imitation : 
therefore Rabanus was contented to cite and explain 
Augustin ; and the controversy descended from lofty 
philosophical investigation to logical, and even critical 
subtility. The object in the fifth age was, to solve 
an abstruse and difficult question ; that in the ninth, 
to penetrate the real opinions of an ancient writer. 

* In one of the letters written on this subject, 
Rabanus asserts that the doctrine of Godeschalcus had 
already driven many to despair, and that several began 
to inquire — ' Wherefore should I strive and labor for 
my salvation *? In what does it profit me to be right- 
eous, if I am not predestined to happiness "? What 
evil may I not safely commit, if 1 am surely predes- 
tined to life eternal 1 ' This natural" inference, how- 
ever disavowed by the more ingenious teachers of the 
doctrine, is very liable to be drawn by the people, 
even in ages much more enlightened than the ninth. 

t Godeschalcus solicited permission to maintain 



confined to the walls of a convent for almost 
twenty * years, and that at length, during the 
agonies of his latest moments, he was required 
to subscribe a formulary of faith, as the only 
condition of reconciliation with the Church — 
that he disdained to make any sacrifice, even 
at that moment, to that consideration, and 
that his corpse was deprived of Christian 
sepulture by the unrelenting bigotry of Hinc- 
mar. 

The precise extent f of Godeschalcus's 
errors is, according to the usual history of 

the truth of his doctrine in the presence of the King, 
the Clergy, and the whole people, by passing through 
four barrels filled with boiling water and oil and pitch, 
and afterwards through a large fire. If he should 
come out unhurt, let the doctrine be acknowledged 
and received ; if otherwise, let the flames take their 
course. Milner, whose account of this Controvei'sy 
should be mentioned with praise, can scarcely pardon 
this desire of his persecuted favorite — as if the cham- 
pion of Predestination had been less liable than his 
neighbors to the superstitious contagion of his age. 
In this case, however, his imperfection was peculiarly 
excused by the more deliberate absurdity of Hincmar 
himself, who had so far degraded his genius as to 
write a serious treatise on ' Trials by Hot and Cold 
Water.' See Hist. Litt. de la France. 

* His death is usually referred to the year 866. 
We should observe that his suflTerings did not escape 
the compassion of some of his contemporaries. Remy, 
who succeeded Amolon in the see of Lyons, wrote on 
the subject with some warmth. ' It is an unprece- 
dented instance of cruelty, which has filled the world 
with horror, that he was lacerated with stripes, as 
eye-witnesses attest, until he cast into the fire a me- 
morial containing the passages from scripture and the 
fathers which he drew up to present to the Council; 
while all former heretics have been convicted by 
words and reasons. The long and inhuman detention 
of that wretched man ought at least to be tempered by 
some consolation, so as rather to win by charity a 
brother for whom Jesus Christ died, than to overwhelm 
him with misery.' — See Fleury, 1. xlix., s. 5. 

t Godeschalcus appears to have propounded three 
leading questions to Rabanus and the other Doctors. 
(1.) Whether it could be said that there w^as any 
predestination to evil. (2.) Concerning the will and 
death of Christ for all men ; whether God has a true 
will to save anybut those which are saved. (.S.) Con- 
cerning free will The theologians of Mayence, 

however, very prudently confined their attention to 
the first — 'Whether it can be said that God predesti- 
nates the wicked to damnation V (Dupin, H. E., 
Cen. ix.) About four years afterwards, Amolon, 
Archbishop of Lyons, in a letter addressed to Hinc- 
mar, reduced (or rather expanded) the errors to sev- 
en ; one of them being the following — ' that God and 
the Saints rejoiced in the fall of the reproved.' 
(Fleury, H. E. lib. xlviii., s. 59.) This was ob- 
viously a consequence; and no doubt the heretic had 
easy means of getting rid of it. For a full and per- 
haps faithful account of the whole controversy, see 



ITS OPIFIONS. 



223 



such controversies, a matter of difference, and 
for the usual reason, that consequences were 
imputed by his adversaries which his follow- 
ers disclaimed. But it is certain that his 
proselytes multiplied during the continuance 
of his imprisonment, and that some provincial 
Councils declared in his favor ; and it is pro- 
bable that his doctrines have been uninter- 
ruptedly perpetuated, not by sects only, but 
by individuals in the bosom of the Church, 
from that age to the present. 

Millennarian error. The dispute, however, 
did not long survive its author, and seems to 
have expired before the end of the century ; 
and during the concluding part of that which 
followed, — in the absence of political talent, 
of piety, of knowledge, of industry, of eveiy 
virtue, and every motive which might give 
energy to the human character — in the sup- 
pression even of the narrow controversial 
spirit which enlivens the understanding, how- 
ever it may sometimes pervert the principles, 
— a very wild and extraordinary delusion arose 
and spread itself, and at length so far prevail- 
ed as not only to subdue the reason, but to 
actuate the conduct of vast multitudes. It 
proceeded from the misinterpretation of a 
well-known passage in the Revelations, f 
' And he laid hold on the Dragon, that old 
Serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and 
bound him a thousand years, and cast him into 
the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a 
seal upon him, that he should deceive the 
nations no more till the thousand years should 
be fulfilled ; And after that he must be loosed 
a little season.' It does not appear that the 
earlier Divines derived from this prophecy 
that specific expectation respecting the mo- 
ment of the world's dissolution, which now 
became general ; nor do we learn that the 
people before this time much busied them- 
selves about a matter which could not possi- 
bly aflfect their own generation ; but about the 
year 960, as the season approached nearer, 
one Bcrnhard, a hermit of Thuringia, a j>er- 
son not destitute of knowledge, boldly pro- 
mulgated (on the faith of a particular revela- 
tion from God) the certain assurance, that at 
the end of the thousandth year the fetters of 
Satan were to be broken ; and, after the reign 



Hist. LiUer. de la France, Cen. ix., vol. iv. p. 263. 
It is, however, worth remarking, that the Divines on 
both sides alike professed to support the doctrine of 
the Church, as taught by the Fathers, and especially 
St. Augustin ; whose authority on this question was 
universally admitted, while his real opinion was dis- 
puted. 

t Chap. XX. 2 and 3. 



of Antichrist should be terminated, that the 
world would be consumed by sudden confla- 
gration. There was something plausible in 
the doctrine, and it was peculiarly suited to the 
gloomy superstition of the age ; the Clergy 
adopted it without delay ; the pulpits loudly 
resounded with it ; * it was diffused in every 
direction with astonishing rapidity, and em- 
braced with an ardor proportioned to the 
obscurity of the subject, and the greediness 
of human credulity. The behef pervaded 
and possessed every rank f of society, not as 
a cold and indifferent assent, but as a motive 
for the most important undertakings. Many 
abandoned their friends and their families, 
and hastened to the shores of Palestine, with 
the pious persuasion that Mount Sion would 
be the throne of Christ when he should 
descend to judge the world ; and these, in 
order to secure a more partial sentence from 
the God of mercy and charity, usually made 
over their property, before they departed, to 
some adjacent Church or Monastery. Others, 
whose pecuniary means were thought, per- 
haps, insufficient to bribe the justice of Hea- 
ven, devoted their personal service to the 
same establishments, and resigned their very 
liberty to those holy mediators, whose plead- 
ings, they doubted not, would find favor at 
the eternal judgment seat. Others permitted 
their lands to lie waste, and their houses to 
decay ; or, terrified by some unusual pheno- 
menon in the Heaven, betook themselves in 
hasty flight to the shelter of rocks and caverns,:]: 
as if the temples of Nature were destined to 
preservation amidst the wreck of man and 
his works. 

The year of terror arrived, and passed 
away without any extraordinary convulsion ; 
and at present it is chiefly remarkable as 
having terminated the most shameful century 
in the annals of Christianity. The people re- 
turned to their homes, and repaired their build- 
ings, and resumed their former occupations ; 



*Hist. Litt. de la France, x. Siecle. Mosheim 
(Cen. X., p. 2, c. iii.) cites a passage from the Apolo- 
geticum of Abbo, Abbot of Fleury — ' De fine quoque 
mundi coram populo sermonem in Ecclesia Parisiorum 
adolescentulus audivi, quod statim finirto mille annorura 
numero Anti-Christus adveniret, et non longo post 
tempore universale judicium succederet; cui praedica- 
tioni ex Evangeliis ac Apocalypsi et libro Danielis, 
qua potui virtute restiti, &c.' 

t Not Nobles only, but Princes, and even Bishops, 
are mentioned as having made a pilgrimage to Pales- 
tine on this occasion. 

:j:An opportune eclipse of the sun produced this 
effect on the army of Otho the Great. 



224 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



and the only lasting effect of this stupendous 
panic was the augmentation of the temporal 
prosperity of the Church. * 

11. State of Learning. The intellectual 
energy of Europe (if we except perhaps the 
British Islands f) was in a condition of gradu- 
al decay from the fifth till the middle of the 
seventh and eighth century ; J and it was 
then that the progress of ignorance reached 
its widest and darkest boundaries. It was 
arrested by the genius of Charlemagne ; and 
the beacon which was set up by his mighty 
hand shone forth even upon his degenerate 
descendants, some of whom lighted their 
torches at its embers. Thus, during the 
whole of the ninth century, the western 
world, and France especially, was animated 
by much literary exertion, and enlightened 
even by the ill-directed talents of many learn- 
ed men. The name of Alcuin was not dis- 
graced by those of his successors, Rabanus, 
Eginhard, Claudius, Godeschalcus, Pascha- 
sius, Ratramn, Hincmar, and Johannes Sco- 
tus.§ The theological works of the first of 
these were so highly esteemed, as not only to 



* Almost all the donations which were made to the 
Church in this century proceeded from this avowed 
motive. ' Appropinquante jam raundi termino, &c. 
Since the end of the world is now at hand.' Mosh., 
Cen. X., p. 2, ch. iii. These monuments sufficiently 
attest the generality of the delusion. 

f The Venerable Bede flourished in the early part 
of the eighth century. He brought down his Eccle- 
siastical History as far as 731, and appears to have 
died four years afterwards. 

:}:This decline is very commonly imputed to the 
despotism of the Church, and the triumph of the papal 
principle of a blind faith, and absolute submission over 
the independence of reason. But this is a mistake pro- 
ceeding from an imperfect knowledge of ecclesiastical 
history. At the period in question, the Church had not 
by any means attained the degree of authority necessa- 
ry for that purpose : it was not yet sufficiently organized, 
nor even sufficiently united, to possess any power of 
universal individual tyranny ; the Romish system was 
still only in its infancy; the Episcopal system, which 
was predominant, was full of disorder and disunion — 
the principle in question was certainly to be found in 
the archives of the Church, but the day was not yet 
arrived to enforce it. It came indeed into full effect 
in the twelfth and following ages, and not earlier than 
the twelfth; but learning then revived in despite of it, 
and grew up to overthrow it. The truth is, that the 
degradation of the sixth and seventh centuries are 
sufficiently accounted for by the political confusion, or 
rather anarchy, then so generally prevalent, as to 
make any moi-al exellence almost impossible, and to 
debase the Church in common with every thing else. 

§ Guizot has selected Hincmar and Johannes Sco- 
tus as the tw© representatives of the learning of the 



furnish materials for contemporary instruc- 
tion, but also to maintain great authority in 
the religious discussions of the four following 
centuries ; and the last, the friend and com- 
panion of Charles the Bald, displayed an 
accuracy of philosophical induction, and a 
freedom and boldness of original thought, 
which would have subjected him, in a some- 
what later age, to ecclesiastical persecution. 
We should mention, too, that in the same age 
in which the genius of an Irishman instruct- 
ed the Court of France, the foundations of 
English learning were deeply fixed and sub- 
stantially constructed by the wisdom and 
piety of Alfi*ed. The comparative languor 
of Italy was excited by the disputes at that 
time so warmly waged between the Roman 
and Eastern Churches, and which served to 
sharpen the ingenuity, while they degraded 
the principles, of both. 

At Constantinople, the Emperor Theophi- 
lus, and his son, Michael III., made some 
endeavors towards the revival of letters in the 
ninth age ; but the scattered rays which may 
have illustrated the East at that time, were 
overpowered by the pre-eminence of Photius, 
so that little has reached posterity excepting 
his celebrity. It is true that, in the century 
following, while the advance of learning was 
almost wholly suspended in Europe, and its 
growing power paralyzed, Constantine Por- 
phyrogeneta made some zealous attempts to 
revive the industry of his country ; but as his 
encouragement was directed rather to the 
imitation of ancient models than to the de- 
velopement of original thought, the impulse 
was faintly felt ; and, so far from creating any 
strong and lasting effect, it failed to excite 
even the momentary energy of the Greeks. 

But, during the same period, there occurred 
in the Eastern world a phenomenon which is 
among the most remarkable in the history of 
literature, and which no penetration could 
possibly have foreseen. We have recounted 
that, in the seventh century, the companions 
and successors of Mahomet desolated the 
face of the earth with their arms, and dark- 
ened it by their ignorance ; and the acts of 
barbarism ascribed to them, and whether 
truly ascribed or not,* generally credited, 

age — the former as the centre of the theological move- 
ment; the latter as the philosopher of his day. It is, 
indeed, impossible to convey any faithful notion of 
the literature of any age without entering into some 
such detail 

* The burning of the Alexandrian Library by the 
Saracens stands on authority about as good as the 
similar Vandalism charged on Gregory the Great. 



DISCIPLINE. 



225 



attest at least their contempt of learning, and 
their aversion for the monuments which they 
are stated to have destroyed. In the eighth 
century, the conquerors settled with tranquil- 
lity in the countries which they had subdued, 
which, in most instances, they converted, and 
which they continued to possess and govern. 
In the ninth, under the auspices of a wise 
and munificent Caliph, they applied the same 
ardor to the pursuit of literature which had 
heretofore been confined to the exercise of 
arms. Ample schools were founded in the 
principal cities of Asia,* Bagdad, and Cufa, 
and Bassora ; numerous libraries were formed 
with care and diligence, and men of learning 
and science were solicitously invited to the 
splendid court of Almamunis. Greece, which 
had civilized the Roman republic, and was 
destined, in a much later age, to enlighten 
the extremities of the West, was now called 
upon to turn the stream of her lore into the 
barren bosom of Asia : for Greece was still the 
only land possessing an original national lite- 
rature. Her noblest productions were now 
translated into the ruling language of the 
East, and the Arabians took pleasure in pur- 
suing the speculations, or submitting to the 
rules, of her philosophy. The impulse thus 
given to the genius and industry of Asia was 
communicated with inconceivable rapidity, 
along the shores of Egypt and Africa, to the 
schools of Seville and Cordova ; and the shock 
was not felt least sensibly by those who last 
received it. Henceforward the genius of 
learning accompanied even the arms of the 
Saracens. They conquered Sicily; from 
Sicily they invaded the Southern Provinces 
of Italy; and, as if to complete the eccentric 
revolution of Grecian literature, the wisdom 
of Pythagoras was restored to the land of its 
origin by ihe descendants of an Arabian 
warrior. 

The adopted literature of that ingenious 
people, augmented by some original discov- 
eries, passed with a more pacific progress 
from Spain into France, fi-om France into 
Italy, even to the pontifical chair. In the 
year 999, Gerbert, a Frenchman, was raised 
to that eminence under the title of Sylvester 
II. This eminent person, whose talents, 
though peculiarly calculated for the compre- 
hension of the abstract sciences, were not 
disqualified for less severe application, stea- 
dily devoted his industry, his intelligence, 



♦Contemporary with the foundation of Oxford; 
and where are they now '? The history and charac- 
ter of the Turks can answer that question 

29 



and his power to the acquii-ement, the ampli- 
fication, * and the diffusion of knowledge. 
Among the vulgar, indeed, he obtained a 
formidable reputation for magical skill ; but 
he was honored by the wise and the great 
even of his own days ; and of Sylvester that 
may be more justly affirmed, which a Roman 
Catholic writer has rather chosen to predicate 
of the papal energy of Leo. IX., ' that he 
undertook to repair the ruins of the tenth 
century.' 

III. Discipline of the Church. At no for- 
mer period had the Western Church suffered 
such complete disorganization as during the 
first half of the eighth century: the longer it 
was connected with the barbarous political 
system of the conquerors — the more closely 
it became associated with their institutions, 
their habits, and their persons ; as they were 
gradually admitted to ecclesiastical dignities 
— the more shameful was the license, the 
deeper the corruption which pervaded it. 
The progress of the malady was arrested by 
Charlemagne — not with a reluctant or ir- 
resolute hand, but with the vigor which the 
occasion required, and which was justified by 
his noble designs. He repressed the disorders 
of the Bishops ; he assembled numerous Coun- 
cils, and he enforced the observance of their 
canons ; thus he infused sudden energies into 
a body too torpid for self-reform; and he 
endeavored to perpetuate the impulse by 
promoting education and rewarding litera- 
ture. The last, in truth, was that which gave 
his other measures their efficacy ; for above 
sixty years after his death, under the feeble 
sceptres of Lewis and Charles, the spirit sent 
forth by Charlemagne continued to animate 
the Church. Very general activity and supe- 
rior intelligence distinguished the Clergy, 
especially the higher orders ; and the frequen- 
cy with .which they assembled their Councils, 
and the important regulations which they 
enacted, evinced a zeal for the restoration of 
ecclesiastical discipline, which was not wholly 
without effect. Lewis was probably sincei'e 
in his co-operation for that purpose ; but the 
merit of having directed, or even vigorously 
stimulated, the exertions of his prelates cannot 



* Some ingenious inventions of Gerbert are men- 
tioned in the Hist. Litt. de la France. His various 
virtues are higlily extolled in the same work ; and the 
only fault which his eulogists can find in his character 
is, ' that he used too much flattery in making his court 
to the great.' The grandees of tlie tenth century 
appear to have pardoned him this imperfectiou. 



nQ 



HISTORY OF THE €HURCH. 



justly be ascribed to so weak a prince. 
Respecting Charles, there seems reason to 
suspect, that he, as well as his nobles, regard- 
ed with some jealousy the progress of reform, 
and that the attempts, so numerous during 
his reign, should rather be attributed to the 
perseverance of the Bishops, and especially 
of Hincmar, than to the virtue or wisdom of 
the secular government. In proof of this 
opinion (which, if true, is not without import- 
ance) we may mention the following circum- 
stance. In the year 844, Councils were held 
at Thionville and Verneuil * for the remedy 
of abuses both in Church and State ; their 
regulations were confirmed and amplified in 
the year following at Meaux, and after that 
at Paris ; and on this last occasion the prelates 
recurred with some impatience to the exhor- 
tations which they had frequently and inef- 
fectually addressed to the Throne, and to 
that neglect they presumed to ascribe the 
temporal calamities which then afflicted the 
countiy. Presentlj^ afterwards, in an assem- 
bly of Barons held at Epernay, the Canons 
of Meaux and Paris were taken into consider- 
ation ; and while those which restricted eccle- 
siastics received the King's assent, others 
which touched the vices of the nobility were 
entirely rejected.f Nevertheless, Councils 
continued to meet with great frequency | 
dliring this reign ; but we must not suppose 
that all of them had the same grand object ; 
some were convoked to arrange the disputes 
of the Bishops, either among themselves, or 
with the Pope, or with the King ; others met 
to restrain, had it been possible, the general 
licentiousness of the times ; § and of many it 

* It appears from one of the Canons here published, 
that, in contempt of Charlemagne's Capitulary, the 
military service of the Bishops was already renewed, 
if indeed it was ever wholly discontinued. 

■j: Ffeury, L xlvili., s. 35. 

X France was at this time the principal scene of 
ecclesiastical exertion. During the forty-six years of 
Charlemagne's reign, the number of Councils which 
met in France was thirty-five. Lewis, in twenty-six 
years, held twenty-nine,' but na less than sixty-nine 
were assembled during the thirty-seven years of 
Charles the Bald.. Their frequency then g,radually 
decreased; and in the following hundred and ten 
years, to the accession of Hugh Capet, we observe no 
more than fifty-six. 

§The disorders of the age are vtvidly depicted in 
the prefatory Exposition of the Council of Mayence in 
888. ' Behold the magnificent edifices, which the 
servants of God were wont to inhabit, destroyed and 
burnt to ashes ; the altars overthrown and trampled 
under foot, the most precious ornaments of the 
Churches dispersed or consumed ; the Bishops, Priests, 



was the principal purpose to launch excom- 
munication and anathema against the spolia- 
tors of ecclesiastical property, and to protect 
the persons of clerks and monks and nuns 
from the violence of the laity. 

It is not easy either to specify any partic- 
ular changes introduced into the discipline of 
the Church during these ages, oi* precisely to 
determine the rigor of that discipline ; for 
such innovations are for the most part of slow 
and almost insensible growth ; and, though 
the canonical regulations are in themselves 
sufficiently explicit, their enforcement de- 
pended in each diocese on the authority or 
character of the Bishop. If, indeed, it had 
been possible at once to force into full oper- 
ation the principles pf the 'False Decretals,' 
the sudden revolution thus occasioned would 
have been perceptible to the eye of the most 
careless historian ; but the pretensions which 
they contained were utterly disproportioned 
to the power which the See then possessed 
of asserting them. Their tacit acknowledg- 
ment led to their gradual adoption ; and in 
the patient progi-ess of this usurpation every 
step that was gained gave fresh vigor, as well 
as loftier ground, to the usurper ; but in the 
ninth century the French were too indepen- 
dent entirely to submit to the servitude in- 
tended for them, and in the tenth the Popes 
were too weak and contemptible eflTectually 
to impose it. Nevertheless, time and igno- 
rance were steadily engaged in sanctifying 
the imposture, and preparing it for more 
mischievous service in the hand of Hilde- 
brand. 

Though we propose to defer a little longer 
any general account of the Monastic Order, 
it is proper here to notice that very power- 



and other Clerks, together with Laymen of every age 
and sex, overtaken by sword or fire, or some other 
manner of massacre, &c.' Similar calamities are 
even more particularly detailed by the Council of 
Trosle in 909, attended with some charges of spiritual 
negligence in the Bishops themselves. (See Fleury, 
1. liv., s. 2 and 44.) In 865, Pope Nicholas address- 
ed some strong pacific exhortations to the princes of 
France: — 'Parcite gladio: humanum fundere sangui- 
nem formidolosius exhorrescite ; cesset ira, sedentuF 
odia, sopiantur jurgia, et omnis ex vobis simultaa 
radicitus evellatur. , . . Non in vobis vanae gloriae 
typus, non alterius usurpandi terminos ambitio, sed 
justitia, charitas, et concordia regnet et summum pax 
inter vos teneat omnino fastigium.' But such gener- 
al addresses had probably little effect; and the first 
authoritative interference of the Church for the partial 
restoration of peace, and the institution of the Tr^ve 
de Dieu, took place in the first half of the eleventh 
century. 



DISCIPLINE. 



227 



ful renovation of the system which was ac- 
comphshed about this time by Benedict of 
Aniane— a venerable name, which yields to 
none save Benedict of Nursia, in the reve- 
rence of monkish annalists. He was con- 
temporary with Charlemagne and his suc- 
cessor, and was called in 817 to preside at 
the Council assembled at Aix-la-Chapelle for 
the reform of monastic abuses. The regula- 
tions which were then enacted, though they 
offended the simplicity of the primitive rule 
by many frivolous injunctions, were still use- 
ful in recalling to some form of discipline the 
broken ranks of the regular clergy. We 
should also mention, that the institution of 
Canons Regular, by Chrodegand, Bishop of 
Metz, was undertaken during the same pe- 
riod, and was completed under Lewis the 
Meek in a Council, also held at Aix-la-Cha- 
pelle, in 826. 

The original form of Episcopal election 
had been habitually violated by the barbarian 
kmgs ; and if it was nominally restored by 
Charlemagne, it still appears that he contin- 
ued in practice to profit by the usurpation of 
his predecessors, and to fill up vacant sees 
by his own direct appointment. Lewis, how- 
ever, had not been long on the throne, when 
he published (seemingly at the Parliament of 
Attigni in 822) a capitulary to reinstate the 
Church in her pristine rights. Nor was this 
concession merely formal ; on the contrary, 
it was brought into immediate force, and for 
some time actually directed the form of elec- 
tion. For instance, we observe that, in the ' 
year 845, Hincmar was raised to the See of 
liheims ' by the Clergy and people of Rheiras, 
by the Bishops of the province, with the con- 
sent of the Archbishop of Sens, the Bishop 
of Paris, and the Abbot of St. Denis his su- 
perior, and with the approbation of the King ;' 
and from several monuments of that age, and 
especially the letters of Hincmar * himself, 

* It appears that, as soon as the vacancy was de- 
clared, the King appointed from among the Bishops a 
visiter to the vacant see, who presided at the election. 
The only persons eligible (or very nearly so) were the 
Clergy of the diocese ; but they were not the only 
electors ; the monasteries and the Curates, or paro- 
chial Clergy, sent their deputies. Nor were the no- 
ble laymen or the citizens of the city excluded — on 
the principle ' that all should assist in the election of 
one whom all were bound to obey.' (See Fleury, 1. 
xlvi.,s. 47; 1. xlviii.,s. 38; 1. liii., s. 33.) Still 
it would appear, even from the expression of Hinc- 
mar, in an epistle to Charles on this subject, as well 
as from a Canon of the Council of Valence held in 
855, that the Church exercised the privilege rather 
as an indulgence fi'om the Sovereign, than by it^ own 



w^e learn, that, at least during the reign of 
Charles, the Church continued in the recov- 
ered possession of her original liberty. 

Translation of Bishops. The translation 
of Bishops continued to be prohibited during 
the ninth century, according to the ancient 
canons ; and though the rule might be occa- 
sionally violated by the interference of the 
Prince, and though the Pope did occasion- 
ally, though rarely, exercise that pernicious 
power which the Decretals, false as they 
were, and fatal to ecclesiastical discipline, 
nevertheless gave him, the clergy and the 
people labored to maintain the ancient and 
salutary practice. It appears, however, fi'ora 
a very strange occurrence, which is related 
to have passed in this age, tliat the Bishops 
of Rome, however willing to exert their 
groundless authority elsewhere, were ex- 
tremely jealous of any translation to their 
own See. In the year 892, Formosus was 
raised from the See of Porto to that of Rome ; 
he was a prelate of great piety and consid- 
erable attainments, but he offered the first 
instance of the elevation of a foreign Bishop 
to the throne of St. Peter. He held it for 
about four years, and died in possession of it. 
But scarcely were his ashes cold, when his 
successor, Stephen VL, — a name which has 
earned peculiar distinction even among the 
pontifical barbarians of those days, — sum- 
moned a Council to sit in judgment on the 
deceased. Formosus was dragged from his 
grave and introduced into the midst of the 
assembly. He was then solemnly reinvested 
with the ornaments of office, and placed in 
the Apostolical chair, and the mockery of an 
advocate to plead in his defence Was added. 
Then Stephen inquired of his senseless pre- 
decessor — ' Wherefore, Bishop of Porto, hast 
thou urged thy ambition so far, as to usurp 
the See of Rome .^' The Council immedi- 
ately passed the sentence of deposition ; and 
the condemned carcass, after being stripped 
of the sacred vestments and brutally mutila- 
ted, was cast contemptuously into the Tiber. 
But the day of retribution was neai- at hand, 
for, in the order of Providence, the most re- 
volting offences are sometimes overtaken by 
the swiftest calamities. Only a few weeks 

original and lawful right. ' The Prince shall be pe- 
titioned to leave to the Clergy and People the liberty 
of election. The Bishop shall be chosen from the 
Clergy of the Cathedral or of the Diocese, or at least 
of its immediate neighborhood. If a Clerk attached 
to the service of the Prince is proposed, his capacity 
and his morals shall be rigorously examined, &c '— 
Council of Valence. 



228 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



elapsed, and Stephen himself was seized, and 
driven from the See and thrown into an ob- 
scure dungeon, loaded with chains, where he 
was presently strangled. 

It had been hitherto the practice of the 
Bishop of Rome to retain on his election the 
name by which he had been previously 
known: the first exception to this rule took 
place in the tenth century. In 956, Octavi- 
anus, a noble Roman, W£is raised to the See 
at the age of eighteen, and expressed his 
determination to assume the name of John 
XII.* It does not appear that his boyish 
inclination was opposed ; and it is certain 
that the precedent was very soon and ver}^ 
generally followed. Neither was the exam- 
ple of Formosus forgotten in succeeding 
elections, though it was not so commonly 
imitated ; but before the end of this age we 
find that Gerbert, Archbishop of Ravenna, 
became, by a double change, Sylvester, Bish- 
op of Rome, without any offence or reproach. 

x^mong the inferior clergy, the canonical 
discipline was extremely rigid : it was strict- 
ly forbidden to undertake the charge of two 
churches, to hold a prebend f in a monastery 
with a parochial cure, or even to exchange 
one church for another. That these regu- 
lations were sometimes, perhaps generally, 
enforced, appears from the earnestness with 
which they are pressed by Hincmar ; and it 
is from his Synodal Statutes, | even more than 

* See Pagi. Breviar. Gest.. Rom. Pont. Vit. Jo- 
han. Xn. 

t A Prebend then signified the divideitd afforded 
to a Canon for his subsistence. The prohibition Avas 
repeated in 889 by the Council of Metz ; which seems 
to prove that it was either not generally received^ or 
imperfectly obeyed. 

:J: We have very little space for quotations, but the 
following are curious : — ' I have often notified to you 
respecting the poor who are inscribed in the Books 
of the Church, how you ought to treat them and dis- 
tribute to them a part of the tithe. I have forbidden 
you to receive, in return for their portion (called ma- 
tricula,) either present or service, in the house or 
elsewhere. I persist in forbidding it; since such 
conduct is to sell charity. I declare to you, that the 
priest who does so, shall be deposed, and even the 
portion of the tithe which is given to other paupers 
shall be refused to him.' Again — ' I learn that some 
among, you neglect their churches and buy private 
property which they cultivate, and build houses there 
in which women reside; and that they do not be- 
queath their property to {he Church, according to the 
Canons, but to their relatives or others. Be inform- 
ed that I shall punish with the utmost rigor of the 
Rules those whom I shall find guilty of this abuse.' 
It was another of Hincmar's meritorious endeavors 
to restrict the abuse of private patronage, by r^fusino- 



from the Canons of Councils, that we leam 
the practice of the Gallican Church during 
the ninth century : that of the Churches of 
Italy was probably less severe. 

Claudius, Bishop of Turin. The practice 
of Auricular Confession, which, though gen- 
erally prevalent, was not universally received 
in the time of Charlemagne, may be said to 
have completed its establishniem during the 
two following ages. We observe, too, in the 
annals of those times, that the transfer * of re- 
lics from place to place was carried on with 
extraordinary ardor, proportioned to the sanc- 
tity attached to them, and to the wonders 
which they are recorded to have wrought. 
This superstition was, indeed, boldly assailed 
by one real Christian,— Claudius, Bishop of 
Turin, f the Protestant of the ninth century. 



ordination to every unworthy candidate. See Flevt- 
ry,l. lii.,s. 28. 

* The travels of St. Vitus from Leucadia to Rome, 
from Rome to Saxony, may not perhaps deserve to 
be traced by us ; biit we may be excused for pursuing 
the history of a pious prelate, whose living virtues 
we found occasion to mention — St. Martin of Tours. 
About the middle of the ninth century, the approach 
of the Normans made it expedient to remove the ven- 
erable relics of that Saint from Tours to Auxerre, 
where he was confided, as a temporary deposit, to the 
care of the Bishop. Duiing one-and-thirty years of 
exile, St. Martin continued to perform the most stu- 
pendous miracles ; and thus he became so valuable to 
the Bishop of Auxerre, that when restitution was de- 
manded, that prelate at once refused it. Hereupon 
the Archbishop of Tours prevailed upon a powerful' 
Baron, whose domains were adjacent, to avenge the 
perfidy and to recover the treasm'e by force^ Thu» 
St. Martin returned triumphantly to his native city, 
escorted by a band of six thousand soldiers. The sto- 
ry is told in the last chapter of Fleury, Book liii. 
Again, in theyear 826, two holy Abbots set out from 
France to Rome, in order to bring away the bodies 
of St. Sebastian, and even of St. Gregory himself. 
They returned triumphant — the former had been sol- 
emnly granted to the Emperor by the Pope ; the lat- 
ter they had stolen away by a pious artifice. Their 
success is recorded by Eginhard, or Einhard, the con- 
temporary biographer of Charlemagne.. But the loss- 
has never been acknowledged by the Romans, nor is 
k probable that they ever sustained it. 

t He was a native of Spain, and died in his diocese 
of Turin, about the year 840. His vigorous opposi- 
tion to the worship of images could not be so gener- 
ally unpopular on the other side of the Alps as in Ita- 
ly ; yet we observe that one of his principal opponents 
was Jonas,, a Bishop of Orleans. It was another of 
his errors that he denied that the power of the priest- 
hood, to bind and loose, extended beyond this world; 
and the last, and probably the greatest, that he as- 
serted the term Apostolical Father to be properly 
applied, not to hiiii who filled the chair of the Apos- 
tle, but to him who discharged the duties attached to 



EXTERNAL FORTUNES. 



229 



* Wherefore (he indignantly exclaimed) do 
not the worshippers of the wood of the Cross, 
in conformity with their new principles, adore 
chaplets of thorns, because Christ was crown- 
ed with thorns, — or cradles, linen, or boats, 
because he made use of them, — or spears, be- 
cause he was pierced with that weapon ? Or 
why do they not fall down before the image 
of an ass, because he rode on that animal ? 
Christ Jesus did not command us to wor- 
ship the Cross, but to bear it — to renounce 
the world and ourselves.' The inconsistency 
which the pious Bishop objected to his Church 
was indeed, to a great extent, removed by the 
multiplied corruptions of after ages ; * but 
the remonstrances of the Reformer roused 
the indignation of his contemporaries ; his 
■endeavor to distinguish the corruptions from 
the substance of the system brought down 
upon him the usual reproaches of hostility 
and schism from the more rigid Churchmen 
of the day ; and had he lived in an age in 
which the secular power was subsei-vient to 
to their principles, he would have been va- 
riously known to posterity, as a chastised 
heretic or as a blessed martyr. 

During this same period the penitential 
system of the Church underwent a more 
regular organization ; ecclesiastical f punish- 
ments were adjusted with more discrimina- 
tion to the offence of the penitent, and greater 
uniformity of practice was established in the 
different dioceses. The Liturgy received 
several improvements ; indeed it assumed at 
this time the form in which it was transmit- 
ted, with very slight, if any, variation to the 
more splendid ages of the Roman Church. 
The celebration of the religious offices, their 
rules, and their history employed the dili- 



it. The works for which Claudius was particularly 
celebrated, were his Commentaries on Scripture, both 
of the Old and New Testament. 

* See Gilly's Introduction to the History of the 
Waldenses. 

t The following passage (from Hincmar's Instruc- 
tions to his Clergy, published about 857) shows the 
extent to which the arm of the Clergy then reached, 
as well as the manner in which it acted. ' As soon 
as a homicide, or any other public crime, shall have 
been committed, the curate (the resident clergyman) 
shall signify to the culprit to present himself before 
the Doyen and the other curates, and to submit to pe- 
nance ; and they shall send information to their supe- 
riors, who reside in the city, so that, in the course of 
a fortnight, the offender may appear before us and re- 
ceive public penance with imposition of hands. The 
day on which the crime was committed shall be care- 
fully noted down, as well as that on which the penance 
was imposed. When the curates shall assemble at 
the calends they shall confer together respecting their 



gence of the learned, * and received elaborate 
and useful illustrations. The credit of these 
exertions belongs indeed entirely to the theo- 
logians of the ninth century ; but the works 
which they raised, after resisting the tempests 
which followed, continued to constitute an 
unportant portion of the ecclesiastical edifice. 

IV. External progress of Christianity. 
During the period which we have now des- 
cribed, while the centre and heart of Chris- 
tendom was for the most part cold and cor- 
rupted, the vital stream was ceaselessly flow- 
ing towai'ds the northern extremities of Eu- 
rope. It would be an attractive, and it might 
be a profitable employment to trace the fee- 
ble and sometimes ineffectual missions, which 
introduced our holy religion among the Pa- 
gans of Denmark, Sweden, Russia, and Nor- 
way, and to observe the other circumstances 
which, in conjunction with their pious per- 
severance, finally established it there. This 
mighty success we may consider to have been 
obtained before the middle of the eleventh 
century: not, perhaps, that the faith of Christ 
was universally embraced by the lowest clas- 
ses, still less was it thoroughly comprehended 
or practised; but it had gained such deep 
and general footing, as to secure its final and 
perfect triumph. 

Denmark and Sweden. We shall concisely 
mention some of the leading ch'curastances 
by which this great event was accomplished. 
Heriold, King of Denmark, an exile and a 
suppliant at the court of Lewis the Meek, 
was there prevailed upon to adopt the Chris- 
tian religion. But as this conversion did not 
seem calculated to facilitate his restoration to 
his throne, Lewis presented him with an es- 
tate in Friesland, for which he departed. He 
was accompanied to that retreat by a monk 
of Corbie, named Anscaire or Ansgarius, a 
young and fearless enthusiast, ardent for the 
toils of a missionary and the glory of a mar- 
tyr. His first exertions were made in Den- 



penitents, to inform us in what manner each performs 
his penance, that we may judge when he ought to be 
reconciled to the Church. If the criminal does not 
submit to the penance within the days specified, he 
shall be excommunicated until he does submrt.' 

* Amalarius, a disciple of Alcuin, clerk of the 
church of Metz, was, among these, the most celebra- 
ted. His corrected ' Treatise on the Ecclesiastical 
Offices ' was published, under the auspices of Lewis, 
in the year 831 ; and it is highly valued by Roman 
Catholic writers as proving the very high antiquity 
of the greater part of the services of their Church . 
Fleury gives a short account of this work in I. xlvii., 
s. S6. 



230 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



♦-nark; presently afterwards (in 830) he ad- 
vanced into Sweden ; and such promise of 
success attended him, that Lewis determined 
to establish an Archiepiscopal See at Ham- 
burgh, as the centre of future operations. 
Gregory IV. gave his consent, and bestowed 
the palhum, together with the dignity of 
Pontifical Legate, upon Ansgarius. Thus 
exalted and strengthened, he persevered in 
his enterprise, encouraging the exertions of 
others, and not sparing his own. And what- 
soever degree of credit * we may find it pos- 
sible to attach to the stories of supernatural 
assistance, continually vouchsafed both to him 
and his ministers, we may be assured that the 
character, with which he was occasionally 
invested, of Ambassador from the Emperor 
of the West, together with the fame of his 
private sanctity, gave additional efficacy to 
his religious labors. The account of Anscaire's 
successful expedition into Sweden (in the year 
854,) as it is transmitted to us from early days, 
contains much that is curious, and nothing 
that is improbable. When the Bishop arriv- 
ed at the capital, he communicated to the 
King, Olef or Olave, the object of his mis- 
sion. The King replied — ' I would willing- 
ly consent to your desire, but I can accord 
nothing until I have consulted our gods by 
the lot, and till I know the will of the people, 
who have more influence in public affairs 
than I have.' Olef first consulted his nobles, 
and, after the customary probation by lot, the 
gods were ascertained to be favorable to the 
proposal. The General Assembly of the 
people was then convoked ; and the King 
caused a herald to proclaim the object of the 
imperial embassy. The people murmured 
loudly ; and while they were yet divided in 
their opinions as to the reception of the reli- 
gion of Christ, an old man rose up among 
them and said — ' King and people ! listen to 
me. We are already acquainted with the 
service of that God, and he has been" found 
of great assistance to those who invoke him. 
There are many among us who have expe- 
rienced it in perils by sea and on other occa- 
sions ; why, then, should we reject Him ? 
Fornjerly there were some who travelled to 
Dorstadt for the sake of embracing that re- 
ligion of which they well knew the utility : 
why, then, should we now refuse that bles- 



* After relating some extraordinary prodigies (I. 
xlix., s. 19,) Fleury observes — ' These miracles de- 
serve belief, if ever there were any which did so, 
since they are related in the Life of St. Anscaire by 
Rembert, his disciple and successor; and if we are 
. *'-'uitted to assort^ that there is any occasion on 



sing, when it is here proposed and presented 
to us ? ' The people were convinced by this 
discourse, and unanimously consented to the 
establishment of the Christian religion, and 
the residence of its ministers among them. 
Anscarius died ten years afterwards ; and the 
footsteps which he had traced in that rude 
soil were greatly defaced during the follow- 
ing century, though it is too much to assert 
that they were wholly obliterated. 

Russia, Poland and Hungary. Some ex- 
ertions were made for the conversioji of the 
Sclavonians about the middle of the ninth 
age ; but that event was not finally accom- 
plished until the conquest of Bohemia by 
Otho, in the year 950. In the same manner 
Basil, the Emperor of the East, in conjunc- 
tion with his patriarch Ignatius, endeavored 
to introduce into the heart of Russia the 
knowledge of the Gospel. An Archbishop 
was purposely ordained and sent on that mis- 
sion ; and a miracle, which was performett 
in the presence of the prince and his people, 
obtained a partial reception for the new reli- 
gion. This event occurred in 871 ; but the 
faith made little consequent progress, and its 
ministers were subjected to insult and perse- 
cution ; nor are we justified in assigning the 
complete conversion of that nation to a period 
earlier than the end of the tenth century. In 
989 Vladimer, Prince of the Russians, espous- 
ed the sister of the Emperors Basil and Con 
stantine, and embraced, in consequence, the 
Christian belief. He lived to an extreme ola 
age, and during a long reign found many im- 
itators ; his faith became the rule of their 
worship ; and the knowledge of its principles 
and the practice of its precepts were pre 
ceded, as in so many other instances, by its 
bare nominal * profession. About twenty 
years earlier the Duke of Poland, whose con- 
version is also attributed to the influence of a 
Christian Queen, promoted the spiritual re- 

which God might be expected to perform miracles it 
is doubtless in support of his infant Churches/ — a re- 
ligious and pious observation, to which we give our 
full assent. But the work of Rembert is lost, and 
our only accounts of Ansgarius are derived from the 
ancient chronicles. — See Baronius, Ann. 858, s. 14, 
15, &c. ; and Fleury, 1. xlix., s. 21, and 1. Iv , s. 19. 
* We are not to suppose that even the general pro- 
fession of the faith was immedi-ate : in fact we ob- 
serve that a pious missionary of the Roman Church, 
named Bruno or Boniface, was massacred in the ye&r 
1009, with several associates, by certain Russians 
whom he would have converted. His ardor for mar- 
tyrdom was roused by the sight of a church, dedica- 
ted at Rome to the ancient martyr Boniface.— See 
Fetrus Damiani ap. Baron. Ann. 996, s. 33, 



OREGORY VII. 



231 



generalion of his subjects; aiid, during the 
first year of the following age, Stephen, King 
or Duke of Hungary, undertook, with still 
greater zeal and success, the same holy en- 
terprise. 

The above facts, though so briefly stated, 
are perhaps sufficient to prove to us (and 
could we pursue them more deeply into de- 
tail the inference would be still clearer) that, 
in those days, the public preaching of pious 
individuals was extremely uncertain in its ef- 
fect upon the mass of the community, unless 
when supported by the example or authority 
of chiefe and princes. Nor is this surprising; 
for to nations wholly uncivilized and unin- 
structed it is almost hopeless to address the 
revelations of truth or the persuasions of rea- 
son. And accordingly we observe, that the 
Kttle perceptible success which attended those 
missionaries in their direct intercourse with 
the people is usually ascribed to their miraeu- 
lous powers, or possibly to the sanctity of 
their character-; seldom to their arguments 
or their eloquence. But it would have been 
the gi-eatest of all miracles had this been 
otherwise ; the barbarians were too deeply 
plunged in ignorance and superstition long 
to listen to any admonitions which were not 
addressed to them by the voice of power. 
And thus, when it pleased God in due season 
to bri«g them over to his own service, it may 
be that He vouchsafed to them some faint and 
occasional manifestations of his own omnipo- 
tence ; but it was certainly fi-om amongst the 
powers and principalities of this world, that 
he selected his most efficient earthly instru- 
ments. 

The JVormans and Turks. In the mean- 
time, during the accomplishment of these 
gradual and distant conquests, the Saracens 
had wasted the south of Italy, and approached 
the very walls of the pontifical city. On the 
other side, for their chastisement and expul- 
sion, a new and vigorous race presented itself) 
recently sent forth from the extremities of the 
North. And (what, besides, is a strange co- 
incidence, and deserving of more curious ob- 
servation than we can here bestow upon it) 
while the Norman Pagans were overspread- 
ing some of the fairest provinces of the West 
with fire and relentless desolation, the Turk- 
ish Pagans of the East were entering, even at 
the same moment, on their pestilential career 
of conquest. The former adopted the religion 
of the vanquished, and then, by the infusion 
of their own vigorous character, they made 
some compensation to Christendom for the 
wrongs which they had inflicted. In like 



manner did the Turks embrace the rehgion, 
while they overthrew the dynasty of the 
Arabs, who preceded them — and not their 
dynasty only, but their arts, their industry, 
and their genius. And, in the place of these, 
they substituted a savage and sullen despotism, 
alike destructive to the character and the fac- 
ulties, since its firmest principles are founded 
in superstition, and bigotry is the legitimate 
spirit by which it is warmed and animated. 
It is, indeed, true, that the Arabian invaders 
had devastated many flourishing Christian 
countries without justice and without mercy ; 
but it was no mild or insufficient retribution, 
which so soon subjected them to the deadly 
scourge of Turkish oppression. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

The Life of Gregory VH. 

We shall divide this long and important chap- 
ter into three sections. The first will contain 
the principal events which were brought about 
by the Popes who immediately preceded Gre- 
gory and acted under his influence. The sec- 
ond will describe the great ecclesiastical and 
political occurrences of his pontificate. In 
the third we shall consider separately the con- 
troversy concerning Berenger, and the general 
establishment of the Latin Liturgy. 

Section L 

Pope Leo IX. — Early History of Hildebrand — Succession 
of Victor II. — of Stephen IX. — of Nicholas II. — his 
Measure respecting Papal Election — the College of 
Cardinals — imperfection of that Measure — Subsequent 
and final Regulation — Inconveniences of popular Suf- 
frage — Restriction of the Imperial Right of Confirma- 
tion — Homage of Robert Guiscard and the Normans — 
Dissensions on the Death of Nicholas — Succession of 
Alexander II. — actual Supremacy of Hildebrand — 
Measures taken during that Pontificate — Alexander is 
succeeded by Hildebrand, under the title of Gregory 
VII. 

Great hopes were entertained that the disor- 
ders of Italy and the calamities of the Church 
would find some respite, if not a final tennin- 
ation, on the accession of Leo IX. This Pope 
(Bruno, Bishop of Toul), a native of Germany 
and of splendid reputation, as well for learning 
as for piety, was appointed by the Emperor 
Henry III. at the request of the Romans, and 
ascended the chair in the year 1049 ; and the 
dignity of his royal connexion confirmed the 
hopes which his personal virtues had excited. 
We are informed* that while he was proceed- 

* Giannoni, Storia di Napoli, 1. ix., s. 3. Mura- 
tori, Vit. Rom. Pontif., t. iii., p. 2. The earliest 



S32 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



ing through France into Italy in his pontifical 
vestments, he became acquainted at Cluni 
with a monk named Hildebrand; who pre- 
vailed upon him to lay aside those ornaments 
which he had prematurely assumed, to enter 
> Rome in the dress of a pilgrim, and there to 
receive from the Clergy and people that apos- 
tolical ofiice which no layman had the right 
to confer. The Pope was struck by the talents 
and character of this Monk, and carried him 
along with him to Rome. 

Hildebrand was probably a native of Saona, 
in Tuscany, and (so at least it is generally as- 
serted) of low origin;* yet he became early 
in life the disciple of Laurence, Archbishop 
of Melpha; presently he gained the notice 
and even the confidence of Benedict IX. and 
Gregory VI., and it was not till tlie death of 
the latter that he retired to the monastery of 
Cluni. From a retreat so little suited to his 
resdess spirit he was finally called by Leo IX. 
to that vast theatre of ecclesiastical ambition, 
in which so extraordinary a part was destined 
to himself 

Leo presided over the Church for five years : 
his reign was distinguished by some attempts 
at salutary reform, and especially by the fam- 
ous Council which he held at Rheims with 
tliat purpose (or under that pretext,) in defi- 
ance of the royal authority, f On his death 
the election of a successor was confided by 
the clergy of Rome to the judgment and ad- 
dress of Hildebrand. He selected Victor II., 
and obtained, by a difficult negotiation, | his 
confirmation from the Emperor. During this 
Pontificate he was sent into France as legate, 
and vigorously § maintained the authority of 



authority for tliis story seems to be Otho Frisingensis, 
who flourished in the middle of the following century. 
Wibertus, who was Leo's archdeacon and biographer, 
does not mention it. However, the two facts that 
Hildebrand accompanied him to Rome, and that he 
entered that city in the habit of a pilgrim, are not 
disputed. See Pagi, Breviar. Vit. Leo IX. 

* Both these facts are contested. In the Chronicle 
of Hugo Flaviniacensis it is expressly asserted that 
he was a Roman, born of Roman citizens; and Pa- 
penbrochius thinks it probable that he was of a noble 
family. Pagi (Vit. Greg. VII. s. 8.) admits that the 
truth cannot be clearly ascertained. 

t He made an unsuccessful campaign against the 
Normans, and was defeated by them in person tlie 
year before his death. On this occasion Hildebrand 
may have learnt the policy of cultivating their friend- 
ship. 

4: Leo Ostiensis, lib. ii., cap. 90. The Emperor 
professed extreme reluctance to part with his coun- 
sellor and favorite. 

§ He deposed six Bishops on various charges ' by 



the Holy See. Victor was succeeded in 1057 
by Stephen IX., and on his death, in the year 
following, a violent division arose among the 
electors. The nobles of Rome were for the 
most part united, and appear to have made 
a hasty and illegal choice ; but several Car- 
dinals, who had no share in this transaction, 
assembled at Siena and chose another * can- 
didate, who was finally confirmed and placed 
in possession of the See by the Empress, the 
mother of Henry IV. This candidate was 
Nicholas II. : and the difficulties which had 
attended his own election probably led hun, 
under the guidance of Hildebrand, his coun- 
sellor and patron, to that measure, which was 
the foundation of Papal independence. 

Enactment on Papal election. In a late 
chapter we briefly mentioned what that mea- 
sure was, and we shall now add a few remai-ks 
in illustration of it. ' We have thought prop- 
er to enact (says the Pontiflf ) that, upon the 
decease of the Bishop of this Roman Univer- 
sal Church, the aflTair of the election be treat- 
ed first and with most diligent consideration 
by the Cardinal Bishops ; who shall afterwards 
call into their council the Cardinal Clerks ; 
and finally require the consent of the rest of 
the Clergy and people.' f The term Cardinal 
had hitherto been adopted with very great and 
indefinite latitude in all the Latin Churches, 
and even applied to the regular orders, as well 
as to the secular Clergy ; but by this edict it 
was restrained to the seven Bishops who pre- 
sided in the city and territory of Rome, and 
to the twenty-eight Clerks or Presbyters, who 
were the ministers of the twenty -eight Roman 
parishes or principal Churches. These five- 
and-thirty persons constituted the College of 
Cardinals. The previous examination of the 
claims of the candidates rested with the Bish- 
ops, but they could not proceed to election 



the authority of the Roman See.' Respecting one of 
these it is recorded by several writers, that having 
been guilty of simony he became unable to articulate 
the offended name of the Holy Ghost, though he could 
pronounce those of the Father and the Son without 
any difficulty. Petrus Damiani, Epist. ad Nicolaum 
Papam. Desiderius Abbas Cassinensis., &c. &c. 

* ' Pope Stephen, by consent of the Bishops, Clergy, 
and Roman people, had ordained that at his death no 
successor should be chosen, except by the counsel of 
Hildebrand, then Subdeacon of Rome. Hildebrand 
chose Gerand, Bishop of Florence, who took the 
name of Nicholas II.' Hist. Litt. de la France, Vie 
Nich. II. See also Leo Ostiensis, lib. ii., cap. 101. 
Pagi, Breviar. Vit. Steph. IX. 

t Mosh. Cent, xi., p. ii., c. ii. The Cardinals 
were to be unanimous in their choice. Hist Litt. 
Franc, Vie Nich. II. . 



GREGORY VII. 



233 



except in conjunction with the Presbj^ters. [ 
The rest of the Clergy, the nobility, and the 
people, were excluded from any positive share 
m the election, but were allowed a negative 
suffrage in giving or withholding their con- 
sent. It was obvious, that this last provision 
would produce frequent disorder and confu- 
sion, and that those, who had been so sud- 
denly deprived of the most substantial part 
of their rights, would lose no opportunity of 
abusing that which remained to them. And 
it is probable that Hildebrand, when he coun- 
selled a measure of imperfect reform, was 
obliged to confine himself to what was at the 
moment practicable, reserving the completion 
of his design to some more favorable period. 

And so, indeed, it proved ; the nobles, the 
Clergy, and the populace continued very fre- 
quently to disturb the elections which they 
gradually lost the power to influence ; and it 
was not till the century following that Alex- 
ander III. found means to perfect the scheme 
of Hildebrand, and finally purify them from 
all such interference. Thenceforward the 
right of election was vested in the College * 
of Cardinals alone, and so it has continued to 
the present time. 

No one acquainted with the frightful f dis- 
orders which were the scandal of the Roman 
Church during the two preceding centuries, 
and vi^hich were occasionally felt even at much 
earlier periods, will affect to censure a mea- 
sure which removed the principal cause of 
them by subverting the system of popular 
election. In defence of a custom, which in 
principle was not calculated for a numerous 
society, and which had been condemned by 
the experience of at least five centuries, it was 
in vain to plead the venerable institution of 
antiquity. Universal in its origin, it had for 
some time been adopted in Episcopal elections 
throughout the whole of Christendom ; but 
as its inconveniences were multiplied by the 
increase of proselytes, it fell into gradual dis- 
use, first in the East, and afterwards in the 
Western Church ; and at the period which 
we are now describing, it was perhaps no- 
where in full operation except at Rome. The 
evils, which at Rome it had so pre-eminently 
produced, abundantly justify the wisdom of 
the Reformer.^ 

* The College received, on that occasion, some 
additions for the purpose of conciliating the aristoc- 
racy and the civil authorities ; but the people gained 
little or nothing by them. 

t Giannoni (Hist. Nap., 1. v., c. vi.) details them 
with great force. 

J Gibbon seems to have considered the Popes as 

30 



Imperial Confirmation. We have also men- 
tioned another important clause contained in 
the Edict of Nicholas ; that which reduced 
the imperial confirmation to a mere personal 
privilege, conferred indeed on Henry IIL, but 
liable to be withheld from his successors.* 
The long minority of that Prince, and the 
weakness of his government, favoured this 
usurpation, and accelerated the result which 
Hildebrand foresaw from it, namely, total 
emancipation from imperial interference. In 
fact, the very following Pontiff, Alexander 
II., maintained himself without the sanction, 
and even against the will, of the Emperor ; 
and though Gregory himself vouchsafed to 
defer his own consecration till Henry had rat- 
ified his election, succeeding Popes did not on 
any occasion acknowledge such right- as any 
longer vested in the Throne, but proceeded 
to the exercise of their office, without await- 
ing even the form of confirmation from Ger- 
many. Thus we perceive that the celebrated 
Council of 1059 was the instrument of finally 
accomplishing (and that at no very distant 
period) both the objects at which it aimed, 
without the power of immediately effecting 
either — the entire independence of papal elec- 
tion from the opposite restraints of popular 
suffrage and imperial confirmation. It is true 

endeared to the people by the practice of popular 
election. The affection of the Romans for their 
Popes (we speak not now of those earlier ages when 
all episcopal elections were popular) was probably 
confined to that period which intervened between their 
neglect by the Eastern Emperor and the accession of 
Charlemagne ; and during that interval, while en- 
dangered by the constant invasions of the Lombards, 
they were certainly and strongly attached to their 
leader by the sense of common peril. There are also 
other and more respectable reasons for that attach- 
ment. The Popes of that time were generally Ro- 
mans by birth, and known to their subjects, as they 
are known to posterity, by their piety and their vir- 
tues. The ecclesiastical revenues were employed to 
protect the Churches and convents against a barbarous 
and Arian foe; and the affection awakened by the 
merits of the Popes was multiplied by their services. 
See Sismondi, Republ. Ital., c. iii. 

* It is important to cite the words of this Edict. 
' Cardinales Episcopi diligentissima simul considera- 
tione tractantes raox sibi Clericos Cardinales adhi- 
beant, sicque reliquus Clerus et populus ad consensum 
novae electionis accedant. . . . Eligant autem 
de ipsius Ecclesige gremio, si repertus fuerit idoneus ; 
et si de ipsa non invenitur ex alia assumatur ; salvo 
debito honore et reverentia dilecti Filii nostri Henri- 
ci, qui imprsesentiarum Rex habetur, et futurus Tm- 
perator Deo concedente speratur, sicut jam ipsi con- 
cessimus, et successorum illius qui ab Apostolica 
Sede personaliter hoc jus impetraverint.' Pagi, 
Brev. Vit. Nicolai II., s. 7. 



234 



HISTORY OP THE CHURCH. 



that Hildebrand lived not to behold with his 
own eyes the completion of the work which 
he had projected; but such is commonly the 
fate of those who engage in comprehensive 
schemes of reformation, and whose measures 
are accommodated to their permanent fulfil- 
ment. The work which they build is not for 
the gratification of their own vanit}^, or the 
profit of their own days — it is enough for 
them that the structure proceeds with some 
immediate advantage and great promise of 
future excellence — the use and enjoyment of 
its perfection is destined to other generations. 

Another important event distinguished the 
pontificate of Nicholas. The Norman con- 
querors of the South of Italy being harassed 
on the one hand by the hostility of the Greek 
Emperor, and by the violent incursions of the 
Saracens on the other, imagined that they 
should improve their title to their conquests, 
and increase their security, if they held them 
as a fief from the See of Rome. The PontiflT 
readily availed himself of a concession, which 
implied the acknowledgement of one of the 
broadest principles of papal ambition. And 
thus he consented to receive the homage of 
the Normans, and solemnly to create Robert 
Guiscard Duke of Apulia, Calabria and Sicily, 
on condition that he should observe, as a faith- 
ful vassal, inviolable allegiance, and pay an an- 
nual * tribute, in proof of his subjection to the 
Apostolic See. The pei-manence of this feu- 
dal grant increases its claims on our attention ; 
and the kingdom of the two Sicilies, even as 
it now subsists, stands on that foundation. 
The nature of this ti-ansaction is so closely al- 
lied to that of others which we are now ap- 
proaching, that there is no difficulty in tracing 
It to the hand of Hildebrand. 

Alexander 11. On the death of Nicholas in 
1061, the dissensions which had disturbed his 
election were to some extent renewed. The 
more powerful party, under the guidance of 
Hildebrand, placed Alexander H. in the chair ; 
the Nobles resisted, and their opposition was 
encouraged by the direct support of the Em- 
peror ; whose confirmation had not been re- 
quired by the new Pope, and who was justly 
exasperated at the neglect. Nevertheless, the 
genius of Hildebrand triumphed over all dif- 
ficulties •, and after a contest of three years 
Alexander was firmly established in the chair, 

* ' Accepta prius ab iis, cum sacramento, Romanse 
ecclesiae fidelitate ; censuque quotannis per juga bourn 
singula denariis duodecim.' — Leo Ostiensis, lib. iii. 
cap. 15, The words of the oath are cited by Baron- 
ius. 



though it was still feebly disputed with him. 
He occupied it for twelve years, and passed 
the greater portion of that time in the retire- 
ment of Lucca or Monte Cassino— but the See 
lost nothing by his secession, since he intrust- 
ed its various interests and the entire direction 
of public affairs to the diligent zeal of Hilde- 
brand, who had been raised by Nicholas to 
the dignity of Archdeacon of Rome, and who 
exerted there an unbounded and undisguised 
authority.* 

Accordingly we find, during this pontifi 
cate, (1) that various attempts were made to 
reform the morals of the Clergy and the 
abuses of the Church — (2) that the famous 
question concerning Investitures was first 
moved — (3^ that, by a constitution of Alexan- 
der, no Bishop in the Catholic Church was 
permitted to exercise his functions, until he 
had received the confirmation of the Holy 
See f — (4) that the Emperor himself was sum- 
moned to Rome, to answer to the charge of 
simony, and other complaints which had 
reached the See respecting him. | Under 
these various heads we perceive the operation 
of the same master-spirit aiming steadily at 
the reform of the Church, at its independence, 
at the extension of papal authority over the 
episcopal order, and over the conduct and 
sceptre of Princes. 

Alexander II. died in 1073 ; and thus for 
four-and-twenty years Hildebrand had exer- 
cised in the Vatican an unremitting influence 
whidn had latterly grown into despotic au- 
thority — and thus far contented with the real- 
ity of pontificial power, he had not cared to 
invest himself with the name and rank. Per- 
haps he had thought the moment not yet ar- 
rived in which he could occupj^ the office 
with dignity, or fill it with gi-eat advantage ; 
probably he was desirous to complete, under 
other names, the train which he had been 
long preparing, and to which he designed to 



* The" foliowing contemporary verses perhaps do 
not much exaggerate the actual supremacy of Hilde- 
brand. 
' Papam rite colo, sed te prostratus adoro: 

Tu facis hunc dominum — te facit ille Deum. 

Vivere vis Romae'? clara depromito voce. 

Plus Domino Papae, quam Domno pareo Papae.' 

Petr. Damiani. 

t St. Marc, p. 460. Hallam (Midd. Ages, c. vii.) 
considers this provision to have contributed more than 
any other papal privilege, to the maintenance of the 
temporal influence, as well as the ecclesiastical su- 
premacy of Rome. 

X See Semler, cent. xi. c. 1, and Pagi, Vit. Alex- 
and. II. sect. 48. This part of Mosheim's history is 
exceedingly hurried and imperfect. 



GREGORY'S PONTIFICATE. 



235 



apply the torch in his own person ; it is even 
possible, that his severe and imperious char- 
acter, by aUenating popular * favor, rendered 
his election uncertain. It was not, assuredly, 
that he valued the security of a humbler post ; 
for, among the numerous vices with which he 
has been charged, the baseness of selfish tim- 
idity has never been accounted as one. At 
length, on the very day of Alexander's death, 
Hildebrand was elected his successor by the 
unanimous suffrage of the Cardinals, and the 
universal acclamation of the Clergy and peo- 
ple ; and that he might mark, at least, the 
beginning of his pontificate by an act of 
moderation, he waited for the Emperor's con- 
sent before his consecration. But it is true 
that he rather claimed than requested that 
consent, and that it was gi-anted with the 
graceless reluctance of impotent jealousy. 
He assumed the title of Gregory VII. ; and, 
after twelve years of restless exertion, he left 
that name invested with a portentous celebri- 
ty which attaches to no other in the annals of 
the Church. 

"Section II. — The Pontificate of Gregory, 

Gregory's First Council — its two objects — to prevent (1.) 
Marriage or Concubinage of the Clergy — (2.) Simoniacal 
Sale of Benefices — On the Celibacy of the Clergy — why 
encouraged by Popes — Leo IX. — Severity and Conse- 
quence of Gregory's Edict — Original Method of ap- 
pointment to Benefices — Usurpations of Princes — how 
abused — the Question of Investiture — Explained — Pre- 
text for Royal Encroachments — Original form of Con- 
secration by the King and Crown — Right usurped by 
Otho — State of the (Question at the Accession of Greg- 
ory — Conduct of Henrj' — further measures of the Pope — 
Indifference of Henry— Summoned before a Council at 
E.ome — Council of Worms — Excommunication of the 
Emperor and Absolution of his Subjects from their Al- 
legiance — Consequence of this Edict — Dissensions in 
Germany— how suspended— Henry does Penance at 
Canossa— restored to the Communion of the Church- 
again takes the field — Rodolphus declared Emperor — 
Gregory's Neutrality — Remarks on the course of Greg- 
ory's Measures— Universality of his temporal Claims— 
his probable project — Considerations in excuse of his 
Schemes — partial admission of his Claims — Ground on 
which he founded them— power to bind and to loose— 
Bleans by which he supported them — Excommunication 
— Interdict — Legates i Latere — Alliance with Matilda 
—his Norman "allies— German Rebels— internal Ad- 
ministration—Effect of his rigorous Measures of Reform 
—his grand scheme of Supremacy within the Church — 



* This is Sismondi's opinion, chap. iii. ; and we 
can readily believe, that the stern virtues of Gregory 
were not likely to recommend him to a venal popu- 
lace. Yet, when at length he did propose himself, 
we hear nothing of any opposition from that quarter, 
while the acclamations which attended his election 
are universally recorded. But, after all, that severi- 
ty of manner, which is known to be connected with 
an austere sanctity of life, is not an unpopular feature 
in tlie sacerdotal character. 



False Decretals — Power conferred by them on the Pope 
— brought into action by Gregory — Appeals to Pope — 
Generally encouraged and practised — their pernicious 
Effects— Gregory's do?tiZe Scheme of Universal Domin- 
ion — Return to Narrative — Clement III. anti-Pope — 
Death of Rodolphus — Henry twice repulsed from before 
Rome— finally succeeds— his Coronation by Clement — 
the Normans restore Gregory — he follows them to Sa- 
lerno and there dies— his historical importance— his 
Character — Public — his grand principle in the Admin 
istration of the Church — Private— as to Morality— as to 
Religion. 

In the year following his advancement, Greg- 
oiy assembled a numerous Council at Rome, 
chiefly for the purpose of correcting two 
abuses in Church discipline and government, 
which appeared most to require reform. 
These were (1) the marriage or concubinage 
of the Clergy ; (2) the simoniacal sale of bene- 
fices. 

1. Marriage of the Clergy. Most of the early 
Fathers were diligent in their endeavors to 
establish the connexion between celibacy and 
sanctity, and to persuade men that those who 
were wedded to the Church were contamin- 
ated by an earthly union. This notion was 
readily embraced by the Laity ; and many 
of the Clergy acted upon it without reluct- 
ance, owing to the greater commendation of 
austerity which the practice was found to con- 
fer upon them : still, in the Eastern Church, 
where it originated, it was never very rigidly 
enforced ; and a Council of Constantinople 
held in 691, pemiitted, with certain limita- 
tions, the ordination of married men. These 
Canons were never formally received in the 
West, where celibacy and strict continence 
were unrelentmgly enjoined on all orders of 
the priesthood. With whatsoever laxity the 
latter injunction may have been observed, 
there are not many complaints of the open 
violation of the former, at least from the end 
of the sixth, until the conclusion of the ninth, 
and the progress of the tenth century : but 
during this period the irregularity spread 
widely, and even displayed itself with undis- 
guised confidence throughout every branch 
of the Roman Hierarchy. The Popes were 
naturally averse to this relaxation of discipline 
— partly from the contmued prevalence of the 
original notion, that those were better qualifi- 
ed for spiritual meditations and offices who 
were severed from secular interests and affec- 
tions ; partly from the scandal thus occasion- 
ed to the prejudices of the laity ; partly from 
respect to established ordinances and usages ; 
partly from attachment to a principle, which, 
by withdrawing the Clergy from worldly 
connexions, bound them more closely to each 
other and to their Head. At any rate the evil 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



had now grown to so gi-eat a height, that it was 
become quite necessaiy either to repeal the 
laws so openly violated, or to enforce them. 
They chose the latter office, and the jfirst who 
distinguished himself in the difficult enter- 
prise was Leo IX. His immediate successors 
trod in his steps ; but as sufficient measures 
were not taken (perhaps could not have been 
taken) to carry these edicts into effect, they 
seem generally to have fallen to the ground 
without advantage, except in so far as they 
prepared the way for the more vigorous exer- 
tions of Gregory. 

In the above-mentioned Council it was or- 
dained — ' that the sacerdotal orders should 
abstain from marriage ; and that such mem- 
bers of them as had already wives or con- 
cubines should immediately dismiss them or 
quit the priestly office.' The more difficult 
part remained to enforce this decree ; and 
herein Gregor}^ did not confine himself to the 
legitimate weaj)on of spiritual censure, but 
also exerted his powerful influence to arm 
the temporal authorities in his service. Nu- 
merous disorders were the consequence of 
this measure ; at Milan * and in Germany the 
Edict was openly resisted, and many ecclesi- 
astics were found in every country, who pre- 
ferred the sacrifice of their dignities and inter- 
ests to the abandonment of those connexions 
which they held dearer than either.f The 



* At Milan a violent dispute on this subject had 
arisen between the Clergy and the Laity, under Ste- 
phen IX., in the year 1057. (Pagi, Vit. Steph. IX.) 
The schism continued under Nicholas II., who sent 
legates to compose it; but it still continued during 
the pontificate of Alexander. The Popes took part 
with the Laity against the married Clergy, who were 
named Nicolaites. 

t ' Malle se sacerdotium quam conjugium deserere.' 
Lambert. Schaffn. in Chronico. Gregory is much 
censured by Mosheim and others for not having dis- 
tinguished, in his sweeping decree, between the wives 
and the concubines of the Clergy ; and with justice, 
since he visited the violation of canonical law with 
the same severity with which he protected the eternal 
precepts of Christian morality. It must be admitted, 
however, that as his object was the entire and imme- 
diate extirpation of what he considered a scandalous 
abuse, he took the only means at all likely to accom- 
plish it. It was in vain that the Milanese Clergy 
pleaded the authority of St. Ambrose and the example 
of the Greeks — it was well known that the former pro- 
tected not those who admitted papal supremacy ; and 
that the Council, which permitted tlie latter, was never 
acknowledged by the Roman Church. It seems in- 
deed probable that St. Gregory was the first Pope 
■who rigidly enforced the practice of celibacy ; but for 
two centuries after his time, it was both the law and 
the practice of the Church, and in the two ages which 



confusion thus created was indeed gradually 
tranquillized by the progress of time, by the 
perseverance of the Pontiff, by the aid, per- 
haps, of the laity, by the inditference of the 
Sovereigns — but the practice itself was not so 
easily removed ; and though, through severe 
restraint, it proceeded constantly to abate, it 
continued in some degree to disturb the 
Church during the following century, and to 
call down the denunciations of her Popes and 
her Councils. 

2. Edict against Simony. Another Edict 
of the same Council forbade in the severest 
terms the sale of ecclesiastical benefices ; and 
the followmg circumstance made that Edict 
necessary. The Bishop was originally elect- 
ed by the Clergy and people of the diocese ; 
but in process of time, the people, as we have 
already seen, were in most places excluded, 
and the election rested with the Clergy alone. 
Presently, in the anarchy which prevailed 
after the dissolution of the Western Empire, 
the wealth which flowed into the coffers of 
the Church, as it brought with it no propor- 
tionate security, not only tempted the rapacity 
of the Nobles, but invited the usurpation of 
the Sovereigns. Thus, at an early period, 
long antecedent to the reign of Charlemagne, 
the Western Princes commenced their in- 
terference in Episcopal elections — first, as 
it would seem, by simple recommendation ; 
then by the interposition of threats and show 
of authority ; lastly, by positive appointment. 
The partial restoration of the right which took 
place in the ninth century, under Lewis the 
Meek and his successor, was probably confin- 
ed to the Church of France and to the life of 
Hincmar. 

Their next step was to abuse the privilege 
which they had usurped, and the manner of 
abuse was alike indecent and scandalous : 
the spoils of their injustice were retailed to 
their avarice ; and the most important charg- 
es and offices of the ministry were commonly 
and publicly sold to the highest bidder, with- 
out regard to literaiy qualification or sanctity 
of character, or the most obvious interests of 
religion. This was, in fact, the avowed cor- 
ruption which Gregory sought to remedy; 
and the specious object to which his exertions 
and those of his successors, through so many 
conflicts, tended, was to deprive the Prince of 
his usurped authority in Episcopal election. 

succeeded, though it had ceased to be the practice, it 
still continued the law. — See Bayle, Vie Greg. I. 
Flem-y, Discours sur 1' H. E. depuis 600 jusqu'k 
1100.' 



GREGORY'S PONTIFICATE. 



237 



A secondary view was closely attached to 
this, but not yet so boldly professed— to trans- 
fer that authority, if not in form, in* sub- 
stance, to the Pope. 

Investiture. Thus much appears exceed- 
ingly simple; but the point on which the 
dispute did in reality turn, and which has 
given the name to the contest, was one, as it 
might seem, of mere formality — the Investi- 
ture of the Bishop or Abbot. We must now 
shortly explain this part of the question ; and 
we shall thus become acquainted with the 
circumstances which are urged m justifica- 
tion of the royal claims. When the early 
conquerors of the West conferred territorial 
grants upon the Church, the individuals who 
came to the enjoyment of them were obliged 
to present themselves at Court, to swear alle- 
giance to the King, and to receive from his 
hands some symbol, in proof that the tempo- 
ralities were placed in their possession. The 
same ceremony, in fact, was imposed on the 
ecclesiastical as on the lay proprietor of royal 
fiefs ; and it was called Investiture. After- 
wards, when the Princes had usurped the 
presentation to all valuable benefices, even to 
those which had not been derived from royal 
bounty, they introduced no distinction found- 
ed on the different sources of the revenue, 
but continued to subject those whom they 
nominated, to the same oath of allegiance, 
and the same ceremony of investiture, with 
the laity. 

In the meantime it had been an early cus- 
tom, on the consecration of a Bishop, that the 
Metropolitan, who by right performed the 
ceremony, should place in the hands of the 
Prelate elect a ring and a crosier — symbols 
of his spiritual connexion with the Church, 
and of his pastoral duties. This was a form 
of investiture purely ecclesiastical, and the 
Princes, even afl;er they had usurped the pre- 
sentation to benefices, did not at first venture 
to make use of it; and, it is said, that they 
were finally led to do so by some artful at- 
tempts on the part of the Clergy to recover 
their original right of election. Mosheim (in 
opposition to m.any less celebrated writers) is 
of opinion that Otho the Great was the first 
Prince who ventured to present with profane 
hand the emblems of spiritual authority ; at 
least it is quite certain that this custom had 
been in very general use for some time before 
the accession of Gregory. And thus the tem- 
poral power had gradually succeeded in a 
double usurpation on ecclesiastical privileges 

* By conceding to him the right of confinnafion. 



— first, in despoiling the lower Clergy of their 
right of election — next, in encroaching upon 
the province of the Metropolitans, and pre- 
suming to dispense m their place the symbols 
of a spiritual office. 

As a partial palliation of the conduct of the 
throne it is maintained, that the homage re- 
quu'ed from the Bishop or Abbot at investi- 
ture was for his temporalities only ; and in so 
far as these were the feudal grants of former 
princes, the claim was manifestly just, but no 
farther than this. The crown could not fairly 
assert any suzerainty over the vast domains 
and enormous extent of property which had 
accrued to the Church from other quarters, 
before the establishment of the feudal system, 
and which, therefore, were not held on any 
feudal tenure ; nor can any sufficient plea be 
found for its general assumption of the dispo- 
sal of benefices (to say nothing of the flagi- 
tious manner in which they were retailed), 
and its adoption of a foi-m of investiture 
which was purely ecclesiastical. 

Such, as nearly as we can collect, was 
the state of this question, when Gregory pub- 
lished his edict against Simony in the year 
1074. The results of the Council were com- 
municated to the Emperor * Henry IV., who 
received the Legates courteously, and bestow- 
ed some unmeaning praise on the zeal of the 
Pope for the reform of his Church. But 
Gregory was not to be satisfied with expres- 
sions; and, as he intended to give general 
eflfect to his decrees, he desired permission 
to summon councils in Germany, by which 
those accused of simony might be convicted 
and deposed. Henry refused that permission, 
partly from the consciousness of his own 
criminality, partly because he was not really 
anxious for any reform which would curtail 
his own patronage. This opposition obliged 
the Pope to proceed one step farther. After 
pressing the execution of his former ordi- 
nances in a variety of letters, addressed, with 
various eflfect or inefficacy, to different princes 
and bishops, he convoked, early in the year 
following, a second council at Rome ; and, 
with its assistance, he proceeded to those- 
measures which he had proposed to accom- 
plish by synods in Germany, and, probably, 
somewhat beyond them. On this occasion 
he not only deposed the Archbishop of Bre- 
men and the Bishops of Strasbourg, Spires, 
and Bamberg, besides some Lombard Bish- 



* According to the church writers, King- only. 
He had not yet gone through the ceremony of cora^. 
natioaat Rome. 



238 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



ops, but also excommunicated five of the Im- 
perial Court, whose ministry the prince had 
used in simoniacal transactions. At the same 
time he pronounced his formal anathema 
against any one who should receive the in- 
vestiture of a Bishopric or Abbey from the 
hands of a layman, and also against all by 
whom such investiture should be performed.* 
Henry paid no other attention to this edict, 
than to repeat his former general acknow- 
ledgment of the existence of simony, and his 
intention, in future, to discourage it. 

Henry summoned to Rome. Some partic- 
ular differences, respecting the appointment 
to the See of Milan and other matters, tended 
at this moment to exasperate the growing 
hostility of Gregory and Henry ; it happened, 
too, that the latter was disturbed and weak- 
ened by civil dissensions, occasioned, in some 
degree, by his own dissolute and profligate 
rule, which, by distracting his forces, invited 
the aggression of his foreign enemies. It is 
even asserted (by Dupin) that the malcontents 
sent deputies to Rome to solicit the interfer- 
ence of the Pope. Such an application is 
rendered probable by the fact which we now 
proceed to mention, and which is a certain 
and a memorable monument of papal extrava- 
gance. Gregory sent Legates into Germany, 
bearing positive orders to the Emperor to 
present himself forthwith at Rome, since it 
became him to clear himself, before the Pope 
and his Council, fi*om various charges which 
his subjects had alleged against him. These 
charges might possibly be confined to ecclesi- 
astical offences, of which the Emperor had 
notoriously been guilty ; but never, before 
the days of Hiidebrand, had it been expressly 
asserted that he was amenable for such of- 
fences to any ecclesiastical tribunal. 

Excommunicated and deposed. He treated 
the summons as a wanton insult, and wan- 



* The words of the edict are: ' Si quis deinceps 
Episcopatum vel Abbatiam de manu alicujus laicee 
personge siisceperit, nuUatenus inter Episcopos vel 
Abbates habeatur, nee ulla ei ut Episcopo vel Abbati 
audientia concedatur. Insuper etiam gratiam B. Pe- 
tri et introitum Ecclesife interdicimus, quoad usque 
locum, quem sub crimine tam ambitionis quain ino- 
bedientije, quod est scelus idoiolatrise, cepit, deserue- 
rit. Similiter etiam de inferioribus Ecclesiasticis 
dignitatibus constituimus. Item si quis Imperatorum, 
Ducum, Marchionum, Comitum, vel quilibet secula- 
rium potestatum aut personarum investituram Epis- 
copatus, vel alicujus Ecclesiastic?e dignitatis dare 
praesumpserit, ejusdem sententiae vinculo se adstric- 
tum sciat.' Hugo Flaviniacensis, ap. Pag. Vit. 
Greg. VII., s. 26. 



tonly retorted it. He collected at Worms ^ 
a council of about twenty German Bishops 
(some of whom were already personally em- 
broiled with Gregoiy) ; and these prelates, 
after passing many censures on the conduct, 
election, and constitutions of Hiidebrand, pro- 
nounced him unworthy of his dignity, and 
accordingly deposed him. Gregory was not 
further disturbed by such empty denuncia- 
tions, than to take measures to return them 
much more effectually. In a full assembly 
of one hundred and ten Bishops, he suspend- 
ed from their offices the ecclesiastics who 
had declared against him ; he then pronoun- 
ced the excommunication of the Emperor ; 
and accompanied his anathema by the un- 
qualified sentence,, 'that he had forfeited the 
kingdoms of Germany and Italy, and that his 
subjects were absolved from their oath of 
fealty.' f 

This assertion of control over the allegi- 
ance of subjects was hitherto without prece- 
dent in the history of the Papal Church ; and 
it was now, for the first time, advanced to the 
prejudice of a monarch, whose character, 
though stained both by vices and weaknesses, 
was not wholly depraved nor universally odi- 
ous. Nevertheless, the edict of Gregory was 



* •' Quae legatio Regem vehementer permovit; sta- 
timque abjectis cum gravi contumelia Legatis, omnes 
qui in regno suo essent Episcopos et Abbates Wor- 
meticB Dominica Septuagesimas convenire prajcepit, 
tractare cum eis volens ad deponendum Romaniun 
Pontificem, si qua sibi via, si qua ratio pateret: in 
hoc cardine totam verti ratus salutem suam et 
regni stabilitatem, si is non esset JEpiscopus.' 
Lambert Schaftn. ad ann. 1076. 

t The words in which this celebrated sentence Vv'as 
conveyed should be recorded: ' Petre Apostolorum 
Princeps, etc. etc. Hac fiducia fretus pro Ecclesiae 
tuce honore et defensione, ex parte Omnipotentis Dei, 
Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti, per tuam potesta- 
tem et auctoritatem Henrico Regi, filio Henrici Im- 
peratoris, qui contra Ecclesiam tam inaudita superbia 
insurrexit, totius regni Teutonicorum et Italioe gu- 
bernacula contradico, et omnes Christianos a vinculo 
juramenti quod sibi fecere vel facient, ahsolvo; et 
ut nullus ei sicut Regi serviat, interdico. Dignum 
est enim, ut, qui studet honorera Ecclesise tuse immi- 
nuere, ipse honorem amittat quem videtur habere. 
Et quia Christianus contempsit obedire nee ad Dom- 
inum rediit, quem dimisit participandoexcommunica- 
tls et multas iniquitates faciendo, meaque monita, 
qucB pro salute sua sibi misi, te teste speryiendo, 
seque ab Ecclesia sua, tentans earn scindere separan- 
do, vinculo eum anathematis vice tua alligo, at sci- 
ant Gentes et comprobent quia Tu es Petrus, et 
super tuam Petram Filius Dei vivi aedificavit Eccle- 
siam suam, et portse Inferi non praevalebunt adversus 
earn.' Paul. Beruried., cap. 75; Pagi, Vit., Greg. 
VII., s. 42. 



GREGORY'S PONTIFICATE, 



239 



diligently promulgated throughout Germany ; 
nor was it idly cast into a kingdom already 
divided, and among a people already discon- 
tented and accustomed to rebellion. The 
Dukes of Swabia, headed by Rodolphus, 
presently rose in arms ; they were supported 
by a fresh revolt of the Saxons ; and there 
were those even among Henry's best friends, 
whose fidelity was somewhat paralyzed by 
the anathema under which he had fallen. 
After a short but angry struggle, an arrange- 
ment was made greatly to his disadvantage — 
that the claims and wrongs of both parties 
should be subjected to the decision of the 
Pope, who was invited to preside at a council 
at Augsbourg for that purpose ; and that, in 
the meantime, Henry should be suspended 
from the royal dignity. It is not easy to de- 
cide how much of this success should be at- 
tributed to the previous animosity of the 
parties opposed to Heniy, how much to a 
blind respect for the edict and authority of 
the Pope ; but the treaty to which all con- 
sented certainly implied an acknowledgment 
of the power which Gregory had assumed, 
and gave a sort of foundation and countenance 
to his future measures. 

Henry does penance at Canossa. Heniy, 
who had little to hope from a public sentence, 
to be delivered in the midst of his rebellious 
subjects by his professed enemy, determined 
to anticipate, or, if possible, to prevent his 
disgrace by an act of private submission to 
Pontifical authority. For that purpose he 
crossed the Alps with few attendants during 
the severity of an inclement winter, and pro- 
ceeded to Canossa, a fortress in the neighbor- 
hood of Parma, in which Gregory was then 
residing. In penitential garments, with his 
feet and head bare and unsheltered from the 
season, the Emperor presented himself at the 
gate of the fortress, as a sinner and a suppli- 
ant. His humble request was to be admitted 
to the presence of the Pontiflf and to receive 
his absolution. For three dreary days, from 
dawn till sunset, the proudest sovereign in 
Europe was condemned to continue his fast 
and his penance before the walls, and proba- 
bly under the eyes of Gregory, in solitary * 



* Henry is represented to have traversed the Alps 
at extreme risk by unfrequented roads, as the ordi- 
nary passes were guarded by his enemies; and Lam- 
bertus of Aschaffenbourg, a contemporary historian, 
describes the castle of Canossa as surrounded by a 
triple wall, within the second of which the Emperor 
was admitted to his penance, while the whole of his 
suite remained without the exterior. See Sismondi, 
Hist. Rep. Ital. c. iii. Paul. Bernried speaks of the 
insolita pap(E duritia shown on this occasion. 



and helpless humiliation. At length, on the 
fourth day, he was permitted to approach the 
person of the Pontiff, and was absolved from 
the sentence of excommunication. Yet even 
this favour was not vouchsafed him uncon- 
ditionally : * he was still suspended from the 
title and offices of royalty, and enjoined to 
appear at the Congress of Augsbourg and 
abide by the decision which should then be 
passed upon him. 

Henry soon discovered that he had gained 
nothing by this degradation, except contempt ; 
and after descending to the lowest humiliation 
which ever Prince had voluntarily undergone, 
he found himself precisely in his former situ- 
ation, with the Council of Augsbourg still 
hanging over his head. Of an useless sub- 
mission he repented vehemently ; he aban- 
doned himself to his feelings of shame and 
indignation, resumed his tide and his func- 
tions and prepared once more to confront his 
adversaries. The Saxons and Swabians im- 
mediately declared Rodolphus Emperor of 
Germany (in 1077) ; Henry was supported by 
the Lombards in Italy \ and a sanguinary war 
was carried on in both countries with various 
success and general devastation. For three 
years Gregory preserved the show, perhaps 
the substance, of neutrality ; he received the 
deputies of both parties with equal courtesy, 
and seemed to wish to profit so far only by 
their dissensions, as to engage them to aid 
him in the execution of his original edicts. 

* The oath which he took is given at length by 
Paulus Bernriedensis, Vit. Greg. VII. Sismondi de- 
signates the conduct of Gregory as ' une trahison 
insigne,' but not justly so;, since it cannot be shown 
that the Pope had bound himself by any engagement 
to the Emperor which he did not strictly fulfil ; the 
latter did penance for his contumacy towards the 
Church, and the Pope, in consequence, restored him 
to the Communion of the Church. The Council or 
Diet to be held at Augsbourg was a measure previ- 
ously arranged, to which many other eminent persons 
were parties; and it Avas intended for the settlement 
of political, at least as much as of ecclesiastical dif- 
ferences ; — whereas the penance at Canossa was 
merely a particular atonement to the See of Rome, 
not at all connected with the general maladministra- 
tion of Henry. In fact, Gregory's own- words are 
conclusive on the question. ' Henricus, confijsus et 
humiliatus ad me veniens absolutionem ab excomrau- 
nicatrone quaesivit. Quera ego videns humiliatum, 
multis ab eo promissionibus acceptis de vitte suae 
emendation*, soiam ei communionem reddidi; non 
tamen in regno instauravi, nee fidelitatem hominum 
qui sibi juraverant vel erant juraturi ut sibi serventur 
preecepi, &c.' See Mabill., Vit. Greg. VII., c. 107. 
Pagi, Vit. Greg. VII., s. xliii. Denina,-Delle Rivol 
dTtalia, lib. x.jC. vi. 



240 



HISTORY OP THE CHURCH. 



But in the year 1080, decided, as some say, 
by the misfortunes, as others assert, by the 
crimes * of Henry, he pronounced a second 
sentence of deposition, and confen-ed upon 
Rodolphus the crown of Germany, f 

Temporal claims of Gregory. Thus far we 
have traced, witliout much comment, the rapid 
but regular progress of Gregory. The first 
measure, as we have seen, in his temporal 
usurpation (for in his earliest decrees against 
Church abuses he did not exceed the just 
limits of his authority,) was to declare the 
Emperor amenable to a Papal court of judi- 
cature, and to summon him before it; the 
next was to deprive him of his throne and to 
absolve his subjects from their oath of allegi- 
ance ; the last was to dispose of the empire, 
with absolute authority, as a fief of St. Peter. 
Without further examination we might at 
once have concluded, that claims so extrava- 
gant and irrational were merely the passionate 
ebullitions of a feeble spirit, irritated by per- 
sonal pique or effeminate vanity. But this 
was not so ; the claims in question were ad- 
vanced by the most vigorous and consistent 
character of his age, and they were pressed 
with a deliberate and earnest zeal which 
evinced a conviction of their justice. They 
were not confined to the dominions of Henry ; 
they displayed themselves in every state and 
province of Europe. The kingdom o^ Prance 
was declared tribuatry to the See of Rome, 
and Papal legates were commissioned to de- 
mand the annual payment of the tribute, X by 
virtue of the true obedience due to that See 
by every Frenchman. And the King himself 
(Philip I.) was reminded 'that both his king- 
dom and bis soul were under the dominion 
of St. Peter, who had the power to hind and 
to loose both in Heaven and on earth.' Saxony 
was pronounced to be held on feudal tenure 
from the Apostolic chair and in subjection 

* Sismondi, whose partialities are against Gregory 
and the Church, says respecting Henry, that ' his 
character was generous and noble ; but he abandoned 
himself with too little restraint to the passions of his 
nge ;' and those passions undoubtedly led him to 
the commission of great political offences. Private 
excesses may sometimes find their excuse in youth; 
but the vices of Kings deserve less indulgence, since 
they usually influence the morals and happiness of 
their subjects. A less favorable, but probably a more 
correct view of the character of Henry is taken by 
Denina. Delle Rivoluz. d'ltaiia, lib. x., c. v. 

f The act and the authority for "it were expressed 
in a hexameter verse, inscribed on the crown which 
Gregory sent to Rodolph — 

Petra dedit Petro, Petrus diadema Rodolpho. 

X Per verani obedientiam. 



to it. It was pretended that the kingdom of 
Spain had been the property of the Holy See 
from the earliest ages of Christianity. Wil- 
liam the Norman, after the conquest of Eng- 
land, was astonished to learn that he held that 
country as a fief of Rome and tributary to it. 
The entire feudal submission of the kingdom 
of JVaples has been already mentioned. No- 
thing was so lofty as to daunt the ambition 
of Gregory, or so low as to escape it. The 
numerous Dukes or Princes of Germany, 
those of Hungary, of Denmark, of Russia, of 
Poland, of Croatia and Dalmatia, were either 
solicited to subject their states to the suzerainty 
of St. Peter, or reminded of their actual sub- 
jection. And the grand object of Gregory 
is probably not exaggerated by those who 
believe that be designed to re-establish the 
Western * empire on the basis of opinion, and 
to bind by one spiritual chain to the chair of 
St. Peter the political governments and ever- 
conflicting interests of the universal kingdom 
of Christ, f 

Are we astonished at the magnificence, or 
do we laugh at the wildness of this project.? 
Let us first inquire by what means the mighty 
architect proposed to combine and consolidate 
his structure. Gregory seriously designed to 
regulate his truly Catholic empire by a coun- 
cil of bishops, who were to be assembled at 
Rome annually, with full power to decide the 
diflferences of princes both with each other 
and with their subjects ; to examine the rights 
and pretensions of all parties, and to arbitrate 
in all the perplexed concerns of international 
policy. If we can, indeed, imagine that Gre- 
gory was animated by that general spirit of 



* Thus, in effect, the Western empire of which 
the foundations were really laid at the coronation 
of Charlemagne, was not the temporal dominion at 
which the Prince aspired, and which so soon passed 
away from his sceptre, but that spiritual despotism, 
affected by the Priest, and which was much more 
extensive, as it was much more durable. 

t Amid this multiplicity of objects, which divided 
without distracting the mind of Gregory, he did not 
allow himself to forget either the schism or calamities 
of the East; he even projected to remedy both by 
personally conducting an army against the Mahome- 
tans. This is mentioned in a letter to Henry, written 
in 1074, in which, after some mention of his project, 
he adds — ' Illud enim me ad hoc opus permaxime in- 
stigat, quod Constantinopolitana ecclesia de Spiritu 
Sancto a nobis dissidens concordiam Apostolicae Sedis 
expetat, &c.' Pagi, Vit. Greg. VH., s. xx. We 
may observe that, among the numerous points of dif- 
ference which had in latter times grown up between 
the two Churches, and had been exaggerated with 
such intemperate zeal by both, the eye of Gregory 
notices one only. 



GREGORY'S PONTIFICATE. 



241 



philanthropy which is ever found to burn 
most brightly in the noblest minds ; if he 
really dared to hope that his project would 
reconcile the quarrels of the licentious princes 
of his day, or remedy the vices of their gov- 
ernments, or alleviate the misery of the people 
who were suffering equally from both those 
causes — we may smile at the vanity of the 
vision, but we are bound to respect the mo- 
tive which created it. Nor is it only the po- 
litical degradation of Europe which we are 
called upon to consider, before we may pro- 
nounce sentence upon that Pontiff; we must 
also make great allowance for the principles 
of ecclesiastical supremacy which had already 
taken root before his time, which had been 
partially acted upon, and which, to a certain 
extent, were acknowledged — for the necessary 
confusion of temporal with spkitual authority, 
which the feudal system had still worse con- 
founded, so that then* limits were indiscerni- 
ble, inviting both parties to mutual aggression 
— and for the usurpations which the crown 
had already made on the privileges of the 
Church, and the evil purposes to which it 
had turned them. These circumstances, when 
duly and impartially weighed by us, will miti- 
gate the astonishment which the bare recital 
of Gregory's proceedings is calculated to 
awaken, and moderate the indignant censure 
with which the example of other wi-iters 
might dispose us to visit them. 

We are not, however, to imagine, that the 
Pope's extraordinary claims were universally 
admitted. The King of France refused the 
tribute demanded of him ; the conqueror of 
England consented to the tribute (called Pe- 
ter's pence,) but disclaimed allegiance. Vari- 
ous success attended his attempts on the other 
states, according to the variety of then* strength 
or weakness, or the circumstances of their ac- 
tual politics. But at the same time, the mere 
fact that such claims were confidently asserted 
and repeated obstinately, that in many instan- 
ces they were practically assented to, and very 
rarely repelled with vigour and intrepidity, 
persuaded ignorant people (and almost all 
were ignorant) that there was indeed some 
real foundation for them, and that the Holy 
See was, in truth, invested with some vague 
prescriptive right of universal control, and 
surrounded by mysterious, but inviolable 
sanctity. 

We must add a few words, both respecting 
the grounds on which Gregory founded those 
claims, and the means which he employed to 
enforce them. As to the former, it does not 
appear that he openly availed himself of the 
31 



gi'and forgery of his predecessors, or at least 
that he justified any of his pretensions by di- 
rect appeal to the ' donation of Constantino ;' 
unless, indeed, it were assumed that the uni- 
versal rights of St. Peter over the Western 
Empire originated in that donation. Re- 
specting Spain, for instance, he particularly 
admitted that, though that country was among 
the earliest of the pontifical possessions, the 
grant which made it so had perished among 
other ancient records. *' In treating with 
those provinces which had formed no part 
of the Western Empire, he seems to have as- 
sailed them severally as the circumstances of 
their history happened to favor his demands. 
Saxony, for example, he asserts to have been 
bestowed on the Roman See by the piety of 
Charlemagne. Some among the smaller states 
were merely exhorted to make a cession of 
their territories to St. Peter ; by which it was 
admitted that the apostle had yet obtained no 
rights over them. Some of them made such 
cession, and thus encouraged the arrogance 
of Gregory and the aggressions of future pon- 
tiffs. 

The power possessed by the successors of 
St. Peter ' to bind and to loose ' was not con- 
fined by them to spu'itual affairs, however 
wide the extremities to which they pushed it 
in these matters. It was extended also to 
temporal transactions, and so far extended as 
to be made the plea of justification with a 
Pope, whenever he presumed to loose the 
sacred bonds of allegiance which connect the 
subject with the sovereign. It would be difii- 
cult, perhaps, to produce a more certain index 
of the character of religious knowledge, and 
the degradation of the reasoning faculty, which 
prevailed in those days, than by exhibiting that 
much perverted text as the single basis on 
which so monstrous a pretension rested and 
was upheld. 

Power of Gregory. Secondly — The appall- 
ing influence of anathema and excommunica- 
tion f over a blind and superstitious people 
had long been known and frequently put to 
trial by preceding Popes ; and the still more 
formidable weapon of Interdict began to be 

* Lib. X., epist. 28. 

t The frequent use and abuse of excommunication 
by all orders of the priesthood had greatly diminished 
the terror and efficacy of the sentence even in much 
earlier ages. We find the councils of the ninth cen- 
tury continually legislating for the purpose of restoring 
their weight to both ecclesiastical weapons. By the 
Council of Meaux (held in 845) it was especially 
enacted, that the anathema could not be pronounced 
even by a bishop, unless by the consent of the arch- 
bishop and the other bishops of the province. 



242 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



valued and adopted about the time of Gregory. 
Extraordinary legates,* whose office suspend- 
ed the resident vicars of the pontiff, had been 
sparingly commissioned before the end of the 
tenth century ; they now became much more 
common, and fearlessly exercised their un- 
bounded authority in holding councils, in 
promulgating canons, in deposing bishops, 
and issuing at discretion the severest censures 
of the Church. But it was not concealed from 
the wisdom of Gregory that temporal author- 
ity could not surely be advanced or perma- 
nently supported without temporal power. 
Accordingly he cemented his previous alli- 
ance with the Normans of Naples ; and also 
(which was still more important, and proved, 
perhaps, the most substantial among his tem- 
poral conquests) he prevailed upon Matilda, 
the daughter and heiress of Boniface, Duke 
of Tuscany, to make over her extensive terri- 
tories to the apostle, and hold it on feudal 
tenure from his successors. By these means 
the ecclesiastical states were fortified, both on 
the north and south, by powerful and obedient 
allies, while the disaffection of Henry's sub- 
jects created a great military diversion in the 
Pope's favor in Saxony and Swabia. 

Objects of Gregory in the internal adminis- 
tration of the Church. Let us return for a 
moment to the internal administration of the 
Church. We are disposed to think that the 
very vigorous measures which Gregory em- 
ployed for what he considered its reform were 
favorable, upon the whole, to the success of 
his other projects. We may obsei-ve that 
these were of two descriptions, one of which 
tended to restore the discipline of the clergy ; 
tlie otlier to reduce the ecclesiastical orders 
into more direct subjection to the Papal See. 
It is true that, by the former of these, great 
disaffection was excited among such as suf- 
fered by them ; that is, among those who had 
been already living in open disobedience to 
the canons of the Church ; but such, it is pro- 
bable, were not the most numerous, as cer- 
tainly they were the least respectable portion 
of the body. The same severity which of- 
fended them would naturally gratify and attach 
all those^ whose religious zeal and austere 
morality secured them greater influence in 
the Church and deeper veneration from the 
people. So that, notwithstanding the clamors 
of the moment, we doubt not that the Pope 
was substantially a gainer by his exertions ; 
and that (like every judicious reformer) he 
extended his actual power and credit with 



* Called Legates d latere — sent fcom. the side of 
*''e Pope.. 



only the partial loss of a worthless popu- 
larity. 

The second object of Gregory in his eccle- 
siastical government has not yet been men- 
tioned by us. It seems to have been no less 
than to destroy the independence of national 
Churches ; and to merge all such local dis- 
tinctions in the body and substance of the 
Church universal, whose head was at Rome. 
For the effecting of this mighty scheme he 
used every exertion to loosen the connexion 
of bishops and abbots with their several sove- 
reigns, and to persuade them that their alle- 
giance was due to one master only, the suc- 
cessor of St. Peter. And to that end he very 
readily availed himself of the materials which 
he found prepared for his purpose^ and which 
had been transmitted to him undisputed by so 
many predecessors, that it probably never 
occurred to him to doubt their legitimacy. 
The false decretals contained the canons 
which he sought ; and Gregory had the bold- 
ness at length to bring them forth from the 
comparative obscurity in which they had re- 
posed for above two hundred and fifty years, 
and openly to force them into action. We 
have mentioned the nature of those decretals 
— they were a series of epistles professing to 
be written by the oldest bishops of Rome, the 
Anacletes, Sixtus the First and Second, Fa- 
bian, Victor, Zephyrinus, Marcellus, and oth- 
ers.* They recorded the primitive practice in 
the nomination to the highest ecclesiastical 
offices, and in that and many other matters 
ascribed authority almost unlimited to the 
Holy See. It is worth while here to particu- 
larize, even at the risk of repetition, some of 
the points on which they most insisted. (1.) 
That it was not permitted to hold any council, 
without the command or consent of the pope :, 
a regulation which destroyed the independ- 
ence of those local synods, by which the 
Church was for many centuries governed. 
(2.) That bishops could not be definitely judg- 



* The first collection of canons made in the west 
was the work of a Roman monk named Dionysius, 
who Kved in the sixth century. This was followed 
by many others ; but that which gained the greatest 
celebrity was the one ascribed to St. Isidore, Bishop 
of Seville; and it had great prevalence in Gaul as 
well as in Spain. Guizot remarks that it was in the 
North and East of France that the ' false decretals ' 
first made their appearance, in the beginning of the 
ninth century. (Hist, de la Civ. en Finance, Le^on, 
27.) The collection of decrees, known by the name 
of Dictatus Hildebrandini, and falsely ascribed to 
Gregory VII., is generally held to be the next forgery 
which disgraced the principles and swelled the au- 
thority of the Roman Churclu 



GREGORY'S PONTIFICATE. 



243 



ed, except by the Pope. (3.) That the light of 
episcopal translation rested with the Pope 
alone. (4.) That not only every bishop, but 
every priest, and not the clergy only, but every 
individual,* had the right of direct appeal 
from all other judgments to that of the Pope. 
— These rights, and such as these, had been 
neglected or vainly asserted by the Roman 
See during the long period of imbecihtyf 
which followed their forgery ; but the spu- 
riousness of their origin had never been ex- 
posed or suspected ; and the simpUcity of 
every succeeding generation added to their 
security, their antiquity, and then" respecta- 
bility. Gregory at length undertook to give 
them full efficacy ; and though none were 
ceded or overlooked by hun, that which he 
appears most earnestly to have pressed was 
the Pope's exclusive jurisdiction over the 
whole episcopal order : to this end he en- 
forced universal appeal to Rome. Orders to 
attend before the pontifical court were issued 
to every quarter of Europe ; and they gene- 
rally met with obedient attention, not only 
from those whose prmciples sincerely ac- 
knowledged such spiritual supremacy, or 
who expected from their submission a more 
favorable sentence, but also from the gi*eat 
mass of offenders, who naturally preferred a 
distant and ecclesiastical tribunal to tlie close 
judicial inspection of a temporal magistrate. 
The good which Gregory proposed from this 
system could be one only, and that a very 
ambiguous advantage — to secure the independ- 
ence of the Church, or, in fact, to withdraw it 
from the control of aU secular power, and 
subject it to one single spiritual despot. The 
evils which he occasioned were numerous 
and of most serious magnitude — to create and 
nourish inextinguishable dissensions between 
princes and their clergy, to retard and perplex 
the operations of justice, and to multiply the 
chances of a partial or erroneous decision.^ 



* Fleury, 4'"e Disc, sur H. E. sect. v. 

+ Pope Nicholas I., who ruled from 858 to 867, is 
the principal exception to this remark: he is described 
by contemporary chronicles as the greatest pontiff since 
the days of St. Gregory — kind and lenient in his 
treatment of the clergy, but bold and imperious in his 
intercourse with kings. His conduct to Hincmar in 
the affair of Rothadus is at seeming variance with 
part of this eulogy; but though Nicholas was trium- 
phant both in that dispute and in the more important 
difference with Lothaire, neither he nor any other 
Pope under tlie Carlovingian dynasty could establish, 
in France at least, the claim first mentioned in the 
text. The emperors continued to convoke all councils 
and to confirm their canons. 

\ Gregory also obliged the Metropolitans to attend 



His double scheme of universal dominion. 
In the prosecution of this history we have 
frequently lamented the necessity of dismiss- 
ing some important event or useful specula- 
tion with a few hasty and unsatisfactory sen- 
tences, and especially do we lament it at this 
moment. But enough may possibly have 
been said to give the reader some insight into 
the DOUBLE scheme of universal dominion to 
which the vast ambition of Gregory was di- 
rected — enough to make it evident how he 
projected, in the first place, to unite under the 
suzerain authority of St. Peter and his suc- 
cessors the entire territory of Christian Eu- 
rope, so as to exert a sort of feudal jurisdiction 
over its princes, and nobles, and civil govern- 
ors ; and, in the next place, to establish through- 
out the same wide extent of various and di- 
versely constituted states one single spiritual 
monarchy, of which Rome should be the centre 
and sole metropolis ; a monarchy so pure and 
undivided, that every individual minister of 
that church should look up to no other earthly 
sovereign than the Pope. Such does indeed 
appear to have been the stupendous scheme 
of Gregory VII. We have already seen by 
what measures he proceeded to its execution, 
and we shall now trace his extraordinary 
career to its conclusion. 

Henry advances to Rome. The election of 
a new Emperor by the Pope was very rea- 
sonably retorted by the election of a new 
Pope by the Emperor ; and Clement III. was 
exalted to the honor of being the rival of 
Gregory. But a much more sensible injury 
was inflicted on the fortunes of that pontiff 
immediately afterwards by the defeat and 
death of Rodolphus. That prince received a 
mortal wound in battle in the year 1080 ; and 
with him was extinguished the sphit of rebel- 
lion, or at least the hope of its success. Hen- 
ry immediately turned his victorious arms 
against Italy ; the opposition presented to him 
by Matilda and the Tuscans he overcame or 
evaded, and advanced with speed and in- 
dignation to the gates of Rome. From his 
dreams of universal empire — from the lofty 
anticipations of princes suppliant and nations 
prostrate m allegiance before the apostolic 



at Rome from all countries, in order to receive the 
pallium at his hands. This, together with the appeal 
system, kept that capital continually crowded with 
foreign prelates, with great vexation to themselves, 
willi great detriment to their dioceses, and with no 
real profit to the Catholic Church. In the meantime, 
it is certain that mere papal influence gained by this 
system; for all authority, to be always respected, must 
sometimes be felt ; but unfounded and irrational au- 
thority most chiefly so 



244 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, 



throne, Gregory was rudely awakened by the 
shouts of a hostile army, pressing round the 
Imperial City. But he woke to the tasks of 
constancy and courage ; and so formidable a 
show of resistance was presented, that Henry, 
after desolating the neighboring country, with- 
drew, without honor or advantage, to the cities 
of his Lombard allies. 

Not deterred by this repulse, he renewed 
his attempt early in the spring following, and 
encountered the same opposition with the 
same result. The soldiers of Germany re- 
tired for the second time before the arms of 
the un warlike Romans and the name of Gre- 
gory. But in the succeeding year (1084,) the 
efforts of the Emperor were followed by 
greater success. The citizens, wearied by 
repeated invasions, and suffering from the 
ravages attending them, abandoned that which 
now appeared the weaker cause — on this third 
©ccasion they threw open their gates to Hen- 
ry, and to Clement, the Antipope, who follow- 
ed in his train. Henry placed his creature on 
the throne of Gregory, and the exultation of 
that moment may have rewarded him for the 
bittei*ncss of many reverses. The measure 
which he next adopted should be carefully 
noticed, since it proves the veneration which 
was exacted even from him by the See itself, 
without consideration of its occupant. By an 
immediate act of submission to the chair 
which his own power had so recently be- 
stowed, he solicited the Imperial Crown from 
the hand of Clement, and he received it amid 
the faithless salutations of the Roman people. 
In the meantime, his victory was neither 
complete nor secure : from the Casde of St. 
Angelo, Gregory sui-veyed in safety the partial 
overthrow of his fortunes, and awaited the 
succors from the south with which he pur- 
posed to repair them. Robert Guiscard — 
whether mindful of his feudal allegiance, or 
jealous of the Emperor's progress — was al- 
ready approaching at the head of his Norman 
warriors ; Henry and his Pope retired with 
precipitate haste, and Gregory was tmnultu- 
ously restored to his rightful dignity. 

Beath of Gregory. The success of the Nor- 
mans was disgraced by the pillage of a large 
portion of the city : this circumstance depress- 
ed still further the declining popularity of the 
Pope, and he had learnt by his late experience 
how little he could confide in the capricious 
allegiance of the Romans.* Accordingly, on 
the return of Robert to his own dominions, 
Gregoiy followed him, and retired, first to the 

* * Gli umori sempre diversi del popolo Romano.' — 
Denina, Riv. d' Ital., lib. x., c. 8. 



monastery of Monte Cassino, afterwards to 
Salerno. It is recorded that, on this occasion, 
Robert would have profited by the weakness 
or the gratitude of Gregoiy, to obtain frona 
him the concession, on the part of the Church, 
of some disputed feudal right of no great im- 
portance, but that the Pope resisted the soli- 
citations of his protector in the very centre of 
his camp. And, no doubt, his persevering 
and fearless spirit was still meditating the re- 
occupation of his chair, and the prosecution of 
his mighty projects. But such anticipations 
Vvere speedily cut short, and in the year 1085, 
very soon after his arrival at Salerno, he died.* 
He concluded a turbulent pontificate of twelve 
years in misfortune, in exile^ with little honor, 
with few lamentations;! without having wit- 
nessed the perfect accomplishment of any 
portion of the project which had animated his 
existence, and even at the very moment when 
it appeared most hopeless. He died — but he 
left behind him a name, which has arrested 
with singular force the attention of history, 
which has been strangely disfigured indeed 
by her capricious partiality, but which has 
never been overlooked, and will never be for- 
gotten. He did more than that ; — he left be- 
hind him his spu'it, his example, and his prin- 
ciples ; and they continued, through many suc- 
cessive generations, to agitate the policy and 
influence the destinies of the whole Christian 
world. 

His Character. The latest words of Greg- 
ory are recorded | to have been these : — ' I 
have loved justice and hated iniquity ; there- 



* These are Semler's words: — Gregorius. . .tantis 
ausibus ipse immortuus est ; nulli jam parti carus aut 
amatus; diu omnibus, execralionibus, scommatibus, 
satiris, mendaciis-que post mortem oneratus — Sec. 
xi. c. 1. 

■f Guillielmus Apuliensis, a poetical eulogist of 
Gregory, sings, that Robert Guiscard, who would have 
beheld with tearless eyes the death of his father, his 
son, and his wife, was moved to weakness by that of 
Gregory r — 

Dux non se lacrymis audita forte coercet 

Morte viri tanti: non mors patris amplius ilium 

Cogeret ad lacryraas, non filius ipse nee uxor, 

Extremos etsi casus utriusque videret. 

Pagi, Vit. Greg. VII. sect. cxt. 

I Millot, Hist, de la France. They are given 
somewhat differently by Paulus Bernriedensis : — 
' Ego, fratres mei dilectissimi, nullos labores meos 
alicujus moment! facio, in hoc solummodo confidens, 
quod semper dilexi justitiam et odio habui iniquita- 
tera.' And when his friends who were present ex- 
pressed some anxiety respecting his future condition, 
he stretched forth his hands to Heaven, and said> 
' lUuc ascendam ; et obnixis precibus Deo propitio 
vos comraittam.' 



GREGORY—HIS DEATH AND CHARACTER. 



245 



fore I die in exile ;' words which seem to in- 
dicate a discontented spirit, reluctantly bend- 
ing before the decrees of Providence. But 
the same complaint may also have proceeded 
from a sense of pious intention, and the re- 
collection of duties conscientiously performed. 
It becomes us then to inquire, in what really 
consisted that justice which he loved, and 
that iniquity which he hated ? what were the 
principles which guided his public life ? what 
were the habits which regulated his private 
conversation ? The leading, perhaps the only, 
principle of his public life was to reform, unite, 
and aggrandize the Church over which he pre- 
sided, and especially to exalt the office which 
he filled. He may have been very serious 
and sincere in that principle — he may even 
have considered, that the whole of his duties 
were contained in it, and that he was bound 
to pursue it through every danger and diffi- 
culty, as a churchman and a pope. This was 
his grand and original delusion, and here alone 
can we discover any trace of narrowness and 
littleness. And yet there have existed so many 
good men in all ages, even in the most en- 
lightened, who have mistaken their own form 
of faith for the only true faith, and held their 
own particular church to be synonymous with 
the Church of Christ, that the error of Greg- 
ory will meet with much sympathy, though 
it can deserve no pardon. But when we ob- 
serve the measures into which it betrayed 
him, and through which he followed it with 
deliberate hardihood ; when we recollect the 
profusion of blood which flowed through his 
encouragement or instigation, for the support 
of an ambitious and visionary project ; and, 
more than that, when we compare the nature 
of that project with the humble, and holy, 
and peaceful system of Christ, whose gospel 
was in the pontiffs hands, and whose blessed 
name was incessantly profaned for the support 
of his purposes — it is then that we are obliged 
to regard him with unmitigated disgust. His 
endeavors to reform the morals of his clergy 
and the system of his church * will only be 



* Some writers have represented Gregory as an 
enemy to innovation, as one of those characters who 
have placed their pride in keeping the age stationary, 
and perpetuating all that was transmitted to them. 
Had Gregory been such a man, he had been long ago 
forgotten. Far otherwise: he was the greatest of all 
innovators ; but, like Charlemagne and Peter of Rus- 
sia, he marched to his object by the road of despo- 
tism. The reforms which he projected, in affairs 
civil, political, and ecclesiastical, embraced every in- 
terest and reached every department of society ; but 
it was by the establishment of a spiritual monarchy — 
a sort of papal theocracy — that he proposed to com- 



censured by those who prefer diseases to their 
remedies, or who think it dangerous to apply 
any remedy to ecclesiastical corruption— and 
over such persons the sceptre of reason has 
no control. But his claims of temporal sove- 
reignty, his usurpation of spiritual supremacy, 
his lofty bearing, and pontifical arrogance, 
were so widely at variance with the spirit of 
that book * on which his church was origin- 
ally founded, that we must either suppose him 
wholly to have disdained its precepts, or to 
have strangely f misinterpreted them. 

In descending to the personal character of 
Gregory, we may first observe, that he was 
superior to the spirit of intolerance, which 



pass them. Guizot has somewhere made this obser- 
vation : he has further attributed to Gregory two er- 
rors in the conduct of his plan, but not (as it seems 
to us) with equal justice. He blames that pope for 
having proclaimed his plan too pompously, menacing 
when he had not the means of conquering; and also 
for not having confined his attempts to what might 
fairly seem practicable. Guizot appears for the mo- 
ment to have forgotten on what uncertain ground the 
papal power really rested ; how much of it was built 
on mere claims, disputed perhaps at first, but finally 
established and enforced by mere impudent importu- 
nity — the very advance of such claims by one pope 
was always a stepping-stone for his successors. Again, 
in treating of what was practicable by Gregory, if 
we well consider the peculiar nature of his weapons, 
hitherto untried in any great contest, and the charac- 
ter of the age to be moved by them, it will seem quite 
impossible that he could exactly have calculated what 
he could, or what he could not, accomplish. Under 
all circumstances it was probable, that the bolder his 
claims, and the more loudly he asserted them, the 
greater was his chance of some immediate success, 
and the broader the path that was opened for future 
pontiffs. And Gregory had too extensive a genius 
not to think and act also for posterity. 

* The first evil consequence of associating tradition 
with the gospel as the foundation of the Church was* 
that the former was soon considered as substantial a 
part of the building as the latter. United in words, 
they were presently confounded in idea, and that not 
by the very ignorant only, but even by men, especial- 
ly churchmen, who had deeply studied the subject, 
and most so by monks. Gregory had received a mo- 
nastic education ; and though his mind was naturally 
vast and penetrating, it is not absurd to suppose that 
he might sincerely consider the false decretals (be- 
lieving them to be genuine) as possessing authority 
almost equivalent to the Bible; at least, he might 
think it a fair compromise to govern his church by 
the former, and his private conduct by the latter rule, 
•j- In his epistles he frequently repeats the piophet's 
words : ' Cursed is he that doeth the work of the Lord 
deceitfully,' — 'that keepeth back his sword fi-om 
blood ; ' that is, who does not execute God's com- 
mands in punishing God's enemies: hence his severity 
with simoniacal bishops, and other ecclesiastical of- 
fenders. 



246 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



was then becoming manifest in his church. 
The only doctrinal controversy in which he 
was engaged was that with Berenger, on tran- 
substantiation. The pope maintained the doc- 
trine, which appears then to have been gen- 
erally received in Italy and France, and he 
may have menaced the contumacy of the 
heretic. But no impartial reader can rise 
from the perusal of that controversy with the 
impression that Gregory was personally the 
advocate of persecution. On the contraiy, 
his moderation has been noticed by writers * 
little favorable to his character, and has even 
led some to the very unnecessary inference 
that he was friendly to the opinion, because 
he spared and endured its author.f 

Among the calumniators of Gregory, none 
are found so unjust as to deny his extraordi- 
nary talents and address, his intrepid constan- 
cy, his inflexible perseverance. And there 
are none among his blindest admirers who 
would excuse the unchristian arrogance of his 
ambition. His other qualities are for the most 
part disputed :— his moral excellence,^ and the 

* Jortin (among others) thinks that the pope was 
much inclined to defend Berenger — a merit which 
might have led that candid writer to pause before he 
entered into the absurd and fanatical notion that Greg- 
ory was Antichrist. Milner also holds this last opin- 
ion more confidently — a very remote point of contact 
between two men of very different and even opposite 
views, but of equal sincerity and excellence! But (to 
speak without reference to either of those authors) it 
has been the misfortune of Gregory to excite the 
spleen of two descriptions of writers who agree in 
very few of their principles — those who abhor the 
Roman Catholic Church and all its supporters with 
vehement and unqualified hatred, and those who dis- 
like every church and every assertor of ecclesiastical 
rights. The former are our religious, the latter our 
philosophical, historians — both are equally unjust. 

•f After all, it is a question whether Gregory's 
moderation on questions purely theological does not 
furnish a fair argument against his general conduct. 
It proves, at least, that his violence and arrogance 
were not merely faults of temper, showing themselves 
whenever there was a dispute; but feelings which, to 
excite them, required the stimulus of temporal ambi- 
tion. Again, in an age when reason and philosophy 
had little influence, moderation on theological ques- 
tions naturally excites the suspicion of indifference. 
But if Gregory was indifferent on theological ques- 
tions, and violent on matters touching the temporal 
aggrandizement of himself and his Church, his char- 
acter had even less merit than we have assigned to it. 

■^ His intrigue v-ith Matilda, which is insinuated 
in a very childish manner by Mosheim, is expressly 
denied by Lambertus, a contemporary historian of 
good repute. Ambition was motive quite sufficient 
for his intimacy with that princess, and his advanced 
age (seventy-two) might reasonably have saved him 



depth of his private piety, have been strongly 
asserted by some, and contested by others: 
for our own part, after carefully comparing 
the conclusions of his more moderate histo- 
rians with the particular acts and general 
spirit of his life, we are disposed to assent to 
the more favorable judgment — to this extent 
at least, that we believe him to have possessed 
those austere monastic virtues, common, per- 
haps, in the cloister, but rare in those days 
either among princes * or popes. And if, in- 
deed, in addition to those merits, he was com- 
passionate to the poor, the defender of the 
oppressed, the protector of the innocent (as a 
very impartial, as well as accurate, writer f 
affirms) we shall find the greater reason to 
lament that his private sanctity was overshad- 
owed and dai-kened by his public administi'a- 
tion. 

Respecting his religious disposition, though 
passages may be found in his Epistles not un- 
inspired with Christian piety, it is more pro- 
bable that he sought his motives of godliness | 



from the imputation of any other. Besides which, 
there is no single fact or circumstance to authorize 
the suspicion ; and his deep enthusiasm and intrepid 
zeal, and the very austerity which made him danger- 
ous, are qualities wholly inconsistent with vulgar hy- 
pocritical profligacy. ' That a widow of thirty (says 
Denina,) also motherless, should be the declared pro- 
tectress and body-guard of an old and austere pontiff, 
furnished a famous pretext for calumny to the con- 
cubinary clergy who were persecuted by the Pope,' 
(Rivoluz. d'ltal. 1. x. c. 6.) and to them we may 
probably ascribe this charge. 

* Gregory reproved the abbot, who admitted Hugo, 
Duke of Bm-gundy, into his monastery, on this ground 
— ' We have abundance of good monks, but there is 
a great scarcity of good princes.' Those are the vir- 
tues which Gibbon calls dangerous; and it is in 
speaking of Gregory that he advances that remarka- 
ble assertion — that the vices of the clergy are less 
dangerous than their virtues, — a position which is 
seldom understood with the qualification which the 
author obviously intended to attach to it. The pas- 
sage is illustrated by another in the sixty-ninth chap- 
ter—' The scandals of the tenth century were oblit- 
erated by the austere and more dangerous virtues of 
Gregory VII.' 

t Giannone, Storia di Napoli, lib. x. c. 6. Greg- 
ory has been reproached with placing faith in the pre- 
dictions of astrologers ; with dealing in divinations, 
interpreting dreams, and exercising the magical art. 
Few of those who have shone with great splendor in 
an ignorant age have escaped the same suspicion. 

I When Muratori (Vit. Rom, Pontif. in Leo IX.) 
speaks of him as ' Adolescens .... clari ingenii, 
sanctaeque Religionis,' and when Giannone calls 
him * uomo pieno di Religione,' nothing more is at 
all necessarily implied than Gregory's monastic sanc- 
tity would justify. 



THE AGE OF GREGORY, 



247 



and the aliment of his fervor in the interests 
of his church, than in the lessons of his Bible. 
A profound canonist, a skilful theologian, a 
zealous churchman, he may still have been 
unacquainted w^ith the feelings of a Christian, 
and uninformed by the spirit of the faith. 
And it is not impossible that even his reforms 
in discipline and morals, which vv^ere the best 
among his acts, proceeded from a narrow ec- 
clesiastical zeal, not from the purer and holier 
influence of evangelical devotion. 

Section III. 

yl.) Controversy respecting Transubstantiation— suspen- 
ded in the Ninth, renewed in the Eleventh Century — 
Character of Berenger — Council of Leo IX. — of Victor 
II. at Tours in 1054 — Condemnation and conduct of 
Berenger — Council of Nicholas II. — repeated Retracta- 
tion and Relapse of Berenger — Alexander II. — Council 
at Rome under Gregory VII. — Extent of the Concession 
then required from Berenger — further Requisition of 
the Bishops — a Second Council assembled — Conduct of 
Gregory — Berenger again sloemnly assents to the Cath- 
olic Doctrine, and again returns to his own — his old 
Age, Remorse and Death — Remarks on his Conduct — 
on the Moderation of Gregory. (II.) Latin Liturgy- 
Gradual Disuse of the Latin Language throughout Eu- 
rope — Adoption of the Gothic Missal in Spain — Alfonso 
proposes to substitute the Roman — Decision by the Judg- 
ment of God— by Combat- by Fiie— doubtful Result — 
final Adoption of the Latin Liturgy— Its introduction 
among the Bohemians by Gregory— Motives of the 
Popes — other instances of services not performed in the 
Vulgar Tongue — Usage of the early Christian Church. 

Opinions and conduct of Berenger. The 
age of Gregory was distinguished by a very 
important doctrinal controversy : but though 
that pontiff was abundantly pugnacious in 
asserting the most inadmissible rights of the 
church, he showed no disposition to encour- 
age the dispute in question, nor any furious 
zeal to extirpate the supposed en-or ; and yet 
the error was no less than a disbelief in the 
mystery afterwards called Transubstantiation. 
We have already mentioned the promulgation 
of that dogma by Paschasius Radliertus : we 
have observed with what ardor and liberty it 
was both supported and combated during the 
ninth century, until the flames of the contro- 
versy, unsustained by any public edicts, grad- 
ually and innocently expired. The arguments 
which had been urged on both sides were 
thus left to produce their respective fruits of 
good or evil, according to the soil on which 
they fell, and the season in which they were 
sown. Both these circumstances were fear- 
fully unfavorable to the growth of any w^hole- 
some knowledge : for in those days reason 
w^as less persuasive than its abuse, and truth 
was less attractive than specious show ; so 
that religion was buried in superstitious ob- 
Bei-vances. Thus it happened that, during 



the tenth centuiy, the opinion in question 
made a general, though silent progress ; and, 
in the beginning of the eleventh, it was tacit- 
ly understood to be the doctrine of the Roman 
church. In the year 1045, Berenger, princi- 
pal of the pubUc school (scholastic) at Tours, 
and afterwards Archdeacon * of Angers, pub- 
licly professed his opposition to it. 

Roman Catholic writers do not dispute the 
brilliancy of his talents, the power of his elo- 
quence, his skill in dialectics, and his general 
erudition ; they admit, too, that habits of ex- 
emplary virtue and piety gave life and efficacy 
to his genius and his learning.f By these mer- 
its he acquu'ed the veneration of the people, 
and the friendship of the most distinguished 
ecclesiastics of his day. But when some of his 
historians assert that his virtues suddenly de- 
serted him, and were even changed into their 
opposite vices, at the moment when he pro- 
pounded his opinion, we can only consider 
them as illustrating then* own definition of 
' heresy.' It is also said, that Berenger was stim- 
ulated to publish, even to invent, his docti-ine 
by private jealousy of the learned Lanfranc ; 
and in truth the most splendid actions do so 
commonly originate in sordid motives, that this 
charge may possibly be true : but it is not 
probable, because it is at variance with the 
tenor of his character ; nor is it at all impor- 
tant, since it affects neither the truth nor the 
prevalence of his doctrine. 

Bereuger's opposition to transubstantiation 
became known to Leo IX., who condemned 
it at a council held at Rome in 1050 ; and in 
the same year two other councils were sum- 
moned in France, at Verceil and Paris, both 
of which strongly anathematized the heresy ; 
and, in consequence of the decree of the lat- 
ter, Henry I. deprived the offender of the 
temporalities proceeding from his benefice. 
He did not attend these councils, but continu- 
ed to profess and promulgate his doctrine. 
During the pontificate of Victor II. a council 
was assembled at Tours m 1055, X at which 



* Mosheim is guilty of a strange blunder in mak- 
ing him Archbishop of Angers, and of designating 
him throughout as a prelate. In fact, Angers is 
only an episcopal see, and Eusebius Bruno, one of 
Berenger's own pupils, was raised to it in 1047. 
Hist. Litt. de la France, Vie de Berenger. 

t His learning is perhaps sufficiently proved, by 
the fact, that he too attained the honorable reputation 
(common to him with so many learned persons) of 
being a magician. 

t See Pagi, Vit. Victor II., sect, v., where vari- 
ous authorities are collected, and among them the 
following expressions from Lanfranc addressed to 
Berenger: ' Denique in Concilio Turonensi, cui ipsi- 



248 



HISTORY OF THL CHURCH. 



Hildebrand presided as legate of the pope. 
Berenger was summoned before it, and on 
this occasion he obeyed the summons — with 
the less apprehension, because he possessed 
the personal regard of Hildebrand. He ap- 
pears to have urged little in defence of his 
opinion, and to have made no difficulty in 
subscribing an oath to the received faith of 
the Church concerning the real presence of 
the body and blood of Jesus Christ in the 
Eucharist. And having subscribed to this 
faith, he immediately returned to the propa- 
gation of his actual opinions. 

He then remained undisturbed for four or 
five years, until Nicholas II. called upon him 
to justify himself before a Roman Council. 
He appeared there, and professed his readi- 
ness to follow the doctrine which should 
seem good to that assembly. Accordingly, a 
profession of faith was drawn up, which went 
to the furthest extent to which the dogma has 
ever been carried,* and with the same hand 
which signed it Berenger committed to the 
flames the books containing his opposition to 
it. He then returned to France, resumed his 
sincere profession, and abjured his abjuration. 

Alexander II. (acting probably under his 
archdeacon's counsels) contented himself with 



ns Victoi-is interfuere legati, data est tibi optio de- 
fendendi partem tuam. Quam cum defendendam 
suscipere non auderes, confessus coram omnibus com- 
munem ecclesise fidera, jurasti te ab ilia hora ita cre- 
diturum, sicut in Romano Concilio te jurasse est 
superius comprehensum.' From this it would appear 
that Berenger had been present at the council of Leo, 
though he disregarded those assembled in France; 
unless indeed the Roman Council mentioned by Lan- 
franc be that afterwards held by Nicholas, which is 
more probable. 

* In the presence of the pope, and one hundred 
and thirteen bishops, Berenger subscribed the follow- 
ing profession : ' Ego Berengarius, jndignus diaconus, 
&c. . . consentio S. R. Ecclesise et Ap. Sedi, et ore 
et corde profiteor de sacramento Dominicae mensse 
earn fidem me tenere quam dominus et venerabilis 
Papa Nicolaus et heec sancta synodus tenendam tra- 
didit . . scilicet panem et vinum, quae in altari po- 
nuntur, post consecrationem non solum sacramentum 
sed etiam verum corpus et sanguinem Domini nostri 
Jesu Christi esse; et sensualiter, non solum sacra- 
mento sed in veritate, manibus sacerdotum tractari 
et frangi et fidelium dentibus atteri; jurans per sanc- 
tam ethomoousiam Trinitatem. Eos vero qui contra 
banc fidem venerint aeterno anathemate dignos esse 
pronuntio. Quod si ego aliquando aliquid contra 
haec sentire et prgedicare prsesumpsero subjaceara ca- 
nonum severitati. Lecto et perlecto sponte subscrip- 
si.' It is cited by Pagi in the Life of Nicholas II., 
as are the second and third professions of Berenger 
(in 1078 and 1079) in the Life of Gregory, sect. Ixx. 
tjixii. 



addressing to the heretic a letter of peaceful 
and friendly exhortation ; but as his opinion 
and his contumacy now created some confu- 
sion in the Church, Hildebrand, not long aller 
his elevation to the chair, summoned Beren- 
ger to Rome a second time. For the space 
of nearly a year Gregory retained him near 
his person, and honored him with his famil- 
iarity ; and then, in a council in 1078, he was 
contented to require his subscription to a 
profession which admitted the real presence 
without any change of substance ; and Ber- 
enger did not hesitate to sign it. 

But this moderation did not satisfy the zeal 
of certain ardent prelates, who required not 
only a more specific declaration of orthodoxy, 
but also that the sincerity of the retractation 
should be approved by the fiery trial. Ber- 
enger is stated to have prepared himself by 
prayer and fasting for submission to that cer- 
emony ; but Gregory, iJiough he accorded the 
first of their requisitions, refused to counte- 
nance the senseless mockery of the second. 
The year following, another council assem- 
bled, and once more Berenger in their pres- 
ence solemnly renounced his opinions, and 
confirmed by oath his adherence to the broad- 
est interpretation of the Catholic faith. He 
was then dismissed by the pontiff, with new 
proofs of his satisfaction ; and no sooner was 
he restored to the security of his native coun- 
try, than he renewed the profession of the 
doctrine which he had never in truth abandon- 
ed. But he received little further molestation * 
from the ecclesiastical powers, and died in 
1088, at a very advanced age, with no other 
disquietude than those severe internal suffer- 
ings which were the consequence of his re- 
peated and deliberate perjuries, f 

Berenger was anxious for the reputation of 
a gi-eat Reformer, and perhaps sincerely zeal- 
ous for the extirpation of what he considered 
a revolting corruption — but he did not aspire 
to the glory of martyrdom. And when he 
presented himself at four successive councils, 
under the obligation either to defen-d or re- 
tract his opinions, we cannot doubt that, as he 
saw the former course to be useless as well as 



* Dupin mentions that he was summoned before a 
council at Bourdeaux, in 1080, ' where he gave an 
account of his faith.' 

t A loud and very unimportant dispute has been 
raised between Papists and Protestants as to the 
opinions in which Berenger actually died. The truth 
appears to be that he died a penitent, —and the 
former attribute to the consciousness of his heresy 
that remorse which the latter much more probably 
ascribe to his perjury. 



THE AGE OF GREGORY, 



249 



dangerous, he went there calmly prepared to 
debase himself by an insincere and perjured 
humiliation. Perhaps he preserved his prop- 
erty, or prolonged his life for a few years, by 
such reiterated sin and degradation ; but if his 
latest days were passed in remorse and bitter 
penitence, his gain was not great, and the 
moments which he added to his existence 
were taken away from his happiness. His 
followers were not, probably, very numer- 
ous ; * and they were chilled by his weak- 
ness and confounded by his frequent recan- 
tations. His fortitude and constancy would 
have confirmed and multiplied and perpetu- 
ated them. We admire his talents, we re- 
spect his virtues, and venerate the cause in 
which he displayed them ; but in that age the 
defence of that cause demanded (as it deserv- 
ed) a character of sterner materials and more 
rigid consistency than was that of Berenger. 
From the moderation which Gregory used 
towards the person of that Reformer, it has 
been iufeiTed that he secretly favored his 
opinions ; and this may be so far true, that 
he generally inculcated an adherence to the 
words of scripture ; f and discouraged any 
curious researches and positive decisions re- 
specting the manner of Christ's presence at 
the Eucharist. And as a real spiritual (or in- 
tellectual) J presence was probably admitted 
by Berenger himself, who professed only to 
follow the opinions of John Scotus, § there 
could remain no ground for any violent dif- 
ference between the pope and the heretic. 

II. Estahlishment of the Latin Liturgy. 
But if we are to consider the doctrine of tran- 
substantiation to have been effectually estab- 
lished, rather through the obstinate zeal of his 
ecclesiastics, than by the favor of Gregory, 
we shall have no hesitation in attributing to 
his personal exertions a contemporary cor- 
ruption in the ceremonies of the church. It 
was the will of Hildebrand that the liturgy 
of the Universal Church should be delivered 
m Latin only ; and having once adopted that 
scheme, as in every other object which he 



* We mean that they formed a very trifling pro- 
portion to the whole body of the church. They con- 
tained no individual of any great eminence, nor do 
they appear to have existed as a sect after the death 
of Berenger. 

t Mosheim, cent. xi. 

:}: Hist. Litt. de la France, Vie de Berenger. 

§ Ambrose, Jerome, and A ugustin are the Fathers 
on whose authority Berenger chiefly rests his defence. 
Lanfranc, before he became Archbishop of Canterbu- 
ry, was his most distinguished opponent. 

32 



thought proper to pursue, he neglected no 
imaginable means to cany it into effect. The 
use of Latin as the vulgar tongue, which had 
prevailed throughout the southern provinces 
of Europe, gradually ceased during the course 
of the ninth century ; and the language of the 
first conquerors insensibly gave place to the 
barbarous jargon of the second. Latin thus 
became a subject of study, and all knowledge 
of it was presently confined to the priesthood, 
still it seems clear that, in France as well as 
in Italy, the services of the church continued 
to be performed entirely in Latin, and even 
that sermons were for some time delivered in 
that tongue to an audience most imperfectly 
acquainted with it. But in Spain, the Gothic 
missal had gradually supplanted the Roman, 
and at the middle of the eleventh century was 
universally prevalent in that church. Soon 
after that time, by the united influence (as is 
said) of Richard, the papal legate, and Con- 
stance, Queen of Leon (who had brought 
with her from France an attachment to the 
forms of her native church,) Alfonso, the 
sixth of Leon and first of Castile, was per- 
suaded to propose the introduction of the 
Roman liturgy. The nobility and the peo- 
ple, and even the majority of the clergy, 
warmly supported the established form, and 
after some heats had been excited on both 
sides, a day was finally appointed to decide 
on the perfections of the rival missals. To 
this effect, recourse was had, according to the 
customs of those days, to the 'judgments of 
God,' and the trial to which they were first 
submitted was that by combat. Two knights 
contended in the presence of a vast assembly, 
and the Gothic champion prevailed. The 
king, dissatisfied with this result, subjected 
the missals to a second proof, which they 
were qualified to sustain in their own per- 
sons—the trial by fire. The Gothic liturgy 
resisted the flames, and was taken out unhurt, 
while the Roman yielded, and was consumed. 
The triumph of the former appeared now to 
be complete, when it was discovered that the 
ashes of the latter had curled to the top of 
the flames, and leaped out of them. By this 
strange phenomenon the scales were again 
turned, or at least tlie victory was held to be 
so doubtful, that the king, to preserve a show 
of impartiality, established the use of both 
liturgies. It then became very easy, by an 
exclusive encouragement of the Roman, ef- 
fectually, though gradually, to banish its com- 
petitor. * 



* See Dr. Macrie's History of the Progress and 
Suppression of tb'^ Refor">^.t'on in «-?a=" "^^ ~-^"' 



250 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



It was one of the latest acts of Alexander 
II. especially to prohibit the Bohemians from 
performing service in their native Sclavonian, 
and to impose on them the Roman missal ; 
and about seven years afterguards Gregory 
prosecuted, as pope, the enterprise which, 
as archdeacon, he had doubtless originated. 
Little serious resistance appears to have been 
opposed to this and similar attempts ; and it 
may be asserted without dispute, that before 
the conclusion of the eleventh century, the 
Latin liturgy was very generally received in 
the western churches. 

The motive * of the popes for this vexa- 
tious exertion of ecclesiastical tyranny was 
nudoubtedly their ardor for the Unity of the 
church, as one body under one head ; and to 
this end it certainly conduced, that she should 
speak to all her children, of all nations and 
races, in one language only. It was also ne- 
cessary that that language should be Latin, 
because it thus became a chain which not 
only united to each other the extremities of 
the North and the West, but also bound them 
in universal allegiance to a common Sovereign. 
But this policy, like some other of the pro- 
foundest schemes of the Vatican, was calcu- 
lated on the continuation of general ignorance. 



test between the liturgies began during the pontificate 
of Alexander II., between the years 1060 and 1068; 
but one of the first acts of Gregory was to give his 
strenuous and effectual support to the Roman. See 
Pagi,Vit. Alex. II. et Greg. VII. 

* The reason, which Gregory fairly avowed in his 
answer to Vratislaus, Duke of Bohemia, was the im- 
policy of making the scriptures too public; and, in 
this document, it is curious to observe with what 
ease, when it suited his purpose, he could dispense 
{like Gregory the Great) with the authority of the 
primitive church, so conclusive and venerable when it 
was expedient to follow it. The expressions of so 
great a pontiff deserve to be recorded: — ' Quia Nebi- 
litas tua postulavit, quod secundum Sclavonicam lin- 
guam apud vos divinum celebrari annueremus officium, 
scias nos huic petitioni tuae nequaquam posse favere. 
Ex hoc nempe seepe vol ventibus liquet non immerito 
Sacram Scripturam omnipotenti Deo placuisse 
quibusdam locis esse occuUam, ne, si ad liquidum 
cunctis pateret, forte vilesceret et subjaceret despectui, 
aut prave intellecta a mediocribus in errorem induce- 
ret. Neque enira ad excusationem juvet, quod qui- 
dam religiosi viri hoc quod simpliciter populus quse- 
sivit, patienter tulerunt, seu incorrectum dimiserunt; 
cum Primitiva Ecclesia multa dissimulaverit, qua3 
a Sanctis Pairibus, postmodum firmata Christianitate 
et religione crescente, subtili examinatione correcta 
sunt. Unde ne id fiat, quod a vestris imprudenter 
exposcitur, auctoritate B. Petri inhibemus, atque ad 
honorem omnipotentis Dei huic vanae temeritati viri- 
bus totis resistere prsecipimus.' 



and the stability of principles which the 
slightest efforts of reason were sufficient to 
overturn. 

We should add, however, that a similar 
custom prevails among certain other nations 
and creeds, which cannot have originated in 
similar motives, but is rather to be attributed 
to the superstitious veneration for antiquity, 
so common where the understanding has been 
little cultivated. The ^Egyptians or Jacobites 
performed their service in Coptic ; the Nesto- 
rians in Syriac ; the Abyssinians in the old 
JEthiopic ; and the prayers which are offered 
to the god of the Mahometans are universally 
addressed in Arabic. But the usage was en- 
tirely contrary to the practice * of the early 
Christian church, which permitted every va- 
riety of language in its ceremonies ; a practice 
which received the positive confirmation of 
the Council of Francfort at the end of the 
eighth centui-y, and which was not entirely 
subverted till the pontificate of Gregory and 
of his immediate successors. 



(1.) In an early part of this work (Chap. V. 
p. 63,) Justin Martyr is accused of error in 
having given to Simon Magus a statue which, 
in fact, was dedicated to Semo Sangus, a Sa- 
bine deity. The question, however, is in- 
volved in some un-certainty ; for it appears 
that the inscription found in 1574 was not 
engraved on a statue (as above asserted,) but 
on a stone, bearing resemblance, indeed, to 
the basis of a statue, yet so small, that it could 
scarcely have supported any representation 
of the human body. Such is the account of 
Baronius, (Ann. 44.) which at the time had 
escaped the author. Under these circum- 
stances, whatever may be the leaning of our 
own private judgment, we are historically 
bound to admit the direct affirmation of 
Justin, who expressly asserts that the statue 
existed in his time. If we believe Baronius, 



* ' You may have observed (saj's Fleury) that the 
offices of the church were then in the language most 
used in each country, that is to say, in Latin through 
all tlie West, and in Greek through all the East, ex- 
cept in the remoter provinces, as in Thebais where 
the ^Egyptian was spoken, and in Upper Syria 

where Syriac was used The Armenians 

have, from the very beginning, performed divine ser- 
vice in their own tongue. If the nations were of a 
mixed kind, there were in the church interpreters to 

explain Avhat was read In Palestine, St. Sabas 

and St. Theodosius had in their monasteries many 
churches, wherein the monks of different nations had 
their liturgy, each in his own language.' 



COLLATERAL REMARKS. 



251 



that this stone cannot reasonably be consider- 
ed as a pedestal, we must also believe Justin ; 
otherwise we are compelled to suppose that 
the Father deliberately called that a statue 
which has no part, or even support, of a 
statue, but a mere stone consecrated to rude 
Pagan divinity. At any rate, the direct evi- 
dence is all on one side, with only a bare, and 
as many will think, unreasonable supposition 
on the other. 

(2.) In Chapter X, p. 141, a passage is cited 
from St. Eligius, a bishop of Noyon, contem- 
porary of Gregory the Great. The sense, and 
even the words in question, had been previ- 
ously retailed both by Robertson and Jortin ; 
and the original Latin is quoted by Mosheim, 
whom the latter of those writers has followed. 
The author of this work, who had also con- 
fided in the same guide, has been lately led 
to look more particularly into the ' Life of 
Eligius,' as it is published in the Spicilegium 
Dacherii (vol. v., p. 147 — 304;) and he was 
pleased to discover many excellent precepts 
and pious exhortations scattered among the 
strange matter with which it abounds. But 
at the same time, it was with great sorrow 
and some shame, that he ascertained the 
treachery of his historical conductor. The 
expressions cited by Mosheim, and cited too 
with a direct reference to the Spicilegium^ 
are forcibly brought together by a very un- 
pardonable mutilation of his authority. They 
are to be found, indeed, in a sermon preached 
by the bishop ; but found in the society of so 
many good and Christian maxims, that it had 
been charitable entirely to overlook them, as 
it was certainly unfair to weed them out and 
heap them together, without notice of the rich 
harvest that surrounds them. In justice, then, 
to the character both of St. Eligius and his 
church, and that the exact extent of the his- 
torian's delinquency may be known, we shall 
here subjoin the entire passage which Mos- 
heim has disfigured ; and we are glad of the 
occasion to present even this short specimen 
of the discourses, which were delivered to a 
Christian people in the age of its darkest ig- 
norance. 

' Wherefore, my brethren, love your friends 
in God, and love your enemies on account of 
God, for he who loveth his neighbor (saith 
the apostle) hath fulfilled the law ; for the 
rnan who would be a true Christian must 
observe the precepts, since he who observes 
not circumvents himself He, then, is a good 
Christian, who believes not in charms or in- 
ventions of the devil, but places the whole of 



his hope in Christ alone ; who receives the 
stranger with joy, as though he were receiv- 
ing Christ himself; since it was He who said, 
" I was a stranger, and ye took me in," and 
"inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of 
these my brethren, ye have done it unto me " 
He, 1 say, is a good Christian, who washes the 
feet of the strangers, and cherishes them as his 
beloved parents ; who gives alms to the pooi 
in proportion to his possessions ; ivho goes 
frequently to church and makes his oblations at 
God^s altar ; who never tastes of his own fruit 
until he hath presented some to God ; who has 
no deceitful balances, nor deceitful measures ; 
who has never lent his money on usury ; who 
both lives chastely himself, and teaches his 
children and his neighbors to live chastely 
and in the fear of God ; and who for many 
days before the festivals obsejves strict chastity, 
though he be married, that he may approach the 
altar with a safe conscience ; lastly, who can 
repeat the Creed and the Lord's Prayer, and 
teaches the same to his children and his 
family. He who is such as this, without any 
doubt is a true Christian, and Christ dwells 
in him.' 

' Behold ! ye have heard, my brethren, what 
sort of people good Christians are ; wherefore 
strive as much as you are able, with the help 
of God, that the name of Christ may not be 
false in you ; but to the end that ye be true 
Christians, always ponder the precepts of 
Christ in your mind, and also fulfil them in 
your practice. Redeem your souls from pun- 
ishment whilst you have it in your power ; give 
alms according to your means ; keep peace 
and charity ; recall the contentious to concord ; 
avoid lies ; ti-emble at perjury ; bear not false 
witness ; commit no theft ; offer your free gifts 
and tithes to the churches; contribute towards 
the luminaries in the holy places ; repeat the 
Creed and the Lord's Prayer, and teach it to 
your children ; instruct and correct even your 
god-children, and recollect that you are their 
sponsors with God. Repair frequently to 
church, and humbly implore the protection of 
the saints ; observe the Lord's day, through 
reverence for Christ's resurrection, without 
any bodily work ; piously celebrate the so- 
lemnities of the saints ; love your neighbors 
as yourselves, and do as you would be done 
by; and what you wish not to be done to 
yourselves, that do to no man. Observe 
charity before all things, because charity cov- 
ers a multitude of sins ; be hospitable, hum- 
ble, placing all your solicitude in God, since 
he hath care of you. Visit the iniirm, seek 



252 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



out those who are in prison, take charge of 
strangers, feed the hungry, clothe the naked. 
Despise jugglers and magicians; be just in 
Tour measures; require of no man more than 
your due ; and on no account exact usury. 
If you observe these things, you may appear 
boldly at GocTs tribunal in the day of judgment, 
and say. Give, Lord, as we have given ; show 
compassion even as we have shown it ; we 
have fulfilled what thou hast commanded, do 
thou now reward us as thou hast promised.' 
The sentences rinted in italics are those 



which Mosheim has selected and stmng to- 
gether, without any notice of the context. 
The impression which, by this method, he 
conveys to his readers, is wholly false ; and 
the calumny thus indirectly cast upon his 
author is not the less reprehensible, because 
it falls on one of the obscurest saints in the 
Roman calendar. If the very essence of his- 
tory be truth, and if any deliberate violation 
of that be sinful in the profane annalist, still 
less can it deserve pardon or mercy in the 
historian of the Church of Christ. 



PART IV. 



FROM THE DEATH OF GREGORY VII. TO THAT OF BONIFACE VIII. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

From Gregory VII. to Innocent III. 

(1 ) Papal history — Urban II. — Council of Placentia — 
that of Clermont — their principal acts — The Crusades 
— their origin and possible advantage — Pascal II. — Re- 
newed disputes with Henry — his misfortunes, private 
and public — his death and exhumation — Henry, his 
son, marches to Rome — Convention with Pascal re- 
specting the regalia — its violation — Imprisonment of 
the Pope — his concessions — annulled by subsequent 
Council — Henry again at Rome — Death and character 
of Pascal — Final arrangement of the investiture ques- 
tion by Calixtus II. — Observations — The first Lateran 
(ninth general) Council — Death of Calixtus — Subse- 
quent confusion and its causes — Arnold of Brescia — 
his opinions, fate, and character — Adrian IV. — Frederic 
Barbarossa — Disputes between them, and final success 
of the Pope — Alexander III. — his quarrel with Fred- 
eric, and advantages — his talents and merits — Celestine 
III. — The differences between Rome and the Empire — 
The internal dissensions at Rome on papal election — 
National contentions between Church and State. (II.) 
Education and theological learning — Review of pre- 
ceding ages — in Italy and France — Parochial schools — 
Deficiency in the material — Papyrus — Parchment — 
Consequent scarcity of MSS. — Invention of paper — 
Three periods of theological literature — the character- 
istics of each — Gradual improvement in the eleventh 
century. 

The death of Gregory did not restore either 
concord to the Church or repose to the Em- 
pire. The successor, whom at the solicitation 
of his cardinals, he nominated on his death- 
bed, testified a singular, but sincere, repug- 
nance for a dignity, which being probably too 
feeble to sustain, he was too wise to de- 
sire. Desiderius, * Abbot of Mount Cassino, 



held for a short period, under the name of 
Victor III., a disputed rule ; and on his early 
death in the year 1087, Urban II., a native of 
France, was proclaimed in his place. But 
Clement the Antipope was still in possession 
of the Capital, where the imperial party was 
triumphant, and five years of dissension * in- 
tervened before the authority of Urban was 
generally acknowledged. That Pope had 
been a monk of Clugni, and owed his pre- 
ferment to the See of Ostia to the favor of 
Gregory ; and he continued to the end of his 
life to exhibit his fidelity by following, as far 
as his talents permitted him, the schemes 
which had been traced by his patron. 

Urban II. Of the numerous councils held 
during his pontificate two are entitled to par- 
ticular attention — those of Placentia and Cler- 
mont : f in both of these he confirmed the 



* His disinclination for the dangerous honor is 
Baid to have been so great, that he was actually drag- 
ged to the Church, and forcibly invested with the 
pontifical garments. Fleury, H. E., liv. Ixiii., sect. 
25 and 27. But this circumstance Lj not mentioned 



by Pagi ; though, on the authority of Leo Ostiensis, 
he bears ample testimony to Victor's reluctance. 

* The only remarkable acts of personal hostility 
which these two rivals appear to have exchanged, 
was a satiric taunt couched on either side in a pair 
of very iimocent hexameters. Clement, insolent in 
the possession of the city, wrote to his rusticating 
adversary as follows: — 

Dicer is Urbanus, cum sis projectus ab Urbe; 

Vel muta nomen, vel regrediaris ad Uibem. 
To this Urban replied, 

Clemens nomen habes, .sed Clemens non potes esse, 

Tradita solvendi cum sit tibl nulla potestas. 

Hist. Litt. de la France. 

f Both were held in 1095 — the former on March 1, 
the latter on November 18. At the former were 
present two hundred bishops, nearly four thousand of 
the inferior clergy, and more than thirty thousand 
of the laity ; so that the assemblies were held in the 
open air. The latter appears to have been still more 



PAPAL HISTORY. 



253 



laws and asserted the principles of Greg- 
ory, and carried his favorite claims to their 
full extent ; for by the fifteenth canon of the 
latter he enacted, 'that no ecclesiastic shall 
receive any church dignity from the hand of 
a layman, or pay him liege homage for it ; 
and that no prince shall give the investiture.' * 
But that council is recommended to general 
history by other and more important recollec- 
tions. And w^hile at Placentia the final sanc- 
tion w^as given to the two strongest character- 
istics in the doctrine and in the discipline of 
the Roman Church — namely, f transubstanti- 
ation and the celibacy of the clergy, it was 
the Council of Clermont which first sounded 
that blast of fanaticism which shook the whole 
fabric of society, from the extremities of the 
west even to the heart of Asia, for above two 
centuries. 

Origin of the Crusades. It may seem strange 
that the sanguinary project of launching the 
power of Christendom in one vast armament 
against the Mahometan conquerors of the 
Holy Land should first have been proposed 
by a Pope, who was celebrated for his studi- 
ous cultivation of the noblest arts of peace. 
It was Sylvester II. | with whom the scheme 
of a general crusade originated ; but to him it 
may have been suggested by personal obser- 



nuraerously attended. See Fleury, H. E., liv. Ixiv., 
sect. 22. Hist. Litt. de la France. 

* ' Ne episcopus vel sacerdos regi vel alicui laico 
in raanibus ligiam fidelitatera faciat.' See Mosheini, 
Cent. xi. p. ii. c. ii. Fleury, liv. Ixiv., sect. 29. 

t Hist. Litt. de la France. Vie de Berenger. 
Fleury, loc. cit. The question regarding the ordina- 
tion of the sons of presbyters, which was warmly de- 
bated about this time, was set at rest by the Council 
of Clermont. It was conceded, that with dispensa- 
tion from the Pope they might be admitted to Holy 
Orders. Pagi (Vit. Urban. II., sect. 43.) ascribes 
to this period the practice of administering the Eu- 
charist to the laity under one species only, which, 
he adds, became more confirmed, after the establish- 
ment of the kingdom of Jerusalem by the crusaders ; 
for in that Church (he maintains) it has existed from 
primitive times. We may also mention in this place, 
that the ' Office of the Holy Virgin,' though perhaps 
not composed by Urban, was brought into more gen- 
eral use during his pontificate. 

X It will be recollected that Sylvester, as well as 
Urban and his agent Peter the Hermit, was a French- 
man. So that the entire credit of the scheme, both 
of its invention and the bringing it into practice, 
belongs, such as it h, to that enthusiastic and incon- 
siderate people. It is a remark of Gibbon, that at 
the Council of Placentia, in Italy, the people wept 
over the calamities of the Christians of the East — 
while at Clermont, in France, they took up arms to 
avenge them* 



vation of the sufferings of Spain and the hu- 
miliation of the Christian name. And to any 
one beholding and deploring the various dis- 
orders of Europe— the fierce contentions of 
kings with each other, their more fatal dis- 
sensions with their subjects, the military 
license which every where prevailed and 
forbade all security of person or property — it 
might have seemed an act of comparative 
mercy to unite those discordant spu'its even 
by the rudest tie, and to divert against a com- 
mon foe the turbulence which engaged them 
in mutual destruction. The same measure 
was not without some justification in pru- 
dence ; since the slightest caprice of a Sara- 
cen conqueror might have directed his rage 
against Christendom, and especially against 
Italy, the most attractive, the most exposed, 
the least defensible province — the centre of 
the Christian Church, and, as it were, the Pa- 
lestine of the West. These and similar con- 
siderations may have recommended the same 
project to a much greater mind than that of 
Sylvester ; for it was also (as has been men- 
tioned) a favorite design of Gregory VII., 
who proposed personally to conduct against 
the infidel the universal army of Christ. It 
was realized by Urban II. ; and his exhorta- 
tions * to the Council of Clermont, being at 
the same time addressed to the superstitious 
and the military spirit, the two predominant 
motives of action in that age, were received 
w^ith an enthusiastic acclamation of frenzy, 
vi^hich was mistaken for the approbation of 
God. 

* The Pope closed the session of the council by a 
sermon, which has been variously reported by differ- 
ent writers. Fleury gives the following sentences as 
a part of it, on the authority of William of Tyre, * a 
grave and judicious author:' — ' Do you then, my dear 
children, arm yourselves with the zeal of God; march 
to the succor of our brethren, and the Lord be with 
you. Turn against the enemy of the Christian name 
the arms which you employ in injuring each other. 
Redeem, by a service so agreeable to God your pil- 
lages, conflagrations, homicides, and other mortal 
crimes, so as to obtain his ready pardon. We ex- 
hort you and enjoin you, for the remission of your 
sins, to have pity on die affliction of our brethren in 
Jerusalem, and to repress the insolence of the infidels, 
who propose to subjugate kingdoms and empires, and 
to extinguish the name of Christ.' Hist. Eccl., Liv. 
Ixiv., sect. 32. As the populace devoutly believed 
the Pope's assurance, that the pilgrimage would alone 
for the most abominable crimes, the immediate effect 
of the crusade might be to rid Europe of the refuse of 
its population ; just as the certain consequence would 
be the encouragement of crime, when the method of 
^ atonement was always at hand» 



264 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



We do not propose to enter into any de- 
scription of the military adventures of the 
crusaders, which have employed the eloquence 
of so many writers ; but shall confine our- 
selves to the less attractive, but perhaps more 
useful, task of occasionally recurring to the 
domestic changes connected with them, and 
investigating the traces which they have left 
in the History of the Church. 

Pascal IL Urban died in 1099, and was 
succeeded by Pascal II. Nearly contempora- 
neous with the decease of Urban was that of 
Clement III., the Antipope, who had main- 
tained with some interruptions the possession 
of the capital, though unacknowledged by 
the great body of the Church. The imperial 
party was at that moment too weak to appoint 
a successor, and therefore Pascal entered into 
undisputed occupation of the chair. Pascal, 
as well as Gregory and Urban, had been edu- 
cated in the monastery of Clugni ; like the 
former, he was a Tuscan ; like the latter,- he 
was indebted for his early advancement to 
Gregory ; and thus the spirit of that extraor- 
dinary man, by animating the congenial bo- 
soms of his two disciples, continued to haunt 
the pontifical chair, and to regulate the coun- 
cils of the Vatican, for above thirty years after 
his departure.* And if Urban prosecuted the 
reforms undertaken by his master, and real- 
ized one of his fondest speculations, to Pascal 
remained the more difficult and odious office 
of resuming with fresh violence the interrupt- 
ed contest with the empire. He engaged in 
it earnestly, if not eagerly ; and as the empe- 
ror was still unprepared for submission, he 
prevented an attempt (perhaps an insidious 
attempt) at compromise, by renewing (in 1102) 
all former decrees against mvestitures, and 
then commenced the conflict by the usual 
sentence of excommunication. 

Misfortunes and Death of Henry IV. Hen- 
ry IV., after surviving so many Popes, was 
still in possession of the throne ; but his latter 
years had been afflicted by the rebellion, and, 
what might be less bitter to him, by the death 
of his eldest son. The affections of his sub- 
jects he never possessed nor deserved ; but 
we do not learn that by any domestic delin- 
quency he had forfeited the less dissoluble 
allegiance of his children. And yet, scarcely 
had Conrad terminated his unnatural impiety 
by death, when — as if the anathemas of Greg- 
oiy were still suspended over him — as if to 

* Pascal died on January 18th, 1118, after an un- 
usually long pontificate of eighteen years, five months, 
and five days. 



accomplish the temporal retribution which 
that pontiff had denounced against the foes 
of St. Peter * — Henry, his other son, on learn- 
ing the excommunication of his father, rose 
in arms against him. A scene revoltmg to 
nature and humanity was the consequence ; 
and even the death of the Emperor, which 
speedily followed, does not close the story of 
his persecutions. His body, which was still 
lying under the anathema, having been incon- 
siderately consigned to consecrated ground, 
was immediately dug up, ejected from the 
holy precincts, and condemned to an unhal- 
lowed sepulchre ; f and there it rested for the 
space of five years, a revolting monument of 
papal power and papal malignity : at length 
the sentence was withdrawn,! and Henry V. 
was permitted to make a tardy atonement to 
offended nature and piety. 

There is no proof that Pascal positively 
excited this monstrous rebellion, but it is well 
known that he countenanced and promoted 
it, and that too, not as a reluctant concession 
of virtue to interest, but with ardent and un- 
compromising zeal. Indeed, his interest was 
not engaged in this matter, but his passions 
merely, and the vindictive hatred for Henry 
IV. which he had contracted in the school of 
Gregory. The Holy See had nothing to gain 
by the death or deposition of an unpopular 
monarch, but everything to fear from the union 
which would probably ensue among his sub- 
jects. For, as to any prospect of gratitude 
from his successor — any hope that the Em- 
peror would be mindful of services conferred 
upon the rebel, — a Tuscan and a Pope could 
scarcely indulge so simple an expectation. 
If Pascal did so, he very speedily discovered 
his error ; for scarcely was Henry IV. dead, 
when his son asserted with equal vehemence 
the disputed rights. The Pope resisted, and 
both parties prepared for a second struggle. 



* It will be recollected tliat, in his second excom- 
munication of Henry, Gregory supplicated St. Peter 
to take away from that prince prosperity in war and 
victory over his enemies, ' that all the world may 
know' (says he) ' that thou hast power both in heaven 
and on earth.' 

t ' Comprobantibus his qui aderant Archiepiscopis 
et Episcopis; quia quibus vivis ecclesia non commu- 
nicat, illis etiam nee mortuis communicare possit.' — 
Urspergensis Abbas, ap. Pagi, Vit. Pascalis II. 
Some ascribe this act of barbarity to the German 
Bishops, and exculpate the Pope, except in as far as 
he had set them the example, by exhumating the 
bones of Guibert the Antipope, who had been buried 
at Ravenna, and casting them into the neighboring 
river. 

X Fleury, H. E., lib. Ixv. s. 44, and lib. Ixvi. s. 5. 



PAPAL HISTORY. 



255 



Henry V. nothing deterred by the porten- 
tous appearance of a comet, which inspired 
general dismay, descended into Italy during 
the summer of 1110, cai-efully prepared for a 
twofold contest with the Holy See; for he 
was not only attended by a powerful army, 
but also by a suite of literary protectors,* so 
that the pen might be at hand to justify the 
deeds of the sword. His advance was pre- 
ceded by a declaration of his intention, which 
was ' to maintain a right acquired by privilege 
and the custom of his predecessors from the 
time of Charlemagne, and preserved during 
three hundred years under sixty-three popes 
— that of presenting to bishoprics and abbeys 
by the ring and crosier.' In reality, his ob- 
ject, when more fully explained, was to pre- 
vent the election of bishops without his con- 
sent, to invest the bishop-elect with the regalia, 
to receive from him homage and the oath of 
allegiance. At the same time, he proposed to 
undergo the solemn ceremony of coronation 
at the hands of the Pope. 

Dispute between Henry V. and Pascal, By 
the regalia above-mentioned were understood 
various grants confeiTed on the bishops by 
Charlemagne, which partook of the privileges 
of royalty, such as the power of raising trib- 
ute, coining money, and also the possession 
of certain independent lands, directly derived 
from the crown, with some other immunities. 
And it seemed natural that the successors of 
Charlemagne should retain the right of con- 
firming the privileges which he had bestowed. 
This circumstance involved the Pope in gi-eat 
perplexity ; and though it was easy to publish 
edicts, and advance vague and exorbitant pre- 
tensions, when the Emperor was distant or 
emban-assed, he could scarcely hope by such 
expedients to withstand his near and armed 
approach. In this difficulty, Pascal proved 
at least the sincerity of his professions, and 
his attachment to the best and purest interests 
of the Church. He had the virtue to prefer 
its spiritual independence to its worldly splen- 
dor, and the courage to proclaim his prefer- 
ence. This better part being chosen, he con- 
cluded a treaty with Henry, by which it was 
agreed that the bishops, on the one hand, 
should make to Henry a positive cession of 
all that belonged to the crown in the time of 

* ' One of them was a Scotsman named David, 
who had presided over the schools at Wurtemberg, 
and whom the King had appointed his chaplain, a. 
cause de sa vcrtu. He wrote a relation of this ex- 
pedition, but rather as a panegyrist than a historian.' 
— Flem-y, lib. Ixvi. s. 1, on authority of Will. Mal- 
mes., lib. v. p. 166. 



Louis, Henry, and his other "predecessors, on 
pain of excommunication if they attempted to 
usurp such regalia; and that the En.peror, 
on the other, should resign the rigVit of inves- 
titure. On this arrangement, the Pope con- 
sented to perform the ceremony of corona- 
tion,* and Henry proceeded to Rome for that 
purpose. 

The circumstances which followed are told 
with some trifling variations, but were proba- 
bly thus. The bishops interested in the trea- 
ty, and especially those of Germany, who 
would have been the greatest sufferers, felt 
the deepest repugnance to resign so large a 
portion of their splendid temporalities for a 
remote and invisible object, which, however 
it might be accessory to the honor of the 
Church, did not benefit theii* own immediate 
interests. Consequently they protested with 
so much violence against the compromise, 
which seemed to them to exchange a sub- 
stance for a shadow, that the Pope despaired 
of his power to execute that condition of the 
treaty. In the meantime, Henry arrived at 
Rome : he was conducted with acclamations 
to the Basilica of St. Peter, where the Pope, 
with his Bishops and Cardinals, was waiting 
to receive him. The King, according to the 
accustomed ceremony, prostrated himself be- 
fore the Pope, and kissed his feet ; he then 
read the usual oath, and they advanced to- 
gether into the church.f But here, before 
they proceeded to the office of consecration, 
a dispute broke out respecting the fulfil uient 
of the treaty, and it was presently inflamed 
into an angry quarrel. Henry availed him- 
self of the presence of his soldiers to an-est 
the Pope and several Cardinals ; the Roman 
populace took arms and endeavored to rescue 
him ; a fierce and tumultuous conflict ensu- 
ed, and the courts of the Vatican, and even 

* For this compact we have the authority of Petrus 
Diaconus (who cites a contemporary account of the 
transaction) confirmed by that of Urspergens. Abbas, 
as follows. ' Ibi Legati Apostolici cum missis Regis 
advenientes, promptum essePapam ad consecrationem 
... si taraen ipse sibimet annueret libertatem Eccle- 
siarum, laicam ab illis prohibens investituram — re- 
cipiendo nihilominus ab Ec'clesiis Ducatus, Marchias, 
Comitatus, Advocatias, Moneta, Telonia, ceeteror- 
umque Kegalium quae possident summam.' — See Pagf, 
Vit. Fasch. II. — Fleury, lib. Ixvi. s. ii. 

t This took place on Feb. 11, 1111. ' Ter se m- 
vicem complexi, ter se invicem osculati sunt; et, 
sicut mos. Rex dexteram Pontificis tenens cum magno 
populi gaudio et clamore adPortam venit Argenteam. 
Ibi ex libro professionem imperatoriam faciens a 
Pontifice designatus est Imperator, &c.'— Acta Vati. 
cana ap. Baronium. 



25Q 



HISTORY OP THE CHURCH. 



the hallowed pavement of St. Peter, were 
polluted with blood ; but the Germans suc- 
ceeded in preserving their prisoners, and car- 
ried them away to their neighboring encamp- 
ment at Viterbo. After a rigorous confinement 
of two months, Pascal yielded to such persua- 
sion as a king may exercise over his captive ; 
and then he not only performed the required 
ceremony, but, by a new convention, ceded 
unconditionally the right of investiture. 

The presence of the Emperor was demand- 
ed m Germany ; Pascal returned to Rome ; 
but he was saluted there by such a tempest 
of indignation, as to find it necessary, m the 
year following, to submit the whole affair, 
even as it involved his own personal conduct, 
to a very numerous Council at the Lateran. 
Here the Pope confessed the error into which 
his weakness had betrayed him ; and the 
Council, with his consent, solemnly revoked 
and cancelled the treaty, and justified their 
perfidy by pleading the violence which had 
extorted it. The immediate resentment of 
Henry was diverted by civil disorders ; but in 
1117, he marched to Rome as an avowed en- 
emy ; Pascal retired to Benevento, and sought 
the protection of his Norman vassals, still 
faithful to the chair of Gregory. The Empe- 
ror presently withdrew, and Pascal returned 
to his see, and died ; and his fortunes, in 
many respects similar to those of his patron, 
were blessed with a happier termination, 
since he was permitted to close his eyes at 
Rome. His fortunes were, in some respects, 
similar to those of Gregory, and similar was 
the audacity of his pretensions ; but he want- 
ed the firmness necessary to dignify the form- 
er, and to give weight and stability to the 
latter; his adversity was inglorious, and his 
arrogance feeble and without consequence. 
The levity of his character disqualified him 
for the task he had undertaken, and its plian- 
cy did not compensate for its want of cohe- 
rence and consistency. 

Conclusion of the quarrels about Investitures. 
The question respecting investitures, after 
having variously agitated the kmgdoms of 
the west for half a century, was now draw- 
ing near to its final decision. After a short 
interval of disputed succession,* then usual 
on the death of every Pope, Calixtus II., 
Archbishop of Vienna, a Count of Burgundy, 
and a near relative of the Emperor, was rais- 
ed to the pontifical chair. It does not ap- 
pear, however, that he sacrificed to the claims 



* Gelasius II. stands in the list of Popes as having 
filled that intei'val. 



of consanguinity any portion of the rights oP 
pretensions of his see ; but he consented that 
the differences should be submitted for their 
final arrangement to a Council, or Diet, to be 
assembled at Worms for that purpose. A 
Convention was there concluded, which was 
reasonable and pennanent ; its substance was 
this : * — (1.) That the election of bishops and 
abbots, in his Teutonic kingdom, take place in 
its rightful form, without violence or simony, 
in the presence of the Emperor or his legate, 
so that in case of a difference, his protection 
be given with the advice of the metropolitan 
to the juster claim, f (2.) That the ecclesias- 
tic elected receive his regalia at the hand of 
the Emperor, and do homage for them. But 
(3.) that in the ceremony of investiture the 
Emperor no longer use the insignia of spirit- 
ual authority, but the sceptre only. A similar 
arrangement had previously J taken place in 
England between Henry I. and Pascal II. ; 
and in France, § if the custom of investiture 
by the ring and crosier ever prevailed, which 
seems uncertain, it had been abolished about 
the same time. 

The terms of this treaty, in which each 
party yielded what was extravagant in his 
claims, 1| were undoubtedly favorable to the 



* See Fleury, liv. Ixvii. sect. 30. Pagi, Vit. Cal- 
listi II. sect. xxiv. xxv. This convention took place 
in September, 1122. 

t ' Si qua inter partes discordia emerserit, metro- 
politan] provincialium consilio vel judicio, saniori 
parti assensum et auxilium prsebeas.' So this clause 
is expressed in the acts of the Lateran Council held 
in the following year. 

:{: Probably in 1106, after a severe dispute between 
the Pope and King during the primacy of Anselra. 
Hist. Litt. France, Vie Pascal. Pagi, Vit. Pascal. II. 

§ Guillaume de Champeau, Bishop of Chalons, is 
related to have addressed (in 1119) the following dis- 
course to the Emperor: — ' Sire, if you desire a sub- 
stantial peace you must absolutely renounce the in- 
vestiture to bishoprics and abbeys. And to assure 
you that you will thus suffer no diminution of your 
royal authority, let me inform you, that when I was 
elected in the kingdom of France, I received nothing 
from the hand of the king, neither before nor after 
consecration. Nevertheless I serve him as faithfully 
in virtue of the tributes and various other rights of 
the state which Christian kings have in ancient days 
given to the Church, as faithfully, I say, as your 
bishops in your kingdom serve you, in virtue of that 
investiture which has drawn such discords and anath- 
emas on you.' Fleury, H. E. liv. Ixvii., sec. 3. 
The Emperor yielded to that argument. 

II The peace of the Church is thus celebrated by 
Gotfridus of Viterbo, in his Chronicle: 

Reddit Apostolico Caesar quaecunque rogavit; 

Pax bona conficitur ; sublata Deo reparavit ; 

Jura sua? partis laetus uterque trahit. 



PAPAL HISTORY 



257 



Church. Her restitution of the 'riglitful 
form ' of election deprived the Emperor of 
an usurped privilege which had been ex- 
tremely valuable and profitable to him, both 
in its use and its abuse. And since the 
Popes, ever aft«r the edict of Alexander II., 
had claimed as indisputable the right of con- 
Jirmation in episcopal election— a claim which, 
as it was purely ecclesiastical, the Emperor 
had not greatly cared to contest — a large por- 
tion of the influence which was ceded by the 
crown did in fact devolve on the holy see. 
Again, the onginal form of election was in 
no case positively restored, since the advan- 
tage of excluding the people, and even the 
body of the diocesan clergy, had been long 
and generally acknowiedged ; so that the 
right seems to have been invested almost im- 
mediately in the chapters of the cathedral 
Churches ; at least it was confirmed to them 
about the end of the twelfth century. 

The second condition of the Convention 
secured to the sovereign the civil allegiance 
of his ecclesiastical subjects, and repressed 
their dangerous struggles for entire immunity 
from feudal obligations. At the same time it 
restored to them the integrity of their ghostly 
independence, and cut off the last pretence 
for secular interference in matters strictly 
spiritual. 

So easy and reasonable was the conclusion 
of that debate, which, in addition to the usual 
calamities of international warfare, had excit- 
ed subjects against their sovereign, and chil- 
dren against their fathers, which had con- 
vulsed the holy Church, and oveithrown its 
sanctuaries, and stained its altars with blood. 
However, on a calm historical survey of the cir- 
cumstances of the conflict, and of the crimes 
and errors which led to them, we are little 
disposed to load with unmixed reprehension 
any individual of either party. The crimes^ 
indeed, and the passions which produced 
them, were equally numerous and flagi-ant on 
either side; on the one, were tyranny and 
profligacy and brutal violence: arrogance 
and obstinacy and imposture, on the other ; 
pride and ambition and injustice, on both. 
Yet our prejudices naturalljf incline to the 
imperial party; because the same or equal 
vices become infinitely more detestable when 
they are found under the banners of religion.* 

* Mosheim is disposed to throw all the reproach of 
this dispute on the monastic education and character 
of Gregory and his two disciples; and these he con- 
trasts with the more secular virtues which high birth 
and society had nourished in Calixtus. But in tlie 
first place, the whole blame is not by any means on 

33 



But the errors were those of the times rather 
than of the men, and even served, in some 
degree, to palliate the crimes. The barbarism 
of preceding ages and the ignorance actually 
existing, had engendered and nourished a 
swarm of obscure notions and active preju- 
dices, which infatuated the vulgar, and par- 
tially blinded even the best and the wisest. 
The records of past events were little studied; 
indeed they were seen only by those discon- 
tinuous glimpses, which perplex and deceive 
far more than they enlighten ; and reason 
had lost her native force, and health, and 
penetration, through neglect and abuse — so 
that claims the most absurd were established 
by arguments the most senseless ; and men 
could not rightly discern the real nature of 
their adversaries' pretensions, nor even the 
strength of their own, so as effectually to 
controvert the one, or rationally to maintain 
the other. Thus were their contests carried 
on in a sort of moral obscurity, which took 
off nothing from their positiveness and ob- 
stinacy, and permitted even additional license 
to their malignity. 

The First Lateran Council. In the year 
1123 a very numerous * assembly was held at 
Rome, which is commonly acknowledged in 
that Church as the ninth General, and the 
First Lateran council. Of the two-and-twen- 
ty canons which resulted from its labors, the 
greater part were in confirmation of the acts 
of preceding Popes ; and we observe that the 
object of several of the original enactments 
was to protect the property of the Church 
from alienation, and lay usurpations. There 
was one which promoted the Crusading zeal, 
both by spiritual promises and menaces. And 
among the most important we may consider 
that (the 17th) which prohibited abbots and 
monks from the performance of public mass- 
es, the administration of the holy chrism, and 
other religious services, and confided those 
solemn offices entirely to the secular clergy. 
This was an early and very public manifesta- 



that side, but is very equally divided with the empire ; 
and in the next, Pascal at least did actually prove, 
by his arrangement with the English king, his dispo- 
sition to end the controversy, on the very terms final- 
ly accepted by Calixtus. Mosheim moderates with 
great impartiality between contending sects, and a 
very great merit that is; but when the contest is be- 
tween a Pope and a German sovereign, his feelings 
sometimes overpower his perfect judgment. 

* About a thousand prelates were present, of whom 
above three hundred were bishops, and above six 
hundred abbots. Many pontifical Councils had been 
previously held at the Lateran, but this was the first 
which obtained a place among the General Councils. 



258 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



tioii of that jealousy between the two orders 
of the Romish hierarchy, which in a later 
age displayed itself so generally as to become 
an efficient instrument in working its over- 
throw. 

Popular tumults at Rome. Calixtus died in 
1124, and during the thirty years which fol- 
lowed, the pontifical city enjoyed scarcely 
any intermission from discord and convul- 
sion. The names of Honorius and Inno- 
cent,* and Anaclete and Eugenius, with some 
others, pass by in rapid and tumultuous pro- 
cession. The chair, which was generally 
contested, was never maintained to any good 
purpose ; and one of its possessors, Lucius 
II., was actually murdered by the populace 
in an attempt to restore tranquillity. 

Arnold of Brescia. But we must here ob- 
serve, that the popular commotions of this 
period were not of the same description with 
those which we have already found occasion 
to notice; the question of papal election had 
ceased to be their sole, or even their princi- 
pal, cause ; the turbulence which had been 
occasioned by the abuse of that right, and 
prolonged by the endeavor to reclaim it, was 
now founded in a deeper and much more 
powerful motive. A party had lately grown 
up in the Roman city of patriots ambitious to 
restore the name, and, as some might fondly 
deem, the glory of the ancient republic. And 
the first and necessary step towards the accom- 
plishment of this scheme was the subversion, 
or, at least, the entire reconstruction of the 
ecclesiastical system. To diminish the privi- 
leges, to reduce the revenues of the church, 
to deprive the Pontiff of temporal power and 
all civil jm'isdiction, and to degrade (should 
we not rather say, to exalt ?) his stately splen- 
dor to the homeliness of his primitive pre- 
decessors — these were the projects prepara- 
tory to the political regeneration of Rome. 
About the year 1135, Arnold, a native of Bres- 
cia, a disciple of the celebrated Abelard, re- 
turned to Italy from the schools of Paris, and 
having assumed the monastic habit, began 
publicly to preach and declaim against the 
vices of the clergy. It is admitted by a 
Catholic writer, f that the pomp of the pre- 



* The Pontificate of Innocent II., though inter- 
rupted by frequent dissension, was the longest and 
the most important; and during it, in the year 1139, 
the tenth General Council, or second Lateran, was 
assembled. 

f Fleury, H. E., lib. Ixviii., sect. 55. Arnold 
maintained that there was no hope of salvation for 
prelates who held baronies, or for any clerks or monks 
^ho possessed any fixed property ; that those posses - 



lates, and the soft licentious life both of clerks 
and monks, furnished abundant materials for 
his denunciations ; but it is complained that 
he exceeded the limits of truth and modera- 
tion ; and it is besides asserted, that his or- 
thodoxy was liable to suspicion, and that he 
held some unsound opinions respecting the 
Eucharist and mfant baptism. In conse- 
quence of these various charges, he was con- 
demned by a Lateran Council, in 1139 : he 
immediately retired from Italy, and transfer- 
red his popular declamation to Zurich, in 
Switzerland. 

Adrian IV. Not many years afterwards, 
encouraged by the independent spirit which 
was rising at Rome, he boldly selected that 
metropolis for the scene of his two-fold exer- 
tions against papacy and despotism. In the 
meantime (in the year 1154) a man of decided 
firmness and energy had obtained possession 
of the Chair. Adrian IV., the only English- 
man who ever attamed that dignity, had raised 
himself from the very lowest office in society * 
to the throne of St. Peter; and though the ar- 
rogance which he then exhibited might en- 
tirely belong to his latest fortunes, an intrepid 
resolution, tempered by the most refined ad- 
dress, must have characterized every stage of 
his progress ; since these are qualities which 
offices and dignities may exercise, but can 
never bestow. In the year following his ele- 
vation, one of his cardinals was dangerously 
wounded in some tumult excited by the asso- 
ciates of Arnold. Adrian instantly placed the 
city of Rome under an interdict ; the churches 
were closed, and the divine offices for some 
time suspended, in the very heart of the 
Catholic church. The priests and the people 
wearied the pontifical chau* with supplications 
for a recall of the edict, but Adrian did not re- 
lent until Arnold and his associates were ex- 
pelled from the city. 'All the people (says 
Fleury) blessed God for this mercy: on the 



sions belonged to the prince, and that he alone could 
bestow them, and on faymen only; that the clergy 
ought to live on the tithes and the voluntary oblations 
of the people, content with a moderate and frugal 
sufficiency. Pagi, Vit. Innocent II., sect. Ixix., re- 
fers to Otho Frisingensis. The ravings (deliramenta) 
of Peter de Bruis were condemned on the same occa- 
sion. That Heresiarch objected to the reverenee paid 
to the cross, denied the daily sacrifice of the body and 
blood of Christ, and the efficacy of prayers or alms 
for the dead, besides other unpardonable errors.. 

* His name was Nicholas Breakspeare : going to 
Aries, in Provence, he was admitted in the quality of 
servant to the Canons of St. Rufus, where he became 
monk, and in the sequel Abbot and General of the 
Order. 



PAPAL HISTORY. 



259 



following day (Holy Thursday,) they rushed 
from every quarter to receive the customary 
absolution, and a vast multitude of pilgrims 
Avas also present. Then the Pope, attended 
by bishops and cardinals, and a numerous 
troop of nobles, came forth from his residence, 
and crossing the extent of Rome, amidst the 
acclamations of the people, arrived at the La- 
teran Palace, where he celebrated the festival 
of Easter.' 

Frederic Barharossa. Soon afterwards, Ar- 
nold unliappily fell into the power of Frederic 
Barbarossa, who was then in Italy on his ad- 
vance to Rome ; and the Emperor, probably 
actuated by a common dislike to independence 
and innovation under every form, yielded up 
his prisoner to , tlie solicitations of the Pope. 
He was conducted to Rome, and subjected to 
the partial judgment of an ecclesiastical tribu- 
nal. His guilt was eagerly pronounced, the 
prefect of the city delivered his sentence, and 
he was burnt alive, 'in the presence of a 
careless and ungrateful people.' But lest this 
same multitude, with the same capriciousness, 
should presently turn to adore the martyr and 
offer worship at his tomb, his ashes were con- 
temptuously scattered over the bosom of the 
Tiber. His name has been the subject of 
splendid panegyric and scandalous calumny : 
with its claims to political celebrity, we have 
no concern in this history ; but in respect to 
his disputes with the church, we may venture 
to rank Arnold of Brescia among those earnest 
but inconsiderate reformers, whose pi-emature 
opposition to established abuses produced little 
immediate result except their own discomfi- 
ture and destruction ; but whose memory has 
become dear, as their example has been useful, 
to a happier and a wiser posterity ; whom we 
celebrate as martyrs to the best of hujnan 
principles, and whose very indiscretions we 
account to them for zeal and virtue. 

Frederic Barbarossa, whose elevation was 
nearly contemporaneous with that of Adrian, 
had also announced his intention to restrain 
the increasing wealth and moderate the inso- 
lence of the Pope and his clergy ; and in 1155, 
he proceeded to Rome for the purposes of 
celebrating his coronation, and commencing 
his reform : but he found the Pontiff as firm 
and as powerful to resist imperial interference 
as to quell domestic disorder. And so far was 
Adrian, on this occasion, from betraying the 
interests of his order, or the prerogatives of 
his oflice, that he even asserted a recent and 
ambiguous and singularly offensive claim — 
he demanded the personal service of the Em- 



peror to hold his stirrup when he mounted 
his horse.* A precedent for this indignity 
having been pointed out to him, Barbarossa, 
the haughtiest prince in Europe, at the head 
of a powerful and oliedient army, submitted 
to an office of servitude, which he may possi- 
bly have mistaken for Christian humiliation. 
But, however that may be, the triumph of the 
See over so great a monarch proved the sub- 
stantial reality of its power, and the awe 
which it deeply inspired into the most intre- 
pid minds. 

Some vexatious pretensions of Adrian re- 
specting the regalia, and a gratuitous insinu- 
ation that Frederic held the empire as a fief 
(beneficium) from Rome, served to keep alive 
a jealous in-itation between the Church and 
the empire, though peace was not actually 
interrupted. Frederic, on the other hand, 
published, in 1158, an edict, of which the ob- 
ject was to prevent the transfer of fiefs with- 
out the knowledge and consent of the superior 
or lord in whose name they were held. It 
was by such unauthorized transfers of feudal 
property that the territories of the Church had 
for a long period been gradually swollen, so 
as to spread themselves in every direction 
over the surface of Europe. The law in 
question was well calculated to check their 
further mcrease, and it seems to have been 
the first that was enacted for that pui-pose. 
Its obvious tendency did not escape the di- 
rectors of the Church ; but the opposition 
which it had peculiarly to expect from the 
Holy See was suspended by the death of 
Adi-ian and the confusion which followed it. 

Alexander III. Alexander III. was imme- 
diately elected by a very large majority of 
the cai'dinals ; but as some of the other party 
still persisted in supporting a rival named 
Octavian,! Frederic, on his own authority, 
summoned a General Council at Pavia to 
decide on their claims. Alexander disputed 
the Emperor's right to arbitrate or at all to 
interfere in the schisms of the Church ; | and, 

* « This homage ' (says Gibbon) « was paid by 
kings to archbishops, and by vassals to their lords ; 
and it was the nicest policy of Rome to confound the 
marks of filial and feudal subjection.' Chap. 69. 

t After the death of Octavian, Alexander had still 
to struggle successively with three other Antipopes. 
The second, called by his adherents Calixtus III., 
was appointed in 1168, and abdicated in about ten 
years ; but his party replaced him by another puppet, 
whom they called Innocent III. 

% Frederic had two precedents for his claim, though 
he might not perhaps much regard, or even know, 
that circumstance. In 408 Honorius held a Council 



260 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, 



as he refused to present himself at the Coun- 
cil, his rival was declared to be duly elected, 
and the decision received the approbation of 
the Emperor. But Alexander was still sus- 
tained by the more faithful and powerful party 
within the Church, and acknowledged by 
most of the sovereigns of Europe ; and from 
these supports he derived confidence suffi- 
cient to excommunicate his adversary, and to 
absolve his subjects from their oath of fidelity. 
But Frederic did not feel the blow ; he pro- 
ceeded to place his creature in possession of 
the pontifical city, while Alexander adopted 
the resolution, so commonly followed by his 
successors in afi;er ages, to seek security in the 
territories of France. He withdrew to Mont- 
pelier with his whole court, and resided in 
that neighborhood for the space of three years, 
till circumstances enabled him to return to 
Rome in 1165. Here he was soon afterwards 
assailed by Frederic in person, and though 
defended for some little time by the ambigu- 
ous and venal fidelity * of the Romans, he was 
finally obliged to escape in the disguise of a 
pilgrim. He retired to Benevento, but not till 
he had thundered another anathema against 
Frederic , and on this occasion he not only 
deprived him of the throne, but also forbade, 
' by the authority of God, that he should 
thereafter have any force in battle, or triumph 
over any Christian ; or that he should enjoy 
anywhere peace or repose, until he had given 
sufficient proofs of his penitence.' f The de- 
nunciations contained in this frightful sen- 
tence were not, indeed, wholly accomplished ; 
yet did it so come to pass, that Frederic was 
obliged to retire almost immediately from 
Rome by the sickness of his army ; and that, 
in the long and destructive war which follow- 
ed, he suffered such reverses as to find it ex- 
pedient (in the year 1177) to sign a disad- 
vantageous treaty with the Pope. | The war 



at Ravenna to decide the disputed election between 
Boniface and Eulalius, and his decision was followed 
by the Church. Afterwards the schism between Sym- 
machus and Laurentius was terminated by Theodoric, 
though an Arian. The imperial power does not ap- 
pear to have been disputed in either instance. 

* It appears that he could secure little influence 
over the Roman people, ' who, pretending to wish 
well to both parties, were faithful to neither,' until 
he received a large sum of money from William, his 
Sicilian vassal. Fleury, H. E., liv. Ixxi., sec. 34, 
&c. &c. 

t See Pagi, Vit. Alexandri III., sect. 66, who 
reasonably assigns this event to the year 1167. 

X Alexander is accused, and with some justice, of 
having too exclusively consulted his own interests in 
this affair, and of having negotiated a truce only for 



was for the most part carried on in the North 
of Italy ; and as it was fomented by the ad- 
dress and policy, rather than by the sword, of 
Alexander, the calm expression of his exulta- 
tion was in some manner justified — ^ it hath 
pleased God (he said) to permit an old man 
and a priest to triumph without the use of 
arms over a powerful and formidable em- 
peror.' * 

From that time Alexander possessed in 
security the chair which he had merited by 
his persevering exertions, as well as by his 
various virtues. He immediately turned his 
attention to the internal condition of the 
Church, and his first object was to remove 
from his successors an evil which had so long 
and so dangerously, afflicted himself Accord- 
ingly he summoned (in 1179) a Council, com- 
monly called the third of Lateran, and there 
enacted those final regulations f respecting 
papal election which have already been men- 
tioned. 

Among the very few characters which 
throw an honorable lustre upon the dark 
procession of pontifical names, we may con- 
fidently record that of Alexander HI., not 
only fi-om the splendor of his talents, his con- 
stancy, and his success, but from a still nobler 
claim which he possesses on our admiration. 
He was the zealous champion of intellectual 
advancement, and the determined foe of igno- 
rance. The system of his internal adminis- 
tration was regulated by this principle, and he 
carried it to the most generous extent. He 
made inquiries in foreign countries, and espe- 
cially in France, for persons eminent for learn- 
ing, that he might promote them, without re- 
gard to birth sr influence, to the highest eccle- 
siastical dignities. He caused large numbers of 
the Italian Clergy, to whom their own countiy 
did not supply sufficient means of instruction, 
to proceed to Paris for their more liberal edu- 
cation ; and having learnt that in some places 
the chapters of cathedrals exacted fees from 
young proficients before they licensed them 
to lecture publicly, Alexander removed the 
abuse, and abolished every restriction which 

his faithful allies, while he secured an honorable and 
profitable peace for himself. Denina (Rivol. d' Ital. 
L. xi. C. iv.) calls it a ' Face particolare fra Ales- 
sandro III. e Federico.' 

* Muratorij in his forty-eighth dissertation, de- 
scribes Frederic as ' Vir alti animi, acris ingenii, 
multarumque virtutum consensu ornatus.' 

f These regulations were so effectual, that during 
the 600 following years, a double choice (as Gibbon 
observes) only once disturbed the unity of the College 
Chap. 69. 



PAPAL HISTORY 



261 



had been arbitrarily imposed on the free ad- 
vance of learning. At the same time he was 
not so blinded by this zeal as to consider the 
mere exercise of the understanding as a suffi- 
cient guarantee for moral improvement. But 
observing, on the contrary, with great appre- 
hension the progress of the scholastic system 
of theology, and the numberless vain disputa- 
tions to which it gave rise, he assembled a 
very large Council of Men of Letters* for the 
purpose of condemning that system, and dis- 
couraging its prevalence at Paris. 

He died in 1181 : m the course of the ten 
following years four pontiffs ruled and passed 
away, and in 1191 the chair was occupied by 
Celestine III., the fifth from Alexander. This 
prelate has deserved a place in the history of 
mankind, by the protection which he afforded 
to Richard I. of England, when imprisoned on 
his return fi-om the Holy Land. He died in 
1198, and was succeeded by Lotharius, Count 
of Segni, a Cardinal Deacon, who assumed 
the name of Innocent III. 

We shall conclude this account with a few 
of the observations which most naturally offer 
themselves. From the moment that the Ro- 
man See put forward its claims to temporal 
authority, its history presents a spectacle of 
contentions, varying indeed in character and 
in bitterness, but in their succession almost un- 
interrupted. The retrospect of the period of 
one hundred and fifteen years, of which the 
most memorable circumstances have now been 
related, presents to us a mass of angry dissen- 
sions, which may generally be distinguished 
mto three classes: (1.) The first and most 
prominent of these contains such quarrels as 
arose^hi continuation of the grand debate be- 
tween the popedom and the empire. It was 
not sufiicient that the original matter of dis- 
pute was removed by the concordat of Calix- 
tus ; the roots of animosity lay deeper than the 
form of an investiture, and they had branched 
out more widely and more vigorously during 
the contest which succeeded that concordat. 
The coronation of every new emperor was 
now attended by a new dispute, which usually 
caused immediate bloodshed, and was some- 
times prolonged into obstinate warfare. Rome 
nad never a more formidable German adver- 
sary than Frederic Barbarossa ; yet so far was 
he from obtaining any lasting advantage over 
her, that the papal pretensions appear to have 
gained considerably both in consistency and 
general credit during his reign, or, to speak 

* Three thousand gens de lettres are said to have 
been assembled on that occasion. Hist. Liti de la 
France, xii. siecle. 



more properly, during the pontificate of Alex- 
ander III. Frederic was not justified in con- 
testing the legitimacy of that pontiff. What- 
sover general rights he might possess over the 
Roman church (and they were very vague and 
could only be temporal ;) whatsoever prece- 
dents he might plead for interference (and 
those were very remote, and not wholly ap- 
plicable to the present case ;) the election of 
Alexander was unquestionably valid, accord- 
ing to the canons which had been enacted a 
century before and never repealed or contest- 
ed, and according to the practice of the See 
since the days of Gregory VII. Assuredly, 
the desire to recover an obsolete privilege, 
virtually ceded by the silence of intervening 
treaties, was excuse insufficient for that vio- 
lent opposition, which did properly terminate 
in defeat and humiliation, as it was com- 
menced and continued in injustice. (2.) The 
contentions among the rival candidates for 
the pontifical chair, so scandalous and so usual 
in former periods, had abated nothing of their 
rage in the present ; for though they changed 
their character, they lost not any part of their 
virulence, from the intermixture of political 
animosity. The short reigns of the greater 
number of the pontiffs, and the most trifling 
divisions in the college, gave frequent occa- 
sion, and some pretext, for popular interfer- 
ence ; and this could never be exercised with- 
out excess. The regulation of Nicholas II. 
was not in fact of much real advantage, except 
as a preparatory measure to that of Alexander 
III., — for it was vain to exclude from positive 
election an unprincipled and venal mob, as 
long as they retained a negative influence, — it 
was of no avail, as a final arrangement, to 
forbid their suffrage, and to require their con- 
sent, — for the turbulent expression of their 
disapprobation was instantly seized by the 
defeated candidate, as furnishing some hope 
for success, or, at least, some plea for perse- 
verance. And perhaps it was not the least 
evil of those tumults, that they encouraged 
and almost invited the interference of the 
emperor, so seldom offered with any friendly 
intention. There was no other possible me- 
thod of securing at once the justice and decen- 
cy of papal election, than by the entire exclu- 
sion of the people — this measure was at length 
effected by Alexander. (3.) Of another des- 
cription again were those dissensions which 
distracted the several kingdoms of Europe by 
the internal division of the church and the 
state, — that is, by the opposition of the eccle- 
siastical to the civil authorities. But since in 
these matters the aftairs of every nation con- 



262 



HISTORY OP THE CHURCH. 



stitute histories essentially distinct from each 
other, and mainly influenced, in every in- 
stance, by civil concerns ; and since the de- 
tached incidents which w^e might produce 
would form independent narratives, standing 
for the most part on separate foundations, it 
would be difficult, in these limited pages, to 
give them consistency, or even coherence. 
We must, therefore, content ourselves with 
referring to the annals of the diiferent nations 
for the details of such disputes ; to those of 
France, for instance, for the quarrel between 
Louis le Gros and the Bishop of Paris, who 
had the boldness to excommunicate his sove- 
reign ; and to those of our own country for the 
particulars of the aggression of William Rufus 
on the property of the church, made during the 
pontificate of Urban II., and of the protection 
perseveringly vouchsafed to Thomas a Becket 
by the piety or policy of Alexander III. 

To those abovementioned we might rea- 
sonably add another form of discord which 
was beginning obscurely to present itself, with 
omens and menaces of tribulation. The voice 
of heresy had been already raised in the val- 
leys of France, and the ministers of spiritual 
despotism had already bestirred themselves for 
its suppression. But this subject is so pecu- 
liarly connected with the celebrity of Inno- 
cent III., that we shall not disconnect it from 
his name. 

II. Education and theological learning. The 
gradual establishment of the peculiar doctrines 
and practices of the Church of Rome, though 
occasionally influenced by the vicissitudes of 
literature, is not inseparably connected with its 
history, but was promoted in different ages by 
very different causes. It is indeed remarked, 
that in the tenth century the disputes respecting 
predestination and other subtile questions be- 
came less common, and gave place to the final 
establishment of the doctrine of Purgatory, — 
a change well suited to the transition from an 
age (the ninth,) distinguished by some efforts of 
intellectual inquisitiveness, into one remarkable 
for the general prostration of the human un- 
derstanding. But, on the other hand, we find 
that, in the eleventh and twelfth ages, the ne- 
cessity oi secret confession was more strictly and 
assiduously inculcated ; yet the firmer riveting 
of that spiritual chain cannot certainly be attri- 
buted to any further access of darkness. In 
fact, the contrary was the case, since the par- 
tial revival of letters is very justly ascribed to 
that period. But the innovation which we 
have last mentioned, and to which others 
might be added, was probably occasioned 



by the disputes then prevailing between the 
church and the empire, which made it neces- 
sary to extend by every exertion the influence 
of the clergy over their lay fellow-subjects. 
Again, the use of indulgences' in the place 
of canonical penance, which grew up in the 
twelfth age, was one of the earliest and most 
pernicious creations of the crusades, and 
wholly independent of the growth and move- 
ments of literature. But notwithstanding these 
and many other points of disconnexion, there 
has ever existed a sort of general correspon- 
dence between religion and learning, most 
especially remarkable in those ages when the 
ministers of the one could alone give access 
to the mysteries of the other, and when the 
only incentive to studious application was 
religious zeal or ecclesiastical ambition ; so 
that it would be as improper entirely to sepa- 
rate those subjects as it would be impossible, 
in these pages, to enter very deeply into dis- 
cussion concerning the ecclesiastical literature 
of so many ages. We shall therefore content 
ourselves by strivmg from time to time to il- 
lustrate this work by such subsidiaiy lights as 
shall most obviously present themselves, so 
far at least as regards the different forms of 
theological learning, and the methods of the- 
ological education. At present, after a very 
brief review of earlier times, we shall conclude 
our imperfect inquiries at the end of the 
eleventh century. 

Early Schools. The earliest schools estab- 
lished in the provinces of the Western Em- 
pire were of civil foundation, and intended 
entirely for the purposes of civil education ; 
and so they continued until the social system 
was subverted by the barbarian cdliquest. 
This revolution affected the literary in com- 
mon with all other institutions ; in the course 
of the sixth century profane learning entire- 
ly disappeared, together with the means of 
acquiring it; and before its conclusion, the 
office of instruction had passed entirely into 
the hands of the clergy. The municipal 
schools of the empire gave place to cathedral 
or episcopal establishments, which were at- 
tached, in every diocese, to the residence of 
the bishop ; and throughout the countiy ele- 
mentary schools were formed in many of the 
monasteries, and even in the manses of the 
parochial priesthood. 

The system of education which prevailed 
in those of Italy, and which was probably 
veiy general, is described by the canon* which 



* Concilium Vasense Secundum (529 A. D.) The 
materials for the following pages are principallv takea 



EDUCATION. 



263 



enjoins it: — 'Let all presbyters who are ap- 
pointed to parishes, according to the custom 
BO wholesomely established throughout all 
Italy, receive the younger readers into their 
houses with them, and feeding them, like good 
fathers, with spiritual nourishment, labor to 
instruct them in preparing the Psalms, in in- 
dustry of holy reading, and in the law of the 
Lord.' Such regulations prove, no doubt (if 
they were really enforced,) that the education 
of the clergy was not entirely neglected : but 
they prove also, that such education, even in 
that early age, was confined to the clergy, 
and that it embraced no subjects of secular 
erudition. It is true, indeed, that the names 
of rhetoric, dialectics, and the former subjects 
of civil instruction, were perpetuated in the 
ecclesiastical seminaries ; but those sciences 
were only taught, as they were connected, or 
might be brought into connexion, with theolo- 
gy, and made instrumental in the service of 
the church. * 

But even this partial glimmering of know- 
ledge was extinguished by the invasion of the 
Lombards, and the very genius of Italy seems 
to have been chilled and contracted by the 
iron grasp of the seventh century. Rome 
alone retained any warmth or pulsation of 
learning ; if learning that can be called, which 
scarcely extended beyond a supei-ficial ac- 
quaintance with the canons of the church. 
And though there exist some monuments, 
which appear to prove the existence of pres- 
byteral or archi-presbyteral schools in the 
eighth ccBtury, we need scarcely hesitate to 
prolong to the middle of that age the stupe- 
faction of the preceding, and to attribute the 
first movement of reanimation to the touch 
of Charlemagne, or his immediate prede- 
cessor. 

While Italy was thus lifeless, some seeds 
from the plant of knowledge, which had been 
blown to the western extremity of Europe, 
took root there, and reached a ceitain matu- 
rity. Accordingly^, we find it recorded, that 
' two Irishmen, persons mcomparably skilled 
in secular and sacred learning,' had reached 



from the Dissertations (43 and 44) of Muratori, the 
Hist. Litt. de la France, two Discourses of Fleui-y, 
and the 16tli Le^on of Guizot. 

* The reproach addressed by Gregory the Great to 
St. Dizier, Bishop of Vienne, is commonly known. 
That prelate had ventured to deliver lessons on 
« Grammar ' in his cathedral schools : ' It is not meet 
(said the pope) that lips consecrated to the praises 
of God should open to those of Jupiter.' The exten- 
sive meaning then attached to the word grammar will 
be mentioned presently. 



the shores of France, and were giving public 
lectures to the people.* Their fame reached 
the ears of Charlemagne, who immediately 
employed them in the education of the youth 
of Gaul and Italy. 

Alcuin, as we have mentioned, enjoyed the 
honor of affording personal instruction to the 
emperor and presiding over his Palatine 
school ; and Dungal, another native of Ire- 
land,! has acquired some importance in the 
history of Italy by the lessons which he de- 
livered in her schools. This eagerness of 
Charlemagne to avail himself of foreign talent 
and acquirements evinces his earnestness in 
the prosecution of his great project, to civilize 
by the path of knowledge — a project which 
failed mdeed through the perversity of polit- 
ical circumstances and the incapacity of most 
of his successors ; but which, if persevering- 
ly pursued, must generally be successful, be- 
cause it is in unison with the natural inclina- 
tions, and energies, and prospects of the mind 
of man. 

France profited by this conjuncture more 
rapidly than Italy, as she had not previously- 
fallen quite so low in ignorance : and it would 
even seem that the schools, which were now 
instituted in that country, were open to the 
laity as well as to those intended for the sacred 
profession, though the office of instruction 
remained entirely in the hands of the clergy. 
But it is certain, that very few were found to 
avail themselves of a privilege of which they 
knew not the value. Among the numerous 
names, which adorn the literaiy annals of 
France during the ninth century, there are 
scarcely one or two which are not ecclesiasti- 
cal. Even Germany outstripped in the race 
of improvement the languid progress of Italy ; 
and under a sky so splendidly prolific of taste 
and genius there arose not any one character 
conspicuous, even in his own day, for intel- 
lectual advancement, through a space of more 
than four centuries.| And this extraordinaiy 
dearth of merit is not entirely to be charged 



* Not gratuitously, it Avould seem, as literary mis- 
sionaries, but for money contributed by tlieir hearers. 

t Scotus : a term which was long confined to the 
sister island. Muratori condescends to employ sbme 
pains to ascertain whether or not Dungal was a monk, 
as were his two compatriots mentioned in the text — 
a question deemed of some importance to the honor 
of the monastic order. 

i Some may consider Pope Nicholas as an excep- 
tion ; and he certainly possessed great talents, and 
was not devoid of canonical learning, though in both 
respects probably much inferior to Hincmar. But 
his character was essentially ecclesiastical ; it was 
not adorned by any recollection purely literary. 



264 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



on the neglect of rulers, whether temporal or 
sph'itual. Italy shared with his other provin- 
ces the admirable institutions of Charlemagne 
and of some of his successors ; and there are 
canons of Roman councils still extant, pub- 
lished in the ninth century,* which directed 
the suspension of any among the priesthood 
who should be convicted of ignorance, and 
provided means for the instruction of the ru- 
ral clergy, f But these measures, though they 
might possibly secure a mediocrity of theo- 
logical acquirement, were insufficient to call 
foith any commanding spirit into the field of 
literature. 

The tenth century did not increase the store 
of knowledge, nor multiply the candidates for 
fame either in Italy or France. | In France, 
the depredations of the Normans during the 
conclusion of the preceding age, destroyed 
not only the leisure and security, but even the 
means and food of study. For in their sav- 
age incursions, those unlettered pagans direct- 
ed their rage against the monasteries, as being 
the principal seats of letters and religion ; the 
buildings were reparable, but the manuscripts 
which they contained perished irretrievably. 
Nor was this the only calamity, nor even the 
most fatal of the injuries, which obstructed 
the progress of learning: for it was during 
the same period that the kingdom of France 
was broken up into small principalities under 
independent hereditaiy vassals, who despoiled 
the people of the few rights and blessings 
which they had possessed under a single 
sceptre, and whose rule permitted the license 
which their example encouraged. In the 
prostration of human laws the law divine was 
easily forgotten, and the hand which was ac- 
customed to robbery did not long refrain from 
sacrilege. In such wild periods the wealth 
and the weakness of the Clergy have always 
pointed the mout as the earliest victims ; § and 
this domestic anarchy was probably more 
effectual in arresting the steps of learning 



* In the years 826 and 853. 

t The decree of Pope Leo IV. is cited by Muratori. 

t The two leading literary heroes of France during 
this age were (1.) St. Odo, Abbot of Cluni, who 
\\a-ote some theological works and a Life of St. Gre- 
gory of Tours— he died in 942— and (2.) Frodoard, 
Canon of Rheims, who composed the History of the 
Church of Rheims, and a Chronicle, extending from 
919 to 966, the year of his death. 

§ Most of the monasteries which escaped destruc- 
tion fell into the hands of lay Abbots, who used them 
as residences or castles, or usually as huntino--seats. 
On ihe other hand, the foundation of Cluni, in the 
same age, compensated the loss of many old, and pro- 
bably corrupt, establishments. 



and civilization than the more transient tem- 
pests of foreign invasion. We shall here only 
pause to remark, that during the struggles of 
this frightful period, the defence of the tower 
of knowledge, as heretofore its construction, 
was intrusted by Providence to ecclesiastical 
hands ; while its walls were incessantly men- 
aced or violated by a lawless military aristoc- 
racy, which had closely wrapped itself in ig- 
norance, and was partly jealous and partly 
contemptuous of every exertion to improve 
and enlighten mankind. 

We are not surprised to observe that a con- 
dition of civil demoralization, such as then 
existed, should have been attended by cor- 
ruption in every rank of the clergy. The 
Bishops were negligent and immoral, and the 
inferior orders indulged in still grosser vices 
and more offensive indecencies;* and we 
may be well assured that the laity were still 
further debased by the example of deformi- 
ties, which their own turbulence had so great- 
ly tended to create. 

Comets, and eclipses, and earthquakes were 
fearful prodigies and sure prognostics of dis- 
aster, and the most penetrating astronomers f 
of the day shared (or pretended to share) the 
common solicitude. Enchantments, augu- 
ries, and divinations were ardently sought 
after, and commanded implicit belief The 
forms of trial called ' the Judgments of God,' 
were of the same description, and scarcely 
less remote from the precincts of reason ; 
and yet these degrading superstitions, though 
never canonically received as a part of 
Church discipline, and even continually com- 
bated by th6 more enlightened ecclesiastics, 
were both respected and practised among the 
lower Clergy during this and the three fol- 
lowing ages. 

Howbeit, even in the dreary records of this 
century we find traces of parochial schools 
for the instruction of children of both sexes ; + 
and we read a long list of literary worthies 



* In the enumeration of these by the truly Catholic 
compilers of the Hist. Litt. de la France, it is men- 
tioned, as not the lightest scandal, that ' tliere were 
priests who dared to marry publicly.' 

t Astrologers, we should rather say. Muratori 
(Dissert. 44) attributes the introduction of these van- 
ities to the study of Arabic literature. But was that 
study generally in fashion before the time of Pope 
Sylvester'? 

:}: According to the regulations of that at Toul the 
children were admissible at seven years of age, and 
received their first lessons in the Psalms; and it was 
provided that the boys and girls should be taught sep- 
arately. The parochial cures appear (as in Italy) to 
have had the charge of such establishments. 



EDUCATION. 



265 



whose names have in many cases sm-vived 
their works, and whose works were chiefly 
remarkable for the meanness of then' sub- 
jects, and the pei-plexed or puerile manner m 
which they are treated. And yet even these 
are sufficient to exhibit to us the spu'it of 
improvement striving against the casual tor- 
rents which threatened to wash it away ; and 
though it unquestionably receded during the 
calamitous interval between the death of 
Hincmar and the end of the tenth centuiy,* 
still, if we look somewhat farther back, and 
confine our attention to the country about 
which we are best informed, we need not 
hesitate to pronounce that the literary condi- 
tion of France was, upon the whole, more 
prosperous when, Sylvester II. ascended the 
chair, than when Charlemagne mounted the 
throne of Rome. 

As to Italy, the spell which had bound her 
genius during the precediug centuries seemed 
to be confirmed and riveted in the tenth. It is 
true, that some schools were yet found scatter- 
ed through the towns and villages, which may 
have raised the character of the clergy some- 
what above the degradation of the seventh 
and eighth centuries, to which the Lombard 
conquest had reduced it ; but the industry of 
those schools appears still to have been con- 
fined to the study of grammar and some 
necessary knowledge of canonical law ; and 
it is complamed that the nobles, who sent 
their sons to them, had rather in view the 
episcopal dignities for which they thus be- 
came qualified, than the sphitual fruits of 
religious education. It is very probable that 
they were attended by none of any class ex- 
cepting those intended for some branch of the 
ministry. 

These remarks sufliciently explain, to what 
extremely narrow limits was confined, both 
in respect to its character and diffusion, the 
learning of those ages which immediately 
followed the subversion of the Western Em- 
pire. From civil, it had passed under ec- 
clesiastical superintendence ; but the Church 
which undertook the charge was itself cor- 
rupted and barbarized by contact with the 



* About this time the establishment of some Greek 
commonalties took place in Lorraine, introducing a 
partial knowledge of that language. And these Ori- 
entals were there encountered by certain emigrants 
from Ireland, a country wliich appears never to have 
forfeited the affections, nor to have secured the resi- 
dence, of its sons. ' Nationem Scotorum quibus con- 
suetudo peregrinandi jam psene in naturam conversa 
est.' Walafridus Strabus (liv. ii., c. 27, de vita 
Sancti Galli), apud Murat. Diss. 37. 

34 



profound ignorance and rude character and 
institutions of the conquerors: so that the im- 
mortal models were neglected, the precepts 
of the ancient masters forgotten, and the 
whole light of literature, properly so called, 
extinguished. Nevertheless, we are not to 
suppose that the ecclesiastics of those days 
offered to their contemporaries no substitute 
for those treasures which they had not the 
means or the inclination to dispense. On 
the contrary, their productions were at some 
periods extremely abundant in number, and 
in character far from unprofitable : and on 
this last point there is one important observa- 
tion, which it is here proper to make, and 
which we press the more seriously, because 
it is not veiy commonly urged. These writ- 
ings were almost wholly confined to theolog- 
ical matters, and their object (however faultily 
it may sometimes have been pursued) was 
practical. Instructions, sermons, homilies, in- 
terpretations and illustrations of scripture, 
were published m great profusion, and fur- 
nished to the people the only means of intel- 
lectual instruction. It is true that they were 
rude and unskilfully composed ; but they 
were addi-essed to rude assemblies, and were 
for the most * part dhected to the moral im- 
provement of those who read and heard 
them ; and moreover, their effect to that end, 
whatsoever it may have been, was at least not 
counteracted by any other description of lit- 
erature : the whole mass had one object only, 
and that, upon the whole, beneficial. Even 
the ' Lives of the Saints,' and other legends 
of those days, may have conduced, though 
by a different and more doubtful path, to the 
same purpose ; for among the swarms of 
those compositions which were then produc- 
ed, and of which so many had a tendency to 
mere superstition, some may be found un- 
questionably calculated to move the real de- 
votion and amend the moral principles of a 
barbarous people. Thus was there much 
even in the effusions of the most illiterate 
times which must have persuaded, influenc- 
ed, and profited the generation to which they 
were addressed; but their action was con- 
fuied to then* own day, to the moment of 

* It is unquestionable that these writings contained 
a vast deal calculated to mislead, many errors of an 
absurd and superstitious tendency; but these evils 
were probably more than counterbalanced, in their 
immediate effect upon the people, by the expositions 
of sound doctrine and lessons of practical piety, 
which are even more abundant. We refer as a fair 
example, to the passage of St. Eligius, cited at the 
conclusioa of the last chapter. 



266 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



their delivery ; they were not. associated with 
any of the stable wisdom of former ages ; nor 
were they qualified, nor were they indeed in- 
tended, to fix the attention of posterity. 

Scarcity of Manuscripts. Italy had suffered 
to a certain extent from calamities similar to 
those which suspended the progress of France, 
and which were there followed by the same 
moral degeneracy ; but these causes would 
scarcely have been adequate to so general an 
extinction, not of learning only, but almost of 
the curiosity and wish to learn, had they not 
been powerfully aided by another circum- 
stance, which is less regarded by historians : 
this was no other than the extreme scarcity 
and dearness of manuscripts. This misfor- 
tune was not entirely, nor even mainly, at- 
tributable either to the destruction of monas- 
teries or the indolence of monks : a more 
general and substantial cause existed in the 
absolute deficiency of the material. The 
ancients had obtained from the shores of the 
Nile, through easy and continual intercourse 
with Alexandria, sufficient supplies of papyrus 
to satisfy at a slight expense their literary 
wants ; but after the conquest of Egypt by 
the Saracens, the communication became less 
frequent and secure, and the fabric of an im- 
plement of peace was probably discouraged 
by the warlike habits of the conquerors. At 
least it is certain, that about that period the 
papyrus began to be disused throughout Eu- 
rope, and that the monuments which remain 
of the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries, 
are invariably composed of parchment. It 
was not possible, when the material was so 
expensive, that manuscripts could multiply 
very rapidly, or even that the losses occasion- 
ed by decay or devastation could be repaired 
with any facility; and thus the libraries of 
the cathedrals and monasteries, to which all 
the treasures of former ages were at this period 
confided, were gradually impoverished or de- 
stroyed. The records of the time abound 
with complaints of this general penury of 
books, as well as with facts in proof of it, one 
of which is the following: — In the year 855, 
Lupus, of Ferrara, v^'ote from his abbey, in 
France, to Pope Benedict III., praying for the 
loan of the concluding part of St. Jerome's 
Commentary on Jeremiah, with the promise 
that it should be rapidly copied and returned 
— 'for in our regions nothing, is to be found 
later than the Sixth Book, and we pray to re- 
cover through you, that which is wanting to 
our own insignificance.' In addition to this, 
he ventured to solicit the use of three books 



of profane writers — the Treatise of Cicero 
de Oratore, the Institutions of Quintilian, and 
Donatus's Commentary on Terence. 

Muratori considers the zealous Abbot's re- 
quest as unreasonable and immoderate, and 
we do not learn whether the Pope consented 
to grant it ; but if the resources of France 
were really unable to supply him with the 
books in question, we need not distrust him 
when he laments the general scarcity of an- 
cient and valuable compositions. This con- 
sideration will prevent the disdainful feeling 
which is almost necessarily roused, when we 
obsei-ve a succession of generations plunged 
in torpid ignorance, without an effort to ex- 
tricate themselves from shame, or to let loose 
the human mind On its natural career of ad- 
vancement : it disposes us much more nearly 
to compassion — especially if we reflect how 
frequently the energy of a vigorous and en- 
terprising soul, secluded in the hermitage or 
the cloister, must have exhausted itself on the 
most contemptible subjects, or pined away 
from the mere dearth of literary sustenance. 
We shall find little reason to be astonished 
that genius itself was so seldom able to emerge 
out of the noisome mist and rise into light and 
vigor, since its infancy was chilled by pre- 
judices, unexcited by any wholesome exer- 
cise, and famished by the positive destitution 
of intellectual nourishment. 

The cause of literary stagnation which we 
have last mentioned was removed m the 
eleventh century by the invention of paper, * 
and accordingly we find that the number of 
MSS. was greatly multiplied after that time, f 
But the fury of civil dissension was not miti- 
gated ; and under governments at the same 
time feeble and arbitrary, there was little en- 
couragement for studious application, as in- 
deed there was little honor, or even security, 
except in the profession of arms. And in sad 
truth, during the earlier years of this age, the 
wildest disorders were of such ordinary per- 
petration, misery had such universal preva- 
lence, and injustice walked abroad so boldly 
and triumphantly, that there were those who 
held the persuasion that the millenarian pro- 



* A very interesting account of the progress of 
paper-making, writing, printing, &c. may be found 
in the Life of Caxton, published by the Society for 
the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. 

t Still it was in the eleventh age that a Countess 
of Anjou is recorded to have purchased the Homilies 
of Haimon, at the price of 200 sheep, besides a very 
large payment in wheat, barley, skins, and other val- 
uable articles. Hist. Litt. de la France, xi. siecle. 



EDUCATION. 



267 



phecy had been already accomplished ; that 
Satan had shaken off his fetters at the one 
thousandth year, and was actually directing 
the evil destinies of the human race. 

Exertions of Ecclesiastics. At the same 
time, let us recollect that great exertions were 
made by the higher ecclesiastical orders to 
apply an indirect but very powerful remedy 
to these excesses, by re-establishuig the dis- 
cipline of the Church. For this purpose, 
about eighty councils were held in France 
alone during the eleventh century. * We 
have ah-eady related how zealously the au- 
thority of Rome had engaged itself in the 
same cause ; and by a necessary reaction, the 
success of every effort for the improvement 
of morality was favorable to the advancement 
of literature. The example of Sylvester II. 
might be sufficient to rouse the jealous emu- 
lation of Italy ; and Sylvester left to that 
country not his example only, but the fruits 
of his active zeal in encouraging the learned 
of his own time, and in establishing schools 
and collecting libraries for the use of other 
generations. Some of the Popes, his succes- 
sors, followed his traces with more or less 
earnestness ; and among the rest, Gregory 
VII. added to his extraordinary qualities the 
undisputed merit of promoting the progress 
of education, f 

The voice of controversy, which was once 
more heard in this century, not only created 
another motive for literary activity, but proved 
the revival of a spirit of inquuy, inconsistent 
at least with universal ignorance. The talents 
of Lanfranc, | the earliest boast of reviving 
Italy, were animated by the 'Heresy' of Ber- 



* The zeal which was applied in the beginning of 
this age to the building and restoration of churches, 
basilicse, monasteries, and other holy edifices, is 
warmly praised by ecclesiastical writers. ' Erat 
enim instar ac si mundus ipse excutiendo semet, re- 
jecta vetustate, passim candidarum ecclesiarum ves- 
tem indueret — Glabrus Rodolph. apud Du Chesne, 
Script. Franc, lib. xiv., cap. 4, cited by Muratori. 

t In a council held in 1078, he strongly pressed on 
all bishops the necessity of superintending education 
ID their respective dioceses. 

$ ' Lanfrancns teneriorem retatem in ssecularibus 
detrivit, sed in Scripturis divinis animo et aevo ma- 
iHravit.' France was for some time the principal 
field of his exertions, and Muratoi'i supposes that 
Hildebrand, attracted by his celebrity, may have vis- 
ited that country for the purpose of hearing him. 
The name of Anselm succeeds to that of Lanfranc: 
that learned prelate was born at Aosta, which then 
belonged to the Duke of Burgundy — so that France 
disputes with Italy the honor of having produced him. 
He too is considered by Muratori as having prepared 
the way for the scholastic system of theology. 



I enger ; and to the ingenious disputations thus 
occasioned it is usual to attribute the growth 
of the new system of theological science, after- 
wards called Scholastic. 

Three Characters of theological Literature. 
That is a very broad, but in many respects a 
correct view of early theological literature, 
which distributes it into three aeras. The fist 
of these comprehends the whole list of the 
ecclesiastical fathers — men who, though they 
varied exceedingly in chamcter, style, and 
even opinion, were nevertheless united by 
one great principle ; for they acknowledged 
no other sources of faith, and reverenced no 
other authority, than Scriptm-e and apostolical 
tradition. On this foundation, they boldly 
applied to the elucidation of religious subjects 
such reasoning and eloquence as Nature had 
bestowed on them : perverted, it might be, 
by the peculiar prejudices of the times and 
countries wherein they lived, but little re- 
strained either by the use or abuse of edu- 
cational discipline, and wholly exempt from 
servile subjection to the opinions of any pre- 
decessor. The characteristics of this age are 
such as we should expect from such principles 
— an overflow of piety stained by superstition, 
exuberance of learning without a proportion- 
ate fruit of knowledge, and sallies of oratory, 
which sometimes ascended into eloquence, 
and sometimes dwindled away into puerile 
declamation, or cold and empty allegoiy. 
This aera is by many extended down to the 
eighth century, and considered as properly 
terminating with John Damascenus ; but the 
concluding half of the fourth age and the be- 
ginning of the fifth was the true period of its 
glory ; and thence we may trace the gradual 
dissolution of its distinguishing qualities into 
that system which was afterwards established 
in its place and on its ruins. 

The second was the sera of intellectual blind- 
ness and dependence ; its most laborious w^orks 
were mere collections, quotations, and compil- 
ations ; as if the minds of that generation were 
stupified by gazing on the brilliant creations 
of their predecessors, till they mistook them 
for pure and inimitable perfection. St. Au- 
gustin and St. Gregory were the idols of those 
abject worshippers ; and if their piety was 
sometimes kindled by the enthusiasm of the 
former, then' Catholic zeal and Papal preju- 
dices were more commonly (or at least more 
manifestly) nourished by the principles of Gre- 
gory. The termination of this period is fixed 
at the middle of the eleventh century; but its 
character had been partially inteiTupted by 
the writers of the ninth, and most especially 



268 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



by John Scotus ; and his style and manner, 
as well as his opinions, were followed and re- 
vived by Berenger. 

The grand principle of the third rera was 
the exaltation of reason to its proper pre- 
eminence over the influence of human au- 
thority ; a true and noble principle as long as 
reason itself can be restrained to its just pro- 
vince, so as neither to deviate into minute and 
barren sophistry, nor to break loose into those 
dark and interminable inquiries which God 
has closed against it. Unhappily it was not 
long before it fell into both these errors, which 
are, indeed, very closely connected. In the 
establishment and support of the Scholastic 
theology, it so frequently descended to de- 
grading artifice, and perplexed itself so blind- 
ly in the mazes of chicanery, as to make it 
doubtful whether religious truth was not more 
disfigured by the minute disceptations which 
thenceforward prevailed, than by the super- 
stitious extravagance of the first period, or the 
obsequious ignorance of the second. 

We shall possibly recur to this subject here- 
after. At present we need only remark, that 
during the latter half of the eleventh century 
considerable addition was made both to the 
copiousness of libraries and the number of 
schools and of students, as well in Italy as in 
France ; * but the course of study was still 
generally confined to the two paths denomin- 
ated the Trivium and Quadrivium. The first 
of these embraced grammar, rhetoric, and dia- 
lectics ; and grammar was defined to be ' the 
art of writing and speaking well,' f and pro- 
fessed to comprehend the study of several 
classical as well as sacred writers. The 
knowledge of arithmetic, music, geometry 
and astronomy swelled the pretensions of the 
Q,uadrivium. 



* Schools of civil law were founded in both those 
countries in the eleventh century, and acquired some 
eminence before its conclusion. Physic, of course, 
had never been entirely neglected; and as we find 
that by a council held at Rheims, in 1131, monks 
were forbidden the practice either of law or medicine, 
we would willingly have hoped that some attention 
now began to be paid to the education of the laity. 
But the prohibition only extended to the walls of the 
monasteries; the practice of those professions is de- 
scribed to have been very lucrative, and for that rea- 
son, and through the continued ignorance of the laity, 
■even in the century following (if we are to believe 
the compilers of the Hist. Litteraire), there were 
scarcely any who professed medicine except clerks 
and monks ; with the addition indeed of certain 
.Jews, who were held the most skilful practitioners. 

t Hist. Litt. de la France, xii. siecle. 



But, in real truth, the productions and Ian 
guage of the Greeks were wholly neglected 
and unknown. The science of criticism — the 
art of distinguishing what is graceful in style, 
and what is true in fact — was not cultivated; 
and both the study and composition of history 
were still confined to legendary chronicles, * 
or to the ill-digested details of contemporary 
narrative. Besides which, the sciences pro- 
fessed were for the most part imperfectly un- 
derstood even by those who pretended to 
them ; and it is moreover admitted that, as 
the students of those days usually aflfected to 
become acquainted with all the subjects plac- 
ed before them, they generally departed with- 
out any profitable knowledge of any of them. 
The great mass pf the people had no educa- 
tion whatsoever. The result was such as 
must necessarily follow, whenever the pos- 
session of any valuable portion of literary ac- 
quirement is confined to very few individuals : 
the possessors employed it to delude as well 
as to enlighten the people. So that those 
ages, deeply as they suffered from the scanty 
provision of useful and liberal knowledge, 
were scarcely less vitiated through the ine- 
quality with which that little was distributed. 
The small number who had penetrated the 
mysteries felt too strongly the advantage and 
the power conferred by exclusive initiation, to 
desire their more general promulgation. The 
more numerous class, who from a distant and 
hasty glimpse had caught some imperfect in- 
sight, by communicating then own obscure 
views and misconceptions, disseminated many 
fanciful, if not pernicious, errors and absurd 
notions. So it proved that the lights which 
were thus faintly transmitted to the body of 
the people, were not faint only, but sometimes 
false and deceitful also. And it is a question 
for the decision of Philosophy, whether plain 
and downright ignorance, with all its demoral- 
izing consequences, be not a condition of less 
danger and better hope than one of mistake 
and delusion. 



* The first Christian chronicler was Gregory of 
Tours. He was born at Auvergne in 539, and be- 
sides many copious narratives of martyrdoms and 
miracles, he produced an ' Ecclesiastical History of 
the Franks.' This work, which contains some faint 
indications of an educated mind, was not surpassed 
during that century, or the two which followed. 
The history begins ut the death of St. Martin, in 
377, and ends at the year 591. It was continued 
for the fifty following years, in a much inferior style, 
by one Fredegarius, a Burgundian, and probably a 
monk. 



ST. BERNARD. 



269 



NOTE ON ST. BERNARD. 

The life of St. Bernard connected, within 
a few years, the pontificate of Gregory VII. 
with that of Alexander III. Born in 1091, 
he flourished during one of the rudest pe- 
riods of papal history; and he died (in 1153,) 
just before the era commenced of its proudest 
triumphs, and, perhaps, of its deepest crimes. 
His actions and his writings throw the best 
light which now remains upon that period, 
and even the following short account of them 
will not be without its use. St. Bernard was 
a native of Fontames, in Burgundy, and de- 
scended from a noble femily. He entered, at 
the age of twenty-two, into the monastery of 
Citeaux, near Dijon ; and so early was the 
display of his zeal and his talents, that only 
two years afterwards he was appointed to es- 
tablish a religious colony at Clairvaux,* in 
the diocese of Langres. It grew with rapid- 
ity, and spread its scions with great luxuri- 
ance under his superintendence — so that at 
his decease, at no very advanced age, he was 
enabled to bequeath to the Church the inesti- 
mable treasure of about one hundred and 
sixty monasteries, founded by his own exer- 
tions. As for himself, though it seems clear 
that the highest ecclesiastical dignities were 
ojien, and even offered to him, his humbler 
ambition was contented to preside over the 
society which he had first created, and to 
influence the character of those which had 
proceeded from it, by counsel, example, and 
authority. 

But the influence of St. Bernard was not 
confined to his monastic progeny — it display- 
ed itself in all grand ecclesiastical transac- 
tions, in France, in Germany, in Italy ; from 
the altars of the church it spread to courts 
and parliaments. And, as it was founded on 
reputation, not on dignity ; as it stood on no 
other ground than his wisdom and sanctity ; 
so was it generally exerted for good purposes ; 
and always for purposes which, according 
to the principles of that age, were accounted 
good. 

On the schism which took place after the 
death of Honorius II., f St. Bernard advocat- 
ed the cause of the legitimate claimant. Inno- 
cent II., with great zeal and effect. During 
eight years of contestation and turbulence he 
persevered in the struggle. His authority J un- 



* Or Clairval— Clara Vallis. 

t In 1130, Innocent II. succeeded, and ruled 
thirteen years and a half. Eugenius III. was elected 
1145, and reigned for eight years. 

t The means by which ecclesiastical authority 



questionably decided the King and the Clergy 
of France. The King of England * at Char- 
tres, the Emperor at Liege, are stated to have 
listened and yielded to his persuasions. He 
reconciled Genoa and Pisa to the cause of 
Innocent. In the latter city a council was 
held in 1134, in which St. Bernard was the 
moving and animating spirit. Nevertheless 
it is obvious, from the genuine piety which 
pervades so many of his works, that his mind 
was then niost at home when engaged in holy 
offices and pious meditation. IIow well so- 
ever he might be qualified to preside in the 
assemblies, and rule the passions, and recon- 
cile the interests of men, it was in the peace- 
ful solitude of Clairvaux that his earthly 
affections were placed, and it was to the 
mercy-seat of heaven that his warmest vows 
and aspirations were addressed. Through 
these various qualities — through his charita- 
ble devotion to the poor ; through that earn- 
est piety which tinctured his writings with a 
character sometimes approaching to mysti- 
cism ; through his imitation of the ancient 
writers, Augustin and Ambrose ; through his 
zeal for the unity and doctrinal purity of the 
Church, St. Bernard has acquired and de- 



sometimes (and not, perhaps, very uncommonly) at- 
tained its ends in those days, are well displayed in 
the following anecdote of St. Bernard. The Duke 
of Guienne had expelled the Bishops of Poitiers and 
Limoges, and refused to restore them, even on the 
solemn and repeated injunctions of tlie Pope and his 
Legate. St. Bernard had exerted his influence for 
the same purpose, equally in vain. At length, when 
celebrating, on some particular occasion, the holy 
sacrifice, after the consecration was finished and the 
blessing of peace bestowed upon the people, St. Ber- 
nard placed the body of the Lord on the plate, and 
cari'ying it in his hand, with an inflamed countenancey 
and eyes sparkling fire, advanced towards the Duke^ 
and uttered these thrilling words: — 'Thus far we 
have used supplication only, and you have despised 
us ; many servants of God, who were present in this 
assembly, joined their prayers with ours, and you 
have disregarded them: behold, this is the Son of 
God, who is the King and Lord of the Church whicli 
you persecute, who now advances towards you ; — 
behold your Judge I — at whose name every knee bends^ 
in heaven, in earth, and beneath the earth. Behold 
the just avenger of crimes, into whose hands that very 
soul which animates you will some day fall. Will 
you disdain him alsol Will you dare to scorn the 
Master, as you have scorned his servants'?' This tre- 
mendous appeal was successful. The Duke is related 
to have fallen M'ith his face to the earth when he 
heard it; the prelates were restored to their sees, 
and the schism extinguished. See Dupin, Nouvell^ 
Bilioth. tom. ix. ch. iv. 

* Ernardus, Vita Sancti Bernardi. Pagi, Gest 
Pontif. Roman. Vit. Innocent II. 



270 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



sen'ed the respectable appellation of the Last 
of the Fathers. 

The remaining works of St. Bernard con- 
sist of about four hundred and fifty Letters, 
a great number of Sermons, and some very 
important Tracts and Treatises. It would 
not here be possible, nor any where very 
profitable, to present a mere analysis of so 
many and such various compositions. A 
great proportion of the matter is devoted to 
the ends of piety and charity, — to the exalta- 
tion of the soul of man, — and the inculcation 
of his highest duties. On points of doctrine, 
the Abbot of Clairvaux was too ardently at- 
tached to his Church to venture upon any 
deviation from the established, or, at least, 
the tolerated faith. On the important subject 
of grace, he appears to have followed the 
opinion of St. Augustin. He considered the 
freedom of will to be preserved by the volun- 
tary consent which it gives to the operations 
of grace ; — that that consent is indeed brought 
about by grace, but that being voluntary, and 
without constraint, it is still free. The neces- 
sity of this freedom he argues at great length, 
as indispensable to any system of retribu- 
tion.* ' Where there is necessity there is not 
liberty ; where there is not liberty, neither is 
there merit, nor, consequently, judgment. ' 
(Ubi necessitas, ibi libertas non est ; ubi liber- 
tas non est, nee meritum, nee per hoc judici- 
um.) On the other hand, he maintained the 
mdisputable efiicacy of grace ; and in defin- 
ing the limits of its operation, and reconciling 
its overruling influence with the necessary 
liberty of a responsible agent, he fathomed 
the depths, and, perhaps, exhausted the re- 
sources of human reason. 

Peter Ahelard. As Lanfranc had been the 
champion of the Church against the heresy 
of Berenger ; as the admirable Anselm f had 

* Excepto sane per omnia original! peccato, quod 
aliam constat habere rationem — S. Bernardi ' Trac- 
tatus de Gratia et Libero Arbitrio.' 

t Anselm was probably born at Aosta in 1034, and 
died in 1105; and though he is claimed by the Galil- 
ean church as its noblest ornament since the fifth 
century, his history belongs more properly to our 
own. He wrote several works: against the 'Greek 
Doctrine of the Holy Procession,' — ' On the Trinity 
and Incarnation,' against Roscellinus, — 'On the Im- 
maculate Conception,' — ' On the Fall of the Devil,' — 
' On Freewill,' — ' On Original Sin,' — ' Necessity,' 
— ' Predestination,' — on which .latter subjects he had 
drawn at the well of St. Augustin. ' His obsequies 
(says the writer in the Histoire Litteraire de la 
France) were preceded, attended, and followed by 
some miracles; but the holy prelate had performed a 
vast number more during his lifetime.' His Life, as 



maintained the better reason and sounder 
doctrine against the dangerous subtilties of 
Roscellinus ; * so St. Bernard, in his turn of 
controversy, was confronted with the most 
ingenious Scholastic of the age, Peter Abe- 
lard. This celebrated doctor was born in 
Brittany, in 1079 ; and while St. Bernard was 
shaping his character and his intellect after 
the rigid model of Augustin, Abelard was 
learning a dangerous lesson of laxity in the 
school of Origen. We shall not trace the 
various and almost opposite heresies f into 
which he was betrayed by the obtuse subtilty 
of his principles ; still less shall we investi- 
gate the oblique paths by which he reached 
those conclusions. It may suffice to say, that 
he was charged with being, at the same time, 
an Arian, a Nestorian, and a Pelagian, and 
with as much justice, perhaps, as such char- 
ges Were usually advanced by the Roman 
Catholic Church against its refractory chil- 
dren. 

The history of the crimes and the misfor- 
tunes of Abelard is known to every one. 
When the Abbot of Clairvaux, in the course 
of his official visitation, inspected the nunne- 
ry of the Paraclete, he found the establish- 
ment well conducted, and he approved of 
every regulation. Only, in the version of 
the Lord's prayer there in use, he observed 
these words, — ' Give us this day our super- 
substantial [iTViovoiov] bread' — and bethought 
it insufierable that the very prayer which the 
Deity had deigned to communicate to man 



given in the Histoire Litteraire, is an abridgment of 
that by the Monk Edmen, his pupil and panegyrist. 

* During the infancy of St. Bernard. 

f The opinions generally attributed to him are, that 
he considered the doctrine of the Trinity to have 
been known to certain ancient philosophers, and re 
vealed to them in recompense for their virtues, — that 
the Son bore the same relation to the Father, as the 
species does to the genus ; as a certain power to 
power; as materiatum to materia; us man to ani- 
mal; as a brazen seal to brass; — that he denied the 
Atonement, and reasoned against the murder of an 
innocent being as the means of appeasing God's an- 
ger; — that he consequently denied the Redemption, 
though he received the Incarnation as the properest 
method for illuminating the world with divine light 
and love ; — that the Holy Ghost proceeded from the 
Father and the Son, but not from their substance; 
and that it was the soul of the world; — that it is not 
the fault, but the penalty, of original sin which we 
derive from Adam; — that free will, without the help 
of grace, was sufficient for salvation. In addition 
to these, and many other imputations, he was also 
charged before the Council of Soissons (1121) with 
Tritheism, and, at the same time, with having assert- 
ed, that the Father alone w^fi almighty. 



ST. BERNARD. 



271 



for His own service, should be thus sense- 
lessly corrupted by the infection of Aristotle. 
Abelard defended his version; and hence 
arose the first recorded altercation betv^een 
those celebrated theologians. The strictures 
of St. Bernai'd irritated that vain Scholastic ; 
and as it happened that a large assembly of 
tlie Clergy of France was appointed to meet 
in the city of Sens, on some occasion deemed 
important,* Abelard challenged his rival to 
make good, in the presence of that august 
body, his repeated charges of heresy. St. 
Bernard would willingly have declined that 
conflict: he feared the superiority of an ex- 
perienced polemic ; — ' I was but a youth,f 
and he a man of war from his youth. Be- 
sides, I judged it improper to commit the 
measures of divine faith, which rested on the 
foundations of eternal truth, to the petty reas- 
onings of the schools.' Howbeit, the counsel 
of his friends prevailed; after some hesitation 
he accepted the challenge, and appeared on 
the appointed day. 

Louis VII. honored the assembly with his 
presence ; the nobles of his court, the leading 
prelates and abbots, and the most learned doc- 
tors of the kingdom were there ; and the 
highest expectations were raised, from one 
end of the realm to the other, by the rumor 
of this theological monomachy. The two 
champions were confronted. Bernard arose : 
' I accuse not this man ; let his own works 
speak against him. Here they are, and these 
are the propositions extracted from them. 
Let him say — I wrote them not ; or let him 
condemn them, or let him defend them against 
my objections.' The charges were not en- 
tirely read through, when Abelard interrupted 
the recital, and simply intei-posed his appeal 
to the Pope. The assembly was astonished 
at his hasty desertion of the field, which he 
had so lately sought. ' Do you fear,' said St. 
Bernard, ' for your person ? You are per- 
fectly secure ; you know that nothing is in- 
tended against you ; you may answer fi-eely, 
and with the assurance of a patient hearing. 
Abelard only replied, ' I have appealed to the 
Court of Rome ; ' and retired from the as- 
sembly. ' I know nothing,' says Milner,:f ' in 



* For the translation of the body of some saint into 
the cathedral church. The assembly took place in 
1140. 

t The Abbot probably meant a youth in contro- 
versy,— iov as to age, he was then forty-nine, and his 
adversary only two years older. Milner, whose ac- 
count of this transaction has great merit, seems to 
have understood him literally. 

% Church Hist. Cent. xii. ch. 2. This author is 



Bernard's histoiy more decisively descriptive 
of his character, than his conduct in this 
whole transaction. By nature sanguine and 
vehement, by grace and self knowledge mod- 
est and difiident, he seems on this occasion to 
have united boldness with timidity, and cau- 
tion with fortitude. It was evidently in the 
spirit of the purest faith in God, as well as in 
the most charitable zeal for divine truth, that 
he came to the contest.' 

We shall now proceed to consider St. Ber- 
nard in another (if, indeed, it is another) cha- 
racter, — that of a zealous defender of the 
power and prerogatives of the church ; and 
we shall observe how far the same principle 
engaged him, on the one hand, in the support 
of papal authority, and in the extirpation of 
heresy on the other. We willingly omit all 
mention of the miracles which are so abund- 
antly ascribed to him, and which, if they are 
not merely the fabrications of his panegyrists, 
are equally discreditable to his honesty and 
his piety. We defer to a future chapter any 
notice of the very equivocal zeal which urged 
him to preach a holy war, to proclaim its pre- 
destined success with a prophet's authority, 
and then to excuse the falsification of his pro- 
mises by a vulgar and contemptible subter- 
fuge. Yet were all these transactions very 
certain proofs of his attachment to the prin- 
ciples of the Roman Catholic church. Of 
the same nature were the eulogies which he 
so warmly lavished, in one of his treatises, 

probably nearer to truth in his praise of Bernard, 
than in his censure of the 'heretic' The reason of 
Abelard's sudden appeal to a higher court M'as, un- 
questionably, his distrust of that before which he 
stood: he might doubt its impartiality, or he might 
certainly have discovered its determined prejudice 
against him; and that it was, in fact, very provident 
in him to appeal betimes from its decision is clearly 
proved by a passage in the Account, which certain 
Bishops of France addressed to the Pope, of the pro- 
ceedings at Sens. ' As the arguments of the Abbot 
of Clairvaux . . . convinced the assembled bishop» 
that the tenets which he opposed were not only false, 
but heretical, they, sparing his (the heretic's) per- 
son out of deference to the apostolic «ef, condemn- 
ed the opinions.' A loco et judice quem sibi ipse 
elegerat, sine Isesione, sine gravamine, ut suam pro- 
longaret iniquitatem, Sedem Apostolicam appellavit. 
Episcopi autem, qui propter hoc in unum convenerant, 
vesti'se Reverentice deferentes nihil in personam eju3 
egerunt, sed tanlummodo capitula librorura ejus/ &c- 
&c. It is therefore manifest that this appeal saved 
him from some personal infliction. — This Letter is 
published among the works of St. Bernard, p. 1560. 
edit. Lutet. Paris. 1640. After all, it is some satis- 
faction to record, that Abelard died (in 1142) in quiel 
obscurity, in the Monastery of Cluni. 



272 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



upon the newly instituted order of the Temp- 
lars. But we pass these matters over, and 
proceed directly to observe the expressions 
by which he characterised the Bishop of 
Rome. ' Let us inquire,' says he, in his letter 
to Pope Eugenius III., * ' yet more diligently 
who you are, and what character you support 
for a season in the Church of God. Who 
are you? — a mighty priest, the highest pon- 
tiff. You are the first among bishops, the 
heir of the apostles ; in primacy Abel, in go- 
vernment Noah, in patriarchate Abraham, in 
order JMelchisedech, in dignity Aaron, in au- 
thority Moses, in judgment Samuel, inpoiver 
Peter, in unction Christ. You are he to whom 
the keys have been delivered, to whom the 
flock has been intrusted. Others, indeed, 
there are who are doorkeepers of heaven, and 
pastors of sheep ; but you are pre-eminently 
so, as you are more singularly distinguished 
by the inheritance of both characters. They 
have their flocks assigned to them, each one 
his own ; to you the whole are intrusted, as 
one flock to one shepherd ; neither of the 
sheep only, but of their pastors also ; you 
alone are the pastor of all. Where is my 
proof of this ? — in the Word of God. For 
to which, I say, — not of bishops, but of apos- 
tles, — was the universal flock so positively 
intrusted ? " If thou lovest me, Peter, feed 
my sheep." .... Therefore, according to your 
canons, others are called to a share of the 
duty, you to a plenitude of power. The 
power of others is restrained by fixed limits ; 
yours is extended even over those who have 
received power over others. Are you not 
able, if cause arise, to exclude a bishop from 
heaven, to depose him from his dignity, and 
even to consign him over to Satan ? These 
your privileges stand unassailable, both 
through the keys which have been delivered, 
and the flock which has been confided to 
you,' &c. Thus the authority of St. Bernard, 
which was extremely great, both in his own 
age and those which immediately followed, 
was exerted to subject the minds of religious 
men to that spiritual despotism, which was 
already swollen far beyond its just limits, and 
was threatening a still wider and more fatal 
inundation. 

Among the numerous discourses of St. 
Bernard, two f were more especially directed 
against the heretics of the day ; and the 
preacher declares, that he Was moved to this 
design by ' the multitude J of those who were 



* ' De Consideratione,' lib. ii., c. viii. 

t Sermons ' Super Cantica,' Ixv. et Ixvi. 

4 In other places he acknowledges the same fact. 



destroying the vine of Christ, by the paucity 
of its defenders, by the- difficulty of its de- 
fence.' In the discharge of this office he in- 
veighs against the innovators in the usual 
terms of theological bitterness; and at the 
same time charges them with those flagrant 
violations of morality and decency, which 
were so commonly imputed to seceders from 
the church, though they were, in truth, in- 
consistent with the first principles of civU 
society. We shall not repeat those charges, 
nor copy his ardent vituperations , but there 
is one passage (in the sixty-sixth sermon), 
which possesses some historical importance, 
and which exposes besides the principles of 
the orator. ' In respect to these heretics, they 
are neither convinced by reasons, for they 
understand them not ; nor corrected by au- 
thority, for they do not acknowledge it ; nor 
bent by persuasion, for they are wholly lost. 
It is indisputable that they prefer death to 
conversion. Their end is destruction ; the 
last thing which awaits them is the flames. 
More than once the Catholics have seized 
some of them, and brought them to trial. 
Being asked their faith, and having wholly de- 
nied, as is their usage, all that was laid against 
them, they were examined by the Trial of 
water,* and found false. And then, since 
further denial was impossible, as they had 
been convicted through the water not receiv- 
ing them, they seized (as the expression is) 
the bit in their teeth, and began with pitiable 
boldness, not so much to make confession as 
profession of their impiety. They proclaimed 
it for piety ; they were ready to suffer death for 
it ; and the spectators were not less ready to 
inflict the punishment. Thus it came to pass 
that the populace rushed upon them, and gave 
the heretics some fresh martyrs to their own 
perfidy. I approve the zeal, but I do not ap- 
plaud the deed ; because faith is to be the fruit 
of persuasion, not of force. Nevertheless, it 
were unquestionably better that they should 
be restrained by the sword, — the sword of 
him, I mean, who wears it not without rea- 
son, — than be permitted to seduce many 
others into their error ; ' for he is the minister 
of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him 
that doeth evil. . . . Some wondered that the 
oflfenders went to execution not only with 
fortitude, but, as it seemed, with joy ; but 



' Et item de haeresi, quce clam psene ubique serpit, 
apud aliquos sajvit palam. Nam parvulos Ecclesiae 
passim et publice deglutire festinat.' &c. &c. De 
Consid., lib. iii., c. i. 

* This was one of the most popular among * The 
Judgments of God.' 



ST. BERNARD. 



273 



those persons had not observed how great is 
the power of the devil not only over the 
bodies, but even over the hearts of men, 
which have once deUvered themselves into 
his possession. . . . The constancy of martyrs 
and the pertinacity of heretics has nothing in 
common ; because that which operates the 
contempt of death in the one is piety, — in the 
other, mere hardheartedness.' . . . Marcus 
Antoninus, in the insolence of empire and 
philosophy, insulted by a similar distinction 
the firmness of those sainted sufferers, to 
whom the Abbot of Clau'vaux addressed, as 
to heavenly Mediators, his daily and super- 
stitious supplications. And now again, after 
another long revolution of centuries and of 
principles, those despised outcasts, whom St. 
Bernard, in the loftier pride of ecclesiastical 
infallibility, consigned, with no better spirit, 
to eternal condemnation, are revered hy us as 
victims in a holy cause, the earliest martyrs 
of the Reformation ! 

In the same work in which the office and 
prerogatives of the Pope were so highly ex- 
alted, the wiiter boldly exposed some of the 
favorite abuses of the system ; and dictated, 
from his cell at Clairvaux, rules for its better 
administration, and for the guidance of the 
autocrat of the church. His instructions were 
wise, because they were virtuous, and pro- 
ceeded from a true sense of spiritual duties 
and dignity. His general exhoitations to Eu- 
genius to cast aside the unworthy solicitude 
respecting secular matters, which at once em- 
baiTassed and degraded the Roman see, and 
to emulate the venerable patriarchs of the 
ancient church ; to leave to kings and their 
ministers the jarring courts of earthly justice,* 
and to content himself with distributing the 
judgments of heaven — these lessons were 
conceived in the loftiest mood of ecclesiastical 
exaltation, and with the justest sense of eccle- 
siastical policy ; but the venom had already 
sunk too deep, and the healing admonitions 
of the reformer failed to arrest for a moment 
the progress of corruption. 

St. Bernai'd next addressed his censures 
more particularly to the practice of appeal to 
Rome, which was then growing into a noto- 
rious abuse. After enumerating some of the 

* Qusenam tibi major videtur et potestas et digni- 
tas; dimittendi peccata, an praedia dividendi 1 Sed 
non est comparatio. Habent hsec infirma et terrena 
judices suos et reges et principes terrse. Quid fines 
alios invaditis '? Quid falcem vestram in alienam 
messem extenditisl Non quia indigni vos; sed quia 
indjgnum vobis talibus insistere, quippe potioribus 
occupatis. De Consid., lib^i., c. vi. 

35 



evils thus occasioned, the delay, the vexation, 
the positive p^'version of all the purposes 
of justice, 'How much longer,' he exclaims, 
'will you shut yom* ears, whether through 
patience or inadvertency, against the murmur 
of the whole earth ? How much longer will 
you slumber ? How much longer will your 
attention be closed against this monstrous con- 
fusion and abuse ? x\ppeals are made in defi- 
ance of law and equity, of rule and order. No 
distinction is made in place, or mode, or time, 
or cause, or person. They are commonly 
taken up with levity, frequently too with ma- 
lice ; that terror which ought to fall upon the 
wicked, is turned against the good ; the honest 
are summoned by the bad, that they may turn 
to that which is dishonest ; and they tremble 
at the sound of j^our thunder. Bishops are 
summoned, to prevent them fi-om dissolving 
unlawful mamages, or from restraining or 
punishing rapine and theft and sacrilege, and 
such like crimes. They are summoned, that 
they may no longer exclude from orders and 

benefices unworthy and infamous pei-sons 

And yet you, who are the minister of God, 
pretend ignorance, that that, which was in- 
tended as a refuge for the oppressed, has be- 
come an armory for the oppressor ; and that 
the parties who rush to the appeal are not 
those who have suffered, but those who med- 
itate injustice.' 

Another papal corruption, against which St. 
Bernard inveighed with equal zeal was the 
abuse of exemptions. 'I express the concern 
and lamentations of the churches. They ex- 
claim that they are maimed and dismembered. 
There are none, or very few, among them 
which do not either feel or fear this wound : 
Abbots are removed from the authority of 
their Bishops, Bishops from that of their Arch- 
bishops, Archbishops from that of their Patri- 
archs and Primates. Is the appearance of this 
good ? Is the reality justifiable ? If you prove 
the plenitude of your power by the frequency 
of its exercise, haply you have no such plen- 
itude of justice. You hold your office, that 
you may preserve to all their respective gra- 
dations and orders in honor and dignity, not 
to grudge and curtail them.' . . If the vir- 
tuous Abbot was moved to such boldness of 
rebuke by the delinquencies of the eleventh 
century — the earliest and perhaps the most 
venial excesses of pontifical usurpation — with 
what eyes had he beheld the court of Innocent 
IV., or the chancery of John XXII. ! with 
what a tempest of indignation had he visited 
the enormities of later and still more degener- 
ate days — jubilees and reeer\^ations, annates 



274 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



and tenths and expectative graces — the long 
and sordid list of Mammon's machinations ! 
The halls of Constance and Basle would have 
rung with his lamentation and his wrath, and 
both Gerson * and Julian would have shrunk 
before the manifestation of a spirit greater far 
than themselves. 

But the inquisition of St. Bernard was not 
confined to the courts of the Vatican. It pen- 
etrated into the dwelling-places and into the 
bosoms of i>relates and of monks. ' Oh, am- 
bition, thou cross of those who court thee ! 
How is it that thou tormentest all, and yet art 
loved by all ? There is no strife more bitter, 
no inquietude more painful than thine, and 
yet is there nothing more splendid than thy 
doings among wretched mortals ! I ask, is it 
devotion which now wears out the apostolical 
threshold, or is it ambition ? Does not the 
pontifical palace, throughout the long day, 
resound with that voice ? f Does not the 
whole machine of laws and canons work for 
its profit? Does not the whole rapacity of 
Italy gape with insatiable greediness for its 
spoils? Which is there among your own 
spiritual X studies that has not been inter- 
rupted, or rather broken off*, by it ? How 
often has that restless and disturbing evU 
blighted your holy and fruitful leisure ! It is 
in vain that the oppressed make their appeal 
to you, while it is through you that ambition 
strives to hold dominion in the church.' . . . 
In another place § — ' The unsavoiy contagion 
creeps through the whole church, and the 
wider it spreads the more hopeless is the 
remedy ; the more deeply it penetrates, the 

more fatal is the disease They are 

ministers of Christ, and they are servants of 
Anti-Christ. They walk abroad honored by 
the blessings of the Lord, and they return the 
Lord no honor : thence is that meretricious 
splendor everywhere visible — the vestments 
of actors — the parade of kings : thence the 
gold on their reins, their saddles, and their 

* John Gerson was a great admirer of St, Bernard. 
He frequently cited his authority, and composed one 
discourse expressly in his honor. We always watch 
with anxiety, and record with respect, the expres- 
sions in which one great man has celebrated the ex- 
cellence of another. But in Gerson's ' Sermo de 
Sancto Bernardo ' we can discover little but fanciful 
and mystical rhapsody. 

f Annon qusestibus ejus tota legum Canonumque 
disciplina insudat 1 

% This passage is from the ' Third Book of the 
Consideratio.' It is addressed, w^e should recollect, 
to Pope Eugenius, who had been educated in the 
monastery of Clairvaux. 

§ * Super Cantica Ser. xxxiii. 



spurs, for their spurs (calcaria) shine brighter 
than their altars (altaria :) thence thek tables 
splendid with dishes and cups ; thence their 
gluttony and drunkenness — the harp, the 
lyre, and the pipe, larders stored with provis- 
ion, and cellars overflowing with wine . . 
For such rewards as these men wish to be- 
come, and do become, rector^ of churches, 
deans, archdeacons, bishops, archbishops — 
for these dignities are not bestowed on merit, 
but on the thing which walks in darkness.' . 
A considerable portion of another composi- 
tion * is devoted to the exposure of monastic 
degeneracy. ' It is truly asserted and believ- 
ed that the holy fathers instituted that life, 
and that they softened the rigor of the rule in 
respect to weaker brethren, to the end that 
more might be saved therein. But I cannot 
bring myself to believe that they either pre- 
scribed or permitted such a crowd of vanities 
and superfluities, as I now see in very many 
monasteries. It is a wonder to me whence 
this intemperance, which I observe among 
monks in then* feasting and revels, in thei? 
vestures and couches, in their cavalcades and 
the construction of their edifices, can have 
grown into a practice so inveterate, that 
where these luxuries are attended with the 
most exquisite and voluptuous prodigality, 
there the order is said to be best preserved, 
there religion is held to be most studiously 
cultivated, . . For behold ! fi-ugality is deemed 
avarice ^ sobriety is called austerity ; silence 
is considered as moroseness. On the other 
hand, laxity is termed discretion ; profusion, 
liberality; loquacity, affability; loud laughter, 
pleasantness ; delicacy and sumptuousness 
in raiment and horses, taste; a supei-fluous 
change of linen, cleanliness ; and then, when 
we assist each other in these practices, it is 
called charity. This is a charity indeed which 
destroys all charity ; it is a discretion which 
confounds all discretion ; it is a compassion 
full of cruelty, since it so serves the body, as 
mortally to stab the soul.' . . Again — < What 
proof or indication of humility is this, to 
march forth with such a pomp and cavalcade, 
to be thronged by such an obsequious train of 
long-haired attendants, so that the escort of 
one abbot would suffice for two bishops ? I 
vow that I have seen an abbot with a suite 



* Ad Guillelmum Abbat. Apologia— An Apology 
to William, Abbot of St. Thierry. The pretext for 
this Apology was,, to defend himself and his own re- 
formed order of Cistercians from the charge of calum- 
niating the rival order, their more opulent brethren, 
of Cluni. St. Bernard did not lose that opportunity 
of generally inveighing against monastic abuses. 



ST. BERNARD. 



275 



of sixty horsemen and more.* To see them 
pass by, you would not take them for fathers 
of monasteries, but for lords of castles ; not 
for directors of souls, but for princes of prov- 
inces.' . . St. Bernard then proceeds to cen- 
sure the show of wealth which is exliibited 
ivithin the monasteries, f and subsequently 
exposes the secret motive of such display. 
' Treasures are drawn towards treasures ; 
money attracts money, and it happens that 
where most wealth is seen, there most is offer- 
ed. When the relics are covered with gold, 
the eyes are struck, and the pockets opened. 
The beautiful form of some Saint is pointed 
out, and the richer its colors the greater is 
deemed its sanctity. Men run to salute it 
— they are invited to give, and they admire 
what is splendid more than they reverence 
what is holy. To this end circular orna- 
ments are placed in the churches, more like 
wheels than crowns, and set with gems which 
rival the sun-ounding lights. We behold in- 
ventions like trees erected in place of can- 
dlesticks, with gi'eat expense of metal and 
ingenuity, also shining with brilliants as gaily 
as with the lights they hold. Say, whether 
of the two is the object in these fabrications 
— to awake the penitent to compunction, or 
the gazer to admiration ? Oh vanity of vani- 
ties, and as insane as it is vain ! The church 
is resplendent in its walls, it is destitute in its 
poor. It clothes its stones with gold — it 
leaves its children naked. The eyes of the 



* ' Mentior,' says the holy abbot, ' si non vidi ab- 
batem sexaginta equos et eo amplius in suo ducere 
comitatu. Dicas, si videas eos transeuntes, non pa- 
tres esse raonasleriorum, sed dominos castellorum; 
non rectores animarum, sed principes provinciariim.' 

t'Omitto Oratorium immensas altitudines, immo- 
deratas longitudines, supervacuas latitudines, sump- 
tuosas depolitiones, curiosas depictiones, quae diim 
orantium in se detorquent aspectum impediunt et af- 
fectum, et mihi quodammodo reprsesentant antiquum 
ritum Judajorum, Sed esto — fiant hjec ad honorem 
Dei. lllud autem interrogo monachus monachos, 
quod in gentilibus gentilis arguebat — 

Dicite, Pontifices, in sancto quid facit aiirum? 
Ego autem dico, Dicite Pauperes ! Non enim at- 
tendo versum sed sensum — Dicite, inquam, pauperes, 
si tamen pauperes, in Sancto quid facit aurum V — 
Loc. Citat. It seems probable that St. Bernard, in 
the interval of his theological labors, had studied the 
Roman Satirists with pleasure, and not without ad- 
vantage. 



rich are ministered to, at the expense of the 
indigent. The curious find wherewithal to 
be delighted — the starving do not find where- 
with to allay their starvation.' * . . . 

Such was the Abbot of Clairvaux ; in pro- 
fession and habits a monk — in ecclesiastical 
polity at once a reformer and a bigot — in 
piety a Christian. His single example (if 
every page in history did not furnish others) 
would suffice to show that a very great pre- 
ponderance of excellence is consistent with 
many pernicious errors ; and that innumer- 
able ensamples of purity and holiness have 
flourished in every age, as they doubtless still 
flourish, in the bosom of the Roman Catholic 
Church. Because many Popes were ambi- 
tious and many prelates profligate, it would 
be monstrous to suspect that righteousness 
was nowhere to be found in that communion , 
it would be unreasonable to suppose that the 
great moral qualities, which distinguished 
St. Bernard, were not very common among 
the obscurer members and ministei-s of his 
church. His genius, indeed, was peculiarly 
his own. The principles which least became 
him were derived fi-om his church and his 
age ; but his charity and his godliness flowed 
from his religion, and thus they found sym- 
pathy among many, respect and admiration 
among all. These were the crown of his 
reputation ; and while they fortified and ex- 
alted his genius, they also gave it that com- 
manding authority which, without them, it 
could never have acquired. From this alli- 
ance of noble qualities St. Bernard possessed 
a much more extensive influence than any 
ecclesiastic of his time — more, perhaps, than 
any individual through the mere force of per- 
sonal character has at any time possessed ; 
nor is it hard to understand, if we duly con- 
sider the imperfect civilization of that super- 
stitious age, that monarchs, and nobles, and 
nations should have respectfully listened to 
the decisions of a monk, who gave laws from 
his cloister in Burgundy to the Universal 
Church. 

* ' O vanitas vanitatura, sed non vanior quam in- 
sanior. Fulget ecclesia in parietibus, et in pauperi- 
bus eget. Suos lapides induit auro et suos filios nu- 
dos deserit. De sumptibus egenorum servitur oculis 
divitum. Inveniunt curiosi quo delectentur, et non 
inveniunt miseri quo sustententur.' 



276 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

The Pontificate of Innocent III. 
[From 1198 to 1216.] 

Prefatory facts and observations — Circumstances under 
which Innocent ascended the chair — Collection of 
Canons— Condition of the clergy — Ecclesiastical juris- 
diction — by what means extended — Innocent's four 
leading objects — (1.) To establish and enlarge his tem- 
poral power in the city and ecclesiastical states. Office 

. of the Prefect — Favorable circumstance, of which In- 
nocent avails himself — his work completed by Nicholas 
IV. — (2.) To establish the universal pre-eminence of 
papal over royal authority. His claims to the Empire 

— His dispute with Philippe Auguste of France — he 
places the kingdom under interdict — submission of 
Philippe — His general assertions — supremacy — par- 
ticular applications of them — to England and France, 
Navarre, Wallachia and Bulgaria, Arragon and Arme- 
nia — His contest with John of England — Interdict — 
the Legate Pandulph — Humiliation of the King — (3.) 
To extend his authority within the church. Italian 
clergy in England — his general success in influencing 
tshe priesthood — Power of the Episcopal Order — The 
fourth Lateran Council. Canons on transubstaatiation 

— on private confession — against all heretics — (4.) To 
extinguish heresy. The Petrobrussians — their author 
and> tenets. Various other sects, how resisted. The 
Cathari — supposition of Mosheim and Gibbon — the 
more probable opinion— The Waldenses— their history 
and character — error of Mosheim — Peter Waldus — his 

! persecution. The Albigeois or Albigenses — their resi- 
dfence and opinions — attacked by Innocent — St. Domi- 
mc — title of Inquisitor — Raymond of Toulouse — holy 
war preached against them — Simon de Montfort — re- 
sistance and massacre of the heretics — Continued per- 
secution of the Albigeois — Death of Innocent— Remarks 
on his policy. 

During the period of one hundred and thir- 
teen years, which intervened between Grego- 
ry VII. and Innocent III., the progress of 
ecclesiastical power and influence was very 
considerable ; and the latter ascended the 
pontifical chair unembarrassed by many of 
the difficulties which impeded the enterprises 
of the former. The principal causes of that 
progress may be traced, perhaps, in a few 
sentences. In the first place, new facilities to 
learning had been opened during the twelfth 
eentuiy, of w^hich the clergy had availed 
themselves very generally, and which the 
laity had as generally neglected. It is true 
that the kind of learning then in fashion pos- 
sessed, for the most part, no substantial or 
permanent value ; still it was a weapon as 
powerful, perhaps, for the government of the 
ignorant, as if its polish had been brighter, or 
its edge more keen ; and, as its real ineffi- 
ciency was unknown, it equally answered 
the end of exciting a blind respect for those 
who had the exclusive use of it. In the next 
place, the discipline of the church had under- 
gone an important reformation, the honor of 
which we are bound to ascribe to the vigor- 
ous exertions of Gregory, imitated, with more 



advantage perhaps, by feebler successors. 
Three Lateran Councils (the first General 
Councils of the Western Church) were held 
during the twelfth century ; and the second 
and third of these, assembled respectively in 
1139 and 1179, by Innocent II. and Alexan- 
der III., more particularly directed their at- 
tention to the extirpation of ecclesiastical 
abuses, to the confirmation of ancient canons, 
and the introduction of such others as might 
amend the discipline and consolidate the in- 
terests of the church. This object was ma- 
terially advanced by the labor of a monk 
of Bologna, named Gratian, who published, 
in 1151, his celebrated Collection of Canon 
Laws.* And this branch of study, thus facil- 
itated, received further encouragement from 
Eugenius III., who instituted the degrees 
of Bachelor, Licentiate, and Doctor in tliat 
science. By the advance of learning among 
the sacred profession, by the greater precision 
and more general knowledge of the canons 
of the church, and by the rigor with which 
they were frequently enforced, the morals of 
every rank of the clergy were essentially im- 
proved. The two notorious scandals of the 
former age, concubinage and simony, if not 
eflfectually removed, were at least restrained 
within more decent limits ; and the extreme 
license, in some other respects, which had 
prevailed for about two centuries before Greg- 
ory VII., was checked and repressed. So 
that Innocent was called to the command of 
a more enlightened, a more orderly, a more 
moral, and therefore a more influential priest- 
hood. 

Ecclesiastical property. It may be true, as 
Mosheim asserts, that the revenues of the 
Pope had received no considerable augmen- 
tation between the ninth century and the 
time of Innocent ; but those of the clergy^ 
and especially of the monastic orders, had 
been swelled during the same period by the 
most abundant contributions. Indeed, in most 
countries the territorial domains of the church 
were at that time spread so widely, as almost 
to justify the complaint that they compre- 
hended half the surface of Europe; nor 
should we omit to mention that the clergy, 
though in some kingdoms liable to annual 
donatives, and to ai-bitrary plunder in all; 
were still legally exempt from taxation, and 
fi'om every regular contribution to the service 
of the state. From such immunity, though 

* The accidental discovery of the Pandects of 
Justinian, in 1137, may have furnished to Gratiau 
the notion, as it certainly supplied the model, of his 
work.. , 



t 



PONTIFICATE OF INNOCENT III. 



277 



it was occasionally violated, and the violation 
usually attended with outrage, they must, 
nevertheless, have reaped great advantage, 
and especially in peaceful periods. But such 
partial profits have always a drawback in the 
jealousy which the distinction occasions, and 
which exposes those who enjoy it to the dis- 
trust and dislike of their fellow subjects. 

Ecclesiastical jurisdiction. We have akeady 
observed how extensive, and, at the same time, 
how indefinite, were the rights of jurisdiction, 
which were partly conferred on the church 
and partly confirmed to it by Charlemagne, — 
rights, which were scarcely less important to 
the general influence of the clergy, than their 
learning or their revenues. During the tu- 
mults of the three following centuries, they 
were transgressed or exceeded as the civil or 
ecclesiastical portion of the state happened in 
any country to preponderate ; but they appear 
to have sustained no permanent alteration, 
either in abridgment or increase, until the be- 
ginning of the twelfth century. About that 
time the ecclesiastical tribunals commenced a 
system of encroachment, which made great 
progress even before the pontificate of Inno- 
cent, and was carried by that Pope and his 
successors to still greater excess, and seemed 
to threaten the entire subversion of the secu- 
lar courts.* It was the first step in this usur- 
pation to multiply the number of persons 
subject to the jurisdiction of the church ; 
the next, to extend almost without limit the 
offences of which it took cognizance. The 
first of these objects was accomplished by the 
indiscriminate Tonsure, which we have be- 
fore mentioned to have been so generally given 
by the bishops. This sign of the clerical state 
did not indicate ordinaiion or any spiritual 
office ; but it conferred the use of the eccle- 
siastical habit, and with it the various privi- 
leges and immunities enjoyed by that order, 
without the restraint of celibacy ,f to which 
it was liable. This veiy numerous class, 
though for the most part engaged in secular 
professions and occupations, was subject to 
no other than the episcopal tribunals ; | and 



* Tirate tutte le cause d' appellazlone in Roma, si 
proccuro d' ampliare la glurisdizione del Foro Epis- 
opale, e stendere la conoscenza de' Giudici Ecclesi- 
astic! sopra piu persone ed in piii cause, sicche poco 
riraanesse a' magistrati secolari d' impicciarsene. 
Giannone, 1st. di Napoli, lib. xix., c. v., sect. iii. 

t In this respect, those persons were placed in the 
condition of the priests of the Greek Church : they 
were allowed to marry once only, and a virgin. 

t In the kingdom of Naples, under the dynasty of 
Anjou, this matter afterwards went so far (says Gi- 



we may remark, that all the movable prop- 
erty of this body fell under the same juris- 
diction.* 

Another very large class, under the denom- 
ination of ' miserabiles personse ' (persons in 
distress,) was also exclusively subjected to the 
episcopal courts. It comprehended, even in 
the first instance, a multitude of the lowest 
orders; and it was presently so enlarged as 
to include orphans and widows, the stranger 
and the poor, the pilgi'im and the leper, f 
Again ; the opportunity oflTered by the Cru- 
sades was not neglected in the progress of 
usurpation ; and in this case the arm of ec- 
clesiastical justice extended itself not only 
over all who engaged in the expedition, but 
over those too who had bound themselves by 
the vow. 

A great facility was also aflTorded for enlarg- 
ing the boundaries of ecclesiastical jurisdic- 
tion, by the want of definiteness in the nature 
of the offences subject to it. These were de- 
signated by one name, spiritual ; but it is clear 
that, in an ignorant age, that term might be 
so extended by an artful priesthood as to em- 
brace every sin and almost every crime ; since 
there are no sins| and few crimes which do 
not indicate some disease of the soul, and 
touch its eternal safety. 

The general term, under which ecclesiastics 
contrived to comprise the greatest number of 
causes, was Bad Faith ; as being unquestion- 
ably a sin, yet such, that an action could sel- 
dom occur, in which both parties were clear 
from the suspicion of it. Thus they claimed 
for their tribunals all trials on executions of 
contracts, because the contract was founded 
on oath. They also claimed to be natural in- 
terpreters and executors of all wills and testa 
ments, as being matters peculiarly connected 
with the conscience ; and thus fhey gradually 
extended the spiritual net over the entire field 
of civil litigation.§ But they forgot that that 



annone), that even the concubines of the clergy en- 
joyed immunity from secular jurisdiction. 

* In conseguenza di quella massima mal intesa, 
mohilia sequuntur personam. — Giann. loc. cit. 

t We refer to the seventh chapter of Mr. Hallam's 
Middle Ages. It is a bold and, in most respects, an 
accurate disquisition on papal history. 

X ' Si peccaverit frater tuus, die Ecclesioe-' This 
seems to have been the text on which ecclesiastical 
jurisdiction was mainly founded. It had a much 
better foundation in the superior intelligence and 
moral principles of ecclesieistics. 

§ Having once interfered in the matter of wills, the 
bishops proceeded in some countries to arrogate the 
power of making wills for the laity, ad pias causas; 
and the interests of the church were advanced by that 



278 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



which properly belonged to them was censure, 
not jurisdiction ; or they affected artfully to 
confound the office of penal chastisement 
with that of penitential correction. The en- 
croachments of the church were aided by the 
negligence, as they were almost justified by 
the incompetence, of the lay tribunals ; and 
they had already made considerable advances, 
with little apparent opposition, and acquii-ed 
extensive conquests in the domains of secular 
jurisdiction, at the time when Innocent III. 
took possession of the pontifical chair. 

From the above circumstances, we have 
reason to presume that in actual authority, not 
less than in moral influence, the church had 
acquired growth and strength since the era 
of Gregory VII. ; and that the sacred militia, 
whom Innocent was appointed to command, 
and by whose aid he meditated and almost 
accomplished the destruction of the temporal 
authorities, then exerted a much more power- 
ful control over every department of society, 
than it had ever possessed at any former pe- 
riod. 

We shall obtain a more distinct knowledge 
of the designs and success of that celebrated 
pope, if we examine separately the principal 
points to which his exertions were directed, 
than we could gain by a chronological narra- 
tive of his pontificate. According to such a 

piety. Some were found who even claimed the pro- 
perty of all intestate persons. Again, when the in- 
terests of a clerk were involved in connexion with 
those of laymen, the decision was claimed by the 
Ecclesiastical Court. So also, when the cause was 
very difficult in point of reason, in case of the in- 
competence, negligence, or suspiciousness of the lay 
judge, the matter was referred to the Episcopal 
Tribunal. So likewise, under the name of forum 
mixtum, it claimed its share in all cases of bigamy, 
usury, sacrilege, adultery, incest, concubinage, blas- 
phemy, sortilege, perjury, as in those of tithes and 
pious legacies. So in all causes arising from mar- 
riage, as being a Sacrament of the church. And 
lastly, there were some Roman doctors who maintain- 
ed that every condemned person in every country 
should be sent to Rome for punishment; seeing that 
Rome was the common country and metropolis of all 
men, that the world was Roman, and all its inhabit- 
ants citizens and subjects of Rome. — Giannone, loc. 
cit. The following lines were intended to compre- 
hend the jurisdiction of the spiritual court: — 
Haereticus, Simon, fcenus, perjurus, adulter. 
Pax, privilegium, violentus, sacrilegusque ; 
Si vacat Imperium; si negligit, ambigit, aut sit 
Suspectus judex ; sit subdita terra, vel usus, 
Rusticus et servus, peregrinus, feuda, viator. 
Si quis pjeniteat, miser! oranis causaque mista — 
Si denunciat Ecclesife quis, judicat ipsa. 
We shall take a future opportunity of recurring to 
the subject of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction. 



distribution, we may properly consider these 
objects to have been four ; not, indeed, that 
they were thus minutely analysed in the mind 
of Innocent, or that his daring schemes sub- 
ject to any such classification : but the histo- 
rian who contemplates great transactions after 
an interval of many centuries, and a change 
in many principles, is bound to consider par- 
ticular actions as parts of the whole mighty 
drama, in the respect they bear to the circum- 
stances of the actors, and the character of the 
age. Thus it is, that in studying the actions 
of Innocent III., our obsei-vatioii is necessa- 
rily most directed to the following points : — 
I. To establish the temporal power of the 
Holy See in the city of Rome, and in the ec- 
clesiastical states ; and to enlarge their bound- 
aries. II. To fix the preeminence of the 
papal over the royal authority, throughout all 
the kingdoms of the west, and to reduce all 
princes to the condition of vassalage to the 
Pope ; which was, indeed, merely a continu- 
ation of the scheme of Gregory. III. To en- 
large the pontifical authority and influence 
within the church. IV. and lastly. To secure 
the unity of the faith by the extirpation of 
heresy. All these were at that time becoming 
essential parts of the papal polity ; and almost 
all the important acts of Innocent may be 
traced to some one of them. 

I. The temporal power of the Pope. As the 
policy of the Holy See becomes more and 
more entangled in temporal transactions, as 
we obsei-ve the spiritual majesty of the apos- 
tolical chair gradually degenerating into the 
Court of Rome, it is fit that we employ a few 
sentences on the character of the people 
which was subject to its immediate sway ; 
partly because we shall thus discover what 
sort of instruments for their secular designs 
the Popes possessed at home, and partly that 
we may learn, whether the great moral bless- 
ings were more abundantly diffused among 
the subjects of an ecclesiastical monarchy. 
For this pui*pose we shall select two very 
well known authorities, the one fi'om the tenth, 
the other from the thirteenth century, only 
premising that, though the particular facts 
which they convey may be highly colored, 
the general consent of history confirms the 
substance. 

Character of the Romans. Luitprand,* who 
was sent as legate from Otho the First to the 
Eastern Emperor, expressed in this language 

* See Luitpr. Legatio, apud Muratori Script. Ital. 
vol. ii. ; also Dissertat. 40 ejusd. auct. 



PONTIFICATE OF INNOCENT III. 



279 



rke sort of reputation then possessed by the 
Roman people : — ' We Lombards despise 
them so deeply, that for our very enemies, 
when most moved against them, we can find 
no designation more contumelious, than Ro- 
man. In this single term, I mean Roman, we 
intend to comprehend all that is base, all that 
is cowardly, all that is avaricious, all that is 
luxurious, all that is false and lying — ay, 
every vice that has a name.' The evidence 
of St. Bernard on the same subject is more 
particular, and scarcely more honourable to 
the descendants of the Gracchi: — 'Why 
should r mention the people ? the people is 
Roman. I have no shorter, nor have I any 
clearer term to express my opinion of your 
parishioners (paroecianis.) For what is so 
notorious to all men and ages as the wanton- 
ness and haughtiness of the Romans? A 
race unaccustomed to peace, habituated to 
tumult — a race merciless and intractable, and 
to this instant scorning all subjection, when 
it has any means of resistance. . . Whom 
will you find, even in the vast extent of your 
city, who would have you for Pope, unless 
for profit, or the hope of profit ? * And it is 
then most that they seek to rule, when they 
profess to serve. They promise fidelity, to 
have the better means of injuring those who 
trust them. . . . They are men too proud 
to obey, too ignorant to rule, faithless to supe- 
riors, insupportable to inferiors ; shameless in 
asking, insolent in refusing; importunate to 



* Eugenius III. The passage in the De Conside- 
ratione, lib. iv. Cap. ii. We have purposely omitted 
Bome parts of it In the text, the following for instance : 
— ' Et nunc experire paucis noverimne et ego aliqua- 
lenus mores gentis. Ante omnia sapientes sunt, ut 
faciant mala, bonum autem facere nesciunt. Hi in- 
visi lerrae et coelo utrique injecere manus, impii in 
Deum, temerarii in sancta, seditiosi in invicem (qu. 
judicem 1) semuli in vicinos, inhuman! in extraneos ; 
quos neminem amantes amat nemo. Et cum timeri 
affectant ab omnibus, omnes timeant necesse est. Hi 

sunt qui subesse non sustinent,' &c Ita omne 

humile probro ducitur inter Palatinos, ut facilius, 
qui esse quam qui apparere humilis velit, invenias. 
Timor Domini simplicitas vocatur, ne dicam fatuitas,' 
&c. ... These Palatines seem to have been the emi- 
nent Ecclesiastics resident at the Holy See. The 
cardinals, who formed the nucleus of the future court 
of Rome, though now gradually rising in dignity, 
wei'e not yet, probably, in possession of any corporate 
prerogatives. We shall only add one more testimony, 
that of John of Salisbury, the contemporary and 
countryman of Adrian IV., against the Roman clergy: 
— ' Provinciarum diri. punt spolia, ac si thesauros 
Croesi studeant reparare. Sed recte cum lis egit 
Altissimus, quoniam et ipsi aliis et saepe vilissirais 
hominibus dati sioi in direptionem.' . . . 



obtain favors, restless while obtaining them, 
ungrateful when they have obtained them ; 
grandiloquous and inefiicient; most profuse 
in promise, most niggardly in performance ; 
the smoothest flatterers, the most venomous 
detractors,' &c. ' Among such as these you 
are proceeding as their pastor, covered with 
gold and every variety of splendor. What 
are your sheep looking for ? . . If I dared 
to use the expression, I should say, that it is 
a pasture of demons rather than of sheep.' . . 

Many of the features in this revolting picture 
are common to the courts of every climate and 
religion — to the sycophants of every race and 
age. The exclusive appropriation of mean- 
ness and treachery — the monopoly of human 
baseness — could not truly be ascribed even to 
the people of Rome. But there is one among 
the vices imputed to them which was indeed 
their characteristic — restless and turbulent in- 
subordination. Shall we consider this defect 
as the corruption of an ancient virtue ? Cer- 
tainly even a cursory review of the govern- 
ment (if government it can be called) under 
which the imperial city had struggled for 
above four centuries, will show that the vice, 
whether indigenous or not, received much 
encouragement and excuse fi-om extraneous 
ciicumstances. We have already mentioned 
the doubtful limits of the authority respective- 
ly exercised by the Patrician and the Bishop 
under the Greek emperors. When that rule 
finally passed away, Charlemagne (and before 
him Pepin) assumed the temporal administra- 
tion of Rome under the same name, Patrician ; 
and during his reign the imperial supremacy 
was in practice felt, as it was undisputed in 
right. Weaker princes, and ages almost of an- 
archy succeeded. Nevertheless, the supreme 
dominion of the emperors, which may have 
been partially suspended, was re-established 
by Otho ; ' their title and image were engrav- 
en on the Papal corns, and their jurisdiction 
was marked by the sword of justice which 
they delivered to the Prefect of the city.' * 

On the other hand, the residence of the 
Emperor was remote, and the communication 
slow and precarious. Once only, in the coui-se 
perhaps of a long reign, he presented himself 
to his Roman subjects. The purpose of that 
visit was to receive his crown from the pon- 
tifical hand, and the ceremony was usually 
attended with tumult and bloodshed. Again 
— at that coronation he thrice repeated the 
royal oath, to maintain the liberties of Rome. 
The ancient fable, too, was continually incul- 



* See Gibbon's 69th chapter 



280 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



cated, and perhaps universally believed, that 
Constantine had consigned the temporal scep- 
tre to the hand of the Bishop. And in those 
ages of superstitious dai-kness, the prejudices 
of mankind saw nothing incongruous in the 
double character of a sacerdotal monarch. 
These circumstances were on both sides un- 
favorable to the welfare of Rome, for while 
they neutralized, and almost destroyed the 
power of the Prefect, they gave no substantial 
foundation to that of the Pope. So that in 
the uncertainty thus created, as to where the 
civil executive authority really was placed, the 
people were left without any efficient control. 
Their inclination would naturally lead them 
to respect most the power, which was more 
nearly and immediately exercised. But the 
short reigns of most of the Popes ; the tumul- 
tuous scenes which commonly disgraced their 
election, and which were prolonged so ob- 
stinately whenever there was a rival for the 
chair ; the very circumstance, that the choice 
of a ruler was influenced by the rabble — all 
conspired to lower his dignity, and to lessen 
the efficacy of his temporal authority. It is 
true, that during the latter half of the twelfth 
century, after the constitution of Alexander 
III. (in 1179,) these evils were in some degree 
abated. Still there were no principles of 
stability in the civil administration ; and it is 
scarcely too much to assert that, from the time 
of Charlemagne to that of Innocent, the pon- 
tifical city had never once felt either the re- 
straint or the blessing of a strong government. 

The regulation of Alexander III. was an 
omen of greater improvements. But a change 
of more importance in the civil history of 
Rome was the establishment of the Senate ; 
and this is refen-ed, as a permanent act, to the 
year 1144. In the meantime, the dignity of 
' Prefect of the City ' had gradually declined 
to a municipal office, filled from the families 
of the native nobility. Even the name was, 
for a short time, abolished, and succeeded by 
that of Patrician, though it was speedily re- 
stored, together with the original ensigns of 
power. But at length Innocent III. broke off 
the last link of the imperial power. He re- 
jected at the same time its ancient emblem ; 
and while he absolved the Prefect from all de- 
pendence of oaths or service on the German 
Emperors, he removed the sword from his 
hand, and substituted a peaceful banner in its 
place. 

But the tranquillity of Rome was not se- 
cured by its independence ; and other changes 
succeeded, in the difficult attempt at self-gov- 
ernment by a people educated almost in an- 



archy. In the first mstance, the name and 
authority of the Senate was condensed in the 
office of a single magistrate — the Senator; 
and soon afterwards in that of two colleagues. 
The most jealous precautions* were taken to 
secure their integrity, or, at least, their harm- 
lessness. But they were still Romans ; and 
the turbulence of the subjects seem to have 
been rivalled by the rapacity of the rulers. 
Another scheme, which had been elsewhere 
successful, was then applied to the disorders 
of Rome. In the dearth of native virtue, or 
at least in the despair of domestic disinterest- 
edness and impartiality, she called to the helm 
of state a foreign governor. It was about the 
year 1250, that Brancaleone of Bologna was 
chosen Senator ; and, in the progress of sev- 
enty-eight years, the same office was filled and 
dignified by Charles of Anjou (about 1265,) 
by Pope Martin IV. (in 1281,) and lastly, by 
Lewis of Bavaria ; ' and thus (says Gibbon) 
both the sovereigns of Rome acknowledged 
her liberty by accepting a municipal office in 
the government of their own metropolis.' A 
government susceptible of such strange ano- 
malies could not hope for peace or perma- 
nence. Even the secession of the Popes to 
Avignon did not emancipate Rome from their 
occasional sway, and their ceaseless persecu- 
tion. And thus the people were doubly suf- 
ferers — they suffered, when subject, from the 
weakness of an absent scepti-e — they suffered, 
when independent, from the perpetual strug- 
gles which were made to reduce them. After 
seventy years of foreign residence, the Pontiffs 
returned to their legitimate abode. But the 
schism, which immediately followed the res- 
toration, still further enfeebled a grasp already 
trembling with the weight of the temporal 
sword. That inveterate turbulence, transmit- 
ted through so many ages, continued for some 
generations longer ; and it was not until the 
middle of the fifteenth century, that the pon- 
tifical city became permanently subject to 
pontifical government. 

Temporal policy of Innocent From this 
short anticipation of some future events, we 
return to obsei-ve the working of that pow- 
erful hand, which influenced so deeply the 



* According to the laws of Rome (in the fifteenth 
century), the Senator was required to be a Doctor 
of Laws, an alien, of some place at least forty miles 
distant, and unconnected, to the third canonical de- 
gree, with any Roman inhabitant. The election was 
annual ; the departure from office was attended with 
a severe scrutiny; nor could the same person be re- 
elected until after two years. The salary was 3000 
florins. Gibbon, c. 70. 



PONTIFICATE OF INNOCENT III. 



281 



destinies of the Church, and which influenc- 
ed them ahiiost wholly for evil — and in no 
one respect more so, than when it construct- 
ed the temporal fabric for the support of a 
power essentially spiritual, and waved before 
those brilliant portals the dark bloodstained 
edge of the material sword. Possibly the 
powerful mind of Innocent was seduced into 
those projects by the inviting cu'cumstances 
of the moment. During his entire pontificate 
the situation of the empire was extremely fa- 
vorable to any hostile schemes. The legiti- 
mate sovereign (afterwards Frederic II.) was 
a minor, and the sceptre was for some time 
disputed by two princes (Philip and Otho 
IV.,) to each of whom the patronage of the 
Pontiff was equally important. At a later 
period, after the death of Philip, the dissen- 
sion was renewed, in another form, but with 
the same character, between Otho and Fred- 
eric ; and the latter of these rivals now be- 
came as anxious to cultivate the friendship of 
the Pope, as heretofore the former. Inno- 
cent availed himself of these advantages to 
enrich and fortify the Church at the expense 
of all those disputants, or at least of the em- 
pire which they disputed. Accordingly, one 
of the earliest acts of his reign was to dis- 
arm the Prefect of all authority derived from 
abroad, and thus to erase the last remaining 
vestige of German domination. Again, the 
extensive donation of territory which the 
Princess Matilda had made to the Roman 
see, during the administration of Gregory 
VII., had been unceasingly contested by the 
empire ; and the gi-eater force had generally 
constituted the better right. Innocent, to- 
wards the end of his pontificate, was enabled 
so far to profit by the weakness of Frederic, 
as to obtain from that prince a formal confir- 
mation of the grant; at the same time, a con- 
siderable territorial cession, made to the see 
by the Count of Fundi, received the same 
ratification. It is proper, indeed, to ascribe 
the completion of this work to Nicholas IV., 
who ruled about seventy years afterwards. 
That Pope reduced under his dominion some 
cities, which had hitherto owned a nominal 
allegiance to the Emperor ; and extended the 
states of the Church to those nearly which 
are their present boundaries. But to Nicho- 
las no higher celebrity is due, than that he 
pursued with success the policy which had 
descended to him from his predecessors, and 
which had received its first impulse from 
Innocent ; for, until his pontificate, the tem- 
poralities of the see, notwithstanding the suc- 
36 



cessive donations (pretended * or real) of 
Constantino, and Pepin, and Charlemagne, 
and Lewis the Meek, and even Matilda, form- 
ed, in fact, if not a mere fieM for incessant 
contention, at best a very precarious and un- 
profitable possession. 

II. On the Usurpations of Papal over Royaf 
Authority. — In respect to this part of the pon- 
tifical system, we have already seen that the 
equivocal glory of creating it is not due to 
Innocent ; he received it from former (per- 
haps from better) ages, among the established 
duties of the apostolical office. It was sealed 
by the consent ofmany venerable Pontiffs; by 
the authority of Gregory VII. It was con- 
genial to the unconverted pride of the human 
heart — that passion, which burnt most fierce- 
ly in the breast of Innocent, and which the 
waters of the gospel were seldom invited to 
allay. His was indee(f the character formed, 
under whatsoever ordination of Providence, 
to fill up the outlines so daringly traced, and 
to pursue the scheme which his great prede- 
cessor had bequeathed to him. The same 
circumstances which forwarded his other 
temporal projects were, as far as they exten- 
ded, favorable to this. Once more he drew 
his strength from the divisions of the empire. 
He deposed Phihp — Philip denied his right — 
but it was willingly acknowledged by the rival 
Otho, who did not scruple to accept (in 1209) 
the diadem from the pontifical hand. Only 
three years afterwards the Pope pronounced, 
in the same plenitude of power, the same 
sentence of anathema and deposition against 
Otho. With what justice could Otho dispute 
the power by which he had deigned to rise ? 
The vacant throne was then conferred upon 
Frederic. 

A purely spiritual despotism can rest on no 
other ground than popular prejudice — com- 
mands which have no visible power to enforce 
them will only be obeyed through a general 
predisposition to believe, that they proceed 
from some still superior authority. The mo- 
narch would have derided the sentence of de- 
position, had it not found attention and respect 
among his subjects. That it should ever have 
acquired such general respect may indeed 
seem strange, and the causes which were then 

* Sismondi (Repub. Ital. c. iii.) remarks that 'as 
the act of Pepin's donation is lost, we know not on 
what conditions it may have been made.' He also 
expresses a reasonable doubt, whether this donation, 
though nominally confirmed by Charlemagne and 
Lewis, was ever effectuated. 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



sufficient for that end could only have operat- 
ed in a very blind and ignorant age. For in- 
stance, the mere ceremony of coronation by 
the Pope, to which the Emperors, in imitation 
of Charlemagne, had almost invariably sub- 
mitted, vi^ould seem to afford no trifling pre- 
text for the claims of the former ; since it was 
in those days an easy inference that the crown, 
which for many generations had been habit- 
ually received from the hand of the Pope, 
could not legally be worn except through such 
presentation ; and then it followed, since there 
were many who zealously inculcated the con- 
sequence, that the gift conferred was in fact 
the properly of the donor,* who again had 
power to recall his gift, and present it to some 
worthier candidate. At the same time we 
should never lose sight of that general vener- 
ation for the throne of St. Peter, which at 
that period especially overspread the prostrate 
nations, and overawed the reason of man ; 
for it was, in truth, not an uncommon belief 
that the blessed Apostle invisibly presided 
over the altar of his martyrdom, and guarded 
and sanctified with mysterious majesty the 
chair of his successors. 

The eagerness with which the emperors 
generally courted the ceremony of coronation, 
though it was attended by circumstances very 
humiliating to their pride, certainly proves 
that there existed among their subjects a strong 
feeling as to its propriety, perhaps its necessi- 
ty. But that which gave the greatest color to 
the extreme pretensions of the See, was the 
readiness with which princes acknowledged 
them, when they found their profit in the ac- 
knowledgment. The very edicts which they 
rejected with scorn when addressed to them- 
selves, they embraced and effectuated when 
levelled against a rival. The right, as a gen- 
eral right, was never contested. The partial 
interests of the moment overpowered every 
consideration of a broader policy; and thus 
amid the ever-reviving jealousies and dissen- 
sions of monarclis and pretenders, the con- 
sistent perseverance of the Vatican established 
the most groundless claims, and accomplished 
the most extravagant purposes. Of course 
the agents for the dissemination of its princi- 
ples and the instruments of its spccess were 

* This inference required, of course, a large share 
of zeal in the teacher and docility in the disciple. 
The Patriarch of Constantinople had possessed from 
the earliest ages the ofiice of crowning the Greek 
emperor, without ever dreaming that he acquired any 
sort of interest in the crown itself by the performance 
of an ordinary ceremony. But ecclesiastical matters 
were very differently conducted in the west. 



the ecclesiastical orders, and especially the 
monks ; and the very general union and co- 
operation which at this time prevailed (more 
perhaps than at any other period, more cer- 
tainly than at any later period) between the 
Pope, the clergy, and the monasteries, facilitat- 
ed the execution of Innocent's boldest designs. 
Contest with Philippe Auguste. The fii-st 
interference of that pontiff in the affairs of 
the French court was defended by precedents, 
and occasioned by an offence at all times pe- 
culiarly liable to spiritual jurisdiction. Phil- 
ippe Auguste having espoused a Danish prin- 
cess, named Ingelburg, or Isemburg, hastened 
on the very day following the nuptials to di- 
vorce her. He pretended to have discovered 
that they were connected by too near a de- 
gree of affinity ; and afler some investigation, 
at which two legates of Pope Celestine as- 
sisted, the marriage was declared null. In- 
nocent, probably considering that concession 
as extorted from the timidity of his predeces- 
sor, lost no time in setting aside the divorce, 
and commanding the king to take back his 
bride. He refused, and an interdict was im- 
mediately thrown on the whole kingdom. 
The public offices of worship were suspend- 
ed ; even the doors of the churches were 
closed ; the Sacrament of Christ was no long- 
er administered,* and the rites of marriage 
and sepulture remained unperformed. We 
should here recollect, that with the mass of 
an ignorant people professing a corrupt form 
of faith, the public exercise of religion con- 
stituted, in fact, its entire substance. Depriv- 
ed of that, they had no refuge in private prayer, 
or the consolations of internal devotion. To 
such persons the sentence of an interdict 
must have fallen like an immediate edict of 
rejection and separation from heaven ; and 
such in the twelfth century was the multitude 



* We should mention, that even under the oppres- 
sion of the severest interdict, the sacraments of Bap- 
tism, Confession, and Extreme Unction still continued 
to be administered. But it was attended by other pro- 
hibitions, not strictly of a religious nature, calculated 
to inspire gloom and fanaticism. The hair, for in- 
stance, and the beard were to be left unshaven ; the 
use of meat was forbidden; and even the ordinary 
salutation was prohibited. But the suspension of 
sepulture, the exposure of the corpses to dogs or birds, 
or even their promiscuous interment in unhallowed 
ground, was probably in practice the most appalling 
part of the sentence. From the learned treatise, * De 
I'Origine et du Progres des Interdits Ecclesiastiques,' 
by Pierre Pithou, it appears that there were indica- 
tions of such an exercise of ecclesiastical power in 
very early ages; though it was not applied to any 
grand purpose, as a pontifical implement, until the 
time of Hildebrand. 



PONTIFICATE OF INNOCENT III. 



283 



of eveiy class. Philippe Auguste was a prince 
of uncommon resolution and address. Nev- 
ertheless he found it expedient to bend before 
the tempest, and obey the pontifical mandate. 

This was the earliest triumph of Innocent, 
and it encouraged his ambition to attempt 
more daring achievements. At least he did 
not long confine it to objects which offered 
any particular justification, but advanced on 
the broadest ground of universal interference. 
In a bull published in 1197, he declared, ' that 
it was not fit that any man should be invested 
with authority, who did not sei-ve and obey 
the Holy See.' At another time he proclaim- 
ed, ' that he would not endure the least con- 
tempt of himself, or of God, whose place he 
held on earth, but would punish every diso- 
bedience without delay, and convince the 
whole world that he was determined to act 
like a sovereign.' ' As the sun and the moon 
are placed in the firmament, the greater as 
the light of the day and the lesser of the night, 
so are there two powers in the church, the 
pontifical, which, as having the charge of 
souls, is the greater ; and the royal, which is 
the lesser, and to which only the bodies of 
men are trusted.'* 'Though I cannot judge 
of a fief,'f said Innocent to the kings of France 
and England, 'yet it is my province to judge 
when sin is committed, and my duty to pre- 
vent all public scandals.' This was indeed 
the loftiest and the most respectable ground 
on which the Papal pretensions could be 
placed ; and if the Bishops of Rome had 
really been contented with the exercise of a 
beneficial authority — if they had employed 
the mighty power with which they found 
themselves invested, only for the reconciliation 
of enmities, for the concord, the morality, the 
most.obvious interests of the human race, then, 
indeed, we might have forgotten the origin 
of that power in its blessed uses, and pardon- 
ed to the Vicar of Christ his presumptuous 
appellation, when we saw him engaged in 
doing the works of Christ, and consoling his 
children upon earth. 

Hov/ever, the interference, even of Innocent 



* Innocent's famous Rescript to the emperor of 
Constantinople (In which the above allegory is pro- 
duced) respected chiefly the immunity of clerks; and 
as it was founded on tlie maxims published by Gra- 
tian, which were themselves founded on the False 
Decretals, so itself became in process of time a new 
Decretal, the groundwork, if necessary, of other still 
more inordinate pretensions. It was thus that the 
system grew. 

t The general cognizance of causes relating to fiefs 
had escaped, as it would seem, ecclesiastical usurpa- 



III., was not always for evil. On the strength 
of his delegated authority he dictated a truce 
to Philippe and Richard, and after some diffi- 
culties obliged both parties to submit to it. 
It was about the same time that he directed 
one of his legates to compel the obsei-vance 
of peace between the Kings of Castille and 
Portugal, if necessary, by excommunication 
and interdict. He moreover enjoined the 
King of Arragon to restore to its intrinsic 
value the coin which he had lately debased, 
thereby oppressing and defrauding his sub- 
jects. Tlie mere wanton display of power 
may not have been his motive — some gener- 
ous considerations may sometimes have in- 
fluenced him. ' A great mind (says Hallara,) 
such as Innocent III. undoubtedly possessed, 
though prone to sacrifice every other object 
to ambition, can never be indifferent to the 
beauty of social order and the happiness of 
mankind.' 

Not contented to influence the most vigor- 
ous monarchs of the most powerful king- 
doms of the age, he descended to issue his 
edicts to inferior princes. He sent forth in- 
structions to the King of Navarre respecting 
the restoration of certain castles to Richard. 
He distributed the insignia of royalty to Bris- 
cislaus, Duke of Bohemia, and to the Dukes 
of Wallachia and Bulgaria. He conferred 
the crown of Arragon on Peter II. as his sub- 
ject and tributary. And finally (that no race 
or clime might seem inaccessible to his arm), 
he gave a king to the Armenian nation, dwell- 
ing on the border of the Caspian Sea. 

With John of England. Yet, with all this 
extent of despotic sway, it was in England 
that his boldest pretensions were advanced, 
and advanced with the most surprising suc- 
cess. The circumstances are known to all 
readers. In the year 1199, Richard I. was 
succeeded on the throne by John, the feeblest 
of the human race ; and that prince was pre- 
sently assailed by an outrage from the Holy 
See, which disturbed for some years the re- 
pose and allegiance of his subjects, and the 
stability of his throne. On the vacancy of 
the see of Canterbury, the monks in chapter 
publicly elected to that dignity John, Bishop 
of Norwich, who was recommended and con- 
firmed by the King. At the same time they 
chose, at a private meeting, Reginald, their 
own sub-prior,* and sent him to Rome for in- 
stitution. When this matter was referred to 
Innocent, he immediately reversed both elec- 
tions, and nominated Stephen Langton, a 

* Pagi Bi-ev. Pont. Rom. Vit. luaoc. III. Sect. 49. 



S84 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Roman cardinal, of English descent. The 
chapter listened to the spiritual, in preference 
to the temporal, tyrant ; and the monks were 
in consequence expelled from their residence, 
and their property was confiscated. The 
Pope proceeded with no less energy to en- 
force his asserted rights, and commanded the 
Bishops of London, Worcester, and Ely, to 
lay the whole kingdom under an interdict. 
There were some prelates, however, and 
several inferior ecclesiastics, who hesitated 
to enforce this edict ; and since John made 
no concession. Innocent issued, in the follow- 
ing year (1201), a bull of excommunication 
against the name and person of the sovereign. 
This sentence, still ineffectual, was followed, 
in 1211, by another yet more appalling. The 
subjects of John were absolved from their 
allegiance, and commanded to avoid his pre- 
sence. Yet as even this measure was insuffi- 
cient for his entire success, he had then re- 
course to the last and most dangerous among 
the bolts of the Vatican. He pronounced the 
final sentence of deposition ; and having de- 
clared the vacancy of the throne, gave force 
to his words by conferring it upon Philippe 
Auguste of France. At the same time he 
ordered that monarch to execute the sentence. 
Philippe's obedience was secured by his 
ambition ; he was joined by the exiles of his 
rival's tyranny ; and to ensure his success, 
or, more probably, to complete the consterna- 
tion of John, Innocent proclaimed a crusade 
against the English king as against an infidel 
or a heretic. The armies were assembled on 
both sides, and hostilities were on the point 
•of commencing, when Pandulph, the legate 
of the Pope, presented himself at the camp 
at Dover. He there displayed the final de- 
mands of the Pope, and the King had cour- 
age to resist no longer. The demands to 
which he submitted were these, — that he 
should resign his crown to the legate, and re- 
ceive it again as a present from the Holy See ; 
that he should declare his dominions tributary 
to the same See ; and that he should do hom- 
age and swear fealty to Innocent, as a vassal 
and a feudatory. The shame of this humilia- 
tion was increased by the ceremony attending 
it ; by the multitude of sorrowful or indignant 
witnesses ; by the very manner * in which the 
haughty legate bore himself on his triumph. 
Yet, to the eye of an earnest and fervent 
Papist, is the degi'adation of England's mon- 



* Among other circumstances it is related, that 
Pandulph did actually keep the crown in his posses- 
sion for some minutes. The annual tribute stipulated 
was 1000 marks. 



arch, while he stood waiting, amid his nobles 
and his soldiers, to accept his crown from the 
suspended hand of Pandulph — is it, after all, 
a spectacle of such lofty exultation — is it a 
picture so flattering to his spiritual, even to 
his ecclesiastical, pride — as the half-naked 
form of the imperial penitent of older days, 
shivering, with his scanty train of attendants, 
before the castle gates of Gregory ? 

III. The Increase of Pontifical Authority 
within the Church.— The description of John's 
humiliation, and of the steps which led to it, 
connects the second with the third part of 
this inquiry — for, in the first place, it shows 
the extent to which Innocent carried his 
claims to patronage within the Church ; and 
in the next, it exhibits one motive of the 
general anxiety evinced by the see to extend 
that internal influence. The Interdict, which 
was now become the favorite instrument 
of papal usurpation, however formidable in 
name and deed, was an empty denunciation, 
unless enforced by the personal exertions of 
the Bishops, and even of the inferior clergy 
of the kingdom subjected to it — as we, indeed, 
observed, that in England the sentence of 
Innocent failed of its full effect, through the 
opposition of a part of the clergy. And thus, 
in any project of temporal aggi'andizement 
which a Pope might undertake, success could 
never be secured unless he could command 
the co-operation of the very great proportion 
of the ecclesiastical body. It was partly for 
this reason that so many foreign, and espe- 
cially Italian, prelates were placed, for many 
ages, in English sees. In Germany, too. In- 
nocent showed the same anxiety to extend 
his right of appointment ; by a formal capit- 
ulation with Otho IV. he obtained that of 
decision in disputed cases ; and it is obvious 
to what easy abuse it was liable. In other 
countries he advanced the same claim, which 
had been so fatally disputed in England, with 
less resistance and equal success. His exam- 
ple was imitated by following Pontiffs : and 
the facility thus acquired, of exciting rebellion 
amongst a restless nobility and a superstitious 
people, against a weak and arbitrary govern- 
ment, terrified the boldest monarch s, and fre- 
quently led them to sacrifice the future secu- 
rity of the crown to the hopes or apprehen- 
sions of the moment. 

TTie Saladin Tax. On the other hand, the 
very great progress made by Innocent in ex- 
tending the papal influence among the priest- 
hood, was counteracted by a measure which 
may have been necessitated by other causes, but 



1 



PONTIFICATE OF INNOCENT IIL 



285 



which certainly was ill calculated to increase 
the attachmejit of that body. Not contented 
to exact from them veiy considerable occa- 
sional contributions, he imposed a regular tax 
on ecclesiastical property, and he was the first 
Pope who ventured upon that measure. It 
was called the Saladin tax ; and it is true that 
the service of religion, — whether in Langue- 
doc or in Palestine, for the murder of Sara- 
cens or of heretic Christians, — was alike the 
pretext, and in part the motive, for those ex- 
actions. Nevertheless, they were advanced 
with reluctance ; and the innovation was the 
less tolerable, as it would certainly become a 
precedent for future and more oppressive ex- 
tortions. 

It is also necessary to observe, that the 
collective power of the episcopal order was 
not so great at that time as it had been in the 
ninth or tenth, or even in the earlier part of 
the eleventh century, owing to the gradu- 
al disuse of those national synods which, 
in former ages, controlled the conduct of 
kings. But we should at the same time re- 
mark, that the authority thus lost by the 
hierarchy was not gained by the sovereign. 
It changed owners, indeed, but it did not 
pass out of the possession of the church. It 
was merely transferred from one part of that 
body to another; from the members to the 
head ; from the prelacy to the Pope : and by 
him it was exercised with a restless audacity, 
an unity of design, and a consistent persever- 
ance, which could not possibly have directed 
a long series of local and dependent councils. 
So that the change in the constitution of the 
church, by which it became less aristocratical, 
(if we may so apply that term,) and more des- 
potic, though it considerably altered the rela- 
tive positions of the crown and the mitre, did 
not at all increase the preponderance of the 
former ; on the contrary, the greater con- 
centration of ecclesiastical authority in one 
instead of many hands, made it a more dan- 
gerous rival to the civil government. The 
advance of pontifical power was very closely 
connected with the improvement of disci- 
pline, and the progress of that system of 
uniformity, which was designed entirely to 
pervade and bind together the Universal 
Church. 

The fourth Lateran Council. Among the 
most important acts of Innocent*s pontificate 
was the convocation of the fourth Lateran 
Council, — the most numerous and most cel- 
ebrated of the ancient assemblies of the Latin 
church. This august body consisted of near- 



ly five hundred* archbishops and bishops, 
besides a much greater multitude of abbots 
and priors, and delegates of absent prelates, 
and ambassadors from most of the Christian 
courts of the west and of the east. It met 
together in the November of 1215, for the 
professed consideration of two grand objects. 
The first was the recovery of the Holy Land ; 
the second was the Reformation of the church 
in faith and in discipline. Seventy canons 
were then dictated by Innocent, and received 
its obsequious confirmation. It does not ap- 
pear that its deliberations (if they may so be 
called) were attended with any fireedom of 
debate ; and within a month f from the day 
of its opening, having executed its appointed 
ofiice, it was dismissed. 

Among the articles on that occasion enact- 
ed, there were several wisely constructed for 
the welfare of the Roman Catholic church : 
they amplified the body of the canon law, 
and regulated in many respects the practice 
of ecclesiastical procedures, which is follow- 
ed to this day. But as we cannot in this 
work pursue such a variety of matter into its 
detaO, we shall select only those which were 
the most important in substance or in conse- 
quence. 

Transuhstantiation. If any doubt hitherto 
remained in the orthodox church respecting 
the manner in which the body and blood of 
Christ were present at the Eucharist, it was 
on this occasion removed by Innocent, who 
unequivocally established, or rather confirm- 
ed, X that which is now, and which had then 
been for some time, the doctrine of Roman 
Catholics. Moreover, as he well knew the 
efficacy of a name to propagate and per- 
petuate a dogma, and also that he might have 
a fixed verbal test whereby to try the opinions 
and obviate the evasions of heretics, he in- 



* The numbers are, of course, variously stated ; 
that of the archbishops at seventy-one or seventy -seven ^ 
that of the bishops generally at four hundred and 
twelve, that of the abbots and priors at eight hun- 
dred. 

f This fact alone proves that the canons in question 
were not made matter of discussion with that nu- 
merous assembly. 

X Mosheim is probably wrong in supposing that 
full liberty had hitherto been left to pious persons to 
interpret the doctrine according to their own reason. 
The sense of the church was sufficiently expressed by 
the councils which were held against Berenger; or 
had it not been so, at least the Council of Piacenza 
confirmed the doctrine explicitly declared on former 
occasions. It only remained to Innocent to ascertain' 
and consolidate the doctrine by the term. 



286 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, 



vented and stamped upon that tenet the name 
of ' Transubstantiation.' 

Sacramental confession. Another canon 
(the twenty-first) strictly enjoined to all the 
faithful of both sexes, to make, at least once 
in the year, a private confession of their 
sins, and that to their own priest or curate ; 
and to flilfil the penance which he might im- 
pose on them. They were at the same time 
prohibited from confessing to any other priest, 
without the special permission of their own.* 
They were also directed, under severe eccle- 
siastical penalties in case of neglect, to receive 
the Eucharist at Easter, unless a particular 
dispensation should be granted them, also by 
their own priest. By this regulation, the 
system of auricular confession was indeed 
carried to very refined perfection ; and there 
is no reason to doubt that a canon, which im- 
parted even to the lowest of tlie priesthood 
such close and searching influence over the 
conscience and conduct of a superstitious gen- 
eration, was speedily brought into universal 
operation. That in some instances, that on 
very many particular occasions, the effect of 
this influence has been beneficial to society ; 
that sinful dispositions have been frequently 
repressed and crimes prevented by the present 
and immediate control of a pious minister, 
is not merely probable, but indisputable. But 
as a system of morality, that could not possi- 
bly be creative of righteous principles which 
held out, through bodily penance, a periodi- 
cal absolution from sin, — even if the hands 
which administered it were always pure. 
But when we consider the abuse to which 
such a power is necessarily liable, and how 
greatly, too, it would increase through the 
abuse, we cannot fail to perceive that it was a 
machine too powerful to be intrusted to the 
necessary infirmity, to the possible caprice or 
wickedness, of man. 

Extinction of Heresy. By the proposed re- 
formation in the faith of the Church, nothing 
was in fact meant, except the extirpation of 
heresy, and this was the first object presented 
to the attention of the council. After a for- 
mal exposition of faith, upon those points 
especially on which the existing errors were 

* The sacrament was taken immediately after con- 
fession. * This is tlie first canon, as far as I know,' 
says Fleury, ' which imposes the general obligation 
of sacramental confession. There was then a par- 
ticular reason for it, on account of the errors of the 
Vaudois and Albigeois touching the sacrament of 
penance.' At the Council of Toulouse, in 1228, the 
confession and sacrament were enjoined thrice in the 
year; but this again was in the very focus of heresy. 



supposed to have arisen, the Pope and the 
Prelates immediately proceeded (in the thu-d 
canon) to anathematize every heresy. As 
soon as they are condemned (says the Coun- 
cil,) they shall be abandoned to the secular 
power, to receive the suitable punishment. 
The goods of laymen shall be confiscated ; 
those of clerks applied to the uses of their re- 
spective churches. Those who shall only be 
suspected of heresy, if they do not clear 
themselves by sufficient justification, shall be 
excommunicated. If they remain a year un- 
der the suspicion, they shall be treated as 
heretics. The secular powers shall be ad- 
vised, and, if need be, constrained by cen- 
sures, to make public oath that they will 
exile all heretics marked out by the Church. 
If the temporal lord, on admonition, shall 
neglect to free his territories from their pol- 
lution, he shall be excommunicated by the 
Metropolitan and the other Bishops of the 
province ; and if he should not submit with- 
in a year, the Pope shall be informed ; to the 
end that he may pronounce his vassals absol- 
ved from the oath of fidelity, and expose his 
domain to the conquest of the Catholics. 
These, after having expelled the heretics, 
shall peaceably possess and preserve it in 
doctrinal purity — saving the right of the liege 
lord, provided he oflfer no obstacle to the ex- 
ecution of this decree. . . It is remarkable 
that this decree, which placed secular author- 
ities direcdy at the disposal of the spiritual, 
and on the penalty, not of spiritual censures 
only, but of subjugation and military posses- 
sion, was enacted in the presence, and with 
the consent, of the ambassadors of several 
sovereigns. But this subject has already led 
us to the last division of the chapter, into 
which we shall properly enter with a general 
inquiry as to the forms which heresy assum- 
ed in that age, and the measures which Inno- 
cent actually adopted for its extinction. 

IV. On the Extirpation of Heresy. — Since 
the termination of the controversy concerning 
images, nearly four hundred years had elapsed, 
during which the Church had been very rarely 
disturbed by doctrinal dissension; and amid 
the various vices which may have stained, in 
so long a space, her principles and her disci- 
pline, she was at least free fi-om the blackest 
of all her crimes, since her hands were free 
from blood. The eucharistical opinion of 
Johannes Scotus, as it had been nourished by 
the partial brightness of the ninth century, 
and overshadowed, but not oppressed, by tlie 
stupid indifference of the tenth, so, when re- 



PONTIFICATE OF INNOCENT III. 



287 



Vived by Berenger , it disappeared in the su- 
pei*stition of the eleventh, without violence or 
outrage* Not, perhaps, because the ecclesi- 
astics of that age were tolerant or temperate, 
but rather, because its advocates were not 
sufficiently numerous or formidable to make 
a general persecution necessary for its sup- 
pression. But in the dawning light of the 
twelfth age some new heresies were called 
into life, and others, v/hich had previously 
lain hid, were discovered and exposed : so 
that the attention of men was more generally 
turned to the subject, and the rulers of the 
Church were roused from their long and 
harmless repose. Since it was even thus early 
that several of the Protestant opinions were 
publicly professed, and expiated by death ; 
and since these may be traced, under a variety 
of forms and names, but with the same iden- 
tifying character, from the beginning of the 
twelfth century to the Reformation ; it is prop- 
er to notice the first obscure vestiges which 
they have left in history. In so doing, we 
shall first describe those sects which were 
founded (in the West at least) at that time ; 
we shall then proceed to the mention of the 
Vaudois, to whom a still earlier existence is, 
with great probability, ascribed. 

The Petrohrussians. — About the year 1110, 
a preacher, named Pierre de Bruys, began to 
declaim against the corruptions of the Church, 
and the vices of its ministers. The principal 
field of his exertions was the south of France, 
Provence and Languedoc, and he continued, 
for about twenty years, to disseminate his 
opinions with success, and, what may seem 
more strange, with impunity. Those opinions 
may probably have contained much that was 
erroneous ; but they are known to us only 
through the representations of his adversaries. 
In a Letter or Treatise, composed against his 
followers (thence called Petrohrussians,) by 
the Venerable Abbot of Cluni, * they are 
charged with a variety of offences, which the 
writer reduces under five heads — (1.) The re- 
jection of infant baptism. (2.) The contempt 
of churches and altars, .as unnecessary for the 
service of a spiritual and omnipresent Being. 
(3.) The destruction of crucifixes, on the same 
principle, as instruments of superstition. (4.) 
The disparagement of the holy sacrifice of 
the Eucharist, in asserting that the body and 
blood were not really consecrated by the 
priests. (5.) Disbelief in the efficacy of the 
oblations, prayers, and good works of the 



* Petri Venerabilis, Lib. contra Petrobrussianos, 
in Biblioth. Cluniensi 



Hving for the salvation of the dead. These 
errors, howsoever various in magnitude, are 
controverted with equal warmth by Peter the 
Abbot ; but that which appears to have been 
most dangerous to the heretic, was the third ; 
at least we learn, that in the year 1130, the 
Catholic inhabitants of St. Giles's in Langue- 
doc were roused by their priests to holy indig- 
nation against that sacrilege ; and consigned 
the offender to those flames, which his own 
hand had so frequently fed with the images 
of Christ. He was burnt alive in a popular 
tumult ; and this may possibly be the suffer- 
ing to which St. Bernard, in a passage already 
cited, has made allusion. But the errors were 
not thus easily consumed ; the list, on the 
contrary, was enlarged by many additional 
notions, proceedmg, some from the piety, 
others from the ignorance, of his followers. 

The Henricians. One of these, * named 
Henry, an Italian by birth, obtained a place in 
the contemporary records, and gave an appel- 
lation to a sect, fi-om him called Henricians". 
This enthusiast traversed the south of France, 
from Lausanne to Bourdeaux, preceded by 
two disciples, who carried, like himself, long 
staffs, surmounted with crosses, and were 
habited as Penitents. His stature was lofty, 
his eyes rolling and restless ; his powerful 
voicGj his rapid and uneasy gait, his naked 
feet and neglecte:d apparel, attracted an atten- 
tion, which was fixed by the fame of his learn- 
ing and his sanctity. These qualities gave 
additional force to his eloquence ; and as it 
was not uncommonly directed against the un- 
popular vices of the clergy, he gained many 
proselytes, and excited some commotions. 
Eugenius III. sent forth, for the suppression 
of this evil, a legate named Alberic ; but it 
appears that his mission would have been at- 
tended with but little success, had he not pre- 
vailed on St. Bernard to share with him the 
labor and the glory of the enterprise. Henry 
was then in the domain of Alfonso, Count 
of St. Giles and Toulouse ; and St. Bernard 
wrote \ to prepare that prince for his arrival, 



* Henry is generally described as a disciple and 
fellow-laborer of Pierre de Bruys. The objection to 
this opinion, urged by Mosheim, is, that Henry was 
preceded in his expeditions by the figure of the cross, 
whereas Pierre consigned all crucifixes to the flames. 
Without supposing that the objection of Pierre might 
be to the image of the Saviour, not to the form of 
the cross, the objection is far from conclusive. Some 
account of the heresies of the tAvelfth century is given 
by Dupin, Nouv. Biblioth. 12 Siecle, c. vi. 

t Epistol. 240. (Lutet. Paris. 1640.) It begins, 
' Quanta audivimus et cognovimus mala quae in ec- 



288 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



and to signify his motives. 'The churches 
(he said) are without people ; the people with- 
out priests ; the priests without honor ; and 
Christians without Christ. The churches are 
no longer conceived holy, nor the sacraments 
sacred, nor are the festivals any more cele- 
brated. Men die in their sins — souls are 
hurried away to the terrible tribunal — without 
penitence or communion ; baptism is refused 
to infants, who are thus precluded from sal- 
vation.' He added many reproaches against 
Henry, whom he accused of being an apostate 
monk, a mendicant, a hypocrite, and a debau- 
chee. The biographers of that Saint relate, 
that he was received, even in the most con- 
taminated provinces, hke an angel from heav- 
en ; and at Albi, the place most fatally infected, 
an immense multitude assembled to hear his 
preaching. The day which he skilfully se- 
lected for their conversion, was that of St. 
Peter. He examined in succession the various 
peculiarities of their belief, and showed their 
deviation from the Catholic faith. He then 
required the people to tell him which of the 
two they would have. The people immedi- 
ately declared their horror of heresy, and their 
joy at the prospect of returning to the bosom 
of the Church. ' Return, then, to the Church 
(replied St. Bernard ;) and that we may the 
better distinguish those who are sincere, let 
all true penitents lift up their hands.' They 
obeyed this injunction with one consent : and 
though St. Bernard, in the course of a leisurely 
journey from Clairvaux to Albi, had perform- 
ed many extraordinary miracles, ' this (as the 
simple Chronicler reports) was the mightiest 
of all.' Henry himself appears to have fled 
to Toulouse, whither the eager Abbot pursued 
him. Thence he once more escaped, and 
once more St. Bernard followed, purifying the 
places infected by that pestilence. At length 
the fugitive was seized and convicted at 
Rheims, before Eugeuius in person, and con- 
signed to prison (in 1148,) where he presently 
afterwards died. 

About the same time it would appear that 
certain other sects, differing in some less im- 
portant points among themselves, but united 
in a sort of desultory opposition to the Ro- 
man Church, had gained footing, not in 
France only, but in Flanders, in Germany, 
and even in the north of Italy. Without any 
formal separation from the Church, or an en- 
tire disregard of its public offices, they had 



clesiis Dei fecit et facit quotidie Henricus haereticus! 
Versatur in terra veslra sub vestimenlis ovium lupus 
rapax,' &c. 



their own ministers, both Bishops and 
Priests,* to whom they .paid a more obser- 
vant deference, and whom they affirmed to 
be the only legitimate descendants from the 
apostles. The opposition of these heretics 
seems to have been more particularly directed 
against the wealth and temporal power of the 
Catholic clergy — but at the same time they 
rejected infant baptism, the intercession of 
saints, purgatory — and professed, in fact, to 
receive only those truths which were posi- 
tively delivered by Christ or his apostles. 
They are described to have been extremely 
ignorant, and confined to the lowest classes. 
But it is at least certain, that in the principali- 
ty of Toulouse, the nobility had engaged with 
some obstinacy in the heresy of the Pauli- 
cians — less through en-or than through design, 
and a malicious satisfaction in the humiliation 
of the clergy. But the same motives are not 
less likely to have operated, wheresoever the 
same or similar opinions were promulgated. 

Heresy of the Caihari and Paulicians. An- 
other religious faction had at that time con- 
siderable prevalence, which, under the various 
names of Cathari (or Catharists — Puritans,) 
Gazari, Paterini, Paulicians or Publicans, 
Bulgari or Bugari, f was more particularly 

* Milner, Cent. xii. c. iii., cites the following pas- 
sage from Evervinus's Letter to St. Bernard, pre- 
served by Mabillon, and written about 1140: — 
' There have been lately some heretics discovered 
among us, near Cologne, though several have with 
satisfaction returned again to the Church. One of 
their Bishops, and his companions, openly opposed 
us in the assembly of the clergy and laity, in the 
presence of the Archbishop, and many of the nobih"ty, 
defending the heresies by the words of Christ and the 
apostles. Finding that they made no impression, 
tliey desired that a day might be appointed for them, 
on which they might bring their teachers to a con- 
ference, promising to return to the Church, provided 
they found their masters unable to answer the argu- 
ments of their opponents; but that, otherwise, they 
would rather die than depart from their judgment. 
Upon this declaration, having been admonished to 
repent for three days, they were seized by the people 
in the excess of zeal, and burnt to death. And what 
is amazing, they came to the stake, and bare the 
pain, not only with patience, but even with joy.' 

f About the middle of the thirteenth century, the 
Emperor Frederic II. enumerated all the forms, or 
rather names, of heresy then most scandalous, in the 
opening of an edict published against them. It be- 
gins as follows: — ' Catharos, Patarenos, Speromis- 
tas, Leonistas, Arnaldistas, Circumcisos, Passaginos, 
Josephinos, Garatenses, Albanenses, Franciscos, Be- 
ghardos, Commissos, Valdenses, Romanolos, Com- 
munellos, Varinos, Orlulenos, cum illis de Aqua 
Nigrk, et omnes haereticos . . . damnamus,' &c. See 
Limborch. Hist. Inquisit. lib. i. c. 12. 



PONTIFICATE OF INNOCENT III. 



289 



charged with Manichssan opinions. The 
origin of these heretics has been the subject 
of much controversy ; for while some sup- 
pose their errors to have been indigenous in 
Europe, there are others who derive then^i in 
a direct line from the heart of Asia. It is 
certain that a very powerful sect named Pau- 
licians, and tainted, though they might affect 
to disclaim it, with the absurdities of Manes, 
spread very widely throughout the Greek 
provinces of Asia during the eighth century. 
It is equally true, that after a merciless perse- 
cution of about one hundred and fifty years, 
their remnant, still numerous, was permitted 
to settle in Bulgaria and Thrace. Thence, as 
is believed by Muratori, Mosheim, and Gib- 
bon, they gradually migrated towards the 
West ; at first, as occasions of war, or com- 
merce, or mendicity (another name for pil- 
grimage) might be presented ; and, latterly, 
in the returning ranks of the crusaders. It 
is asserted, that their fii'st migration was into 
Italy ; that so early as the middle of the 
eleventh century, many of their colonies were 
established in Sicily, in Lombardy, Insubria, 
and principally at Milan ; that othei-s led a 
wandering life in France, Germany, and other 
countries ; and that they everywhere attract- 
ed, by their pious looks and austere demean- 
our, the admiration and respect of the mul- 
titude. It is moreover maintained, that these 
widely scattered congregations were organiz- 
ed in united obedience to a Primate, who re- 
sided on the confines of Bulgaria and Dal- 
matia. In confirmation of the authorities 
on which these opinions rest, it should be ob- 
served, that among the various forms of heresy 
which were detected by the keen eyes of the 
early Inquisitors, there was scarcely one which 
escaped the charge of Manichseism. '^ 

Admitting, then, that this charge was very 
commonly invented for the purpose of mak- 
ing the others more detestable, we cannot 
question that it was sometimes founded in 
truth. And while, on the one hand, we are 
far removed from an opinion, that would re- 
fer the origin of all the earliest Western sects 
to the emigrants from the East — that would 
consider, not only the Cathari, but the Petro- 
brussians, Heuricians, and even the Vaudois 
themselves, as descendants from the family 
of Manes — it is equally unreasonable to con- 
tend, that his wild opinions had no existence 

* The first canon of Innocent's Lateran Council 
distinctly states the church doctrine respecting the 
Unity of the Deity, in opposition to that of the Two 
Principles — a sufficient declaration, that many Mani- 
chseans were believed to be found among the heretics. 

37 



in the West of Europe ; or even to dispute 
their perpetuation through parties of Pauli- 
cians, who, from time to time, may have mi- 
grated into Sicily or Italy. It is indeed un- 
questionable, that such was the case ; and it 
is not impossible, that they may have formed, 
even after their dispersion throughout Europe, 
a distinct and characteristic sect. But it would 
be absurd to ascribe to their influence the 
formation of sects, of which the leadmg prin- 
ciples were wholly distinct, if not entirely at 
variance, with those of the Asiatics. Even 
m the dawn of- returning knowledge, the 
faintest glimmerings of reason were suffi- 
cient to light the mind to the detection of 
papal delinquency, of the abberrations of the 
Church and its ministers. It requh-ed not a 
star from the East to indicate, even in those 
dark times, how distinct were the principles 
of the Church from the precepts of the Gos- 
pel; or to contrast the deformities of the 
Clergy with the purity of their heavenly Mas- 
ter. Such incongruities obtrude themselves 
perhaps the most forcibly upon illiterate 
minds, and excite the deepest disgust in the 
simplest conscience. It is to this cause, that 
the heresies of those early ages may most 
confidently be traced — they may indeed have 
been infected, in a greater or less degree, with 
some of the notions of the Paulician colonists 
— but that assuredly was not the source from 
which they flowed. 

Tlie Vaudois. As we have been careful to 
distinguish the Catharists, who may have been 
semi-Manichsean, from the other sects of re- 
formers who were scattered throughout Eu- 
rope, so we must again consider the Vaudois 
or Waldenses as a separate race among these 
latter, — that we may not fall into the error of 
Mosheim, who ascribes the origin of that sect 
to an individual named Waldus. Peter Wal 
dus, or Waldensis, a native of Lyons, was a 
layman and a merchant ; but, notwithstanding 
the avocations of a secular life, he had studied 
the real character of his church with atten- 
tion, followed by shame. Stung by the spec- 
tacle of so much impurity, ^ he abandoned 



* It is said that the worship of the Host, which 
was first enforced about this time, was the particular 
suDerstition which awakened the indignation of Peter 
Waldus. If, indeed, that practice was generally es- 
tablished in 1160, there remained little for Innocent 
to add to the sanctity of the sacrament thirty-five 
years afterwards. There is no mention of it in 
the ancient canonical books of the church, — those 
of Alcuin, Amularius, Walfrldus, and Micrologus. 
There is proof, however, that it existed in France, 
both at Paris and at Tours, a century at least before 
Innocent III, In Germany there is also evidence of 



S90 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



liis profession^ distributed his wealth among 
Ihe poor, and formed an association for the 
diffusion of scriptural truth. He commenced 
his ministry about the year 1160. Having 
previously caused several parts of the Scrip- 
tures to be translated into the vulgar tongue, 
he expounded them with great effect to an 
attentive body of disciples, both in France 
and Lombardy. In the course of his exer- 
tions he probably visited the valleys of Pied- 
mont ; and there he found a people of con- 
genial spirits. They were called Vaudois or 
Waldenses (^Men of the Valleys) ; and as the 
preaching of Peter may probably have con- 
firmed their opinions, and cemented their 
discipline, he acquired and deserved his sur- 
name by his residence among them. At the 
same time, their connexion with Peter and 
his real Lyonnese disciples established a 
notion of their identity ; and the Vaudois, in 
return for the title which they had bestowed, 
received the reciprocal appellation of Leon- 
ists: such, at least, appears the most probable 
among many varying accounts. * 

There are some who believe the Vaudois 
to have enjoyed the uninterrupted integrity 
of the faith even from tlie apostolic ages; 
others suppose them to have been disciples 
of Claudius Turin, the evangelical prelate of 
the ninth century. At least, it may be pro- 
nounced with great certainty, that they had 
been long in existence before the visit of the 
Lyonnese reformer. A Dominican, named 
Rainer Sacclio, who was first a member and 
afterwards a persecutor of their communion, 
described them, in a treatise which he wrote 
against them, to the following purpose : 
' There is no sect so dangerous as the Leon- 
ists, for three reasons : first, it is the most an- 
cient, — some say as old as Sylvester, others 
as the apostles themselv^es. Secondly, it is 
very generally disseminated : there is no 
country where it has not gained some footing. 
Thirdly, while other sects are profane and 
blasphemous, tliis retains the utmost show 
of piety ; they live justly before men, and be- 
lieve nothing respecting God which is not 
good ; only they blaspheme against the Ro- 
man church and the clergy, and thus gain 



Its previous existence. But in the Roman church it 
does not appear to have been established before the 
pontificate of Boniface VHI. See Pagi, Vit. Innoc. 
in. ad finem. 

* There are some who derive the surname of Peter 
from some town or hamlet in the vicinity of Lyons; 
others contend that he never personally preached 
among the Vaudois of Piedmont. 



many followers.' * The author of this pas- 
sage lived about the middle of the following 
century ; and if the sect against which he 
was writing had really originated from the 
preaching of Peter some eighty years before, 
the Dominican would scarcely have conceded 
to it the claim of high and unascertained an- 
tiquity. Again, St. Bernard in one place ad- 
mits, in substance, ' that there is a sect, which 
calls itself after no man's name, f which pre- 
tends to be in the direct line of apostolical 
succession ; and which, rustic and unlearned 
though it is, contends that the church is 
wrong, and that itself alone is right. It must 
derive (he subjoins) its origin from the devil ; 
since there is no other extraction which we 
can assign to it.' 

At the same time we must admit that the 
direct historical evidence is not sufficient to 
prove the apostolical descent of the Vaudois.} 
Alcuin, the tutor of Chai-lemagne, may have 
complained 'that auricular confession was 
not practised in the churches of Languedoc 
and the Alps in his time.' Claudius of Turin 
may have presided over a reformed and 
Christian diocese. Somewhat later (in 945,) 
Atto, Bishop of Verceil, § may have lamented 
' that there were some in his diocese who held 
the divine services in derision.' And lastly, 
at the Synod of Arras, in 1025, it may have 
been deplored, ' that certain persons, coming 
from the borders of Italy, had introduced 
heretical doctrines,' — and such as the Wal- 
denses, indeed, professed. It still appears that 
the name is not mentioned in any writing 
before the twelfth century ; and there is no 
direct specific evidence of the previous ex- 
istence of the sect. Nevertheless, as its 
origin was confessedly immemorial in the 
thirteenth century, and as there has not, per- 
haps, existed in the history of heresy any other 
sect to which some origin has not been ex- 



* Bibliotheca Patrum, apud Lenfant, Guerre des 
Hussites, liv. ii., sect. v. 

t Quaere ab illis suas sectse auctorem, neminera 
dabit. Quse haeresis non ex hominibus habuit propri- 
um hseresiarcham'? Manichaei Manem habuere priu- 
cipem et praiceptorem, Sabelliani Sabellium, &c 
Ita omnes ceterae hujusraodi pestcs singnlae siugulos 
magistros homines habuisse noscuntur, a quibits origi- 
nem simul duxere et nomen. Quo nomine istos titu- 
love vocabisl Nullo; quoniara non est ab homine 
illorum haeresis, ....sed magis et absque dubio per im- 
missionem et fraudem daemoniorum, &c. Sermo su- 
per Cant. Ixvi. ad init. 

X We refer to Mr. Gilly's well-known work on 
this subject. 
I § A city situated between Turin and Milan. 



J 



PONTIFICATE OF INNOCENT III. 



291 



pressly ascribed, we have just reason to infer 
the very hig^h antiquity of the Vaudois. 

Many will think it more important to learn 
then' doctrines, than to speculate on their 
origm. On almost all material points they 
were those of the Reformation.* In their 
discipline they endeavored to attain the rigid 
simplicity of the primitive Christians, and in 
that endeavor, perhaps, they exceeded it ; for 
while they maintained and imitated the divine 
institution of the three ordere in the priest- 
hood, they also reduced their clergy to the 
temporal condition of the apostles them- 
selves; they denied them all worldly pos- 
sessions, and while they obliged them to be 
poor and industrious, they compelled them to 
be illiterate also. 

The persecution of Peter Waldensis, and 
the dispersion of his followers, occasioned, 
as in so many similar instances, the dissemi- 
nation of the opinions ; and, notwithstanding 
some partial sufferings which were inflicted 
in Picardy by Philippe Auguste, they were a 
numerous and flourishing sect at the conclu- 
sion of the twelfth century. They were of- 
ten confounded in name with the Vaudois, in 
crime and calamity with the Catharists and Pe- 
trobrussians, and other adversaries of Papacy. 

The Alhigeois. But of these various de- 
scriptions, such as were found in France 
during the pontificate of Innocent, were 
known by the general name of Alhigeois 
or Albigenses. A city in Languedoc, named 
Albi,f which was peculiarly prolific of here- 
sy, is usually supposed to have given a com- 
mon designation to these numerous forms 
of error. Such, very briefly described, were 
the factions which distracted the church on 

* Reiner, the Dominican, already cited, also di- 
vides the crimes of the Vaudois into three classes : 
1. Their blasphemies against the church, its statutes, 
and its clergy; 2. Errors touching the sacraments 
and the saints ; 3. Detestation of all honest customs 
approved by the church; which really means, objec- 
tions to the administration, the sacraments, and the 
practices of the Roman Catholic church. Mosheim 
treats the subject at Cent, xii., p. ii,, ch. v. Pierre 
d'Ailly, in a discourse composed at the Council of 
Constance, alleges as their principal errors, that they 
refused temporalities to the priesthood, and asserted 
that the church of God only lasted till the endowment 
by Constantine. Then arose the church of Rome, — 
the other being extinct, except in as far as it was 
perpetuated in themselves. 

t According to the Histoire Generale de Langue- 
doc, by the Benedictine monks, the term is more 
accurately derived from Albigesium, the general de- 
nomination of Narbonnese Gaul in that century. See 
Mosh., note on Cent, xiii., p. ii., ch. v., sect. vii. 



the accession of Innocent III. It now re- 
mains to observe the measures which he 
adopted to repress them. And let us first 
inquire to what extent he might plead the 
previous practice of the church. 

It appears that, at a Synod held at Orleans, 
in the year 1017, under the reign of Robert, 
a number of persons, of no mean condition 
or character, were accused of heretical opin- 
ions. Manicheism was the frightful term, 
I employed to express their delinquency ; but 
i it is more probable that their real offence was 
the adoption of certain mystical notions, pro- 
ceedijig, mdeed, from feelmgs of the most 
earnest piety, but too spiritual to be tolerated 
in that age and that church. It is said that 
they despised all external forms of worship, 
and rejected the rites, the ceremonies, and 
even the sacraments of the church ; that 
they valued none save the religion within, — 
the abstracted contemplation of the Deity, 
and the internal aspirations of the soul afl;er 
thmgs celestial. Some philosophical specu- 
lations they may also have admitted respect- 
ing God, the Trinity, and the human soul, 
which excited the fears of that generation,* 
I in the same degree that they surpassed its 
; comprehension. Accordinglj^, they were ac- 
cused and convicted of heresy ; and as they 
firmly persisted in their errors, and as the- 



* Such, at least, is the opinion of Mosheim (Cent-. 
xi., p. ii., ch. V.) The history of this Synod of 
Orleans is found in Dacherius's Spicilegium Veter. 
Script, (torn, ii., p. 670, Edit. Paris,) and the 
charges there alleged (besides the usual calumny of 
promiscuous prostitution) respect the nativity, the 
i death and resurrection of Christ, and impute a disbe- 
lief in the efficacy of baptism, in the change wi ought 
by consecration in the eucharistical elements, and in 
the meritoriousness of prayers to martyrs and confes- 
sors. In the place of this faith they substituted ' ce- 
lestial food,' ' angelic visions,' ' the companionship 
of God,' &c. ... and when the prelate sitting in 
judgment on them laid down the orthodox doctrine 
respecting some of those points, the heretics replied, 
' You may tell such tales as those to men whose wis- 
dom is of this world, and who believe the fictions of 
carnal men, written on the skins (membranis) of 
animals. But to us, who have a law inscribed on the 
inward man by the Holy Spirit, and who have no 
other wisdom than that which we have learnt from 
God the creator of all things, you preach superfluous 
vanities, deviating from real holiness. Wherefore, 
cease from your discourse, and do what you will with 
us. Already do we behold our King reigning in the 
heavens, who exalts us with his right hand to immor- 
tal triumphs, and to the joys which are above.' We 
should recollect that this account (like almost every 
other in which any heretical opinions are described) 
comes to us from the pen of an enemy. 



292 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



kiiig had no repugnance to enforce the sen- 
tence, they were finally consigned to the 
flames. 

Edicts of Alexander III. In this barbarous 
transaction, which was rather in anticipation 
of the policy of later ages, than m accordance 
with that of the eleventh, we have found no 
proof of papal interference; nor, indeed, have 
We observed any very important pontifical 
edicts for the extirpation of heresy, earlier 
than the reign of Alexander III. That Pope, 
in a council held at Tours in 1163, published 
a decree to this effect : ' Whereas a damnable 
heresy has for some time lifted its head in the 
parts about Touloisse, and has already spread 
its infection through Gascony and other prov- 
inces^ concealing itself like a serpent within 
its own folds ; as soon as its followers shall 
6ave Been discovered, let no man afford them 
a refuge on his estates ; neither let there be 
any communication with them in buying or 
selling ; so that, being deprived of the solace 
of human conversation, they may be compel- 
led to return from error to wisdom.' * 

The ssme pontiff, in the third Lateran 
Council, held in 1179, published other edicts 
against the heretics, variously named Cathari, 
Paterini, Publicani, &c., pursuing them with 
anathemas, refusal of Christian sepultm^e, and 
other spiritual chastisements. But it does 
not appear that he invoked, on either occa- 
sion, the secular arm to his assistance. Nev- 
ei-theless, without that aid, his power was 
sufficient to expel Peter Waldensis from his 
native city, and subsequently to pursue him 
from Daupliiny to Picardy, and thence to 
Germany, till he found his final resting-place 
among the Bohemian mountaineers, the an- 
cestors of Huss and Jerome. The fugitive 
died in that country about the year 1180. 

Persecuti&n of the Mbigeois. When the 
torch of persecution was transmitted to Inno- 
cent, f the two principal seats of religious dis- 
affection were the vallej^s of Piedmont and 
the cities- of Lang??edoc ; with this difference, 



* The original is given by Pagi, Vit. Alexandri 
III., sect. xlii. He continues to apply to them, 
according to the ordinary confusion, the name of 
Waldenses. 

f That Innocent was very ready to take his torn 
in this lainpadephory appears from several epistles, 
written to various prelates in the very first year of 
kis pontificate, in uhicii he exhorts them to gird 
themselves for the work of extirpation, and to employ, 
if necessary, the arms of the princes and o^ the people. 
This last suggestion was provident. The populace 
might sometimes be ejccited to an act of outrage, 
■when the authorities v^ere neutral in the qnarrcL 



however, that the Vaudois flourished in com- 
parative and perhaps despised security, while 
the latter, more particularly denominated Al- 
bigeois, were rendered more notorious, as 
well as more dangerous, by the protection 
publicly afforded them by Raymond VI., 
Earl of Toulouse.* Against these, therefore, 
the Pope's earnest and most assiduous efforts 
were directed ; and first, observing that the 
bishops in those provinces were deficient 
in true Catholic zeal for the Unity of the 
Church, he sent, in 1198, two legates into the 
rebellious districts ; but rather, as it would 
seem, for the purpose of exploring and men- 
acing, than of actually commencing the con- 
test. Presently afterwards, a more numerous 
commission, the advance of his array, invaded 
the haunts of heresy, and brought argument 
and eloquence in support of intimidation. 
This body again received great additional 
efficiency fi-om the accession of a Spaniard, 
named Dominic, a young ecclesiastic, remark- 
able for the severity of his life, the extent of 
his learning, the persuasiveness of his man- 
ner, and the ardor of his zeal. These quali- 
ties, and some successful services, infused a 
new spirit into the ranks of the orthodox. It 
would also appear that their exertions were 
no longer restricted to verbal exhortation and 
reproof; but that they also aimed to animate 
the civil authorities in their favor, and to en- 
force the infliction even of capital punish- 
ment, whenever they had influence to do so. 
This expedition lasted six or seven years ; 
and, at the end of that time, the spiritual mis- 
sionaries engaged in it were generally known 
by the title of Inquisitors, — a name, not in- 
deed honorable or innocent even in its origin, 
but not yet associated with horror and infamy. 
Still matters did not proceed w^th the 
rapidity desired by the pontiff; and then the 
missionaries had recoui-se to a new and very 
harmless expedient to accelerate success. 
They laid aside the pomp and dignity of their 
train and habits, discharged the unpopular 
parade of servants and equipage, and con- 
tinued tlieir preaching with the more impos- 
ing pretension of apostolical humility. But 
neither had this method the result which was 
hoped from it. At length, in the year 1207, 

* Limborch, in the first book of his History of the 
Inquisition (cap. viii.), very clearly shows, both from 
the ' Sententia3 Inquisitionis Tolositanae/ and other 
evidence, that the Vaudois, while they held some 
opinions in common with the Albigenses, had many 
more points of difference, in rites as well as in doc- 
trine ; for instance, the Manichean errors imputed to 
the latter are never ascribed to the Vaudois, 



PONTIFICATE OF INNOCENT III. 



293 



Innocent at once addressed himself to the arms 
of Philippe Auguste. He easily exhorted that 
monai'ch to march into the heretical provinces, 
and extirpate the spiritual rebels by fire and 
sword. 

About the same time one of his legates or 
inquisitors, Pierre de Castelnovo* (or Chateau- 
neuf,) was assassinated by the populace in the 
states of Raymond. The act was imputed 
to the connivance, if not to the du-ect instiga- 
tion, of that priQce. f The Pope immediately 
launched the bolt of excommunication ; and 
his emissaries, by his command, proceeded 
to those measures which mtroduced a new 
feature into the history of inter-Christian war- 
fare. They proclaimed a general campaign 
of all nations against the Albigeois, and at the 
same time promised a general grant of indul- 
gences and dispensations to all who should 
take arms in that holy cause. Having thus 
reduced those dissenting Christians to the 
same level in a religious estimation with the 
Turk and the Saracen, they let loose an in- 
furiated multitude of fanatics against them ; 
and the word * Crusade,' which had hitherto 
signified only religious madness, was now ex- 
tended to the more deliberate atrocity of sec- 
tarian persecution. 

Simon de Montfort. — Several monks and 
some prelates were the spiritual dii-ectors of 
this tempest ; but the military leader was Si- 
mon, Count de Montfort, * a man like Crom- 
well, whose intrepidity, hypocrisy and am- 
bition marked him for the hero of a holy 
war.' X To irritate his ambition, the Pope 
artfully held out to him the earldom of Tou- 
louse, as the recompense of his exertions in 
the service of the church. His hypocrisy was 
displayed and hardened by the seeming de- 
votion with which he continually perpetrated 
the most revolting enormities, and his intre- 
pidity was exercised by the resistance of the 
heretics. It would be a painful office, and 
of little profit, in the present prevalence of 
reason and of humanity, to pursue the fright- 



* Some write die name Castronovo. 

t Historians differ as to the probability of his guilt ; 
also as to the fact whether the first appeal of Inno- 
cent to the court of France preceded or followed the 
death of his legate. On this point we incline to the 
&>rmer opinion. Respecting the charge against Ray- 
mond, there seems to be no clear proof on eitlier side ; 
it is known that he favored the heretics, and that cir- 
««mstance might occasion either the crime or the 
calumny. The latter is, perhaps, the more probable. 

X Hallam, Middle Ages. Simon de Montfort was 
■descended, by an illegitimate branch, from Robert 
king of France. He was connected on his mother's 
Bide with the Earls of Leicester. 



ful details of religious massacre. * It is suf- 
ficient to say, that after many conflicts and 
some variety of success, but no intermission 
of barbarity, the triumph rested with the 
Catholics. It was not, however, so complete 
as either to exterminate the rebels, or to place 
the promised scepti'e in the hand of the per- 
secutor. In the year 1218, Montfort was kill- 
ed in battle before the walls of the city,| which 
Innocent had vainly bestowed on him. 

Council of Toulouse. — The contest was con- 
tinued by succeeding Popes according to the 
principles of Innocent ; and eight years after 
the death of Montfort, Louis VIII. king of 
France was engaged to gu'd on the sword of 
persecution. Another crusade was preached, 
and in 1228 a system of Inquisition was per- 
manently established within the walls of Tou- 
louse. In the same, or the following year, a 
Council there assembled published decrees, 
which obliged laymen, even of the higher 
rank, to close their houses, cellars, forests, 



* It was said in this war, when the Crusaders were 
on the point of storming Beziers, that some one in- 
quired how the Catholic were to be distinguished 
from the heretical inhabitants in the massacre about 
to take place:; * Kill them all (replied Arnold, a Cis- 
tercian abbot, who happened to be present), God will 
know his own.' ' Caedite — novit Dominus, qui sunt 
ejus.' His advice appears to have been fotiowed, 
and about seven thousand of all persuasions suffered. 

The life of Innocent III. apud Muratori,- (which is 
more properly the History of Montfort's wars,) men- 
tions many instances in which small bodies of heretics 
chose to be burnt, rather than return to the Catholic 
faith. 

t The recorded circumstances of his death seem 
well to illustrate one trait at least in his character. 
He was at Matins (on June 25,) when he was inform- 
ed that the enemy were in arms, and concealed in the 
fosse of the fortress. He instantly armed also, and 
hastened to church to hear mass. Mass was just 
begun, and he was engaged in earnest prayer, when 
news were brought him that the Toulousans had 
made a sally, aed were attacking his machines — ' Let 
me finish the mass (he replied) and see the sacrament 
of our redemption.' Instantly afterwards anothei* 
courier arrived, and said, ' Hasten to the succor; our 
men wee pressed, and can hold out no longer.' ' I 
will not stir (he answered) until I have seen ray 
Saviour.' But as soon as the priest had lifted up 
the Host, according to the usage, the Count, with his 
knees still on earth, and his hands raised to heaven, 
exclaimed, 'Nunc dimittis,^ and he then added, * Let 
us now go and die, if necessary, for Him who has 
died for us.' Accordingly he went forth and died. 
Yet, after all, it were too much to ascribe this con- 
duct to pure hypocrisy, much of fanaticism was 
undoubtedly mixed with it; and when religious en- 
thusiasm is united, as has too commonly happened, 
with religious hypocrisy, it is impossible even for the 
person possessed with them to distinguish their limits. 



294 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, 



against the heretical fugitives, and to take all 
means to detect and bring them to trial ; here- 
tics voluntarily converted were compelled to 
wear certain crosses on their garments ; those 
who should return to the church, under the 
influence of fear, were still to suffer imprison- 
ment at the discretion of the bishop ; all chil- 
dren of the age of twelve or fourteen were 
compelled by oath, not only to abjure every 
heresy, but to expose and denounce any which 
they should detect in others ; and this code 
of bigotry was properly completed by a strict 
prohibition to all laymen to possess any copies 
of the Scriptures. * , 

Still the Count, who succeeded to the scep- 
ti'e and to the moderation of Raymond, mani- 
fested not sufficient ardor in the Catholic 
cause, and it was not till the Arclibishop of 
the city was formally associated with him in 
the office of destruction, that the work was 
thought to proceed with becoming rapidity, f 



* Some of the statutes of this Council are worth 
citing, as they show not only how far the system, 
strictly speaking inquisitorial, was carried in that 
early age, but also how closely the laity of that time 
co-operated with the clergy for the unity of the church : 
— ' Statuimus itaque ut archiepiscopi et episcopi in 
singulis parochiis, tarn in civitatibus quam extra, 
eacerdotem unum et duos vel tres laicos vel plures 
etiam, si opus fuerit, juramenti religione constringant, 
quod diligenter, fideliter et frequenter inquirant hse- 
reticos jn iisdero parochiis, domos singulas et cameras 
subterraneas aliqua suspicione notabiles perscrutando, 
et appensa seu adjuncta in iis tectis sedificia, sen 
qufecunque alia latibula (qute omnia destrui pnecipi- 
mus) perquirendo repererint hasreticos, credentes, 
fautores et receptatores seu defensores eorura, &c. . . 
Solliciti etiam sint domini terrarum circa inquisitio- 
nem hgereticorura, in villis, domibus et nemoribus fa- 
ciendam; et circa hujusmodi appensa, adjuncta, seu 
Bubterranea latibula destruenda. Statuimus igitur ut 
quicunque in terra permittat scienter morari haereti- 
cum . . . . et fuerit inde confessus et convictus, amit- 
tat in perpetuum totam suam terram, et corpus suum 
git in manu domini ad faciendum inde quod debebit. 
Illam domum in qua fuerit inventus haereticus diruen- 
dam decernimus ; et locus sive fundus ipse confiscetur,' 
&c. — See Spicileg. Dacherii (vol. ii. p. 621. Edit. 
Paris.) under the head, ' Varia Galliae Concilia.' 

t We read in Matthew Paris, that about the year 
1236, the Fratres Predicatores and other divines 
were still making great exertions for the conversion 
of the misbelievers. One of those preachers, named 
Robert, Avas so powerful in prostrating an adversary 
as to have obtained the name of Malleus Haereticorum 
— the Hammer of Heretics. Nor was this only meant 
in a spiritual sense, 'since there were many of both 
sexes whom, being unable to convert, he caused to be 
burnt to death ; so that within two or three months 
there were about fifty persons whom he occasioned 
either to be burnt or buried alive.' — Matt)i. Paris, 



At length, in 1253, the Count entered serious- 
ly on the hateful task ; and from that moment 
the remnant of the Albigeois were consigned, 
without hope or mercy, to the eager hands of 
the inquisitors. 

Death and Character of Innocent. — Innocent 
did not himself live to behold the success 
of his measures ; and the cause which is as- 
signed for his premature death is the more 
remarkable, * as it arose out of the most 
triumphant exploit in his life. Since the 
humiliation of John, the crown of England 
had been considered by the Pope as a posses- 
sion valuable to his ambition no less than to 
his avarice : and when, on the deposition of 
John, Louis of France was proclaimed, and 
actually proceeded to occupy the country in 
spite of the Pontiff's determined opposition, 
Innocent was indignant at the affront and the 
injury. He preached a sermon on some pub- 
lic occasion, and selected for his text, ' Even 
say thou, the sword, the sword is drawn— for 
the slaughter it is furbished.' f In the course 
of his passionate harangue he pronounced a 
solemn sentence of excommunication against 
Louis and his followers ; and immediately 
afterwards, as it is said, while in the act of 
dictating to his secretary some very harsh 
censures against Philippe and his kingdom, 
he was seized by that fatal fever, which was 
ordain6d, perhaps, to prevent some new en- 
terprise of warfare and desolation. 

If we would reconcile the lofty panegyrics 
with the violent vituperation, which are alike 
bestowed upon the name of Innocent III., 
we must first distinguish his private from his 
public character, and next reflect how differ- 
ent and even opposite are the principles on 
which the latter has, in different ages, been 
j udged. The very same exploits which would 
naturally call forth loud approbation from the 

Henric. IK., ad an. 1236. We should add, how- 
ever, for the honor of pontifical humanity, that only 
two years afterwards the cruelties of Robert were 
arrested by an order from Rome, and the persecutor 
(who, by the way, had previously been a heretic) 
was himself convicted of some less equivocal offences, 
and imprisoned for life. 

* Some writers make no mention of this circum- 
stance, but merely assert that Innocent died rather 
suddenly, while on his way to reconcile some differ- 
ences between the Pisans and Genoese, which im- 
peded his grand crusading projects. — See the Chron. 
of Richardus de S. Germane, and of Urspergensis 
Abbas, ap. Pagi, Vit. Innoc. III. Sect. 104. It is 
certain that his death took place at Perugia, on July 
16, 1216, after a reign of eighteen years and si?« 
months. 

I Ezekiel, c. xxi. v. 28. 



PONTIFICATE OF INNOCENT III. 



295 



Catholic historians of those days, nay, from 
some perhaps even at this moment, are made 
the subjects of severe censure by Protestant 
writers. This difference is less properly his- 
torical than moral. It does not respect the 
reality of the questionable acts ascribed to 
hun, but only the hght in which we are bound 
to regai-d them. But in respect to the private 
qualities of Innocent there is no gi'ound for 
such diversity ; and that they were great and 
noble is attested by most of his biographers. 
That he was gifted with extraordinary talents 
— that he was a profound canonist, and gene- 
rally conversant with the learning of his time 
—that he was frequent in charitable offices, 
and generous in the distribution of his per- 
sonal revenues — that his moral conduct was 
without reproach, and that he was sometimes 
not untouched by sentiments of piety, is clear 
from the evidence of contemporaiy authors 
and of his own writings. But great personal 
virtues are perfectly consistent with great 
public crimes ; and it is a truth which leads 
to melancholy reflection, that some of the 
heaviest evils which have ever been inflicted 
upon churches and nations, have proceeded 
from the weak or even wicked policy of men 
of immaculate private characters. 

Such was Innocent III. ; charitable to the 
poor who surrounded his palace, steeled 
against the wretch who deviated from his 
faith — generous in the profusion of his private 
expenditure, avaricious in the exactions which 
he levied for the apostolical treasury — hu- 
mane * in his mere social relations, merciless 
in the execution of his ecclesiastical projects 
— pious in the expressions of internal devo- 
tion, impious and blasphemous in his repeated 
profanation of the name of God and of the 
cross of Christ. 

Policy of Innocent. — Again : if we confine 
our retrospect to the public acts of this Pon- 
tiff, we observe that they bear, perhaps with- 
out any exception, the same stamp — that of a 
temporal and worldly policy. Innocent sub- 
jected the civil authority of the Imperial Pre- 
fect to his own. He extended, with great 
diligence, the boundaries of the Ecclesiastical 
States. He found means to control a great 
portion of the secular power of Europe, so 
that he might hold it at his disposal ; whether 

* Simon de Montfort killed Peter of Arragon in 
battle, and look his son prisoner. The widow, unable 
to prevail with Montfort for the release of the boy, 
supplicated the interference of Innocent. There is 
no proof that his policy was, in this matter," concern- 
ed on either side, so he commanded the liberation of 
tke captive, and for once humanity had its triumph. 



it was his will to overthrow a pretender, or to 
depose a king, or to extinguish a heresy. For 
the accomplishment of his most important 
objects his final and most confident appeal 
was invariably made to the material sword. 
Again : as if it were little to submit the con- 
sciences of men to the dominion of the Holy 
See, he endeavored to comprehend in its 
grasp their property also. Heretofore the 
Popes had been contented with the exercise 
and the rewards of a spiritual tyranny — they 
had been satisfied with the obedience, the 
ecclesiastical fidelity, the ghostly sei*vices of 
their clergy ; but Innocent opened a more 
direct and, as he thought, a more sohd path 
to power. He availed himself of the pretext 
of the crusades to levy pecuniary contribu- 
tions, immediately on the clergy, and, through 
the clergy on the people. This was the most 
essential change which he introduced into the 
system of the church. From this epoch its 
histoiy takes another, and we need not hesi- 
tate to say, a lower character ; and though 
this v/as not instantly developed, but awaited 
the profligacy of Avignon, and the vices and 
necessities of the Schism, to bring it to full 
perfection, still it was from this crisis that the 
revolution must be dated; here originated 
that gradual substitution of worldly objects 
and vulgar motives for the splendor of spirit- 
ual pretension, which led, through a succes- 
sion of pitiful disputes and sordid usurpations, 
to mere naked avarice and avowed and shamC'- 
less venality. 

In the comparison which we might here 
be tempted to draw between Innocent HI. 
and the greatest among his predecessors>- 
there is perhaps no point on which the pref- 
erence could be refused to Gregory. Both 
availed themselves of the divisions of the em- 
pire ; but the favorable circumstances which 
Innocent found, Gregory in a great measure 
created. The design of universal monarchy, 
which was carried so far into execution by 
the one, was conceived and transmitted to 
hira by the other. With Innocent the libera- 
tion of the Holy Sepulchre was made the ex- 
cuse for pecuniary exactions ; with Gregory 
it was the lofty aspiration of erring magnanim- 
ity, earnest, and attended by a determination 
to devote his repose and person to the cause 
which he deemed holy. In the ti-eatment 
of heretical delinquency, the one was moder- 
ate * beyond the principles of his age and the 



* It is true, that Gregory offered to Svveno, King 
of Denmark, a province occupied by heretics. But 
in this matter his temporal ambition was probably 
more interested tlian his ecclesiastical bigotry. 



296 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



passions of his clergy ; the other urged the 
course and heated the rage of persecution, 
and by his perversion of tlie crusading frenzy 
into that channel, identified in the popular 
hatred dissent with infidelity, and established 
the law of vengeance, and multiplied the 
crimes of his posterity. And after all, how 
severely soever we may condemn the means 
which have created it, there is sometbmg of 
majesty and magnificence in the character of 
a spiritual despotism — an invisible power 
which enthrals mankind without the aid of 
physical force, and even in defiance of it ; 
which humbles the mightiest sceptre, and 
blunts the sharpest sword by a menace or a 
censure ; a power mysterious and undefinable, 
swaying the human race by the name — the 
much-abused name — of religion. If we look, 
indeed, to its origin, it is only an empire over 
man's ignorance and credulity. Still it is the 
empire of intellect ; and as such it stands on 
lofi;ier ground than that worldly fabric which 
employed the ambition of Innocent ; the 
mere temporal sovereignty of arms and opu- 
knce, supported by corruption and massacre. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

The History of Monachism. 

(i ) Origin of Monachism — Early instance of the monastic 
spirit in the east— Pliny the philosopher — The Thera- 
peutsB or Essenes — The Ascetics — their real character 
and origin — The earliest Christian hermits — dated 
from the Decian or Diocletian persecutions— Coenobites. 
Pachpmius and St. Anthony — originated in iEgypt — 
account of the monks of ^gypt— Basilius of Caesarea— 
his order and rule — his institution of a vow questiona- 
ble — Monasteries encouraged by the fathers of the 
fourth and fifteenth ages — from what motives — Vow 
of celibacy — Restrictions of admission into monastic 
order — Original monks were laymen — Comparative 
fanaticism of the east and west— Severity of discipline 
in the west — motives and inducements to it — contrast- 
ed with the Oriental practice — Establishment of nun- 
jieries in the east. (II.) Institution of Monachism in the 
West — St. Athanasius — Martin of Tours — Most ancient 
rule of the western monasteries — their probable paucity 
and poverty ^Benedict of Nursia — his order, and rea- 
sonable rule, arid object — Foundation of Monte Cassino 

— France — St. Columban — Ravages of the Lombards 
and Danes — Reform by Benedict of Aniane — The order 
of Cluni — its origin, rise, and reputation — its attach- 
ment to papacy and its prosperity — The order of Cite- 
aux — date of its foundation — Dependent Abbey of 
Clairvaux — St. Bernard — its progress and decline — 
Order of the Chartreux. (III.) Canons Regular and 
Secular — Order of St. Augustin — Rule of Chrodegangus 
— Rule of Aix-la-Chapelle— subsequent reforms. (IV.) 
Connexion between the monasteries and the Pope 

— mutual services. The Military orders — (1.) The 
Knights of the Hospital — origin of their institution — 
their discipline and character — (2.) Knights Templar — 
their origin and object— (3.) The Teutonic order— its 
establishment and prosperity. (V.) The Mendicant or- 



ders — causes of their rise and great progress — (1.) St. 
Dominic — his exertions and designs — (2.) St. Francis 
and his followers — compared with the Dominicans -^ 
apparent assimilation — essential differences— disputes 
of the Franciscans with the Popes, and among them- 
selves — Inquisitorial office of the Dominicans, their 
learning and influence — quarrels with the Doctors of 
Paris — Austerity of the Franciscans — the Fratricilli — 
(3.) The Carmelites — their professed origin — (4.) Her- 
mits of St. Augustin — Privileges of these four orders. 
(VI.) Various establishments ofJVuns — their usual offices 
and character — General remarks— The three grand or- 
ders of the Western Church (suited to the ages in which 
they severally appeared and flourished) — The Jesuits — 
The Monastic system one of perpetual reformation — 
thus alone it survived so long — its merits and advantages 
— The bodily labor of the Monks — their charitable and 
hospitable offices — real piety to be found among thenj 
— superintendence of education, and means of learning 
preserved by them — limits to their utility — their fre- 
quent alliance with superstition — their early depend- 
ence on the Bishops — gradual exemption, and final 
subjection to the Pope, — Their profits and opulence, 
and means of amassing it — Luther a mendicant. 

It is not through inadvertence, nor any blind- 
ness to the magnitude and importance of the 
subject, that a particular account of the mon- 
astic system has been so long deferred. We 
have had frequent occasion to recognise its 
existence and its influence on the general 
character of the Church ; and it was reason- 
able perhaps to expect some earlier notice of 
its origin and progress. But as it is absolutely 
necessary for the correct comprehension of 
ecclesiastical history, that the scheme of 
monachism be understood aright ; as that end 
could scarcely be accomplished, unless by 
presenting the entire institution at a single 
view ; and as it is much more instructive, in 
the order of historical composition, to retrace 
some steps and to revisit such periods as have 
been examined imperfectly, rather than to 
anticipate events and ages which are remote 
and wholly unexplored— for these reasons we 
have abstamed from a partial or premature 
treatment of this extensive subject. More- 
over, when we consider the successive muta- 
tions which have perpetually varied the aspect 
of monasticism, it will appear, perhaps, that 
the present, as being the epoch of its latest 
change, is the moment most proper for the 
delineation of the whole structure. That latest 
change (we speak only of changes preceding 
the Reformation) was the institution of the 
Mendicant Orders— an event which arose out 
of the ministry of St. Dominic, and immedi- 
ately followed the death of Innocent III. This 
appendage completed the anomalous fabric: 
and while it was so closely intermixed with 
the peculiar cii'cumstances of the age, that its 
nature could not have been rightly compre- 
hended, unless described in connexion with 
them ; it was at the same time an innovation 



ORIGIN OF MONACHISM. 



297 



so essentially affecting the form and character 
of monachism, that any account, not embrac- 
ing it, would have conveyed very imperfect 
and even erroneous notions. Led by such 
considerations, we have selected the present 
period for this purpose ; not unmindful how 
Uttle justice after all can possibly be done to 
materials so ample within such scanty limits, 
and almost despairing to throw any new light 
on a subject which has exercised the genius, 
and deserved — as it still deserves — the deepest 
meditation both of historians and philosophers. 

Section I. 

The origin of Monachism and its progress in 
the East. 

The monastic spirit was alike congenial to 
the scenery and climate of the East, and to 
the peculiar character of its inhabitants. Vast 
soUtudes of unbroken and unbounded ex- 
panse , rocks, with the most gi'otesque out- 
lines, abounding in natural excavations ; a dry 
air and an unclouded sky, afforded facilities — 
might we not say temptations — to a wild, un- 
social, and contemplative life. The serious 
enthusiasm of the natives of Egypt and x-Vsia, 
that combination of indolence with energy, 
of the calmest languor with the fiercest pas- 
sion, which marks their features and their 
actions, disposed them to embrace with eager- 
ness the tranquil but exciting duties of rehg- 
ious seclusion. And thus, even in eai-lier 
ages, before the zeal of devotion superseded 
all other motives to retirement, we observe, 
without any surprise, the mention of that 
practice, as indigenous and immemorial. 

Therapeutcd or Essenes. — Pliny* the phi- 
losopher has recorded the existence of an ex- 
traordinary race, who lived on the borders of 
the Dead Sea, the associates of the palm trees ; 
and who had been perpetuated (as it was said) 
through thousands of ages without women 
and without property. Satiety and disgust 
with the business of life, rather than any re- 
ligious feeling, are mentioned as the motives 
of their seclusion. Again, it is certain that 
the Therapeutse or Essenes inhabited the 

* Lib. V. cap. xvii. Ab occidente Judaeae litore 
Essenl fiigitant; gens sola et in toto orbe prseter 
caeteras mira, sine ulla foemina, omni Venere abdica- 
ta, sine pecunia, socia palmarum. Indiem ex aequo 
advenarum turba renascitur, longe frequentantibus 
quos vita fessos ad mores eorum fortuna fluctibus 
agitat. Ita per sseculorum millia (incredibile dictu) 
gens aeterna in qua nemo nascitur. Tam foecunda 
illis aliorum vitae pcenitenlia est. The most import- 
ant references on this subject are collected by Hospin- 
Vdn, Orig. Monach. — Lib. I. cap. v. 

3S 



deserts both of Egypt and of Syria, as early 
as the days of our Saviour. They had pro- 
bably dwelt there long before that time ; and 
they appear to have sought to exalt the merit 
of their retirement by the practice of great 
austerities. Some Roman Catholic writers, 
being anxious to prove Monachism coeval 
with Christianity, have asserted, on the au- 
thority of Eusebius, * Sozomen, and Cassian, 
that the Therapeutae were Christians ; and 
that they scattered the seeds of the monastic 
life through the populous villages of Lower 
Egypt, whilst St. Marc, their founder, presid- 
ed over the Church of Alexandria. But the 
opinion is more probable, that they were, for 
the most part, Jews by religion as well as by 
birth ; and of a much earlier origin. Never- 
theless, it may well be, that such of them as 
became converts to the faith, still retained 
thek rigid eremitical life ; nor can it be doubt- 
ed, that the example of their severities, and 
the popular respect which followed them, 
would excite the attention and enmlation of 
surrounding Christians. 

The Ascetics. — This is one of the causes to 
which we may attribute the very early exist- 
ence of a sect unquestionably Christian, called 
the Ascetics ; and these also have been erro- 
neously confounded with the original Monks. 
The term Ascetic was applied by early f 
Christian writers to the most rigid and zeal- 
ous among the primitive converts, whether 
they exhibited then* fervor in unusual assidu- 
ity in prayer and the offices of charity, or 
extended it to the more equivocal merits of 
fasting and celibacy. But these persons did 
not withdraw themselves from the world ; 
they merely exercised with ardor, perhaps in 
extravagance, the virtues which best qualified 
them to benefit and amend it. Possibly, in 
their rigid devotion to the duties of society, 
they may have shunned with aversion even its 
most innocent amusements. But such pious 
excess, which has ever marked the best forms 
and ages of Christianity, was emmently useful 
to its propagation, and should be sparingly 
censured mider any circumstances. % It is at 

* Hist. Eccles. lib. ii. c. xvi. He applied to the 
Christians that which Philo had written about the 
Jewish Essenes. Such at least is the opinion of 
Marsham, a very impai-tial as well as learned writer, 
in his IlQOTCvkaiov to Dugdale's Monasticon. — See 
Joseph, de Bell. Judaic, lib. ii. cap. vii. for a partic- 
ular description of that sect. 

t Bingham (Christ. Antiq. b. vii.) confirms his 
account of the Ascetics by numerous and conclusive 
authorities. 

I The Ascetics were of all ranks and professions 



298 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



least manifest, that the rule of the Ascetics 
was essentially at variance with the monastic 
principle ; they dwelt and associated with their 
fellow Christians; and perhaps they might 
never have acquired the historical distinction 
of a name, had it not been, that they affected 
a different garb, and assumed the philosophical 
cloak as the badge of th«ir sect. Their origin 
is attributed by Mosheim * to the double doc- 
trine of morals, which Jie supposes to have 
prevailed in the second century — so that, 
while vulgar Christians were contented to 
obey the precepts of the Gospel, those who 
aimed at higher perfection, professed to be 
also directed by its counsels. This notion is 
unquestionably borrowed from heathen phi- 
losophy ; and, if it really existed to any extent 
among the Ascetics, it affoitis another proof 
of their connexion with the schools of Greece. 
But the unsettled condition of the Church in 
those days, and the jealousies and sufferings 
to which it was subjected, the general demor- 
alization of the pagan world, the example of 
popular austerities in another religion, and the 
melancholy genius of Egypt, where Ascetism 
chiefly prevailed, were causes alone sufficient 
to have produced — as they did produce — 
forms of enthusiasm far less rational, than any 
which can justly be ascribed to the Ascetics. 

Anchorets. — But about the middle of the 
third century the monastic spii'it exhibited it- 
self in a much less equivocal shape ; and we 
may observe that the purest and most legiti- 
mate character of seclusion was that which it 
first assumed. Flying from the fuiy of the 
Decian persecution, a number of Christians 
took refuge in caves, in deserts, or inaccessi- 
ble islets, where they exercised their pro- 
scribed religion in solitary security. Egypt 
and Syria, and Mesopotamia, and the wildest 
parts of Asia Minor, were suddenly visited by 
a race of exiles, in whom devotion, instated 
by injustice and fed by seclusion, sometimes 
sank into sullen and gloomy fanaticism. These 
probably were the earliest Christian Hermits 
or Anchorets ; they professed an absolute re- 
ligious solitude, occasionally inten-upted in- 

Eusebius calls them of OTvovSaVot — the zealous. 
Clemens Alexandrinus ly.liy.roiv ixXtxrursQot — the 
more elect among the elect. These expressions im- 
ply nothing more than a greater fervor (or at least 
greater pretension) of piety. 

* The same writer (Cent, iii., p. 2., ch. ii.) seems 
disposed to attribute the rise of Monks and Hermits 
to the influence of the mystical theology. Yet he ad- 
mits, in the same paragraph, that that method of life 
was very common in Egypt, Syria, India, and Meso- 
potamia even before the coming of Cli^ist. 



deed by the pious importunity of the neigh- 
boring inhabitants, but never broken by any 
regular connexion or association with each 
other. Their numbers were further increased 
by the severities of Diocletian ; and still more, 
perhaps, by the reverence and sympathy, 
which the spectacle of their austere piety ex- 
cited among the vulgar. They continued for 
some time to deserve by their habits the title 
of Solitaries ; nor do we learn that they were 
formed into assemblies until after the estab- 
lishment of the Church by Constantine. 

Canohites. The first institution of persons 
living in common for religious purposes, and 
therefore called Ccenobites, is attributed to St. 
Anthony, tlie contemporary and fi'iend of 
Athanasius, and his, fellow-laborer in the same 
soil. And it is obvious to remark, that while 
the greater of those champions of the ancient 
Church was engaged in defending the purity 
of the Christian faith, in the schools of Alex- 
andria, the other was scattering m the same 
soil, with the same applause and success, the 
seeds of a system dii'ectly at variance with 
some of its best practical principles. Another 
Egyptian, named Pachomius, divides with 
St. Anthony the fame of this enterprise ; in 
as far at least as he immediately extended to 
the Upper Thebaid the work which Anthony 
commenced in the Lower. * He even ven- 
tured thus early to enlarge upon the first 
scheme of religious union ; and introduced 
the custom, wliich in much later ages was so 
generally adopted in the Western Church, of 
combining several monasteries into one So- 
ciety, or * Congregation.' These events took 
place during the first half of the fourth cen- 
tiny ; and it is from this epoch that we prop- 
erly date the origin of the monastic system. 

The multitudes who instantly embraced 
that manner of life, and thronged the primi- 
tive edifices of Upper Egypt, were, no doubt, 
exaggerated, when calculated at neai-ly half 
the population of the country. But it is cer- 
tain, that the *New Philosophy' (it was early 
designated by that name) was eagerly adopted 
by a crowd of proselytes ; nor is this wonder- 
ful ; since those to whom its advantages were 
the most obvious, and its duties the most easy, 
were the lowest of mankind — and since in 
Egypt, more than in any other land, religious 
novelties have flourished fi-om the remotest 
ages with a peculiar fecxmdity. 

The Monks of Egypt. Since the original 
monks of Egypt are praised by Roman Catho- 
lic writers, as the true models of monastic 



* Histoire des Ordves Monastiques, Dissert. Prelim 



ORIGIN OF MONACHISM. 



299 



perfection, and smce some accounts of them 
remain, wiiich may be followed with little 
suspicion, it is proper to employ some ad- 
ditional attention on that subject. John Cas- 
sian, a native of Scythia, a deacon by the 
ordination of St. Chrysostom, and an inmate 
of the Monastery of Palestine, near Bethle- 
hem, went forth, about tlie year 395, to ex- 
plore the holy solitudes of Egypt, and draw 
from its more perfect institutions a profitable 
lesson of rejigious instruction ; and seven 
years devoted to those inquh'ies give weight 
jsnd credit to the descriptions which he pub- 
lished. The latter part of his life was passed 
in retirement at Marseilles ; and to the two 
convents which he there established, he pre- 
ficribed a rule founded on the venerable prac- 
tice of the East. According to his account, 
the recluses of Egypt were divided into three 
principal classes : — the Anchorets, the Coeno- 
bites, and the Sarabaites. The two former, 
w^hose numbers were nearly equal, formed 
the respectable and genuine portion of the 
profession. The last were independent, and 
were regaided as spurious and unworthy 
brethren. The Anchorets occupied, either 
in perfect solitude or in very small societies, 
the rudest and most secluded recesses of the 
desert. ' We are not destitute of parental 
consolation, (said the Hermit Abraham to 
Cassiau, who was beginning to sigh after the 
more agreeable solitudes of Asia and Europe,) 
nor devoid of means of easy sustenance — 
were we not bound by the command of our 
Saviour to forsake all and follow Him. We 
are able, if it seemed good, to build our cells 
on the banks of the Nile, instead of bringing 
our water on our heads from four miles' dis- 
tance—were it not, that the Apostle has told 
us, that " every man shall receive his reward 
according to his labor." We know that in 
these our regions there are some secret and 
pleasant places, where fruits are abundant, 
and the beauty and fertility of the gardens 
would supply our necessities with the slightest 
toil^v/ere it not that we fear "to receive in 
our lifetime our good things." Wherefore 
we scorn these things, and all the pleasures 
of this world ; and we take delight in these 
horrors, and prefer the wildness of this deso- 
lation, before all that is fair and attractive, ad- 
mitting no comparison between the luxuri- 
ance of the most exuberant soil and the bit- 
terness of these sands.' * 



* Cassianus, Collatlones, lib. xxiv. c. 2. Such 
passages are illustrated by other writers of the same, or 
yearly the same age. Among many others, the descrip- 



The establishments of the CcEnobites, which 
were spread from one end. of the country to 
the other, contained, severally, from one hun- 
dred to five thousand inhabitants. In some 
instances, the wall which confined them in- 
closed also their wells and gardens, and all 
that was necessary for then' sustenance, so as 
to leave no pretext even for occasional inter- 
course with a world, which they had deserted 
for ever. The discipline to which they were 
.subjected was rigid, but neither barbarous nor 
at all charged with injurious austerities. We 
read nothing of those chains and collars of 
iron, which formed a necessary part of self- 
devotion in the Syrian convents, nor is there 
any mention of sackcloth or flagellation, or 
any other voluntaiy torture. The whole 
severity of their practice consisted m abste- 
miousness ; but even that was moderate ; 
positive fasting was not encouraged ; nor was 
it thought necessary to macerate the body in 
order to purify the soul. Bread and water 
was indeed the only nourishment allowed to 
the healthy devotee ; but the bread was abun- 
dantly supplied ; and those who have drawn 
from their infancy the sweet waters of the 
Nile seldom require or seek an artificial 
beverage. Neither was this rule enforced on 
all with indiscriminate rigor ; but it was fre- 
quently modified according to age, or sex, or 
constitution. 

They assembled to prayer twice in the twen- 
ty-four hours, at evenmg and during the night. 
Twelve psalms were chanted, (the chant had 
been taught them by an angel,) each of w^hich 
was followed by a prayer ; and then two les- 
sons were read from the Scripture to those 
who desired to be instructed in that volume. 
The hearers remained sitting during the 
greater part of the service, with very short 
interruptions of genuflexion or prostration. 
The signal which summoned them to prayer 
was a simple trumpet or horn ; it was suffi- 



tion of the Egyptian monks by Gregory Nazianzen (in 
Orat. xxi. Eig rov JMiyav ' A&avaOiov) is perhaps 
worth citing: 01 y.dauov x^Q^'^ovTsg lavrovg, xa't 
ri^v iQVjUov aOTraLouBvoL tioGi Osw TravTu>v fiaXXov 
Tiov aT£(fouivwv rco od)jiiari, Ol utv rov TvavriJ 
uovaSiy.ov y.ai uuixxov Sia^Xovvrag ^lov savroig 
/iioroig nooo/.a?.ovvrsg yul rco Osm, y.ai rovro iiovov 
y.oauov sidorsg ooov Iv rrj fQtjuia yvwQiLOVCJi. ol Sa 
rouov ayamqg TiJ xoivwv'ia artqyovTig Iqr^uiyoi t« 
ouov yai uiyuStg, xoig uhv a?J.oig ra&vrjyorsg av&Q- 
loTCOig aX?.}'i?.oig Se y.oauog "ovrsg, y.ai ryj Tcaqa&iaet 
Ti,v aQsT^v 5j;yoTT6?. The same writer describes 
the character of a true monk with great minuteness 
and fervor in his Xllth Oration, (EiQrjvixog A, Enl 
rii EvwOsL Tc5v MovuLorTwr.) 



300 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



cient to break the silence of their deserts ; 
and the hour of their night-prayer was indi- 
cated by the declining stars, which shine 
in that cloudless atmosphere with perpetual 
lustre. The offices of their worship were 
undisturbed by any sound of worldly care 
or -irreverent levity. Their devotion, like 
their pyramids, was simple and solid, and 
they lived like strangers to the flesh and its 
attributes, like sojourners on earth and citi- 
zens of a spiritual community.* 

Four objects were comprehended in their 
profession — solitude, manual labor, fasting, 
and prayer ; and we cannot forbear to ob- 
serve, how large a portion of their time was 
devoted to the second. Indeed, so strictly 
was the necessity of such occupation incul- 
cated, that the moderation of their other 
duties might almost appear to have been pre- 
scribed with that view. A body, debilitated 
by the excess of fasting or discipline, would 
have been disqualified for the offices of indus- 
try which were performed by the monks of 
Egypt. Without any possessions, and hold- 
ing it alike discreditable to beg or to accept, f 
they earned their daily bread by their skill 
and diligence in making mats or baskets, as 
cutlers, as fullers^ or as weavers — insomuch, 
that their houses may seem to have resembled 
religious manufactories, rather than places 
consecrated to holy purposes ; and the mo- 
tive of their establishment is liable to the 
suspicion of being, in some cases at least, 
worldly and political. Yet in the descrip- 
tions of their practice, both objects were so 
united, that the prayer seems to have been 
inseparable from the labor. | To that end, 
the employments which they chose were 
«asy and sedentary, so that the mind might 
be free to expatiate, while the hands were in 
exercise. At die same time, they maintained 
that perpetual occupation was the only effect- 
ual method to prevent distractions, and fix 
the soul on worthy considerations ; that thus 
alone the tediousness of solitude, and its at- 
tendant evils, can be remedied 4 tliat the 
monk who works has only one demon to 
tempt him, while the monk unoccupied is 
harassed by demons innumerable. § 



* See Fleury's admirable Eighth Discourse. 

t Cassian. Collat. xxiv. s. 11, 12, 13. 

% Ita ut quid ex quo pendeat haud facile possit a 
quopiam discerni — i. e. utrum propter medilationem 
spiritalera incessabiliter manuum opus exerceant; an 
propter operis jugitatem tarn prseclarum profectum 
spiritus, scientiaeque lumen acquirant. Cassian. In- 
stit. lib. ii. c. 14. 

§ Uude beec est apud iEgyptum ab antiquis Patri- 



7%e Sarabaites. The Sarabaites * are de- 
scribed by Cassian in language of violent and 
almost unmitigated censure. Yet if we neg- 
lect those expressions, which become suspi- 
cious through their very rancor, and adhere 
only to the facts which are mentioned as char- 
acteristic of that monastic sect, it appears, that 
they were seceders, or at least independent, 
from the Coenobitical establishments. They 
claimed the name of Monks ; but without any 
emulation of their pursuits, or observance of 
their discipline. They were not subject to the 
direction of elders, nor did they strive, under 
traditional institutions, to subject their inclina- 
tions to any fixed or legitimate rule. If they 
publicly renounced the world, it was either to 
persevere, in their o>vn houses, in their former 
occupations under the false assumption of the 
monastic name, or building cells, and calling 
them monasteries, to dwell there without any 
abandonment of their secular interests. They 
labared indeed with industry at least as sedu- 
lous, as their more regular brethren — but 
they labored for their own individual profit, 
not for that of an instituted community, f 
From this hostile account, it would appear 
that the Sarabaites, if they were spurious 
monks, were at least useful members of soci- 
ety ; and the union which they established of 
the religious profession with worldly occupa- 
tions, seems to have revived, or rather perpet- 
uated, the leading principle of ascetism. 

St. Basil. From Egypt, the popular insti- 
tution was immediately introduced into Syria 
by & monk named Hilarion ; but the Syrians 
appear soon to have deviated from the sim- 
plicity and moderation of their masters into 
a sterner practice of mortification, and even 
torture. From Syria, it was transmitted to 
Pontus and the shores of the Black Sea, and 
there it found a respectable patron, the most 
eminent among its primitive protectors, Ba- 
silius. Archbishop of Csesarea. 

bus sancta (al. sancita) sententia — opevantem Mona- 
chum daemone uno pulsari ; otiosum vero innumeris 
spiritibus devastari. Cassiani Instit. lib. x. c. 23. 
It appears from Cassian's preceding chapter, that any 
superfluity which the monks might have acquired was 
frequently employed in charitable purposes, and espe- 
cially in the redemption of captives. 

* The game sect, ho doubt, \^•hich St. Jerome calls 
Remoboth, and stigmatizes as ' genus deterrimum at- 
que neglectum.' Epist. xviii. ad Eustochium. De 
Custodia Virg initalis. 

t Cassian. Collat. xviii. c. 7. Cassian's dislike 
for the Sarabaites was probably contracted in the cells 
of the Coenobites, who viewed with a sort of sectarian 
jealousy the industry and the profits of rebels or * 
rivals. 



ORIGIN OF MONACHISM. 



301 



That celebrated ecclesiastic — who was a 
native of Cappadocia, the brother of Gregoiy 
of Nyssa, and the fellow-disciple (as is assert- 
ed) of the then future apostate Julian — has 
given his name to the single order, which 
has subsisted in the Greek Church,* with 
scarcely any variation or addition, from that 
period to the present moment ; and it is this 
circumstance, as well as his superior antiqui- 
ty, which has established him as the most 
venerable of the patriarchs of Monachism. 
His claim to that reputation is said to consist 
in this — he united the Hermits and CcEnobites 
already established in his diocese ; and to his 
monasteries, so formed, he prescribed a rule, 
which was rigidly observed by them, and im- 
itated by others : by this bond, he gave them 
a consistency and uniformity, which had 
hitherto been peculiar to the institutions of 
Egypt, f Besides which, he strongly recom- 
mended X the obligation of a vo^v, on admis- 
sion to the monastic state — an obligation 
which, whether it were actually established 
by St. Basil or not, had certainly no existence 
before his time. These advancements in the 



* It is true that certain heretical orders, Maronites, 
Jacobites, Nestorians, &c. professed to follow the rule 
of St. Anthony; but St. Anthony delivered, in fact, 
no rule. When solicited to impose some code upon 
his disciples, he is recorded to have presented to them 
the Bible — an eternal and universal rule. Hospin. 
lib. ii. c. 4. 

f It does not, however, appear, that his rule was 
in the first instance very generally observed. At least 
we find, that as much as thirty years later, Cassian 
(Institut. lib. ii. c. 2.) contrasted the diversity, par- 
ticularly respecting the times and nature of the holy 
offices, which prevailed elsewhere, with the uniformi- 
ty of the more ancient institutions of Egypt. ' In 
hunc modum diversis in locis diversum canonem 
agnovimus institutum, totque propemodum typos et 
regulas vidimus usurpatas, quot etiam monasteria cel- 
lasque conspeximus. Sunt qulbus .... Quapropter 
necessarium reor antiquissimam patrom proferre con- 
Btitutionem quae nunc usque per totam Egyptum a Dei 
famulis custoditur,' &c. It is, indeed, the opinion 
of Hospinian (though it does not seem sufficiently 
founded), that St. Basil's Coenobia were little more 
than theological schools, and that his rule was no 
other than the ordinary form of school discipline. 
Such, as he thinks, were the monasteries of those 
days. Lib. iii. c. 2. The Rule commonly ascribed 
to that saint may be found, in Latin, in the same 
place. 

t Bingham, Ch. Antiq, book vii. The author of 
the Histoire des Ordres Monastiques expressly as- 
serts, that as monasteries were instituted by Anthony, 
and congregations by Pachomius, so the three vows 
(of chastity, poverty, and obedience) were the intro- 
duction of St. Basil. It is, at least, certain, that the 
duties of obedience and poverty were early and very 
rigidly practised by the Eastern monks. 



system were effected from the years 360 to 
370 ; and thus the plant, which had first been 
nourished by Anthony and Pachomius with 
imperfect, but not improvident culture, grew 
up, within the space of twenty years, into 
vigorous and lasting maturity. 

Conduct of the ancient Fathers. It is a fact 
demanding observation, that the Fathers of 
the ancient Church, who flourished about this 
period, among whom were many eloquent 
and learned and pious men, were favorable, 
without one exception, to the establishment 
of monasticism : for though it might be be- 
neath the oflice of reason to investigate the 
motives of the illiterate enthusiasts who began 
the work, it would be improper to pass over 
without comment the considerate labors of 
the ecclesiastics who completed it. Moreover, 
as they were apt enough to differ on some 
other points, in which the interests of religion 
were concerned, and as they delivered, on all 
occasions, their particular opinions with great 
boldness and independence, their unanimity 
in the introduction of one gi'and innovation 
is, by that circumstance, still further recom- 
mended to our attention. Yet must we hesi- 
tate to ascribe to them motives altogether 
unworthy. We should be wholly mistaken 
if we were to attribute their conspiracy to 
any deep design for the establishment of 
priestly rule, or the increase of the wealth 
and authority of the Church beyond their 
just limits. These evil consequences did, in- 
deed, result from the work, and spread, with 
fatal influence, over the western world ; but 
they could not be contemplated by the Fa- 
thers of the fourth and fifth centuries, because 
they rose and grew with the growth of papal 
usui-pation, of which, in those days, there was 
no fear nor thought. It was the alliance be- 
tween papacy and monasticism which tended 
more, perhaps, than any other cause, to ele- 
vate and magnify, and at the same time to 
vitiate, both. But the eye of Athanasius, or 
Chrysostom, or Augustin, could not possibly 
foresee that union, nor penetrate the various 
circumstances which afterwards concurred to 
aggrandize the Bishop of Rome. So far may 
we safely acquit even the most sagacious 
among the Fathers of monasticism ; and as 
far as the spirit of the age can be held to ex- 
cuse those whom, in appearance, it carries 
along with it, but who, in fact, encourage and 
influence it, so far may the conduct of those 
mistaken men be excused. And perhaps we 
might add, in further palliation, that the gen- 
eral demoralization of society, over which 
Christian principles were still contending for 



302 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



predominance with the pernicious remnants 
of paganism, seemed to permit so little hope 
of righteous conduct to persons busied in the 
world, as almost to justify retreat and seclu- 
sion. We should, moreover, in attempting 
to account for this agreement, always hear in 
mind, that the early patrons of monasticism 
were, with very few exceptions, Orientals or 
Africans ; men of ardent temperament, and 
impetuous imagination ; among whom the 
theory of religion too frequently tended to 
mysticism, and its practice to mere sensible 
ceremony, and bodily mortification. We 
have no reason to believe that any worldly 
premium to the new philosophy was held out 
by the princes or nobles of those days-; nor 
even that the influx of oblations from the 
vulgar was the immediate fruit of the profes- 
sion of poverty,* as was elsewhere the case 
in later times. The monasteries of the East 
were at no period so overgrown with opulence 
as those of the Roman Church ; and in their 
origin they certainly offered no imaginable 
temptations to avarice or sensuality. On 
these and similar considerations, we may 
acquit the original founders of the monastic 
system of those odious motives, with which 
they have sometimes been charged ; but we 
must censure their encouragement of popular 
superstition ; we must condemn that rash 
enthusiasm, which exceeded what is written ; 
and we must pronounce those to have been 
insufficient guides to religious knowledge, 
who, at a crisis of such infinite importance, 
inculcated any other rule of life, than such as 
tended directly, through the plain and prac- 
tical precepts of the Gospel, to the general 
welfare of mankind. 

Early form of Monacldsm. The earliest 
age of monachism differed in many particu- 
lars from those which matured and perfected 
the system. The vow of Celibacy was either 
not taken by the original monks, or not uni- 
versally enforced ; though the practice was 
usual, and held indicative of a higher condi- 
tion of sanctity. Comm unity of property was 



* Not that even the earliest monks have escaped 
the I'eproaches of the contemporary Fathers. St. 
Jerome especially (Epist. xxxv., ad Heliodorum Mo- 
nachnm) notices the birth of corruption: — 'Alii 
numnuira addant nummo, et marsupium sufFocantes 
matronariim opes venentur obsequiis ; sint di'tiores 
Monachi, quam fiierant saeculares; possideant opes 
sub Christo paupere, quas sub locupiete Diabolo non 
habuerant ; et snspiret eos Ecclesia divites, quos 
tenuit mundus ante mendicos.' . . . But notwithstand- 
ing this and other particular passages, the general 
expressions used by those Avriters respecting the mon- 
astic condition, prove its general respectability. 



indeed established among tliem; but that 
property was chiefly acquired by the labor 
of their hands. The necessity of manual 
industry, which was coeval with the institu- 
tion, was subsequently enforced by St. Au- 
gustin, as the best safeguard against the snares 
of the Tempter; and the spiritual motives 
to strict moral demeanor were enco(u-aged 
by the absolute poverty of the individuals. 
Mendicity, which had an early existence in 
the system, was stigmatized with immediate 
censure. It does not appear that the primi- 
tive monks were positively prohibited by any 
vow from returning, if they thought fit, to 
the turbulence of the world ; though such 
desertions were strongly discouraged, as early 
as the Council of Chalcedon, both by eccle- 
siastical denunciations, and perpetual exclu- 
sion from holy orders. Several restrictions 
were imposed with respect to admission into 
the monastic order. Of husbands and wives, 
the mutual agreement was necessary for the 
seclusion of either; servants were not ad- 
mitted, unless with the approbation of their 
masters, nor children without the consent of 
their parents and themselves. These and 
other reasonable impediments to the abuse of 
monachism were first weakened by the super- 
stitious improvidence of Justinian- 

The original monks were, without excep- 
tion, laymen ; but in situations, where the 
only accessible place of worship was within 
the walls, one priest was added to the societj^, 
and he generally filled the office of Abbot or 
Hegoumenos. St. Jerome* has expressly 
distinguished the monastic from the sacerdo- 
tal order ; and Leo I., in a communication to 
Maximus, bishop of Antioch, forbade monks 
to usurp the office of religious instruction, 
which w-as properly confined to the priests 
of the Lord. It is true, indeed, that, very 
early in monastic history, those establishments 
were considered as schools and nurseries for 



* Epist. v., ad Heliodorum Monachum. ' Alia 
Monachorum est fausa ; alia clericorum. Clerici 
pascunt oves; ego pascor. lUi de altario vivntitj 
rnihi, quasi infructuoScE arbori, securis ponrtur ad 
radicem, si mumis ad allare non defero. . . . Mihi 
ante Presbyterum sedere non licet,' &C-. . . . Hos- 
pinian, (lib. iii., c. 13), under the head ^ Monachi 
ab initio non Clerici,' adduces strong reason (in spite 
of some contradictory decrees) to believe that they 
wei-e permitted to take orders as early as the time of 
Pope Siricius, in 390; and that all the privileges of 
the secular priesthood were subsequently conferred on 
monastic priests, and confirmed by Gregory the Great, 
Still, as they continued to be bound by their vows, 
they acquired the clerical, without losing the monastic, 
character. 



ORIGIN OF MONACHISM, 



303 



the ministry, and that persons were selected 
for ordination from among their inhabitants ; 
but those so ordained immediately quitted the 
cloister, and engaged in the duties of the 
secular clergy ; and in Greece they were dis- 
tinguished by the title of Hieromonachoi, or 
Holy Monks.* 

Character of Oriental Monachism. There 
is no doubt, that Orientals are naturally more 
prone to acts of fanaticism and ascetic austeri- 
ties, than the more rational, and, at the same 
time, more sensual nations of Europe ; and 
we might have expected to find the most 
extraordinary instances of self-inflicted tor- 
ture among those who originated that prac- 
tice, and whose habits and passions peculiarly 
prepared them for it. It is uncertain whether 
this be so ; for though it be true that the 
madness of the Stylites gained no prevalence 
in the Western Church, and that the Boskoi, 
or Grazing monks (an Asiatic order of the 
fiflh century, which proposed to unite the soul 
to the Deity, by degrading the body to a con- 
dition below humanity) found no imitators in 
a more inclement climate ; yet their mortifi- 
cations and absurdities were rivalled, if not m 
the cells of the Benedictines, at least by the 
Flagellants, and some other heretics of the 
fourteenth century ; and the discipline of the 
more rigid Franciscans was probably, in the 
early ages of that order, as severe as human 
nature could endure. But even among the 
regular orders of the Western Church, monas- 
tic austerity was carried, under particular cir- 
cumstances, and in later times, to a more 
perfect refinement than it ever attained in the 
East. It is not difficult to account for this 
singularity. A variety of motives, and a 
complication of passions, entered into the 
monkish system of the Roman Church. 
Many were unquestionably actuated by su- 
perstition, many, perhaps, by purer sentiments 
of piety ; but many more were impelled by 
personal ambition, by professional zeal, by 
the jealousy of rival orders, and, above all, by 
the thirst for that wealth, which so certainly 
followed the reputation of sanctity. On the 
other hand, the unvarying constitution, and 
the more tranquil character of the Eastern 
Church, presented fewer and feebler induce- 
ments to excessive severity. The passion 
which originally founded its monasteries, 
warm and earnest enthusiasm, continued still 
to animate and people them ; but its ardor 
gradually abated ; and the defect was not sup- 



* The foundation of an order of Canons, attributed 
to St. Augustin, (which will presently be mentioned,) 
was a distinct institution. 



plied in the same abundance, nor by the same 
sources, which sprang from the rock of St. 
Peter. From the eai'liest period, the Head 
of the Eastern Church was subject to the civil 
power, and he has always continued so ; and 
thus, as he has at no time asserted any arro- 
gant claims of temporal authority, nor engag- 
ed in any contests with the state, he possessed 
no personal or official interest in the aggran- 
dizement of the monastic order. Again, the 
two grand political revolutions of the Eastern 
and Western empires produced effects pre- 
cisely opposite on the condition of monachism 
in either. The overthrow of the latter by the 
Pagans of the North, the early conversion of 
the conquerors, and the subsequent establish- 
ment of the feudal system, became the means 
of enriching the monasteries, from private as 
well as royal bounty, with vast territorial en- 
dowments. Whereas the possessions of the 
Oriental Church, which, through less favor- 
able circumstances, had already been reduced 
to more moderate limits, were still further 
despoiled by the fatal triumph of the Turks. 
The institution of nunneries was contem- 
porary with that of monasteries, and is also 
attributed to St. Anthony ; but the earliest ac- 
counts incline us to believe that it was not 
equally flourishing. In countries where ste- 
rility is common, and the population either 
scanty or fluctuating, the government would 
doubtless discourage the seclusion of females. 
We learn, too, that their houses were less 
carefully regulated, and their vows less strictly 
observed in Asia than in the West of Europe. 
Athens is mentioned as the nurse of several 
such establishments ; but it was lamented that 
the ladies of rank and wealth were not easily 
prevailed upon to devote themselves to re- 
ligious seclusion. Of a convent which was 
founded at Constantinople by the Empress 
Irene (in 1108,) the constitutions still remain.* 
But the Nuns of St. Basil were more nume- 
rous and more prosperous in the West, than 
m the climate of their origin ; and in Sicily 
especially, and the South of Italy, they arriv- 
ed, in later ages, at considerable wealth and 
importance, f 

* Histoire des Ordres Monastiques, (Prem. Partie, 
Chap, xxviii.) By a regulation peculiarly oriental, 
it was herein ordained, that the steward, the confes- 
sor, and the two chaplains, the only males employed 
about the convent, should be eunuchs. We do not 
learn whether this precaution was usual in the nun- 
neries of the East. 

t Another class of religious females, called Virgina 
of the Church, had an early existence in the East 
They continued to unite the discharge of their social 
duties with a strict profession of religious chastity — 



304 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



The original monastic establishments of 
every description were subjected, without any 
exception, to the Bishop of the diocese. The 
exemptions from that authority, which were 
afterwards introduced, through the pernicious 
progress of papacy, into the Western Church, 
had little prevalence, as, indeed, they had no 
strong motive, in the East. 

Section II. 

Institution of Monachism in the West. 

It is very generally asserted,* that the mon- 
astic system was introduced into the West by 
Athanasius, during his compulsory sojourn at 
Rome, in 341. It is believed, that he carried 
in his train to the imperial city certain monks 
and anchorets, representatives of the Egyp- 
tian commonwealth, whose wild aspect and 
devout demeanor moved the reverence, and 
at the same time roused tlie emulation, of the 
Romans. Some monasteries were immedi- 
ately founded; and many retired to lonely 
places for the exercise of solitary worship. 
From Rome, (if the above account be true,) 
the monastic practice was instantly diffused 
throughout Italy ; and at Milan especially, it 
obtained a powerful support in the patronage 
of Ambrose. It speedily extended itself to 
France ; and the labors of Martin of Tours, 
which were zealously directed to its diffusion, 
received at least this posthumous recompense, 
that nearly two thousand holy disciples as- 
sembled to do honor to his obsequies. The 
establishment, founded by Cassian at Mar- 
seilles, and in the neighboring islands, were 
immediately thronged with brethren obedi- 
ent to his Rule ; and Honoratus, bishop of 
Aries, bears testimony (about the year 430) 
to the existence of 'religious old men in the 
isle of Lerinus, who lived in separate cells, 
and represented in Gaul the Fathers of 
Egypt.'! 



thus advancing one step beyond the ascetism of their 
forefathers. 

* Baronius, (ann. 328), Mabillon, and Gibbon hold 
this opinion; but Muratori pretends that the first 
monasteries founded in Italy were erected at Milan. 
Mosheim more wisely pronounces the uncertainty of 
the fact. 

t The following are some of the passages which 
bear on this subject. St. Jerome, speaking of the 
time of Athanasius's visit to Rome, says, (in Epist. 
16, ad Principiam Virginem,) ' Nulla eo tempore 
nobilium foerninarum noverat Romte propositum Mo- 
nachorum, nee audebat, propter rei noviiatem, igno- 
miniosum (ut tunc putabatur) et vile in populis nomen 
assumere. Ha3C (Marcella) ab Alexandrinis prius 
Bacerdotibus Papaque Athanasio, et postea Petro, . . 



We may here observe, that, as in the -wide 
wilderness of the East, a secluded rock, or an 
unfrequented oasis — a spot cut off by the cir- 
cumfluous Nile, or breaking the influx of the 
river into the sea — as such were the places 
usually selected by the original recluses, so 
their earliest imitators in the West, under 
different circumstances of soil and climate, 
adhered to the ancient preference for insular 
retirement. The islands of Dalraatia, * and 
others scattered along the coasts of the Adri- 
atic, were peopled with holy inhabitants. 
Along the western shores of Italy, f from 



vitam B. Antonii adhuc tunc viventis, Monasterior- 
umque in Thebaide Pachumii et Virginum ac Vidua- 
rum didicit disciplinam, nee erubuit profiteri quod 
Christo placere agnoverat.' Soon afterwards, when 
Jerome was at Rome, ' fuerunt tam crebra Virginum 
Monacharumque innumerabilis multitudoj ut pia fre- 
quentia serventium Deo, quod prius ignominiae fuerat, 
esset postea glorias.' So also Augustin (De Morib. 
Eccles. c. 33) * Romse etiam plura Monasteria cog- 
novit, in quibus singuli gravitate atque prudentia et 
divina scientia pollentes, caeteris secum habitantibus 
praeerant Christiana caritate, sanctitate et liberlate 
viventibus.' And the same Father (Confess., lib. 
viii. c. 6) attests, on the authority of one Pontitianus, 
that there existed at Milan ' Monasterium plenum bo- 
nis Fratribus, extra mbis mcenia sub Ambrosio nutri- 
tore.' Sulp. Severus mentions the success of St. 
Martin to have been so great, ' ut ad exequias ejus 
monachorum fere duo millia convenisse dicantur. Spe- 
cialis Martini gloria, cujus exemplo in Domini servi- 
tute stirpe tanta fructificaverat.' . . . 

* Jerome, Epist. xxxv., ad Heliodorum. * Quum- 
que crederet quotidie aul ad ^gypti Monasteria per- 
gere, aut Mesopotamiae invisere cboros, aut certe 
insularum Dalmatiae solitudines occupare,' &;c. 

t See Marsham's HqonvXaiov , in Dugd. Monast. 
Respecting the monks of the isles of Gorgonia and 
Capraria, Rutilius Numatianus composed some verses, 
(in the year 416,) which have more of elegance (says 
Marsham) than of Christianity. The following are 
some of them : — 

Processu pelagi jam se Capraria tollit ; 
Squallet lucifugis Insula plena viris. 
Ipsi se Monachos Graio cognomine dicunt, 

Quod soli nullo vivere teste volunt. 
Munera fortunae metuunt, dum damna verentur- 
Quisquam sponte miser, ne miser esse queatl 
Sive suas repetunt ex fato ergastula poenasj 
Tristia seu nigro viscera felle tument. 
***** 
Noster enim nuper Juvenis, majoribus amplFs, 

Nee censu inferior, conjugiove minor, 
Impulsus furiis homines Divosque relinquit, 

Et turpem latebram credulus exul agit. 
Infelix putat illuvie coelestia pasci, 

Seque premit caecis saevior ipse Deis, 
Num, rogo, deterior Circaeis secta venenisi 

Tunc mutabantur corpora, nunc animi. 
Many other islands are mentioned as having been 
thus consecrated, (or desecrated — as the describer 



INSTITUTION OF MONACHISM IN THE WEST. 



S05 



Calabria, throughout the islets of the Tuscan 
Sea, the chants of monastic devotion eveiy- 
where resounded, as well as at Lerinus and 
the Stoechades, consecrated by the piety of 
Cassian. Such, in the first instance, were 
the favorite nurseries of the new institution. 
There is even reason to believe, that the 
rocks on the southern coast of Italy furnish- 
ed the seeds of monachism to the churches 
of Carthage ; and thus was transmitted, af- 
ter the revolution of half a century, to the 
more Western AMcans, the boon which their 
brethren of Egypt had first presented to the 
Christian world. 

Prevalence and character of Monachism in 
the West. It is, indeed, unquestionable, that 
towards the end of the fourth, but especially 
during the fifth century, the monastic practice 
obtained universal prevalence, and became 
almost co-extensive with the belief in Christ. 
And on this circumstance there is one obser- 
vation which it is proper to offer, which has 
indeed been made before, though in a some- 
what different spirit, by Roman Catholic writ- 
ers — that the period, which was marked by 
this great religious innovation, was the same 
in which the religion itself seemed in immi- 
nent danger, at least throughout the Western 
provinces, of utter extirpation. This was the 
very crisis in which the pagan inundation 
from the North spread itself most fiercely and 
fatally, and while it overthrew the bulwarks 
of the empire, menaced, at the same time, 
the foundations of the Faith. That the mo- 
nastic institution was designedly interposed 
by Providence, in order to stay that wasting 
calamity, and supply new means of defence 
to His fainting soldiers, is a vain and even 
a presumptuous supposition. But it Avould 
equally be unjust to assert, that establish- 
ments of pious men, associated for religious 
purposes, were without their use in exciting 
respect in the enemy, and confidence in the 
Christian. Still less can we hesitate to be- 
lieve, that they were the means of relieving 
much individual misery ; that during the 

might be an ecclesiastical annalist, or a pagan poet). 
The island Barbara, situated above the conflux of 
the Rhone and the Arar, boasted to have been one of 
the most ancient nurseries of the Holy Institution ; 
and Jerome, in an epistle to Heliodorus, speaks of 
* Insulas et totum Etritscura mare Volsconimque pro- 
vinciam, et reconditos curvorum littorum sinus, in 
quibus monachorum consistebant Chori.' . , . See 
RIabillon, Pref. in Ann- Bened. S'.ec. i. Giannone's 
View of the Origin of the Monastic Life in the West 
(Stor. di Nap., lib. ii., cap. 8.) does not appear to 
be marked by the accuracy and pcrsjAcuity usual to 
tlmt excellent lii;norian. 

39 



overthrow of justice and humanity, they de- 
rived power, as well as protection, from the 
name of God, and from the trust which they 
reposed in him ; that their power was gen- 
erally exerted for good purposes ; and that 
their gates were thrown open to multitudes, 
who, m those days of universal desolatioUj 
could hope for no other refiige. 

The rule commonly professed by the orig- 
inal Western monasteries was unquestionably 
that of St. Basil ; and though it was not ob- 
served with any rigid uniformity, there wag 
i probably no material variation either in con- 
stitution or discipline throughout the whole 
extent of Christendom, excepting such a3 
naturally resulted from the different climate, 
morals, and temperament of its inhabitants. 
At least, there was no distinction in order or 
dignity: all were united by one common ap- 
pellation, extending from the deserts of Pon- 
tus to the green valleys of Ireland ; and the 
monks of those days were sufficiently separat- 
ed from the rest of mankind, and sufficiently 
disengaged from secular pursuits, to dispense 
with the baser motives to which they were 
afterv/ards reduced, of partial interest and 
rivalry. Some wealth, indeed, began already 
to flow into that channel; but the still re- 
maining prevalence of hermits, who dwelt 
among the mountains in unsocial and inde- 
pendent seclusion, very clearly proves, that 
the more attractive system of the Coenobites 
had not hitherto attained any luxurious refine- 
ment. No large territorial endowments had 
yet been attached to religious houses, and 
their support was chiefly derived from indi- 
vidual charity or superstition. And during 
the course of the fifth century the progression 
of monachism was probably more popular, 
and certainly more profitable, among Eastern 
nations, than it had yet become on this side 
of the Adriatic. 

Benedict of Nursia. But in the following 
age a more determined character was given 
to that profession. A hermit named Bene- 
dict, a native of Nursia in the diocese of 
Rome, instituted, about the year 529, an en- 
tirely new order, and imposed a rule, which 
is still extant, for its perpetual observance. . . 
No permanent and popular institution has 
ever yet existed, however in its abuse it have 
set sense and reason at defiance, which has 
not some pretension to virtue or wisdom, and 
usually much of the substance of both, in its 
origin and its infancy. It was thus with the 
order of St. Benedict. That celebrated rule, 
which in after ages enslaved the devout and 
demoralized the Church— which became a 



306 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



sign and a watchword for the satellites of Pa- 
pacy — was designed for purposes which, at 
the time of its promulgation, might seem truly 
Christian. Its objects were to form a mon- 
astic body, which under a milder discipline 
should possess a more solid establishment 
and more regular manners, than such as then 
existed ; and also to ensure for those, who 
should become members of it, a holy and 
peaceful life, so divided between prayer, and 
study, and labor, as to comprehend the prac- 
tical duties of religious education. Such was 
the simple foundation, on which all the riches, 
and luxury, and power, and profligacy of the 
Benedictines have been unnaturally piled up 
— consequences, which were entirely unfore- 
seen by him who founded, and by those who 
immediately embraced, and by those who 
fii-st protected,* a pious and useful institution. 
The Rule of St. Benedict. It is proper to 
confirm these observations by some account 
of what is, perhaps, the most celebrated mon- 
ument of ecclesiastical antiquity. The Rule 
of St. Benedict f is introduced by a quadru- 
ple division of those who professed the mo- 
nastic life. The first class was composed of 
the Coenobites or Regular Monks ; the second, 
of the Anchorets or Hermits, to whom he as- 
signs even superior perfection ; the third, of 
the Sarabaites, whom he describes as living 
without any rule, either alone or in small so- 
cieties, according to their inclination ; the 
fom-th, of Gyrovagi or Vagabonds, a dissolute 
and degraded body. His regulations for the 
divine offices were formed, in a great meas- 
ure, on the practice already described of the 
Monks of Egypt. \ Two hours after midnight 
they were aroused to vigils, on which occa- 
sion twelve psalms were chanted, and cer- 
tain lessons from the Scriptures read or recit- 
ed. At day-break the matins, a service little 
differing from the preceding, were perform- 
ed ; and the intervening space, which in 
winter was long and tedious, was employed 
in learning the Psalms by heart,§ or in med- 



* Gregory the Great was a zealous patron of this 
institution, and so approved the moderation of the 
rule, that he has not escaped the suspicion of being 
its author. 

t It is given at length by Hospinian. — De Origine 
Monachatus, lib. iv. cap. v. 

X See Mabillon, Pref. in sec. II. Annal. Benedict, 
and Hist, des Ord. Monast. 

§ In England the establishment of JMonachism was 
contemporary with that of Christianity. ' Augustinus, 
Monasterii Reguliseruditus, instiluit conversationem, 
quae initio nascentis ecclesiae fuit patribus nostris, 
quibu3 omnia ciant connnunia — Monasterimn fecit 



itating on their sense, or in some other neces- 
saiy study. But besides these and the other 
public services, the duty of private or mental 
prayer was recognised in the Institutions of 
of St. Benedict, and regulations were impos- 
ed which, while they restricted its duration, 
proposed to purify and spiiitualize its char- 
acter. 

To the duty of prayer the holy legislator 
added those of manual labor and readmg. 
The summer's day was so divided, that seven 
hours were destined to the former occupa- 
tion, and two at least to the latter.* And 
should it so happen, (he observes,) that his 
disciples be compelled to gather their har- 
vests with their own hands, let not that be 
any matter of complaint with them ; since it 
is then that they are indeed monks, when 
they live by their own handiwork, as did 
our fathers and the apostles. During the 
winter season the hours of labor were altered, 
but not abridged ; and those of study seem to 
have been somewhat increased, at least during 
Lent. The sabbath was entirely devoted to 
reading and prayer. Those whose work was 
allotted at places too remote from the Monas- 
tery to admit of their return to the appointed 
services, bent their knees on the spot and re- 
peated their prayers at the canonical hours. 
The description of labor was not left to the 
choice of the individual, but imposed by the 
Superior. Thus if any possessed any trade 
or craft, he could not exercise it, except, by 
permission of the Abbot. If any thing were 
sold, the whole value was carefully appropri- 
ated to the common fund ; and it was further 
directed, that the price should be somewhat 
lower than that demanded by secular artisans 
for the same objects — ' to the end that God 
might be glorified in all things.' 

In respect to abstinence,! the Rule of St. 
Benedict ordained not any of those perni- 
cious austerities, which were sometimes prac- 

non longe a Doroverniensi Civitate, &c.' Bede, lib. 
i. c. xxii. 

* It was ordained, that if any one were unable to 
read or meditate, some other occupation should be 
imposed on him. But as Latin, the language of re- 
ligious study, was at that time the vulgar tongue, at 
least one great impediment to religious instruction, 
which was so powerful in after ages, did not then 
exist. 

fin this matter St. Benedict relaxed from the 
rigor of the Eastern observance; but he did so with 
reluctance, regretting the necessary imperfection of a 
system, which he was compelled to accommodate to 
the gradually decreasing vigor of the human frame. 
Even Fieury (see his Eigluh Discourse) does not dis- 
dain to combat thir not ion. 



INSTITUTION OF MONACHiSIVi IN THE WEST. 



307 



tised by bis followers. Notwithstanding the 
indulgence of a small quantity of wine to 
those whose imperfect nature might require 
it, it prescribed a system of rigid temperance, 
which among those original CcEnobites was 
well enforced by their poverty—but it con- 
tains no injunction of fasting or mortification. 
Those vain and superstitions practices, the 
fruits of mingled enthusiasm and indolence, 
scarcely gained any prevalence in the mon- 
asteries of the West, until increasing wealth 
dispensed with the necessity of daily labor. 
The monks slept in the same dormitory, in 
which a lamp was kept constantly burning, 
and strict silence was imposed. Even in the 
day, they spake rarely ; and every expression 
partaking of levity, and calculated at all to 
disturb the seriousness of the community — 
every word that was irrelevant to its objects 
and uses — was absolutely prohibited within 
the convent walls. The Rule makes no men- 
tion of any sort of recreation ; but it enjoins 
that, every evening after supper, while the 
brothers are still assembled, one among them 
shall read aloud passages from the Lives of 
the Saints, or some other book of edification. 

As the Abbot was then chosen by the whole 
society without regard to any other considera- 
tion than personal merit, so in the government 
of tlie monastery he was bound to consult the 
senior brethren on lesser matters, and the 
whole body on the more important contin- 
gencies — it was ordained, however, that after 
he had taken such counsel, the final decision 
should rest entirely with himself. Obedience 
was the vow and obligation of the others. 

The form prescribed for the reception of 
Novices was not such as to encourage a luke- 
w\^rm candidate. In the first instance, he was 
compelled to stand for four or five days before 
the gates, supplicating only for admission. If 
he persevered, he was received first into the 
Chamber of Strangers — then into that of No- 
vices. An ancient brother was then commis- 
sioned to examine his vocation, and explain 
to him how rude and difficult was the path to 
heaven. After a probation of two months the 
Rule was read to him ; again, after six other 
months ; and a third time, at the end of the 
year. If he still persisted, he was received, 
and made profession in the Oratory before the 
whole community. And we should remark, 
that that j)rofession was confined to three 
subjects — perseverance in the njonastic life ; 
correction of moral delinquencies ; and obe- 
dience.* Offences committed bv the brethren 



* All those aticieiit brolheis were laymen. It does 



were punished, according to their enormity, 
by censure, excommunication, or corporal 
inflictions ; expulsion was reserved for those 
deemed incorrigible. Nevertheless even then 
the gate was not closed against repentance 5 
and the repudiated member was readmitted, 
on the promise of amendment, even for the 
third time. . . . Such in substance was 
the Rule of St. Benedict ; and even the very 
faint delineation here presented may suffice 
to give some insight into the real character 
of the original monasteries. Perhaps too it 
may serve to allay the bitterness, which we 
sometimes are too apt to entertain against the 
founders and advocates of the system, by 
showing, that though unscriptural in its prin- 
ciple and pernicious in its abuse, it was yet 
instituted not without some wisdom and fore- 
sight ; and was calculated to confer no incon- 
siderable blessings on those ages in which it 
first arose. 

Progress of the Institution. — The monasteiy 
of Monte Cassino, which became afterwards 
so celebrated in Papal History, was the noblest, 
though not perhaps the earliest, monument of 
St. Benedict's exertions. The moment was 
favorable to his undertaking; and his name 
and his Rule were presently adopted and 
obeyed throughout the greater part of Italy. 
By St. Maur, his disciple and associate, an 
institution on the same principle was im- 
mediately * introduced into France, and be- 
came the fruitful parent of dependent es- 
tablishments. Somewhat later in the same 
j century, St. Columban propounded in Britain 
I a rule resembling in many respects that of St. 
j Benedict, but surpassing it in severity ; and 
it was propagated with some success on the 
Continent. But it is the opinion of the most 
learned writers, that the monasteries, which 
at first followed it, yielded after no long inter- 
val to the higher authority and more practica- 
ble precepts of the Nursian ; whose, genuine 
institution indeed was soon aflerwards planted 
in the south of the island by the monk Au- 
gustine. At the same time the same system 
was spreading northward beyond the moun- 
tains of the Rhine ; and though it may pro- 
bably be true, that the 'Holy Rule' (regula 
sancta) was not univei-sally received until the 
ninth century — until the practice bad been 

not appear that even St. Benedict himseJf hdd any 
rank in the clergy. 

* About the year 542. It was destroyed by the 
Danes, but subsequently re-established about tlie year 
934, by the Bishop ot'Limog-es. A great nuralxjr of 
abbeys presently grew up under its shadow. — Ilistoire 
des Ordres Monastiques. 



SOS 



mSTORY OF THE CHtTRCII. 



vitiated by man}' corruptions — it is evident, 
that it obtained great prevalence long before 
that time, while it yet retained its original in- 
tegrity ; and it is equally clear, tljat its moral 
operation uj)on a lawless and bloodthirsty 
generation could not possibly be any otlier,- 
tlian to restrain and to humanize, 

I>a¥mg thse greater part of the seventh crad 
the beginning of the following age, frightful 
ravages were committed by the Lombards in 
Italy, and by the Danes in France and Britain, 
against which even the sanctity of the monas- 
tic profession furnished very insufficient pro- 
tection. Throughout this period of devasta- 
tion, while all oth-er laws and establishments 
were overthrown, k was not probaitle that 
even those ©f St. Beaedict siioold remain in- 
violate.. The monastery of Monte €assino 
was destroyed about fifty years after its foun- 
dation, and the holy spot remained desolate 
for almost a century and a half.* And though 
the respectable fugitives found an asylum at 
Rome, where the diseifxlinje- was pei'petuated 
in security,, ditring tRat k>ng period of perse- 
ciuion, others were less fortunate ; and even 
Mi t^ose which escaped destruction a more re- 
laxed observance natumlly gained ground, in 
the midst of universal licentio unless. Accord- 
ingly we lean>, that, towards the end of the 
eighth century, the order of St. Benedict had 
so far degenerated from its pristine purity, 
t^^ a thorough refbnn^ if not an en.tire recon- 
struction of the system, was deemed necessary 
for the dignity and welfare of the Church. 

Benedict of Aniane. — The individual to 
whoBfi this hoaorable office was destined, was 
also- named Benedict ^ he was descended from 
a powerful Gothic family, and a native of 
Aniane in the diocese of Montpellier. Born 
about the year 750, he devoted his^ early life 
to religious austerities, exceeding not only the 
practice of his brethren, but the instruction of 
the founder. The Rule of St. Benedict was 
formed, in his opinion, for invalids and no- 
vices ; and he sti'ove to regulate his disciplme 
after the sublimer models of Basil and Paebo- 



* See Leo Ostiensis. Chron. Cassineaa, lib., i.. 
Gregory III. restoi'ed tlie Htiona&tery, and Zachary 
liis successor granted to it (about the year 743) the 
privilege of excRisive dependence on the Bishop of 
Rome.. But one blessing was still wanting to secure 
its prosperity — and tBiat was happily supplied by the 
Abbot Desiderius in 1066. In exploring some ruins 
about the edifice, he discovered the body of St. Ben- 
edict!! It is true that a pope was soon found to pro- 
nounce <iie genuineness of the relic. Nevertheless 
the face was long and raal«volently disputed by rival 
impostors „ 



mius. Presently he was chosen to preside 
over his monastery; but in disgust, as is re- 
ported, at the inadequate practice of his sub- 
jects, he retired to Aniane, and there laid the 
foundation of a nev/ and more rigid institu- 
tion. The people reverenced his sanctity and 
crowded to his cell ; the native nobles assisted 
him in the constrMction of a magaificent edi- 
fice ; and endowments of land were soon con- 
ferred upon the humble Reformer of Aniane. 
Moreover, as he enhanced the feme of his 
austerities by the practice of charity and uni- 
versal benevolence, * his venerable name de- 
served the celebrity which it so rapidly ac- 
quired. His Ascetic disciples were eagerly 
sought after by other monasteries, as models 
and instruments for the restoration of dis- 
cipline-,, and as the policy of Charlemagne 
concurred with the general inclination to im- 
provement, the decaying system was restored 
and fortified by a bold and effectual reforma- 
tian>. 

When Benedict of Aniane traderSooR to es- 
tablish a system, he found it prudent to relax 
from that extreme austerity, which as a sim- 
ple monk he had both professed and prac- 
tised. As his youthfid enthusiasm abated, he 
beeame gradually convinced, that the rule of 
the Nursian Hermit was as severe as the com- 
mon infirmities of human nature could en- 
dure.f He was therefore contented to revive- 
that Rule, or rather to enforce its observance ; 
and the part which he peculiarly pressed on 
the practice of his disciples, was the obligation 
of manual labor. To the neglect of that es- 
sential portion of monastic discipline the suc- 
cessive corruptions of the system are with 
truth attributed; and the regulations, which 
were adopted by the Reformer of Aniawev 
were confirmed (in 817) by the Council of 
Aix-la-Chapelle. From this epoch | we may 



* Besides the general mention of his profuse dona- 
tions to the poor,, it i^ particurarly related respecting 
this Benedict, that whenever an estate was made over 
to him, he invariably emancfpated all the serfs whont 
he found on it. Act. SS. Benedict^ tom.^ v.- 

t The duty of sHence was very generally enjoined: 
in iBonastic institutions. In the Rule of The Breth- 
ren of the Holy Trinity,' established by Innocent III., 
we observe for instance — 'Silentium observent sem- 
per in Ecclesia sua, semper in Refectorlo, semper 'm< 
Dormitorio,' — and even on the most necessary occa- 
sions for conversation the monks were instructed to 
speak remissa voce,, hum i liter, et honeste.^ — See Dug- 
dale, vol. ii. p. 830. 

:}:It would not appear that these changes very mucIV 
influenced the condition of monachism in England. 
The three great reformations in that system which 
took place iiiour church were, (1) that of Archbishop 



INSTITUTION OF MONACHISM IN THE WEST. 



309 



date the renovation of the Benedictine Order ; 
and though, even in that age, it was grov^rn 
l)erhaps too lich to adhere very closely to its 
ancient observance, yet the sons whom it 
nourished may nevertheless be accounted, 
without any exaggeration of their merits, 
among the most industrious, the most learn- 
ed, and the most pious of their own genera- 
tion. 

It is not our intention to trace the number- 
less branches * which sprang from the stem 
of St. Benedict, and overshadowed the sur- 
face of Europe. But there are three at least 
among them, which, hy their frequent men- 
tion in ecclesiastical history, demand a sepa- 
rate notice, — the Order of Cluni, the Cister- 
cian Order, and that of the Chartreux. The 
monastery of Corbie, also of great renown, 
was founded by Charlemagne for the spiritual 
subjugation of Saxony ; but it is no other 
way distinguished from the regular Benedic- 
tine institutions, than by its greater celebrity. 

The Order of Cluni. — During the ninth cen- 
tury, the rapid incursions of the Normans, 
and the downward progress of corruption, 
once more reduced the level of monastic 
sanctity ; and a fresh impulse became neces- 
sary to restore the excellence and save the 
reputation of the system. The method of 
reformation was, on this occasion, somewhat 
different fi-om that previously adopted. A 
separate order was established, derived indeed 
immediately from the stock of St. Benedict, 
yet claiming, as it were, a specific distinction 
and character — it was the order of Cluni. It 
was founded about the year 900, in the dis- 
trict of Macon, in Burgundy, by William, 
duke of Aquitaine ; but the praise of perfect- 
ing it is rather due to the abbot, St. Odo. It 



Cuthbert, in the year 747; (2) that of Dunstan, in 
965, promulgated in the Council of Winchester, on 
which occasion the general constitution, entitled, — 
Regula Concordiae Anglicae Nationis, — was for the 
first time prescribed. It was founded partly on the 
Rule of St. Benedict, partly on ancient customs. (3) 
That of Lanfranc, in 1075, authorised by the Council 
of London, and founded on the same principle as the 
second. . . Mabillon, a zealous advocate and an 
acute critic, sufficiently sliows from John the Deacon, 
(who wrote the Life of Gregory the Great in 875,) 
that the Rule of St. Benedict was received in Eng- 
land befoie the second of those reformations. Our 
allusions to the ecclesiastical history of England are 
thus rare and incidental, because that Church is in- 
tended, we believe, to form the subject of a separate 
work. 

* Such as the Camaldulenses, Sylvestrlni, Grandi- 
montenses, Prsemonstratenses, the Monks of VaVlom- 
laosa, and a multitude of others. 



commenced, as usual, by a sti'ict imitation of 
ancient excellence, a rigid profession of pov- 
erty, of industry, and of piety ; and it declin- 
ed, according to the usual course of human 
institutions, through wealth, into indolence 
and luxury. In the space of about two cen- 
turies it fell into obscurity; and after the 
name of Peter the Venerable (the contem- 
porary of St. Bernard,) no eminent ecclesias- 
tic is mentioned as having issued from its 
discipline. Besides the riches, which had re- 
warded and spoiled its original purity, anoth- 
er cause is mentioned as havmg contributed 
to its decline — the corruption of the simple 
Rule of St. Benedict, by the midtiplicatioii 
of vocal prayers, and the substitution of new 
offices and ceremonies for the manual labor 
of former days. The ill effect of that change 
was indeed admitted by the venerable Abbot 
in his answer to St. Bernard. 

But in the meantime, during the long pe- 
riod of its prosperity, the order of Cluni had 
reached the highest point of honorable repu- 
tation ; insomuch that during the eleventh 
century, a bishop of Ostia (the future Urban 
II.) being officially present at a council in 
Germany, suppressed in his signiture his 
episcopal dignity, and thought that he adopt- 
ed a prouder title, when he subscribed him- 
self ' Monk of Cluni, and Legate of Pope 
Gregory.' * Those two names were well as- 
sociated ; for it was indeed within the walls 
of Cluni, that Hildebrand fed his youthful 
spirit on those dreams of universal dominion, 
which he afterwards attempted to realize : it 
was there, too, that he may have meditated 
those vast crusading projects which were 
accomplished by Urban, his disciple. But 
however that may be, the cloister from which 
he had emerged to change the destinies of 
Christendom, and the disciplme which had 
formed him (as some might think) to such 
generous enterprises, acquired a reflected 
splendor from his celebrity ; and since the 
same institution was also praised for its zeal- 
ous and active orthodoxy, and its devotion to 
the throne of St. Peter, shall we wonder that 
it flourished far and wide in power and opu- 
lence ; and that it numbered, in the following 
age, above two thousand monasteries, which 
followed its appointed Rule and its adopted 
prmciples? Yet is there a sorrowful reflection 
which attends the spectacle of this prosperity. 
Through all the parade of wealth and dignity, 
we penetrate the melancholy truth, that the 
season of monastic vu-tue and monastic utility 

J * See Hist. Litter, de la France, Vie Urban 11. 



310 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



was passing by, if indeed it was not already 
passed irrevocably ; aiid we remark bow rap- 
idly the close embrace of the pontifical power 
was converting to evil the rational principles 
and pious purposes of the original institution. 
Tke Cistercian Order. Howbeit, we do not 
read that any flagrant immoralities had yet 
disgi-aced the establishment of Ciuni. Only 
it had attained a degree of sumptuous refine- 
ment very far removed from its first profes- 
sion. This degeneracy furnished a reason 
for the creation of a new and rival communi- 
ty in its neighborhood. The Cistercian order 
\vas founded in 1098, * and vexy soon receiv- 
ed the pontifical confirmation. In its origin 
it successfully contrasted its laborious pover- 
ty and much show of Christian humility with 
the lordly opulence of Cluni ; and in its pro- 
gress, it pursued its predecessor througli the 
accustomed circle of austerity, wealth, and 
corruption. This Institution was peculiarly 
favored from its very foundation ; since it 
possessed, among its earliest treasures, the 
virtues and celebrity of St. Bernard. One of 
the first of the Cistercian monks, that vener- 
ated ecclesiastic established, in 1115, the de- 
pendent abbey of Clairvaux, over which he 
long presided ; and such was his success in 
propagating the Cistercian order, that he has 
sometimes been erroneously considered as its 
founder. The zeal of his pupils, aided by the 
authority of his fame, completed the work 
transmitted to them ; and Vv'itli so much ea- 
gerness were the monasteries of the Citeaux 
filled and endowed, that, before the year 
1250, that order yielded nothing, in the num- 
ber and importance of its dependencies, to 
its rival of Cluni. Both spread with almost 
equal prevalence over every province in 
Christendom ; and the colonies long contin- 
ued to acknowledge the supremacy of the 



* Anno milleno, centeno, bis minus uno, 
Pontifice Urbano, Francorum Rege Philippo, 
Burgundis Odone duce et fundamina dante, 
Sub Pane Roberto coepit Cistercius Ordo. 
Pagi, Vit, Urban H., sect, 73. The date of another 
celebrated Institution, which we have no space to 
notice, has been similarly (though less artificially) 
recorded : — • 

Anno milleno, centeno, bis quoque deno 
Sub Patre Norberto Prsemonstratensis viget Ordo. 
Norbert was archbishop of Magdeburg, and in 
great repute with Innocent II, The site of the mon- 
astery was prpemonstrated by a vision — hence the 
nrtme. The rule was that of St. Augustin ; the 
Brethren were confirmed by Calixtus II., under the 
designation of Canonici Regulares Exempli ; and 
they spread to the extremities of the east and the 
west, — Hospin. lib., v, c. xii> 



mother monastery. But the Citeaux was 
less fortunate in the duration of its authority, 
and the union of its societies. About the 
year 1350, some confusion grew up amongst 
them, arising first from their corruptions, 
and next from the obstruction of all endeav- 
ors to reform them. At the end of that cen- 
tury, they were involved in the grand schism 
of the Catholic church, and thus became still 
further ahenated from each other ; till at 
length, about the year 1500, they broke up 
(first in Spain, and then in Tuscany and 
Lombardy) into separate and independent 
establishments. 

Order of La Chartreuse. St. Bruno, with a 
few companions, established a residence at the 
Chartreuse, in the summer of 1084: the usual 
duties of labor, temperance, and prayer were 
enjoined with more perhaps than the usual 
severity.* But this community did not imme- 
diately rise into any great eminence ; it was 
long governed by Priors, subject to the bishop 
of Grenoble ; and its founder died (in 1101) 
in a Calabrian monastery. Nearly fifty years 
after its foundation, its statutes were written 
by a Prior, named Guigues,f who presided 
over it for eighteen years. By the faithful 
observance of those statutes, though in its 
commencement far outstripped by its Cister- 
cian competitors, it gradually rose hito honor- 



* The earliest Cistercians, under Alberic,who died 
in 1109, affected a rigid imitation of the Rule of St. 
Benedict. They refused all donations of churches 
and altars, oblations and tithes. It appeared not 
(they said) that in the ancient quadripartite division 
the Monasteries had any share — for this reason, that 
they had lands and cattle, whence they could live by 
work. They avoided cities and populous districts ; 
but professed their willingness to accept the endow- 
ment of any remote or waste lands, or of vinej-ards, 
meadows, woods, waters (for mills and fishing), as 
well as horses and cattle. Their only addition to the 
old rule was that of lay brothers and hired servants. — 
Freres Convers Laiques. 

t Fleury, H. E. 1. 67, s. 58. From these statutes 
it appears, that from September to Easier the monks 
were allowed only one meal a day ; that they drank 
no pure wine; that fish might not be purchased ex- 
cept for the sick; that no superfluous gold or silver 
was permitted at the service of the altar; that the 
use of medicine was discouraged; but that, to com- 
pensate for that prohibition, the monks were bled five 
times a year. It is proper to add, that during the 
same period they were permitted to shave only six 
times. 

Some statutes of this order are given by Dugdale, 
Monast. vol i. p. 951. Among them we observe a 
strict injunction to manual labor: — 

Nunc lege, nunc ora, nunc cum fervore labora; 
Sic erit hora brevis, et labor ille levis. 



INSTITUTION OF MONACHISM IN THE WEST. 



311 



able notoriety ; and at length, about the year 
1178, its rule was sanctioned by the approba- 
tion of Alexander III. From this event, its 
existence as a separate order in the church is 
properly to be dated; and henceforward it 
went forth from its wild and desolate birth- 
place, and spread its fi-uitful branches over 
the gardens and vineyards of Europe. The 
rise of the Chartreux gave fresh cause for 
emulation to theii' brethren of older estab- 
lishment; and the rivahy thus excited and 
maintained by these repeated innovations, if 
it caused much professional jealousy and 
doubtless some pei'sonal animosity, furnished 
the only resource by which the monastic sys- 
tem could have been brought to preserve even 
the semblance of its original practice. Still 
it should be remarked, that these successive 
additions to the fraternity implied no con- 
tempt of the institutions of antiquity : they 
made no profession of novelty, or of any im- 
provement upon pristine obsei-vances ; on the 
contrary, the more modern orders all claimed, 
as they respectively started into existence, the 
authority and the name of St. Benedict. 
The monk of Cluni, the Cistercian, the Car- 
thusian, were alike Benedictines; and the 
more rigid the reform which they severally 
boasted to introduce, and the nearer their 
approximation to the earliest practice, the 
better were their pretensions founded to a 
legitimate descent from the Western Patri- 
arch. 

Institution of Lay Brethren. The rules of 
the reformed orders invariably inculcated the 
performance of manual labor ; and the neg- 
lect of that injunction invariably led to their 
corruption. But an alteration had been ef- 
fected in the general constitution of the body, 
which alone precluded any faithful emulation 
of the immediate disciples of St. Benedict. 
As late as the eleventh age the monks v^^ere 
for the most part laymen ; and they perform- 
ed all the servile offices of the establishment 
with their own hands. But in the year 1040, 
St. John of Gualbert introduced into his mon- 
astery of Vallombrosa a distinction which 
was fatal to the integrity of former discipline. 
He divided those of his obedience into two 
classes — lay brethren and brethren of the 
choir ; and while the spiritual and mtellectual 
duties of the institution were more particu- 
larly enjoined to the latter, the whole bodily 
labor, whether domestic or agricultural, was 
imposed upon their lay associates.* Thence- 



* In the Ordres Monastiques, p. iv. c. 18, two 
Eona of laymen are mentioned as living in French 



forward the Monks (for the higher class began 
to appropriate that name) became entirely 
composed either of clerks, or of persons des- 
tined for holy orders; the religious offices 
were celebrated and chiefly attended by them ; 
while the servant was commanded to repeat 
his pater without suspending his work, and 
presented with a chaplet for the numbering 
of the canonical hours. A reason was ad- 
vanced for this change ; and had not a much 
stronger been affi^rded by the inordinate ac- 
cumulation of wealth, it might have seemed 
perhaps not unsatisfactory. In earlier ages, 
Latin, the language of prayer, was also the 
vulgar tongue of all western Christians ; but 
as that grew into disuse, and became the ob- 
ject of study, instead of the vehicle of con- 
versation, the greater part of the laity were 
unable to comprehend the offices of the 
church. Accordingly it was deemed neces- 
sary to distinguish between the educated and 
the wholly illiterate brethren ; and, in pursu- 
ance of the principle, which then prevailed, 
of confining all learning to the sacred pro- 
fession, the former were raised to the enjoy- 
ment of leisure and authority, the latter con- 
demned to ignorance and servitude. This 
distinction, being earlier than the foundation 
of the Cistercian, Carthusian, and all subse- 
quent orders, was admitted at once into their 
original constitution ; and therefore, however 
closely they might affect to imitate the most 
ancient models, there existed, from the very 
commencement, one essential peculiarity, in 
which they deviated fi-om it 

Papal Exemptions. According to the old- 
est practice, every monastery was governed 
I by an abbot, chosen by the monks from their 
own body, and ordained and instituted by the 
bishop of the diocess. To the superintend- 
ing authority of the same the abbot was also 
subject; and thus abuses and contentions 
were readily repressed by the presence of a 
resident inspector. But when, in the progress 
of papal usurpation, those establishments 
were exempted from episcopal jurisdiction, 
and placed under the exclusive regulation of 
the Vatican, the facilities for corruption were 
multiplied ; and a number of evils were creat- 
ed, which escaped the observation or correc- 
tion of a distant and indulgent master. At 
the same time, the effect of this connexion 

monasteries: (1) Such as gave themselves over as 
slaves to the establishment, and were called Oblats 
or Donnes. (2) Such as were recommended for sup- 
port to monasteries of royal foundation by the king. 
But neither of tliese classes were, properly speaking, 
lay brethren. 



312 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



was to infuse an entirely new spirit into the 
monastic system. Avarice, and especially 
ambition, took the place of those pious mo- 
tives which certainly predominated in earlier 
days. The inmates of the cloister were as- 
sociated in the grand schemes of the pontifi- 
cal policy ; they became its necessary and 
most obsequious instruments ; they were ex- 
alted by its success, — tiiey were stained by its 
vices : and the successive reformations, which 
professed to renovate the declining fabric, 
were only vain attempts to restore its ancient 
character. They could at best only expect to 
repair its outward front, and replace the syni- 
])ols of its former sanctity ; the spirit, by which 
it had been really blessed and consecrated, 
was already departed from it. 

Great complaints respecting monastic cor- 
ruption were uttered both at the Council of 
Paris in 1212, and at that of the Lateran, 
which met three years afterwards. But, 
though some vigorous attempts were, on both 
those occasions, made to repress it, the coun- 
teracting causes were too powerful ; and the 
evil continued to extend and become more 
poisonous during the times which followed. 
It is singular that, at the second of those 
councils, it was proclaimed as a great evil in 
the system, that new orders were too com- 
monly established, and the forms of monas- 
ticism multiplied with a dangerous fei'tility. 
And therefore, ' lest their too great diversity 
should introduce confusion into the Church,' 
it was enacted that their future creation should 
be discouraged. Tliis is considered by some 
Catholic writers to have been a provident 
regulation ; since the jealousy among the 
rival congregations had by this time degene- 
rated from pious emulation (if it ever possess- 
ed that character) into a mere conflict of evil 
passions. But whatever may have been the 
policy of the statute, it was at least treated in 
the observance with such peculiar contempt, 
that the institution of the Mendicants, the 
boldest of all the innovations in the annals of 
monachism, took place almost immediately 
afterwards. 

Section III. 

Canons Regular and Secular. 

The order of monks was originally so widely 
distinct from that of clerks, that there were 
seldom found more than one or two ecclesi- 
astics in any ancient convent. But presently, 
in the growing prevalence of the monastic 
life, persons ordained, or destined to the sacred 
profession, formed societies on similar princi- 



ples ; and as they were bound, though with 
less severity, by certain fixed canons, they 
were called, in process of time, Canonici* 
The bishop of the diocese was their abbot 
and president. It is recorded that St. Augus- 
tine set the example of livhig with his clergy 
in one society, with community of propert}'-, 
according to the canons of the church ; but 
he prescribed to them no vow, nor any other 
statutes for their observance, except such in- 
structions as are found in his 109th Epistle, f 
Nevertheless, above a hundi-ed and fifty re- 
ligious congregations have in succeeding ages 
professed his rule and claimed his parentage, 
and assumed, with such slight pretensions, 
the authority of his venerable name. The 
true origin of the order is a subject of much 
uncertainty. Onuphrius, in his letter to Pla- 
tjna, asserts that it was instituted by Gelasius 
at Rome, about 495, | and that it passed thence 
into other churches ; and Dugdale appears to 
acquiesce in this opinion. It is, moreover, 
certain, that Chrodegangus, Bishop of Metz, 
prescribed a rule, about the year 750, to the 
Canons of his own reformation ; and that he 
made some eflTorts, though not perhaps very 
eflTectually, to extend it more widely. Still 
some are not persuaded that societies of clerks 
were subject to one specified form of disci- 
pline, till the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle, § 
under the direction of Louis le Debonnaire, 
confirmed and completed the previous enact- 
ments of Mayence (in 813,) and imposed on 
them one general and pei*petual rule. 

The plausible principle on which the order 
of canons was founded, to withdraw from the 
contagion of the world those who had pecu- 



* The term Canon originally included not only all 
professors of the monastic life, but the very Hierodu- 
les and inferior officers of the Church. Mosheim (on 
the authority of Le Boeuf, Memoires sur I'Histoire 
d'Auxerre, vol. i. p. 174.) assei-ts that it became pe- 
culiar to clerical monks (Fratres Dominici) soon 
after the middle of the eighth century. But we should 
rather collect from the Histoire des Ordres Monas- 
tiques, that the distinction was not generally establish- 
ed till the eleventh age. 

t It should be observed, that this epistle, which is 
cited by ecclesiastical writers as containing instruc- 
tions for an institution of Canohs, was in fact addres- 
sed to a convent of refractory nuns, who had quarrelled 
with their Abbess, and exhibited some unbecoming 
violence in the dispute. 

^ See Dugdale. De Canonorum Ordinis Origine. 
There may be found the Rule which St. Augustin is 
said to have prescribed. 

§ The rule here published was borrowed, in many 
particulars, from that of St. Benedict. But the order 
still retained the name and banners of St. Augustin 
— Hist, des Ordres Monastiques* 



ON THE MILITARY ORDERS. 



13 



liarly devoted themselves to the service of 
God, was found insufficient to preserve them 
from degeneracy. A division was early in- 
troduced (in Germany, according to Trithe- 
mius, and in the year 977,) by which the re- 
formed were separated from the unreformed 
members of the comuiunity, in name as well 
as in deed. The former, from their return to 
the original rule, a.ssumed the appellation of 
Canons-Regular ; the latter, who adhered to 
the abuse, were termed, in contradistinction, 
Canons-Secular ; and this sort of schism ex- 
tended to other countries, and became perma- 
nent in many. 

The discipline of the regular canons was 
more seriously enforced by Nicholas II. in 
the year 1059 ; and about eighty years later, 
Innocent II. subjected them to the additional 
obligation of a vow ; for they seem hitherto 
to have been exempt from such profession. 
Nevertheless, in the course of the two follow- 
ing centm-ies, they once more relapsed into 
such abandoned licentiousness, as to require 
an entire reconstruction fi-om Benedict XII. 
After that period, they rose into more con- 
sideration than in their earlier history they 
appear to have attained. 

There were besides some other orders, both 
military and mendicant, which professed the 
rule, or rather the name, of St. Augustine — 
the Hospitallers, for instance, the Teutonic 
Knights, and the Hermits of St. Augustine. 
But they will be mentioned under those heads 
where we have tliought it more convenient to 
place them, than to follow in this matter the 
perplexed method of the ' Historian of the 
Monastic Orders.' 

Section IV. 

071 the Militai-y Orders. 

We have thus shortly mentioned the three 
grand religious Orders, which have been di- 
versified by so many names and rules, and re- 
generated by so many reforms ; which began 
in austerity, and yet fell into the most shame- 
less debauchery ; which arose in piety, and 
passed into wicked and lying superstition ; 
which originated in poverty, and finally fat- 
tened on the credulity of the faithful, so as to 
spread their solid territorial acquisitions from 
one end of Christendom to the other. Found- 
ed on the genume monastic principle of de- 
vout seclusion, so venerable to the ignorant 
and the vulgar, they presently surpassed the 
secular clergy in the reputation of sanctity, 
and in popular influence. Thus were they 
soon recommended to the Bishop of Rome ; 
and ill his ambition to exalt himself above his 
40 



brother prelates, he discovered an efficient 
and willing instrument in the regular estab- 
lishments. At an early period, he gi'anted 
them j)rotection, and patronage, and property, 
with the means of augmenting it : presently, 
he accorded to certain monasteries exemption 
from the episcopal authority ; and in process 
of time, he extended that privilege to almost 
all. Thus he gradually constituted himself 
sole visitor, legislator, and guardian of the 
numberless religious institutions which cov- 
ered the Christian world. The monks repaid 
these services by the most implicit obedience 
— for obedience was that of their three vows 
which they continued to respect the longest 
— and to their aid and influence may generally 
be ascribed the triumphs of the pontiff in his 
disputes with the secular clergy. In his con- 
tests with the State, they were not less neces- 
sary to his cause ; for, as his success in those 
struggles usually depended on the divisions 
which he was enabled to sow among the 
subjects of his enemy, and the strength of 
the party which he could thus create, so the 
monks, in every nation in Europe, were his 
most powerful agents for that purpose. And 
thus, when we consider the victory, which the 
spiritual sometimes obtained over the tem- 
poral power, as a mere triumph of opinion 
over arms and physical force, we do indeed, 
at the bottom, consider it rightly ; but our sur- 
prise at the result is much diminished, when 
we reflect how extensive a control over men's 
minds was everywhere possessed by the re- 
ligious orders, — how fearlessly and unsparing- 
ly they exercised that control, and with what 
persevering zeal it was directed to the support 
and aggrandizement of papal power. 

The Benedictines and Augustinians were 
the standing army of the Vatican, and they 
fought its spiritual battles with constancy and 
success for nearly sLx centuries. The first 
addition which was made to them was that 
of the Militaiy orders ; and this proceeded 
not from any sense of the insufficiency of the 
veteran establishments, nor from any distrust 
in them, but from circumstances wholly inde- 
pendent of those or any such causes. They 
arose in the agitation of the crusades, and they 
were nourished by the sort of spu'it which first 
created those expeditions, and then caught 
from them some additional fury. 

The union of the military with the ecclesi- 
astical character was become common, in spite 
of repeated prohibitions, among all ranks of 
the clergy. It w^as exercised by the vices of 
the feudal system ; which had given them 
wealth in enviable profusion, but which pro- 



314 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



vided by no sufficient laws or strength of 
government for the protection of that which 
it had bestowed — so that force was necessary 
to defend what had been lavished by super- 
stition. The warlike habits which ecclesias- 
tics seem really to have first acquired in the 
defence of their property, were presently car- 
ried forth by them into distant and offensive 
campaigns, and exhibited in voluntary feats 
of arms, to which loyalty did not oblige them, 
and for w^hich loyalty itself furnished a very 
insufficient pretext. But these general ex- 
cesses did not give birth to any distinct order 
professing to unite religious vows with the 
exercise of arms ; and even the first of those, 
which did afterwards make such profession, 
was in its origin a pacific and charitable in- 
stitution. 

The Knights of the Hospital. — This was the 
Order of St. John of Jerusalem, or the Knights 
of the Hospital. About the year 1050, at the 
wish of some merchants of Amalfi trading 
with Syria, a Latin Church had been erected 
at Jerusalem, to which a hospital was presently 
added, with a chapel dedicated to the Baptist. 
When Godfrey de Bouillon took the city in 
3099, he endowed the hospital : it then as- 
sumed the form of a new religious order, 
and immediately received confirmation from 
Rome, with a rule for its observance. * The 
revenues were soon found to exceed the ne- 
cessities of the establishment ; and it was then 
that the Grand Master changed its principle 
and design by the infusion of the militai-y 
character. 

The Knights of the Hospital were distin- 
guished by three gradations. The first in 
dignity were the noble and military ; the sec- 
ond were ecclesiastical, superintending the 
original objects of the institution ; the third 
consisted of the ' Serving Brethren,' whose 
duties also were chiefly military. To the or- 
dinary vows of poverty, chastity, and obedi- 
ence, they added the obligations of charity, 
fasting, and penitence : and, whatsoever laxity 
they may have admitted in the observance of 
them, they unquestionably derived fi'om that 
profession some real virtues which were not 
shared by the fanatics who surrounded them ; 
and they softened the savage features of re- 
ligious warfare with some faint shades of un- 
wonted humanity. So long as their residence 
was Jerusalem, they retained the peaceful 
name of Hospitallers ; but diey were subse- 
quently better known by the successive appel- 

* The rule of the Hospitallers (as confirmed by 
Boniface) may be found in Dugdale's Monasticon, 
vol. ii. p. 493. 



lations of Knights of Rhodes and of Malta. 
Faithful at least to one of the objects of their 
institution, they valiantly defended the out- 
works of Christendom against the progress of 
the invading Mussulman, and never sullied 
their arms by the massacre of Pagans or here- 
tics. 

The Knights Templars. The Knights 
Templars received their name from their re- 
sidence in the immediate neighborhood of the 
Temple at Jerusalem. The foundations of 
this order were laid in the year 1118 ; and 
the rule, to which it was afterwards subjected, 
was from the pen of St. Bernard. This in- 
stitution, both in its original purpose and pre- 
scribed duties, was exclusively military. — To 
extend the boundaries of Christendom, to 
preserve the internal tranquillity of Palestine, 
to secure the public roads from robbers and 
outlaws, * to protect the devout on their pil- 
grimage to the holy places — such were the 
peculiar offices of the Templar. They were 
discharged with fearlessness and rewarded by 
renown. Renown was followed by the most 
abundant opulence. Corruption came in its 
train ; and on their final expulsion from Pal- 
estine, they carried back with them to Europe 
much of the wild unbridled license, which 
had been familiar to them in the East. But 
their unhappy fate, as it is connected v/ith 
one of the most important periods in papal 
history, must be resei-ved for more particular 
mention in its proper place. 

The Teutonic Order. The Teutonic, or 
German Order, had its origin again in the 
offices of charity. During the siege of Acre, 
a hospital was erected for the reception of 
the sick and wounded. This establishment 
survived the occasion which created it ; and, 
to confirm its character and its permanency, 
it obtained a rule (in 1192) from Celestine 
III., and a place among the ' Orders Hospit- 
able and Military.' On the termination of 
the Crusades, these knights returned to Ger- 
many,! where they enjoyed considerable pos- 



* An order, with a somewhat similar object, was 
foimded in France about the year 1233, called the 
Order of the Glorious Virgin Mary. It was confined 
to young men of family, who associated themselves, 
under the title of Les Freres Joyeux, for the defence 
of the injured, and the preservation of public tran- 
quillity. They took vows of obedience and covjugal 
chastity, and solemnly pledged themselves to the pro- 
tection of widows and orphans. 

f In the treaty between the empire and the pope- 
dom in 1230, we find that the interests of the three 
military orders were expressly stipulated for by the 
Pope; and also, that certain places were held in se- 
i questration by Herman, Master of the Teutonic Order 



THE MENDICANT ORDERS. 



315 



sessions ; and soon afterwai-ds, by a deviation 
Irom the purpose of their institution, which 
might seem shght perhaps in a superstitious 
age, they turned thek consecrated arms to the 
conversion of Prussia. 

That countiy, and the contiguous Pome- 
rania, had hitherto resisted the peaceful ex- 
ertions of successive missionaries, and con- 
tinued to vi^orship the rude deities, and follow 
the barbarous njannei-s, of antiquity. But 
where the language of persuasion had been 
employed in vain, the disciphued valor of the 
Teutonic Knights prevailed. It was recom- 
pensed by the conquest of two rich provinces ; 
and the faith which was inflicted upon the 
vanquished in the rage of massacre, was per- 
petuated under the deliberate oppression of 
military government. This event took place 
about the year 1230 ; but in another gener- 
ation, when the memoiy of its inti'oduction 
was effaced, the religion really took root and 
flourished, by the sure and legitimate autho- 
rity of its excellence and its truth. After that 
celebrated exploit, the Teutonic Order con- 
tinued to subsist in gi-eat estimation with the 
Church ; and this patronage was repaid with 
persevering fidelity, until at length, when they 
perceived the grand consummation approach- 
ing, the holy knights generally deserted that 
tottering fortress, and an-ayed their rebellious 
host under the banners of Luther. 

Section V. 
The Mendicant^ or Preaching Orders. 

Until the end of the twelfth century the 
exertions of the Popes were almost entu*ely 
confined to the establishment of their own 
supremacy in the Church, and of their tem- 
poral authority over the State : and, through 
the faithful subservience of the two ancient 
orders, they had obtained sm*prising success 
in both undertakings. But the increasing 
light of the eleventh and twelfth ages, and 
the increasing deformities of the Church, 
brouglit into existence a number of heresies, 
occasioning dissensions, such as had not di- 
vided Christians suice the Arian conti-oversy. 
These moreover presented themselves not 
w^ith one form, and one front, and one neck, 
but were scattered under a multitude of de- 
nominations, throughout all provinces, and 
among all ranks. The secular clergy, relaxed 
by habitual indolence and occasional immo- 
ralities, rather gave cause to this disaffection, 

until the Emperor should have fulfilled his part of the 
engagement. Fleury, 1. 79, s. 64. 



than subdued it ; and the regular orders, be- 
come sluggish from wealth and indulgence, 
wanted the activity, perhaps the zeal, which 
was required of them. To detect the latent 
error, to pursue it into its secret holds, to drag 
it forth and consign it to the minister of 
temporal vengeance, was an office beyond 
the energy of their luxuriousness ; still less 
did they possess the talents and the learning 
to confute and confound it. Wherefore, as 
the experience of some centuries had now 
proved, that the existing orders, how often 
soever and completely reformed and repro- 
duced, had an immediate tendency to subside 
again into degeneracy and decay, it seemed 
expedient to introduce some entirely different 
organization into the imperfect system. 

St. Dominic. The first notion of the new 
institution * was given by that body of eccle- 
siastics who were commissioned by Innocent 
III. to convert the Albigeois ; and among these 
the most distinguished was St. Dominic. . . 
That favorite champion of the Roman Church, 
the falsely-reputed inventor of mquisitorial 
toitm-e, was a Spaniard of a noble family and 
of the order of Canons-Regular. In his spi- 
ritual campaigns (it were well bad they been 
no more than spiritual) against the heretics of 
Languedoc, he became eminent by an elo- 
quence which always inflamed and sometimes 
persuaded ; and havmg felt the power of that 
faculty, which through the space of thirteen 
centuries had so rarely revisited the Roman 
empire, he became desirous to establish a 
fraternity devoted to its exercise. His project 
was not discouraged by Innocent III.; but 
that pontiff hesitated to give the formal sanc- 
tion necessary to constitute a new order : since 
the Council of Lateran, acting according to 
his discretion, had pronounced it generally 
expedient to reform existing institutions, 
rather than to augment their number. But 
immediately after the death of that Pope, 
Dominic was established in the privileges of 
a ' Founder,' by the bull of Houorius III. f 



* Hospinian's Sixth Book comprehends a quantity 
of valuable matter on the subject of the Mendicants; 
and chapters iv. v. and vi. should particularly be con- 
sulted. The author is laborious and learned, but not 
impartial. In the zeal of the Protestant he has for- 
gotten the moderation of the Historian, and (might 
we not sometimes addl) the charity of the Christian. 

t Fleui-y asserts, that the Freres Precheurs at first 
were not so much a new order, as a new congregation 
of the Canons-Regular; since it was only at a Chap- 
ter General held in 1220, that St. Dominic and his 
disciples embraced entire poverty and mendicity. 
This may be so — but at any rate their original con- 
dition was so extremely transient and destitute of all 



316 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



St. Francis. Contemporary witli St. Do- 
minic was Ins great compeer in ecclesiastical 
celebrity, tlie father of the rival institution. 
St. Francis was a native of Asisi in Umbria, 
without rank, without letters, but of an ardent 
and enthusiastic temperament. It is asserted 
—perhaps untruly — that his earlier age was 
consumed in profligacy, from which he was 
awakened by an opportune sickness, occa- 
sioned by his vices; and that his fears sud- 
denly impelled him into the opposite extreme 
of superstitious * austerity. It is certain, that, 
as he inculcated by his preaching, so he re- 
commended by his example, the utmost rigor 
of the primitive monastic principle, — ' that 
tliere was no safe path to heaven, unless by 
the destitution of all earthly possessions.' 
Po])ularity was the first reward of his humili- 
ation : he was soon folloAved by a crowd of 
imitators; and the motive, which probably 
was pure fanaticism in himself, might be 
want, or vanity, or even avarice, f in his dis- 
ciples. Howbeit they readily acquired an 
extensive reputation for sanctity ; and in the 
year 1210 the formal protection of Innocent 
was vouchsafed to the new order. 

It appears jjrobable that the foundation of 
the Franciscan Order was laid in poverty 
only — not merely unaccompanied by any 
obligation of a missionary or predicatory 



effects and characteristics, as to be wholly insignifi- 
Ciint in history. 

* The story of the Stigmata, or wounds of Christ, 
miraculously impressed upon his body, is known to 
all. The text on which tliis imposture was founded 
■(for it pleaded a text) was Epist. Galat. end. ' From 
lienceforth let no man trouble me; for I bear in my 
Ijody the marks of the Lord Jesus.' We read in 
Semler, ann. 1222, that a rustic, Avho made the same 
experiment on human credulity at about the same 
time, was imprisoned for life — felicius cessit Francis- 
co, sec. xiii. cap. iii. 

t Giannone, an impartial writer, thus begins a 
section (lib. xix. cap. v. sec. v.) entitled ' Monaci e 
Beni Temporalis' ' Henceforward we shall place 
together the subjects of " Monks " and " Temporali- 
ties;" since, as we have already observed, that he 
who pronounces " Moiiachism " (Religione,) pro- 
nounces " Riches," so the Monks Mere now become in- 
comparably more expert in the acquisition of wealth, 
than all the other ecclesiastics ; and tlie monasteries 
in these days reaped profits to which those made by 
the Churches bore no proportion — so that the expres- 
sions " New Religions^' and " New Riches,'' be- 
came, properly speaking, synonymous. And this was 
the more monstrous, because it was in despite of their 
foundation in mendicity, (whence they had the name 
of Mendicants,) that their acquisitions and treasures 
wei-e enormous.' — Polit. Eccles. del decimo terzo 
secolo. 



character, but likewise free from the vow of 
mendicity. St. Francis himself, in the ' Tes- 
tament' which he left for the instruction of 
his followers, enjoined manual labor in pref- 
erence to beggary ; though he permitted them, 
in case of great distress, to have recourse to 
the table of the Lord, begging alms from door 
to door. * It should be mentioned, too, that 
he at the same time prohibited them from 
applying to the Pope for any privilege what- 
evej-. But the sophistical and contentious 
spirit of the age precluded that simplicity. 
And their founder was scarcely consigned to 
the grave, when his disciples obtained from 
Gregory IX. f a bull, which released them 
from the observance of his Testament, and 
placed an arbitrary interpretation on many 
particulars of his rule. It was thus that the 
necessity of labor was superseded, and honor 
and sanctity were preposterously attached to 
the profession of mendicity. 

Here then we observe the first point of 
distinction in the first constitution of the two 
orders. The Dominicans were, in their earli- 
est character, a society of itinerant preachers 
— this was the whole of their profession — 
they were not bound, as it would seem, by 
any vow of poverty. But after a short space, 
when their founder had possibly observed 
that the Fj-anciscans prospered well under 
that vow — that without possessing any thing 
they abounded with many things | — he 
thought it desirable to imitate such profita- 
ble self-denial : accordingly, he also imposed 
upon his disciples the obligation of poverty. 

Again : when the Franciscans discovered 
that no little mfluence accrued to their rivals 



* Fleui-y, Dissertat. 8me. St. Francis designated 
his disciples by the name Fraterculi — Little Broth- 
ers — and this became, in different languages, Fra- 
tricelli, Fratres Minores, Freres Mineurs, Friars 
Minors. 

t This Pope was at the same time a great patron 
of the rival order. In 1231 he wrote a letter to the 
Archbishop of Sorrento, in order to introduce the 
Dominicans to his patronage, in these terms: — ' Di- 
lectos Filios Fratres Ordinis Predicatorum velut no- 
vos Vinitores sure vineae suscitavit; qui, non sua sed 
qua5 sunt Jesu Christi quaerentes, tam contra profli- 
gandas haereses, quam pestes alias mortiferas extir- 
pandas se dedicarunt evangelizatioui Verbi Dei, in 
abjectione voluntarise paupertatis.' The passage is 
cited by Giannone. 

:j: We read, in the ' Histoire des Ordres Fionas* 
tiques,' of Franciscan monasteries of very early 
foundation — residences inconsistent with the perpet- 
ual practice of beggary- But those mansions were 
probably tlie first profits of the trade, the first-fruits 
of the violation of the vow* 



THE MENDICANT ORDERS. 



317 



fi-om the office of public preaching, they also 
betook themselves to that practice ; and, per- 
haps, with almost equal success. Thus it 
came to pass, that, after a very few years, two 
orders, essentially different in their original, 
were very nearly assimilated in ehaiacter, 
and even in profession, and entered upon the 
same career with almost the same objects 
and the same principles. 

Nevertheless, in the features of their policy 
and the character of their ecclesiastical in- 
fluence, they continued to be distinguished 
by many important diversities. The whole 
course of their history is more or less strong- 
ly marked by these. And if many of them 
were occasioned (as is unquestionably true) 
by the passionate jealousy which they bore 
to each other, and which they displayed upon 
all occasions, to the great scandal and injury 
of the Church, it is equally certain, that the 
difference in their first constitution ever con- 
tributed to cause a difference in their des- 
tinies. The original vow and rule of St. 
Francis was at no time perfectly erased fi-om ! 
the memoi7 of his followers. Attempts were 
soon made to revive it in its native austerity ; 
and thus, in addition to the general conten- 
tion with the rival order, the most violent 
intestine dissensions were introduced into the ! 
ilimily of that Saint, which terminated in per- 
manent alienation and schism. j 

Again : another evil was brought upon j 
the Church by these disputes — shai-pened as | 
they also were by the scholastic subtleties 
which in those days perverted reason. The 
authority of the Pope interposed to set them 
at rest, but his interference produced the op- 
posite effect : * it not only increased the ani- 
mosity of both parties, but also raised up a 
powerful branch of the fraternity in avowed 
opposition to the pontifical supremacy. In 
the controversy in which these 'indocile' 
brethren engaged during the fourteenth age, 
against John XXII., they proceeded so far in 
rebellious audacity as formally to pass the 
sentence of heresy upon the Vicar of Christ, 
and to abet the efforts of Lewis of Bavaria to 
depose him ! Such (as Fleuiy has observed) 
was the tennination of their h^miility — the 
deposition of a pope t Owing to these inter- 
nal contests, it has even been made a question 
with some, whether the institution of the 
JWendicants has not contributed, upon the 
whole, to the decline, rather than the ad- 
vancement of the papal interests. But there 



* The good and simple pope, St. Celestine, sanc- 
tioned the division among the Franciscans by estal)- 
!asliing.the congregation of the ' Poor Hermits.^' 



is not sufficient reason for such a doubt. 
The wound which the Roman See may have 
received from the passionate insubordination 
of a faction of one of those orders, bears no 
comparison with the benefits which it has de- 
rived from the faithful assiduity, the learning, 
the zeal, and the uncompromising devoted- 
ness of the other. 

If the Dominicans surpassed the rival order 
in obedience to their common master, they 
also afforded a better example of internal 
harmony and discipline. Indeed, as they ad- 
hered veiy closely to the original object of 
their institution, the destruction of heresy, 
there was little reason why they should dis- 
pute with each other, and the strongest mo- 
tive for concord with the Holy See, The 
destruction of heresy they were willing (as 
we have observed,) in the first instance^ to 
accomplish by the sword of the spirit ; bet, 
whether through the natural impatience of 
bigotry, or because the wisest among them 
began to suspect the weakness of their own 
cause, the futility of their soi)histry, and the 
falsehood of their positions, after a very short 
attempt they abandoned that method of con- 
version, and betook themselves to the materi- 
al weapon. The secular arm was summoned 
to their aid, and it became in process of time 
their favorite, if not their only, instrument. 

Nevertheless those are in error who attri- 
bute the foundation of the Inquisition, as a 
fixed and permanent tribunal, to the hand of 
St. Dominic. It may seem indeed to have 
been the necessary consequence of his labor?, 
the result to which his principles infallibly 
tended ; and it is true that the administration 
of its offices was principally delegated to his 
order. But it was not any where formally 
established until ten or twelve years after his 
death,* In the meantime, the Dominicans, 
already trained to the chase, and heated by 
the scent of blood, eagerly executed the trust 
which was assigned to them. Over the whole 
surface of the western woyld they spread 
themselves in fierce and keen pursuit; and' 
the distant kingdoms of Spain and Poland 
were presently inflicted with the same deadly 
visitation. Rome was the centre of persecu- 
tion ; the heart, to which the circulating poison 
continually returned — and whence it derived, 
as it flowed onward, a fresh and perennial 
supply of virulence and' malignity. 

Dispute of the Dominicans iviih the Univer 
sity of Paris. The Dominicans, soon after 
their institution, seem to have appropriatetj 



* The origin of the Inquisition will be described m 
i chapter xsi- 



318 



HISTORY OF The church. 



most of the learning, then so sparingly dis- 
tributed among tiie monastic orders. They 
applied themselves chiefly to the science of 
controversy, and soon became very formida- 
ble in that field — the more so, since they em- 
ployed the resources of scholastic ingenuity 
in the defence of the papal government. The 
means and the end harmonized well ; the 
prejudices of the age v^^ere to a great extent 
favorable to both ; the exertions of reviving 
reason were peiijetually baffled, and her 
friends discomfited and overthrown. . . We 
shall briefly notice one signal campaign of 
the Dominicans— that which they carried on 
for above thirty years against the University 
of Paris. . . That body, which was already 
the most eminent in Europe, thought it expe- 
dient, in the year 1228, to confine the Dom- 
inicans, in common with all other religious 
orders, to the possession of one of its theolog- 
ical classes, while those Mendicants warmly 
asserted their claim to two. Many violent 
contentions arose from this difference, and 
continued till the year 1255, with no decisive 
result: the matter was then referred to the 
wisdom of Pope Alexander IV. It is not 
difficult to anticipate the response of the Vat- 
ican. The University received an unqualified 
injunction to throw open to the Dominicans, 
not two classes only, but as many chairs and 
dignities as it might seem good to them to 
occupy. For four years the refractory doc- 
tors resisted the execution of the sentence 
with a boldness worthy of a better age and 
a happier result. At length, terrified by the 
repeated menaces of the pontifl", they submit- 
ted. . . Nevertheless, the struggle had not been 
without its benefit. During the course of 
a protracted controversy, subjects had been 
handled of higher and more general im- 
portance, than the right of lecturing in the 
schools of Paris. While the discipline and 
principles of the Mendicants were examined 
and assailed, the power which upheld them 
did not escape from public reprehension. 
The possibility of error even in the Church 
itself was openly maintained ; and the spii-it 
of learning, which had hitherto ministered to 
ecclesiastical oppression, was at length arous- 
ed against it. The first eflTorts of the best prin- 
ciples are generally baffled and disappointed ; 
but the example which they leave does not 
perish ; but only waits till the concurrence of 
happier circumstances may bring the season 
for more successful imitation. 

In the conduct of this dispute, as both par- 
ties became equally heated, the limits of reason 
were exceeded, with almost equal temerity, 



by both. Among many laborious productiofts, 
perhaps the most celebrated was that publish- 
ed by Guilliaume de St. Amour, a doctor of 
Sorbonne, and a powerful champion of the 
University, ' Concerning the Perils of the 
Latter Times.' The peculiarity wiiich has 
recommended it to our notice is this. It was 
founded on the belief that the passage of St. 
Paul relating to 'the perilous times which 
were to come in the last days,' was fulfilled 
by the establishment of the Mendicants ! . * . 
Every age has affixed its own interpretation 
to that text, and all have been successively 
deceived ; and this might teach us some cau- 
tion in wresting the mysterious oracles of 
God from their eternal destination to serve 
the partial views — to aid the transient, and 
perhaps passionate, ptu-poses of the moment. 
Yet is there an undue value almost indissolu- 
bly attached, even by the calmest minds, to 
passing occurrences: however trivial and fu- 
gitive their character, they are magnified by 
close inspection, so as to exceed the mightiest 
events farther removed in time ; and it is tliis, 
our almost insuperable inability to reduce 
present occurrences to their real dimensions 
— to place them at a distance, and examine 
them side by side along with the transactions 
of former days — to consider them, in short, 
disinterestedly and historically — it is this cause 
which has begotten, and which still begets, 
many foolish opinions in minds not destitute 
of reason ; and which, among other fruits, 
has so frequently reproduced, and in so many 
shapes, the pitiable enthusiasm of the Millen- 
arians. 

Dissensions among the Franciscans. Though 
both Dominicans and Franciscans professed 
to be at the same time mendicants and preach- 
ers, yet, in some sort of conformity with tluir 
original rules, the former continued to retain 
more of the predicatory, the latter more of the 
mendicant, character. These last were con- 
sequently less distinguished by their literary 
contests, than by those which they waged 
against each other, respecting the just inter- 
pretation of the rule of their founder. In all 
other monastic institutions, the possession of 
property was forbidden to individuals, but 
permitted to the community ; whereas the 
more rigid injunction of St. Francis denied 
every description of fixed revenues, even to 
the Societies of his followers. There were 
many among those who wished for a relax- 
ation of this rule; and they obtained it with- 
out difficulty, both from Gregory IX. and In- 
nocent IV. But another party, who called 
themselves the Spirituals, insisted on a strict 



THE MENDICANT ORDERS. 



319 



adhesion to the original institution ; they even 
refused to share tiie glorious title of Francis- 
can with those who had abandoned it. This 
feeling displayed itself with particular vehe- 
mence in the year 1247, when John of Parma, 
a rigid spu'itualist, was chosen general of the 
order. But the more worldly brethren still 
adhered to then- mitigated disciplme; and 
their perseverance, which was favored, per- 
haps, by the secret wishes of many of the op- 
posite party, received the steady and zealous 
concurrence of the Holy See. For whatso- 
ever value the popes might attach to the vol- 
itntarj'- poverty of their myrmidons, — to the 
respect which it excited, and the spontaneous 
generosity which so abundantly relieved it, — 
they no doubt considered, that it was more 
important to the permanent interests of the 
rjiurch to encourage the increase of her fixed 
jid solid and pei-petual possessions. 

The success of the Dominicans and Fran- 
ciscans encouraged the profession of beggary ; 
and the face of Christendom was suddenly 
darkened by a swarm of holy mendicants, in 
such manner that, about the year 1272, Gre- 
gory X. endeavored to arrest the overgrowing 
evil. To this end he suppressed a great mul- 
titude of those authorized vagrants, and dis- 
tributed the remainder, still very ninnerous, 
into four societies, — the Dominicans, the 
Franciscans, the Carmelites, and the Hermits 
of St. Augustine. 

The Carmelites. — The order of the Carme- 
lites was, in its origin, Oriental and Eremitical. 
John Phocas, a monk of Patmos, who visited 
the Holy Places in 1185, thus concludes the 
narrative of his pilgrimage : — ' On Mount 
Carmel is the cavern of Elias, where a large 
mouasteiy once stood, as the remains of build- 
ings attest ; but it has been ruined by time and 
hostile incursions. Some years ago a hoary- 
headed monk, who was also a priest, came 
from Calabria, and established himself in this 
place, by the revelation of the Prophet Elias. 
He made a little enclosure in the ruins of the 
monastery, and constructed there a tower and 
a small church, and assembled about ten 
brothers, with whom he still inhabits that 
holy place.' * Such appears to be the earliest 
authentic record of the foundation of the Car- 
melites. About the year 1209, Albert, patri- 
arch of Jerusalem, gave them a rule. It 
consisted of sixteen articles, which contain 
nothing original, and are merely sufficient to 
prove the ignorance, the abstinence, and the 
poverty of the original brothers. The institu- 

* We cilo the passage from Fleurv, 1. Ixxvi. sec. 55. 



tion was not, however, legitimately introduced 
into the grand monastic family till the year 
1226, when it received the sanction of Ho- 
norius III. Twelve years afterwards it was 
raised from among the regular orders to the 
more valuable privileges and profits of men- 
dicity ; and we observe that the severe rule 
of its infancy was interpreted and mitigated 
soon afterwards by Innocent IV. Accord- 
ingly it became venerable and popular, and 
was embraced with the accustomed eagerness 
in ev^ery country in Europe. 

Hermits of St. Augustine. — A gi'eat num- 
ber of individuals were still found scattei'ed 
throughout the western Church, who cher- 
ished the name, though they might dispense 
with the severer duties, of hermits ; and they 
professed a A'ariety of rules by which their 
several independent societies were governed. 
Innocent IV. expressed his desire to unite 
them into one order ; and it was executed by 
his successor. Alexander IV., the better to 
withdraw them from their seclusion, and en- 
gage them in the functions of the ecclesiastical 
hierarchy,! formed them into a single con- 
gregation, under one rule and one general, 
and associated them by the same title of 
' Hennits of St. iVugustine.' We may ob- 
serve, however, that as they were the most 
modern, so they were the least considerable of 
the mendicant institutions. 

To these four orders the pontiffs granted 
the exclusive indulgence of travelling through 
all counti'ies, of conversing with persons of 
all ranks, and instructing, wheresoever they 
sojourned, the young and the ignorant. This 
commission was presently extended to preach- 
ing in the churches, and administering the 
holy sacraments. And so great veneration 
did they excite by the sanctity of then- ap- 
pearance, the austerity of their life, and the 
authoritative humility of their manners, that 
the people rushed in multitudes to listen to 
their eloquence, and to crave their benedic- 
tion. And thus the spirit of sacerdotal des- 
potism, which had been chilled through the 
indecency or negligence of the secular clergy, 
and the luxurious languor of the regular es- 
tablishments, was for a season revived and 
restored to an authority, in its extent more 
ample, and in its exercise far more unspar- 
ing, than it had possessed at any preceding 
period. 

Early merits and degeneracy of the Mendi- 
cants. — In their early years, the tv/o gi-eat 
nurseries of the Dominicans were Paris and 

t GiannonCj Stor. Nap., lib. xix., cap. v., sec. 5. 



320 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Bologna. In those cities, Jourdain, the Gen- 
eral of the order, and successor of its founder, 
alternately passed the season of Lent ; and 
thence he sent forth his emissaries through 
the south and the west. Among the first 
converts to the discipline of St. Dominic were 
many distinguished by rank and dignity, many 
eminent ecclesiastics, many learned doctors, 
both in law and theology, and many young 
students of noble parentage. Nor is it hard 
to believe those accounts, which praise the 
rigor of their moral excellence, and the gen- 
eral subjection of their carnal appetites to the 
control of the spirit. The very enthusiasm, 
which at first inflamed them for the purity 
and beauty of their institution, was inconsis- 
tent with hypocritical pretensions to piety ; it 
tended, too, somewhat to prolong the exercise 
of those virtues whence it drew its origin. 
And thus, if their literary exertions were 
really stimulated by the highest motives — the 
glory of God, and the salvation of the faithful 
—they may well have surpassed the languid 
labors of the old ecclesiastics, which were so 
commonly directed to mere vulgar and tem- 
poral objects. Accordingly, as the Mendicants 
rose, the ancient orders and the secular clergy 
fell into disrepute and contempt; and the chairs 
and the pulpits, which they had so long filled, 
were, in a great measure, usurped by more 
zealous, more laborious, and more popular 
competitors. 

But these conquests were not obtained or 
preserved without many violent and obstinate 
contests.* Both regulars and seculars de- 
fended their ancient privileges with an ardor 
which seemed to supply the want of strength. 
Their disputes with each other were for the 
season laid aside ; they united vv^ith equal 

* The grand dispute in England between the Clergy 
and the Mendicants, in which the Archbishop of Ar- 
magh was so prominent, took place about 1357. The 
great complaint at that time was, that the latter had 
seduced all the young men at the University to con- 
fess to them, to enter their order, and to remain there. 
And the prelate mentions the remarkable fact, that, 
through the suspicions thus infused into families, the 
number of students at Oxford had been reduced during 
his time from thirty thousand to six thousand. It 
was made another matter of reproach on the mendi- 
cants, that they had bought up all the books, and 
collected in every convent a large and fine library. 
The field of contest was transferred to the pontifical 
Jourt (then at Avignon) ; the mendicants were tri- 
umphant, and the Archbishop's mission appears to 
have had no result. And about the same time two 
considerable princes, Peter, Infant of Aragon, and 
Charles, Count of Alen^on, became members respec- 
tively of the Franciscan and Dominican orders. 



earnestness against the invader of their com- 
mon interests; and the rancor thus occasion- 
ed, and shared, in some degree, even by the 
most obscure individuals of both parties, was 
far from favorable either to the purity of re- 
ligion, or to the honor of the Church — in- 
somuch, that some Roman Catholic writers 
have expressed a reasonable doubt, whether 
the interests of their Church would not have 
been more effectually consulted by a thorough 
reformation of the two classes already conse- 
crated to religion, than by the establishment 
of a new order. It is certainly true, that no 
cause has more scandalized the nauje of 
Christ, in every age of his faith, than the bit- 
ter dissensions of his ministers. Their very 
immoralities have scarcely been more poison- 
ous in theii* influence on the people, than the 
spectacle of their jealousy and rancor. And 
thus, if the ancient zeal and piety could have 
been revived by ordinary regulations among 
the ecclesiastics of the thirteenth century — ■ 
had it been possible to infuse into the decrepit 
the vigor of the young, into the pampered the 
virtue of the poor, — such had, indeed, been 
the safer method of regeneration. It appears, 
however, very questionable, whether the popes 
had power to accomplish so substantial a re- 
formation in the Church, even had they been 
seriously bent on it. It is perfectly certain 
that they were not so disposed. The interests 
of papacy were now becoming widely difl:er- 
ent from the interests of the Chiu-ch, and their 
policy (though they might not themselves be 
conscious of the distinction) was steadil}'^ di- 
rected to the former. With that view, the 
institution of the Mendicants was eminently 
useful, as it communicated a sort of ubiquity 
to the pontifical Chair. Moreover, the scan- 
dals which it occasioned were, in some mea- 
sure, compensated by the energy to which the 
old establishments were reluctantly awaken- 
ed ; and which had been more honorable to 
themselves, and more useful to i*eligion, liad 
it been excited by a less equivocal motive. 

One essential characteristic of the Mendi- 
cants was the want of any permanent resi- 
dence ; and thus their influence over the 
people, though at seasons vast and overruling, 
could not be deeply fixed, or very durable. 
Again, since they professed absolute poverty, 
they could scarcely exercise any fearless con- 
trol over those, on whose favor and charity 
they were dependent for their daily vsubsisi- 
ence : so that their popular authority was 
destitute of those substantial supports which 
their opponents derived from the possession 
of opulent establishments, and rested wholly 



THE ESTABLISHMENT OF NUNS. 



321 



on their talents and their virtues. As long as 
their zeal and their eloquence far surpassed 
those of the ancient ecclesiastics, — as long as 
the sanctity of theii* moral practice was be- 
yond reproach or suspicion, — so long they 
deserved and maintained the superiority of 
then- influence. But though the impression 
thus produced will generally last somewhat 
longer than the excellence which produces it, 
still the solid foundation of their power de- 
cayed with the decay of their original quali- 
ties; and the wealth which they at length 
substituted in the place of these, reduced them 
at best to the level of their rivals. 

And no long tnne elapsed from their origin, 
before the reproach of corruption was com- 
monly and justly cast upon them. * General 



* The evidence of MaUhew Paris, an established 
Benedictine of St. Alban's, may be somewhat colored 
by professional jealousy, but nevertheless it is sub- 
Btantially true. In his Henry III., anno 1246, he 
mentions, how, from being preachers, they became 
confessors, and usurped the other offices of the Ordi- 
nary. In the same place he publishes a celebrated 
Bull of Gregory IX. in their favor, and strongly des- 
cribes the insolence which they derived from it. ' Ec- 
clesiarum rectores . . procaciter alloquentes, in- 
dulta sibi talia privilegia in propatulo demonstrantes, 
erecta cervice ea exigentes recitari, &c. . . He 
then relates the manner in which they supplanted the 
clergy in the affections of the people. ' Esne pro- 
fessus 1 Etiam. A quo 1 A sacerdote meo. Et 
quis ille idiota'? Nunquam iheologiam audivit ; nun- 
quam in decretis vigilavit ; nunquam unam quaestio- 
nem didicit enodare. Caeci sunt et duces ceecorum. 
Ad nos accedite, qui novimus lepram a lepra distin- 
guere . . . Multl igitur, prcecipue nobiles et 
nobilium uxores, spretis propriis sacerdotibus, pras- 
dicatoribus confitebantur . . unde non mediocriter 
viluit ordinariorum dignitas.' . . . Matthew Paris 
then goes on to show the immorality thus introduced; 
Emce the people did not feel for the Mendicants any 
of that awe which their own priests had been accus- 
tomed to inspire, and therefore repeated their sins 
with less scruple. The same author (ad. ann. 12.35) 
repeats the complaints of the insolence of the Men- 
dicants, and of the extensive footing which they had 
already usurped upon the domains of the old establish- 
ments. In another place, (ann. 1247,) he describes 
them as the pope's beadles and tax-gatherers. ' Ut- 
pote fratres minores et predicatores (ut credimus in- 
vitos) jam suos fecit Dominus Papa, non sine ordinis 
■eorum laesione et scandalo, teloniarios et bedellos.' . 
. . These passages were written within half a 
century from the foundation of the order. The evi- 
dence of the great Franciscan, Buonaventura, and of 
Thierri d'Apolde, both. writers of the same age, is 
also adduced by Fleury, to prove the early corruption 
of the Mendicants. Bzovius (ann. 1804, sec. vii.) 
publishes a long decree of Benedict XL, still further 
augmenting the privileges of the Mendicants, and ex- 
empting them from certain episcopal restraints. 



complaints arose respecting the multitude of 
pretexts which they invented for the extortion 
of money ; respecting the vagabond habits, 
the idleness, and importunity of many among 
them. It was particularly asserted, that, hav- 
ing insinuated themselves into the confidence 
of families, they took under their special 
charge the management of wills, and con- 
structed them to their own advantage. They 
became perpetual attendants on the death -bed 
of the rich. Moreover, they engaged with 
intriguing activity in the political transactions 
of the day, and were intrusted with the con- 
duct of difficult negotiations. The cabinets 
of princes were not too lofty for their ambi- 
tion, the secrets of domestic life were not 
beneath their avarice. Again — it offended 
the reason of many, that holy persons, pro- 
fessing profound humility and perfect poverty, 
should appear in the character of magistrates, 
having apparitors and familiars at their dis- 
posal, and all the treasures and all the tortures 
of the Inquisition. They thus became rich, 
indeed, and they became powerflil : but there 
were those who did not fail to contrast the 
contempt of worldly glory, which illustrated* 
the birth of their order, with the pomp which 
they afterwards assumed so willingly ; and to 
remark, that through the abandonment of 
every possession, they possessed every thing, 
and were more opulent in their poverty than 
the most opulent.* . . . Such reflections 
were obvious to the most illiterate ; and they 
gradually diminished a popularity, which was 
ill compensated by riches. Howbeit, amid 
the decline in their reputation and the degen- 
eracy of their principles, from the one grand 
rule of their ecclesiastical policy they never 
deviated, — they persevered, without any im- 
portant interruption, in their faithful ministry 
to the Vatican. But from the time that they 
parted with their original characteristics, their 
agency became less useful ; and the extrava- 
gance with which they sometimes exalted the 
pretensions of the See, began, in later ages, 
to excite some disgust among its more moder- 
ate and reasonable supporters. 

Section VI. 

TTie Establishment ofJVwns. 

That there existed, even in the Antenicene 
Church, virgms, who made profession of re- 
ligious chastity, and dedicated themselves to 



* Pietr. delle Vigne. (i. Epist. 37). Fleury, lib, 
Ixxxii., sec. 7. The Capucines, a branch of reformed 
Franciscans, did not arise till the beginning of the 
sixteenth century. Their progress, which was coif 



322 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



the service of Christ, is clear from the writings 
of Tertullian, Cyprian, and Eusebius.* But 
there is no sufficient reason to believe that 
they were formed into societies ; still less that 
they constituted any order or congregation. 
They exercised mdividually their self-imposed 
duties and devotions ; and found their practice 
to be consistent, like the Ascetse, among whom 
they may properly be classed, with the ordi- 
nary occupations of society. 

The origin of communities of female reclu- 
ses was probably coeval with that of monaste- 
ries, and the produce of the same soil. The 
glory of the institution is commonly ascribed 
to St. Syncletica, the descendant of a Mace- 
donian family settled in Alexandria, and the 
contemporary of St. Anthony. It is at least 
ceitam, that many such establishments were 
founded in Egypt before the middle of the 
fourth century ; and that they were propagated 
throughout Syria, Pontus, and Greece, by the 
same means and at the same time with those 
of the Holy Brothers, though not, as it would 
seem, m the same abundance. It appears, 
however, that they gradually penetrated into 
«very province where the name of Christ was 
known ; they were found among the Arme- 
nians, Mingrelians, Georgians, Maronites, and 
others ; and finally formed an important and 
not incongruous appendage to the Oriental 
Church. 

A noble Roman lady, named Marcella, is 
celebrated as the instrument chosen by Provi- 
dence to introduce the pious institution into 
the West. In emulation of the models of 
Egypt, she assembled several virgins and 
widows in a community consecrated to holy 
purposes •, and her example found so many 
imitators, that the Fathers of the next genera- 



temporary with that of the Lutherans and the Jesuits, 
is also described as extremely rapid, 

* Vit. Constant, lib. iv., Tertullian, lib. ad Uxo- 
rem. Cyprian (lib. i. epist. xi. ad Pomponianum, 
De Virginibus) reproaches in very severe language 
certain consecrated virgins, who had fallen under the 
suspicion of incontinence,—' Quid Christus Dominus 
et Judex noster, cum virginem suam sibi dicatam et 
sanctitati suae destinatam jacere cum altero cernit, 
quam indignatur et irascitur!' . . .Again: 'Quod 
si in fide se Christo dedicaverunt, pudice et caste sine 
ulla fabula perseverent. . . Si autem perseverare 
nohint vel iron possunt, melius est nubant, quam in 
ignem delictis suis cadant.' . . Again : (lib. v. 
epist. viii.) he speaks of ' Membra Christo dicata et 
in aeternum continentiae honorem pudica virttvte de- 
vota.' . . See also his ' Tractatus de Disciplina 
et Habitu Virginum.' . . These passages show, 
at the same time, that there were in that acre virgins 
dedicated to religion, and that they were not bound 
by any irrevocable vow. 



tion, St. Ambrose,* St. Jerome, and St. Atigu§- 
tine, bear sufficient testimony to the preva- 
lence of the institution in their time. It is 
true that, at least as late as the year 400, many 
devout virgins (Virgines Devotee) still pre- 
served their domestic relations and adhered 
to the more secular practice of the Antenicene 
Church ; and it is possible that those devotees 
were never wholly extinct in any age. But 
the Associations for the same end gradually 
embraced most of those with whom religious 
zeal was the leading motive ; and their sanc- 
tity was recommended to popular reverence, 
as it may also have been exalted and fortified, 
by the discipline and the vow which restrain- 
ed them. 

The Rules, to which the convents of Nuns f 
were subject, were formed for the most part 
upon those which bound the monks. Like 
the monks, they lived from common funds, 
and used a common dormitory, table, and 
wardrobe ; the same religious services exer- 
cised their piety ; habitual temperance and oc- 
casional fasting were enjoined with the same 
severity. Manual labor was no less rigidly 
enforced; but instead of the agricultural toils 
imposed upon their ' Brethren,' to them were 
committed the easier tasks of the needle or 
the distaffi By duties so numerous, by occu- 
pations admitting so great variety, they be- 
guiled the tediousness of the day, | and the 
dulness of monastic seclusion. 



* Lib. i. de Virginibus ad Marcellinam. The tes- 
timony of St. Jerome, respecting Marcella, has been 
already cited (supra, p. 396.) St. Augustin (De 
Moribus Ecclesiae, c. 33.) says, in speaking of the 
monastic etstablishments both at Milan and Rome : 
— ' Jejunia prorsus rncredibilia, non in viris tantum, 
sed etiam in foeminis; quibus item, multis viduis et 
virginibus simul habitantibus et fana ac tela victum 
quEeritantibus, prcesunt singuTae gravissimae probatissi- 
maeque non tantum in rnstituendis componendisque 
moribus, sed etiam instruendis mentibus peritae et 
paratse.*^ See Marsham's HqonvXaiov to Dugdale, 
and Hospinianus de Orig. Monach., Jib. iii. c. xi., 
et seq. 

t The words Nonnus, Nonna, are said to be of 
Egyptian origin. The latter is used by St. Jerome, 
Epist. ad Eustochium Virginem. Benedict of Nursia 
(Regul. 63) gives it the interpretation of paternal 
reverence, and ordains, that 'Juniores monachi pri- 
ores suos ' ??onno5 vocent; quod intelligitur paterna 
reverentia.' The terms Monialis and Sanctimonialia 
are usually derived from JMoroq. Hospin. Orig 
Monach., lib. i. c. i. 

X The two following passages from St. Jerome de- 
serve to be cited, since they show as well what were 
the vanities, as what were the duties, of the earliest 
nuns: — ' Vest is tua nee sit satis munda, nee sordida,^ 
nullaque diversitate notabilis ; ne ad te obviam prae- 
tereufltium turba consistat et digito monstreris. . . . 



THE ESTABLISHMENT OF NUx\S. 



323 



Vow of Cliasiity. It appears probable, as 
is warmly argued by Hospinian, * that in the 
very early ages the virgins, who were dedicat- 
ed to religious pui*poses, could enter without 
any scandal into the state of marriage. But 
we should recollect that, at that time, the mo- 
nastic condition, properly speaking, did not 
exist. Immediately after its institution, we 
find the authority of St. Basil loudly declared 
against such a departure from the more per- 
fect purity; that patriarch of monasticism does 
not hesitate to pronounce the marriage of a 
nun to be incest, prostitution, and adultery 
(incestus, stupri scelus, et adulterium ;) and 
Ambrose and Augustin exacted the same 
sacred obedience to the irrevocable vow. By 

Plures . . hoc ipso cdpiunt placere quod placere con- 
teranunt, et minim in modum laus, dura vitatur, appe- 
tituf . . . Ne cogitatio tacita subrepat, ut, quia in 
auratis vestibus placere desiisti, placere coneris in 
sordidig ; et quando in conventum fratrum veneris vel 
sororum, humilis (al. humi) sedeas; scabello te cau- 
seris indignam ; vocem ex industria, quasi confectam 
jejuaiis, non teuues, et deficientis mutuata gressum 
humeris innitaris alterius. Sunt quippe nonnullae ex- 
terminantes (extenuantcs'?) facies, ut appareant ho- 
rainibus jejunantes; quae statim ut aliquem viderint 
ingemiscuntj demittunt supercilium, et operta facie 
vix unum oculum liberant (al. librant) ad videndum. 
Vestis pulla, cingulum sacceura et sordidis raanibus 
pedibusque ; venter solus, quia videri non potest, 
aestuat cibo. Aliae virili habitu, veste mutata, eru- 
bescunt esse quod natse sunt; crinem amputant et 
impudenter erigant facies eunuchinas. Sunt quae cili- 
ciis vestiuntur et cucullis fabrefactis ; ut ad infantiam 
redeant, imitantur noctuas et bubones . . Haec omnia 
argumenta sunt Diaboli.' — Hieron. (Epist. xviii.) ad 
Eustoch. Virginem. — Again, (Epist. to Demetrias, 
De Servanda Virginit.) ' Praeter Psalmorum et Ora- 
tionis ordinem, qui tibi hora terlia, sexta, nona, ad 
vesperem, media nocte, et mane semper est exercen- 
dus, statue quot horis Sanctam Scripturam ediscere 
debeas, quanto tempore legere, non ad laborem, sed 
ad delectationem ac instructionem animae. Cumque 
hasc finieris spatia . . . habeto lanam semper in mani- 
bus, vel starainis pollice fila deducito, vel ad torquen- 
da subtegmina in alveolis fusa vertantur; aliarumque 
neta aut in globum coUige, aut tenenda(nenda'?) com- 
pone. Quae texta sunt inspice: quae errata repre- 
hende: quae facienda constitue. Si tantis operum 
varietatibus occupata fueris nunquam dies tibi longi 
erunt.' Similar instructions are delivered in Epist. 
86, ad Eustochium Epitaph. Paulas Matris. And St. 
Augustin (De Morib. Ecclesiae., cap. 31.) mentions 
that the garments manufactured by the nuns were 
given to the monks in exchange for food. « Lanificio 
corpus exercent et sustentant; vestesque ipsas fratri- 
bus tradunt, ab iis invicem quod victui opus est re- 
sumentes.' The Tonsure was not originally impos- 
ed, though it appears to have been an Egyptian cus- 
tom. 

* Lib. iii. c. xii. 



the Council of Chalcedon, nuns who married 
were made liable, together with then* hus- 
bands, to the sentence of excommunication ; 
yet in such manner, that penance might be 
imposed, if they reverently requested it, and 
communion restored in consequence of that 
penance, after a long interval proportioned to 
the offence. This canon was generally re- 
ceived in the West. But in the year 407, 
Innocent I. closed the outlet of penance, and 
left no loop-hole of forgiveness open to those 
who had violated their vow. Subsequent 
ages increased, rather than mitigated, this 
rigor ; and imprisonment, and tortures, and 
death, were finally held out as the punish- 
ments of monastic incontinence. The re- 
source of penance was still resei-ved by In- 
nocent * for inconstant Novices — those who 
married, after having avowed the intention of 
chastity, but without having yet taken the 
veil. 

The Veil The ceremony of consecration 
and the imposition of the veil was of origin 
earlier even than the time of St. Ambrose ; f 
and it appears, that it might then be performed 
by a priest, no less than by a bishop. The^ 
words I pronounced on this occasion were 
prescribed by the Fourth Council of Car- 
thage ; but they varied, or were entirely chang- 
ed, in subsequent times. The age at which 
the novice might be consecrated was equally 
variable, and seems to have been left, at least 
in early times, to the discretion of the prelate. 
An age as advanced as sixty years, appears 
at first to have been usual ; but St. Ambrose 
gives reasons for permitting the veil to be 
sooner assumed ; and the age of twenty -five 
was afterwards (generally, though by no 
means universally) established as the earliest, 
at which the recluse was permitted to place 
the indelible seal upon her resolution. 

Benedictine J^uns, The first period, or, if 
we may so call it, the Antiquity of Monachism, 
was terminated in the Western Church by 
the epoch of St. Benedict ; and it is generally 
recorded, that while that hermit was invent- 
ing his new mstitution for the brothers of his 



* Hospin. Orig. Monach. lib. iii. c. ult. 

■f We must not however be misled by the title of 
Tertullian's work, (De Virginibus Velandis,) to as- 
cribe to that practice so high an antiquity. The ob- 
ject of that book is only to show, that all virgins, as 
well as matrons, ought, in tlieir attendance on divine 
worship, to be veiled. It has no reference to any 
particular condition of life 

i They were these — ' Aspice, filia, et intuere; et 
obliviscere populum tuum et domum patris tui, ut con- 
cup.iscat Rex decorem tuum.' 



S24 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



obedience, his sister Scholastica was raising 
the standard, * round which the holy virgins 
might collect with greater regularity and dis- 
ciplme. It would appear, however, that the 
rule of her disciples was rather given in res- 
toration of the original observance, than on 
any new principle of religious seclusion. The 
alternations of industry and prayer ; absti- 
nence, silence, obedience, chastity were or- 
dained, as in the primitive establishments ; 
and the first Benedictine Nuns were in fact 
rather refoi-med nuns of St. Basil, than a dis- 
tinct order. . . Howbeit, they acquu'ed repu- 
tation and flourished so rapidly, that in the 
pontificate of Gregory the Great, Rome con- 
tained (according to the assertion f of that 
Pope) three thousand ' handmaids of God, ' 
(Ancillae Dei,) who followed the Benedictine 
rule. And so boldly did they afterwards rise 
in rank and power, that about the year 813 
it became necessary to repress the pretended 
right of the Abbesses to consecrate and or- 
dain, and perform other sacerdotal functions.l 

Canonesses. The establishments of female 
recluses followed very closely the numerous 
diversities of the monastic scheme, and imi- 
tated the names of the male institutions, where 
they could not adopt their practice, or even 
their profession. An order of Canonesses- 
Regular was founded, or at least presented 
with a rule, by the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle, 
in 813. And we read, in later times, of a 
community of noble young ladies, who were 
associated under a very easy discipline, and 
unrestrained by any vow of celibacy, under 
the title of Canonesses-Secular. But these 
last pretenders to religious seclusion were, on 
more than one occasion, discountenanced by 
the authorities of the Church. 

J\Puns of the Hospital. An imitation of the 
Military Orders might, at first sight, seem still 
more repugnant to the feelings and duties 
of holy virgins. But, m respect at least to the 
oldest of those orders, it was in fact far other- 
wise. That community originated (as has 
already been mentioned) in an ofiice of gra- 
tuitous humanity ; — to entertain the stranger, 
and to tend the sick, were the earliest ofiices 

* Mabillon (Pref. Hist. Benedict.) asserts this 
Scholastica to have been the founder of regular nun- 
neries in the West ; and calls her ' Virginum Bene- 
dictinarum Ducem, Magistram et Antesignanani.' 

I Lib. vi. Epist. xxiii. See Hospinian, Orig. 
Monach. lib. iv. c. xvi. The ceremony of consecra- 
tion^ by the bishop, is here given at great length. 

4; At the Council of Beconfeld in Kent, abbesses 
subscribed their signatures, no less than Abbots and 
other Ecclesiastics. This is recorded to have been 
the first instance of such assumption of equality. 



f of the Knight of the Hospital. By him, in- 
deed, those humbler tasks may afterwards 
have been forgotten in the character of the 
soldier of the Cross ; but the ' Nuns of the 
Hospital' * adhered to the earliest and the no- 
blest object of the institution. Their founda- 
tion was contemporary with that of the Chev- 
aliers ; and in after times, they extended their 
establishments, and perhaps their charities, 
into every part of Europe. 

The calamities of the Ci'usades were fol- 
lowed and alleviated by another institution, in 
which charitable females immediately took a 
share, and of which the purpose was not less 
worthy of its religious profession. A multi- 
tude of Christian captives had been thrown 
by the vicissitudes of war into the power of 
the Saracens; and for their redemption, the 
order of the ' Nuns of the Holy Trinity ' was 
established very early in the thirteenth cen- 
tury. It survived the occasion which gave it 
birth, and flourished widely, under the pat- 
ronage of certain pious princesses,! especially 
in Spain. 

JVuns of St. Dominic. The foundation of 
several nunneries divided with his other ec- 
clesiastical duties the busy zeal of St. Domi- 
nic. And though we cannot discover that the 
essential characteristics of his order, preach- 
ing and mendicity, were in practice commu- 
nicated to the holy sisters who bore his name, 
yet the name was sufficient to procure for them 
wealth and popularity; and they probably 
were not surpassed in either of those respects 
by any other order.:): St. Catharine of Sien- 
na, a vehement devotee, professed especially 
to reverence the virtues and imitate the disci- 
pline of St. Dominic ; and she may properly 

* A long account of these ' Religieuses Hospitalid- 
res,' together with the formalities of reception into 
the order, may be found in the Hist, des Ordres Mo- 
nastiques, Trois. Partie, chap. xiv. We may remark 
that their ' Habits de Ceremonie de Choeur,' indicate 
wealth, if not vanity. The ' Religieuse Chevaliere de 
I'Ordre de St. Jaques de I'Epee ' was a Spanish in- 
vention of a much later age. This order seems to 
have originated at Salamanca. 

t Hist. Ordres Monast. partie H. chap. xlix. 

4; The historian ' Des Ordres Monastiques,' asserts, 
that when he wrote (about 1715,) there were in Italy 
more than one hundred and thirty nunneries of that 
order, about forty-five in France, fifteen in Portugal, 
and forty in Germany, in spite of the devastations of 
the heretics. The order which bears the name of 
St. Catharine, was probably not founded by herself 
(though Hospinian asserts otherwise,) and it is vari- 
ously assigned to the year 1372 or 1455 — a diversity 
which some attempt to reconcile. We shall have 
occasion to make further mention of this celebrated 
devotee in a following chapter. 



THE ESTABLISHMENT OF NUxNS. 



325 



be accounted among his most genuine disci- 
ples, since she interposed to smooth the po- 
litical difficulties of her country, and to influ- 
ence, by her reason and authority, the most 
momentous concerns of the Church. Among 
the female JMendicants, the latest institution 
was that of the Carmelites. They appear to 
have been founded about 1452, by virtue of a 
bull of Nicholas V.; and nearly a centui^ af- 
terwards, they were reformed by the celebrat- 
ed St. Theresa, a native of Castille. 

We shall not trace the endless catalogue, 
nor enumerate the various names, under 
which the same or very similar institutions 
perpetually reappeared. Among those of 
somewhat earlier times, that of St. Brigida, a 
Princes of Sweden, is most renowned. It 
was an establishment for the reception of 
both sexes — though separated in residence — 
under the superintendence of an Abbess; and 
its Rule * was confirmed by Urban V. about 
the year 1360. Though manual labor was 
strictly enjoined, the royal hand which found- 
ed the community appears, at the same time, 
to have blessed it with ample endowments. 

The Ursulines. Of the more modern orders, 
there is also one which may seem to require 
our notice — that of the Ursulines. Its origm 
is ascribed f to Angela di Brescia, about the 
year 1537, though the Saint from whom it 
received its name, Ursula Benin casa, a native 
of Naples, was born ten years afterwards. 
Its character was peculiar, and recalls our at- 
tention to the primitive form of ascetic devo- 
tion. The duties of those holy sisters were 
the purest within the circle of human benevo- 
lence — to minister to the sick, to relieve the 
poor, to console the miserable, to pray with 
the penitent. These clmritable offices they 
undertook to execute without the bond of any 
community, without the obligation of any 
monastic vow, without any separation from 
society, any renouncement of their domestic 
duties and virtues. And so admirably were 
those offices, in millions of instances, per- 
formed, that, had all other female orders been 
really as useless and as vicious, as they are 
sometimes falsely described to be, the virtues 
of the Ursulines had alone been sufficient to 
redeem the monastic name. 

But it is very far from true, that these other 

* This Rule occupies eight folio pages in Hospinian, 
lib. vi. cap. 39. It professed to pi-oceed from the im- 
mediate dictation of Christ. 

t Hist, des Ordres Monast. Suite de la Trois. 
Partie, chap. xiv. et xx. The historian enumerates 
and describes thirteen congregations of Ursulines, 
established for the most part in France and iu Italy, 'i 



orders were either commonly dissolute or 
generally useless. Occasional scandals have 
engendered universal calumnies. To recite 
the mere names* of those most lately founded 
is sufficient to show that their professed ob- 
jects were almost always excellent ; and it 
would be as injurious to human nature, as it 
is contrary to historical evidence, to suppose 
that those objects were instantly abandoned, 
and made merely a cover for the opposite 
vices. In the more secular institutions of the 
other sex there was greater space for the ope- 
ration of evil passions. In those polluted 
cloisters, the seeds of avarice were commonly 
nourished by the practice of profitable decep- 
tions, and the prospect of opulent benefices. 
The holiest contemplations were interrupted 
by the voice of ambition inviting the most 
austere recluse to dignity and power — to ab- 
bacies, to prelacies ; to the councils of kings, 
to that predominant apostolical eminence, 
whence kmgs and their councils were insulted 
and overthrown . . . But into the cell of 
the female Devotee, those passions at least can 
seldom have intruded, because they had no 
object there.f Without insisting upon any 

* Such were the Religieuses Hospitalieres de la 
Charite de Notre Dame, De Notre Dame du Refuge, 
De N. D. de la Misericorde, &c. Orphan asylums 
were numerous as ' the Congregations of St. Joseph.' 
Many were founded for the maintenance and edu- 
cation of poor girls ; many for the sick ; many for 
the penitent. In a description of the plague, in 
1347, Fleury (Hist. Eccles. liv. xcv. s. 45) bears the 
following accidental testimony to female charity: — 
' Plusieurs Pretres timides abandonnoient leurs Irou- 
peaux et en laissoient les soins a des Religieux plus 
hardis. Les Religieuses servoient les malades sans 
crainte, avec leur char^, et leur humanite ordinaire. 
Plusieurs entre elies moururent, mais on les renouvel- 
loit souvent.' 

t Some remarks have been suggested to us on this 
passage, which we recommend to the reader's consid- 
eration — premising, however, that the position in the 
text only affirms the moral superiority of nuns to 
monks, on the ground that some of the passions on 
which the habits of the latter were formed, had no 
object to rouse them in the former. 

I cannot help thinking (says an ingenious friend) 
that the argument implied in the words ' passions 
which had no object there,' is fallacious. Many 
passions, if not all, will find objects, natural or un- 
natural. The danger of wandering, in the absence 
of express revelation, from that knowledge of the will 
of God, which may be collected from induction, is as 
pernicious to morals, as the a priori reasoning is to 
science. An institution preventing women from be- 
coming wives and mothers, was immoral (considering 
the natural evidence of their propensities) in the same 
sense in which the opposition to the philosophy of 
Galileo was unreasonable. 



326 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



natural predisposition to piety and benevo- 
lence, we may be well assured that the pre- 
cincts of the convent were very fruitful in 
the exercise of both ; and whatsoever judg- 
ment we may finally form respecting the 
character of that influence, which monachism 
has exercised through so many ages on so 
many forms of society, we may pronounce 
without hesitation the general purity and use- 
fulness of the Female Orders. 

Voltaire, in his Chapter on the Religious 
Orders, after eulogizing the charities of the fe- 
male mstitutions in the noblest spirit of philan- 
thropy, has remarked that 'those who have 
separated themselves from the Church of 
Home have but faintly imitated that generous 
virtue.' The taunt is undeserved. We did 
not lay aside our charities, when we dispens- 
ed with our vows ; we did not languish in 
the practice, when we rejected the profession ; 
the religious motive acts not less powerfully, 
because the name is less commonly put for- 
ward ; and in as far at least as the tender sex 
is concerned, there is not a district in our 
Cities, nor a village in our Provinces, which 
does not profit by the unpretending, unavow- 
ed, enlightened benevolence of Protestant 
Ursulines. 

We shall now conclude a chapter — already 
disproportionate to the dimensions of this 
work, but far too contracted for the immen- 
sity of the subject — by a few obvious and al- 
most necessary observations. 

General Observations. Without recumng 
to the less definite shape which monachism 
assumed in the West during the fourth and 
fifth ages, we may observe, that the three dis- 
tinctive characters which, it afterwards adopt- 
ed were well suited to^e several periods in 
which they successively rose and flourished. 
First in origin were the Regular Benedictine* 
Ccenobites ; and they reigned without any 
rivals over the consciences of the faithful for 
above six centuries. — Those were centuries 
of the deepest ignorance and superstition 
which the history of Europe exhibits. That 
Order imitated the Oriental enthusiasm in 
which the whole system originated ; it like- 
wise inculcated moral severity, and exercised, 
in a greater or less degree, both useful in- 
dustry and virtuous benevolence. As it thus 
grew in reputation and temporal grandeur, it 



* We do not here intend to distinguish between 
monks and canons, because both were Coenobites, 
and possessed the same general characteristics, widely 
removed from the principles both of the Military and 
the Mendicant Orders — still less between the Original I 
and Reformed Benedictines. 1 



extended and multiplied its demands upon 
human credulity. The most extravagant spi- 
ritual claims were recommended by a great 
parade, and by some reality, of devotion. 
Spacious and imposing edifices, whence the 
chant of holy voices was heard unceasingly 
to proceed in solemn prayer, by night and by 
day — some practice of charitable ofiices — 
great superiority in manner and education — 
the possession, almost exclusive, of the learn- 
ing of the age — these advantages prepared an 
uninstructed people to receive with blindness 
any form of superstition, which their ghostly 
directors might think proper to impose on 
them, and gave efiicacy to deception and im- 
posture. And thus it proved, that, when su- 
perstition had on,ce taken root in the soil of 
ignorance, it was nourished through so many 
ages by a much less proportion of moral and 
religious excellence, and scarcely more of 
knowledge, than had been necessary to plant 
it there. The most inactive among the forms 
of monachism was found sufficient to hold 
the human mind, as long as it was uninform- i 
ed and unexcited, in servile subjugation. 1 

The next which rose were the Military Or- 
ders, — and of these it is sufficient to remark, 
that they formed no regidar part of the church 
system, but were the casual consequence of 
the Crusades. They were instituted, to assail 
the external enemies of the faith ; they were 
continued, to repel their invasions, and defend 
the outworks of Christendom ; but they did 
not very long survive the cu'cumstances which 
created and sustained them. Indeed, the pro- 
fession of arms in the name of Christ was so 
palpable a mockery of the true spirit of his 
religion, that its permanence was scarcely 
consistent with the fundamental principles of 
Christian society. An extraordinary occur- 
rence could alone have given it existence, but 
it could not possibly give it perpetuity. 

As corruption increased within the Church, 
and ignorance diminished without it, heresy 
began to spread widely, and the voice of 
reason found many listeners. And then it 
was that a band of active and intelligent 
emissaries was required for the maintenance 
of the established ecclesiastical system. For 
this purpose the talents of the Dominicans 
were more especially serviceable. But smce 
a large measure of superstition still infected 
the lower orders, and none were wholly free 
from it, the abstinent and ragged devotion of 
the Franciscans was also not without its use, 
in exciting veneration towards themselves, and 
towards the Church, whose missionaries they 
were. Besides, the original Mendicants de- 



THE ESTABLISHMENT-OF NUNS. 



327 



nounced, with courage and vehemence, the | 
vices and the violences of the great. Their 
close connexion with the papal, or Guelphic 
uiterests, placed thein in opposition to the 
imperial domination, and thus made them, in 
their political mediations, the advocates of 
liberal and popular principles. But above, all, 
they were careful to provide themselves with 
that powerful weapon, which, from the days 
of St. Augustine to those of the Crusades, had 
entu-ely rested, and which had been very par- 
tially employed afterwards. True eloquence, 
indeed, is not commonly attainable ; but they 
possessed and perpetually exercised that flu- 
ency of passionate declamation, which pro- 
duced on the people all the effects of elo- 
quence. It had even some advantages over 
ihe more chastised effusions of antiquity.* 
It derived its authority from the oracles of 
God ; the moral obligations which it urged 
were more directly subservient to human hap- 
piness ; and its particular application in the 
mouth of the Mendicants was very commonly 
to a benevolent object, — to negotiate treaties, 
to reconcile party animosities, to stay the ca- 
lamities of public or private warfare. Ac- 
cordingly, the records of the thirteenth and 
following centuries abound with pi'oofs of its 
efficacy and its influence in political, no less 
than in ecclesiastical, transactions. It has 
moreover been mentioned, that the Mendi- 
cants availed themselves with great address 
of the peculiar learnmg f of that age, and ac- 
quired uncommon dexterity in the perversion 
of reason. Conversant, more than any others, 
wdth the metaphysical subtilties of the schools, 
they well knew how, at the same time, to in- 
dulge the sophistical and the superstitious 
spirit of the age, and, by indulging, to nourish 
both. Thus they combined, for the defence 
of papacy, the abuse of reason with the abuse 
of rehgion ; and their genius and their indus- 

* A comparison in favor of the Mendicants is in- 
geniously drawn by Denina, lib. xii. cap. vi. 

t Giannone even asserts, that the merit to which 
the Mendicants were chiefly indebted for the favor of 
the Popes, was their success in substituting the scho- 
lastic, for the dogmatic theology and the study of an- 
tiquity and history, so as to occupy the minds of the 
learned with abstract and useless questions and dis- 
putes, and so many contrasti and raggiri, that no 
one not conversant with that art could confront them 
with any hope of success. It was indeed by such a 
method of reasoning that the pretensions of Rome 
were best defended; and the Mendicants were bound 
to defend them, since all their exemptions, and much 
of their property, flowed directly from Rome ; for the 
Pope not uncommonly gave them convents belonging 
to otlier Orders. 



try, by pandering to the existing prejudices, 
prolonged the servitude and degradation of 
the human mind. 

A Roman Catholic writer has observed, 
with a demonstration of pious gratitude, that 
the same God who raised up St. Athanasius 
against the Arians, and St. Augustine against 
the Pelagians, and St. Dominic and St. Francis 
against the Albigenses, deigned, in a later and 
still more perilous age, to call forth the spirit 
of Loyola against the Lutheran and Calvin- 
istic apostates. And it may be, that at the 
moment when Luther was writing his book 
against monastic vows, the Spaniard was 
composing his ' Spiritual Exercises ' for the 
restoration of other orders and the establish- 
ment of his own. It is only necessary for us 
to observe, that the defensive system of the 
Roman Church was completed by the institu- 
tion of the Jesuits, though somewhat too late 
for its perfect preservation. And we may add, 
in pursuance of our other observations, that 
that order was as justly accommodated to the 
increasing intelligence of the sixteenth cen- 
tury, as were the Benedictines to the darkness 
of absolute ignorance, and the Mendicants to 
the twilight of reason. But each, in their turn 
of pernicious operation, though they enjoyed 
their appointed range and season of influence, 
were too feeble to prevent the revival, to arresi; 
the growth, or to crush the maturity of truth 
and religious knowledge. 

Successive Reformations of the Monastic 
System. — If we regard the monastic system in 
another point of view, we shall perceive it to 
consist in a continual succession of reforma- 
tions. The foundation of every institution 
was laid, as it rose out of the corruption of 
its predecessor, in poverty, in the most rigid 
morality, in the duties of religion, of educa- 
tion, of charity. The practice first, and next 
the show, of these qualities, led, in every in- 
stance, to wealth ; and wealth was surely fol- 
lowed, first, by the relaxation of discipline — 
next, by the contempt of decency. Then fol- 
lowed the necessity of reform ; and the same 
system was regenerated under another, or 
perhaps under the same name, and passed 
through the same deteriorating process to a 
second corruption. Again, — the Reformed 
Order was re-reformed and re-regenerated, 
and again it fell into decay and dissolution. 
The history of the monastic orders, when 
pursued into the details of the several estab- 
lishments, presents to us an unvai-ying picture 
of vigor, prosperity, dissension, followed by 
new statutes, and a stricter rule. A system, 
of which the foundations were not placed 



328 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



either in Scripture or in reason, was necessa- 
rily liable to perpetual change ; nor was it ca- 
pable of any other condition of existence, than 
one of continual decay and reproduction. 

If we reflect for an instant on the outlines 
of Western Monachism, we observe, that the 
Rule of Benedict of Nursia had already fallen 
into great degradation, when it was revived 
by Benedict of Aniane. The system then 
flourished with extraordinary vigor ; but for 
so short a period, that when, about the year 
900, the Reformed Order of Cluni was estab- 
lished, its founders deserved the glory of res- 
toring the ancient discipline; and that event 
is jusdy considered as marking an important 
epoch in monastic history. Again, within 
two other centuries, we observe the younger 
and more rigid Cistertians censuring the secu- 
lar pride and luxurious relaxation of their 
rivals. In the next age, it was proposed to 
heal the disorders, or at least to supply the 
deficiencies, of the old system, by the super- 
addition of the Mendicants, models of primi- 
tive and apostolical austerity.* But even the 
very slight notice, which we have been able 
to bestow on the history of the Franciscans, 
has proved how very early they fell into dis- 
orders, succeeded, though not repaired, by 
reformation. Even the institution of St. Do- 
minic was very far fi'om securing the purity 
of his children ; indeed, it was at no distant 
period from their foundation, that a part of 
them assumed the distinctive appellation of 
Reformed Dominicans. (Dominicani Rifor- 
mati.) ... By this process of contmual 
change and restoration, the monastic system 
maintained an influence, varying extremely 
in degree, but never wholly suspended, over 
the nations of the West for eleven hundred 
years. That it did so, may well surprise us, 
if we consider only the principles of its first 
foundation, and the monstrous and avowed 
abuses, which at various periods infected it. 
But on the other hand, it was sustained by an 
infusion of much real piety and of many un- 
questioned virtues ; and it was prolonged from 
time to time by a series of judicious and sea- 
sonable alterations, such as are able to give 

* This was, indeed, to seek safety in the opposite 
extreme, and by the entire renunciation of all tempo- 
ralities to exceed the severity of St. Benedict; but 
the disease at that time demanded a violent remedy. 
The choice for such an Order lay between bodily la- 
bor and mendicity — the latter was preferred, as being, 
in name, more humiliating, and also more consistent 
with intellectual attaiiuBents, and the grand spiritual 
offices of instructing the vulgar, converting heretics, 
&c. 



permanence even to a feeble and mischievous 
establishment, and without which there is no 
security even for the wisest and the most 
excellent. 

Still this last cause had alone been insufi^- 
cient. It is not possible, that any policy of 
Church government could have upheld the 
system so long and so triumphantly, if it had 
not possessed something not only plausible in 
its principle, and respectable in its prefession, 
but also practical and profitable in its influ- 
ence on society. It would be ungrateful and 
unjust to disparage the benefits which it has 
really confeiTcd on former ages, andof wliich 
the consequences may have reached our own. 

Advantages produced by Monachism. We 
may comprehend ,all the useful merits, which 
have ever been claimed for monachism, with 
any shadow of reason, under four heads. 
(1.) The earliest monks lived by the labor 
of their hands; and the large tracts of waste 
land, with which their houses were endowed, 
were brought into cultivation by their person- 
al exertions. Even in the eighth and ninth 
centuries, when they became for the most 
part clerks, their estates continued to bear 
marks of more careful superintendence ; their 
serfs and dependents were more numerous 
and more prosperous ; cities grew up under 
their economy ; provinces were fertilized, for- 
ests and marshes were peopled under their 
administration. Nor is there any reason to 
question, what is generally admitted, that the 
vassals of the monasteries were rjHsed at least 
some degrees nearer to domestic comfort and 
civilization, than those of the adjacent baronies. 

(2.) The earliest monasteries were very 
commonly consecrated to the discharge of 
important moral and social, as well as reli- 
gious, duties. That of hospitality, or the 
entertainment of travellers and pilgrims, was 
certainly practised with great fidelity ; and in 
ages and countries in which inns and cara- 
vanseras * were yet unknown, and even the 
personal safety of the stranger was ill-secured 
by law, it was usefully and benevolently insti- 
tuted, that his reception and protection should, 
in some manner, be associated with the ofiices 
of religion. The worldly authority of religion 
is never more profitably employed, than in 
supplying the defects of police, of government, 
and civilization. . And thus it proved, that, 
during the five or six centuries of confusion 

* Muratori shows that the use of inns, as places of 
reception for strangers, was as late as the eleventh 
or twelfth century. He throws great liglit on the 
nature of the earliest Christian establishments for that 
purpose, in Dissertations 37 aud 56. 



THE ESTABLISHMENT OF NUNS. 



329 



and barbarism, which followed the subversion 
of the Western Empire, the monastic system 
became a powerful instrument in correcting 
the vices of society, and alleviating theii' pres- 
sure on the lower orders. 

The earliest donations, with which the 
Church was enriched, were for the most part 
the genuine unconditional fruits of supersti- 
tion. But in somewhat later times, when it 
was discovered that the property of the 
Church was liable not only to spoliation by 
laymen, but to abuse by churchmen, the pro- 
fusion of the pious admitted the admixture of 
human motives, and was less than formerly 
directed to the support of the clergy, more to 
that of the poor and miserable. Accordingly, 
among the ecclesiastical records of the eighth 
and ninth centuries, no less than of those 
which followed, we find many monuments,* 
which prove the general application of a part 
(and in some few cases the greater part) of 
the revenues of certain monasteries to the use 
of the sick, the poor and the traveller. A 
particular building f appropriated to these 
purposes was attached to many monasteries, 
and was an essential part of the establishment. 
Thus, these religious institutions became the 
channel, through which the benevolence of 
the wealthy was communicated to the lower 
classes. And though the charity, which seem- 
ed to acquire sanctity by passing through that 
medium, may sometimes have been diminish- 
ed or perverted, there can be no doubt that 



* Among- those produced by Muratori, are some 
bearing the dates 759, 812, 790, 718, 721, 757, 764, 
847, 825, &c. A charter given to the monks of Mo- 
dena, in 996, contains these words: — ' Et doraum 
Hospitalem habeant, ubi secundum morem hospites 
de decimis laborum suorum recipiant.' Some assert, 
tliat, before the middle of the eighth century, tiiere 
was no monastery in the west which had not an Hos- 
pital attached to it; and we have remarked that in 
later ages, that was, in at least one instance, the 
very foundation on which a new order was established. 
We might add that such was the origin of the Ordre 
du Saint Esprit at Montpelier ; and we observe that 
in 1198, Innocent III. rebuilt an Hospital, which 
had been founded at Rome, in 715, by a Saxon king 
for the use of Saxon pilgrims. 

t Some of these, called Matriculse, seem to have 
corresponded very nearly with our poor-houses. The 
Domus Hospitalis was nearly synonymous: a Church 
was usually founded with them. We have an instance 
of one of these built by Ansaldus at Lucca, in 784, on 
the condition ' that every week, twelve poor and 
strangers should be admitted to the table of the 
Church.' There are abundant records of such esta- 
blishments; but some of them were, in process of 
time, seized and appropriated by the lay-rectoz". See 
Muratori, Dissert. 37. 

42 



much of it reached its destination, even in the 
worst ages of the church. In seasons of gen- 
eral strife and anarchy, the contributions of 
the pious found then* best hope of security 
and usefulness in monastic hands ; and if the 
sacred deposit was sometimes violated by the 
treacherous avarice of those to whom it was 
confided, a much greater portion was unques- 
tionably applied to its intended purpose, the 
alleviation of disease and misery. 

In the Eastern Church, the introduction of 
every variety * of charitable establishment im- 
mediately followed the reception of the Gos- 
pel. It was the work of Christian principles 
and of Christian men ; and was closely, though 
not inseparably, connected with the monastic 
institution. Two of the greatest patrons of 
that system, St. Basil and St. Chrysostom, 
were likewise the founders of hospitals (Nos- 
ocomia) : places of entertainment for stran- 
gers (Xenodochia) were early attached to 
several Churches, and deacons appointed 
to discharge their duties. But the monaste- 
ries of the East were at no period so enriched 
by charitable deposits, as those of the Latin 
Church: for the monks in those countries 
never obtained influence so despotic over a 
more enlightened people ; and a more settled 
form of civil government secured the wealthy 
against the rapine, to which they were con- 
tinually hable under the feudal anarchy. 

But it was not merely in respect to their 
temporal necessities that the people, and es- 
pecially the lower orders, were benefited by 
those establishments. Many blessings were 
at the same time conferred by their religious 
character; many afilictions were consoled, 
many hopes suggested, many sins prevented, 
by the exertions of pious monks. Those 
brothers, though exalted as a community, 
were not individually removed above the 
condition of the peasants, and they had com- 
monly the same origin ; so that the inter- 
course was close and searching, and its ad- 
vantages frequently reciprocal. There are 
many spiritual wounds, which are most eflTec- 
tually probed and healed by a pastor, whose 
condition, whose associations and understand- 
ing, are not much elevated above those of the 
penitent. A more perfect confidence, a deep- 
er sympathy, is then excited, than when the 
parties are widely separated in rank or intel- 
lect. This advantage the monks in general 
possessed over the secular clergy in the Ro- 



* This is proved by the mere use of the terms 
Xenodochia, Gerontocoraia, Nosocomia, Orphano- 
trophia, Brephotrophia, Ptochotrophia, so familiar 
to the writers of those ages. 



330 



HISTORY OP THE CHURCH. 



man Church; and to this we may partly 
attribute the superiority of their influence. 
That this influence was often abused, we 
know too well ; nor can there be any doubt 
that the intercourse which led to it has been 
sometimes injurious. But during the better 
ages of monachiara, it is unquestionable that 
the blessings of that religious connexion be- 
tween the monks and the poor were greatly 
predominant. 

It is the boast of St. Bernard that those 
who had embraced the monastic condition 
lived with greater purity than other men ; 
that they fell less frequently and rose more 
quickly ; that they walked with greater pru- 
dence ; were more constantly refreshed with 
the spiritual dew of heaven ; rested with less 
danger ; died with greater hope. And far 
as the monastic practice has generally fallen 
below its profession, we doubt not, that in the 
earlier ages^ and especially in the infancy of 
their several institutions, their inmates sur- 
passed all other classes of society, not except- 
ing the secular clergy, in the exercise of mor- 
al and religious offices. Devoted to the re- 
lief of the poor, and the service of the sick and 
the stranger, they were so placed, that even 
the imperfect discharge of their charitable 
duties conferred no scanty benefits on an 
uncivilized generation. Among the millions 
w^ho have entered religious houses, under the 
most solemn vows of virtue and piety, there 
must have been multitudes whose mere inno- 
cence made at least some amends to society 
for their seclusion from its care and its temp- 
tations; there were certainly many, whose 
acquirements and indisputable excellence 
threw out a light and example to their con- 
temporaries ; and some there were, and not a 
few, whose eminent qualities were directed, 
as steadily as the spirit of their age allowed 
them, to the honor and improvement of their 
Church — to alleviate private affliction, and 
mitigate the general barbarism. 

(3.) From the earliest period, in the East- 
ern as well as in the Roman Church, the du- 
ties of education were intrusted to the monks. 
In process of time they became, in the latter 
Church, nearly confined to them, and they 
continued so at least as late as the eleventh 
century. Monastic schools were established 
by St. Benedict ; they were inseparably at- 
tached to his institutions, and spread, with 
the progress of his order, over the kingdoms 
of the West ; and they were open to children 
of the earliest age.* It would seem that, in 



* This was peculiar to the order of St. Benedict. 
Hist. Litt. de la France, Siecle xii. p. 11. See also 



the eighth century, the cathedral or episcopal 
academies * were first established ; and these 
afterwards became the most distinguished for 
the rank and eminence of their scholars. 
They were conducted, under the superintend- 
ence of the bishop, by the canons of the Ca- 
thedral. And here we need only repeat a 
former observation, that, if the office of in- 
struction was confined to the clergy, so also 
were its benefits, for many ages, to those in- 
tended for the ministry. So that the advan- 
tages which those establishments really con- 
ferred on the body of society were neither 
immediate nor certain ; while the power of 
the clergy, being unduly exaggerated by the 
exclusive possession of learning, Was thereby 
placed upon a principle absolutely at variance 
with the highest earthly interests of man. 

(4.) This subject naturally leads us to our 
last consideration — the extent and character 
of the literature, whether sacred or profane, 
which was protected and nourished in the 
monastic establishments. On the first matter, 
Roman Catholic writers do not hesitate to 
ascribe the veiy preservation of the pure doc- 
trine of the Church to the refuge which it 
found within those fortresses — though it may 
seem doubtful, whether that doctrine might 
not have been preserved with equal purity, 
through ages too ignorant for controversy or 
cavil, by the fidelity of the secular clergy. At 
any rate, this praise can scarcely be granted 
to the monks without some qualification. For 
if it be true that, during the Arian controversy, 
they were the most zealous defenders of the 
Nicene faith, it is not less certain, that the 
principles of Origen, and the mystical f in- 
tei-pretation of Scripture gained great footing 
i among them, and that not merely in the East ; 

Mabillon, Etudes Monastiques, p. 1. ch xi. The 
same writer (ch. xv.) enumerates several among the 
early Christian heroes, — Gregory Nazianzen, Chry- 
sostom, Epiphanius, Jerome, &c. — wlio studied for a 
greater or less time in monasteries. St. Basil, in the 
first instance, established a school in his monastery 
for the reading of holy (as distinguished from profane) 
histories, and appointed rewards for superior merit. 
' Nunquam de manu et oculis recedat liber,' says St. 
Jerome; and it is from the same monastic student 
that we have received that much contemned precept, 
' ne ad scribendum cito prosilias. Multo tempore 
prius disce quod doceas.' 

* See Mosh. vol. ii. p. 55. 

t This is said to have been, in the first instance, 
occasioned by the substitution of mental prayer for 
manual labor. From the excesses of mysticism pro- 
ceeded the errors of the Beghards and Beguines, and 
other enthusiasts of the thirteenth and fourteenth cen- 
turies ; they strove after absolute perfection, and they 
fell into fanaticism. 



THE ESTABLISHMENT OF NUNS. 



331 



nor should the support which they persevered 
in affording to the cause of the Images, during 
that long and angiy controversy, be forgotten 
in any estimate which we may endeavor to 
form of their pretensions to doctrinal or eccle- 
siastical purity. It is indeed unquestionable, 
that the externals of religion, so valuable to 
the Latin church, its offices, * and ceremonies, 
were enriched and dignified by the monks 
and canons. They acquired an imposing 
splendor from the number engaged in their 
performance, and the resources of their sev- 
eral communities. But passing over these 
equivocal merits, we may mention one gi-eat 
and truly incalculable service which those es- 
tablishments conferred on future ages, though 
they neglected tO derive much advantage fi-om 
it themselves. They preserved, through dan- 
gerous and turbulent periods, ancient copies 
of the inspired writings, and of the most val- 
uable commentaries made on them in the ear- 
liest times. And those were among the most 
profitable moments of monastic leisure, which 
were employed in multiplying the sacred 
manuscripts.! 

Though religious houses were intended to 
be the depositories of virtue and piety, I not 
of letters, yet letters were, to a certain extent, 
encouraged there, as subsidiary to the grand 
object of the institution. It is shown, indeed, 
by the learned author § of the ' Monastic Stud- 



* Fleury, Di^cours. depuis 800 . . 1100. Mura- 
lori, Dissertat. 56. The monks gained great advan- 
tages by the introduction of chants into the service; 
and this was imitated, in the ninth century, by the 
cathedral clergy. Some rivalry ensued between these 
ecclesiastics, and thus, ' coppit frequentius agi et au- 
gustius procederedivina Res.' Some ' modulation of 
prayers and praises,' they had indeed used from the 
earliest ages ; but not with that plenitude and majesty, 
which the chorus of monks and canons afterwards in- 
troduced. The organ appears to have come into use 
about the year 826. 

t The great increase of MSS. during the eleventh 
century, is to be ascribed to this monastic leisure, 
and could scarcely be effected otherwise. And this 
was the first step, after the devastation of the four 
preceding ages, towards the revival of ancient, and 
the creation of modern, learning. In the twelfth age 
Ave find St. Bernard inculcating the duties of writing 
and copying as the best substitute for labor. 

t The words of St. Peter, ' We have left all to 
follow Thee,' are those, as St. Bernard observed, 
which have founded cloisters and peopled deserts. 

§ Mabillon (Etudes Monastiques, p. 1.) proves the 
prevalence of literary industry, in the monastic life, 
by direct historical- evidence ; by the multitude of 
learned ecclesiastics who emerged from them; by 
their libraries; by direct reference to the rule of St. 
Beuedict. To the neglect of study he attributes the 



ies,' that the earliest monks entu'ely renounced 
profane literature, and confined their diligence 
to theological works and contemplations : the 
authority and example of St. Jerome confirm- 
ed that preference. But in later times, and 
especially when the practice of manual labor 
fell into disuse, the limits of their studious in- 
dustry were enlarged, and they gradually em- 
braced some department of profane science, 
as well as of classical lore. The coirjpilation 
of Decretals led to the study of canon law ; 
the discovery of the Digest directed attention 
to civil legislation. The art of medicine pre- 
sented a spacious field, which was made at- 
tractive, first, perhaps, by its salutary and 
charitable uses, afl;erwards by the gain* which 
followed it. The monastic establishinents 
furnished the leisure and the best existing in- 
struments for all those pureuits ; and, after 
the eighth or ninth age, they were distin- 
guished by some efforts after knowledge, not 
fruitless of beneficial effects and even of use- 
fiil discoveries. 

Again, many of the most precious monu- 
ments of profane antiquity owe their preser- 
vation to the sanctity of the monasteries, or to 
the zeal of their defenders. All these might 
have perished, as many, notwithstanding, did 
perish, had there not existed, during the long 
and barbarous anarchy of the Western Em- 
pire, certain communities, associated in the 
name of religion for peaceful, if not pious, 
purposes ; whose interests were opposed to 
the progress of disorder and rapine, and 
whose holy profession secured them some re- 
spect from a lawless, but superstitious, people. 
The diligence which was employed in trans- 
cribing those valuable models, while it pro- 
moted their circulation, could scarcely fail to 
infuse some taste or energy into the dullest 
mind ; and it certainly appears, that during 
the eighth and ninth, and especially the elev- 
enth ages, most f of the characters, who ac- 



decline of the several Orders, and observes, that re- 
form was commonly attended by its restoration; that 
academies or colleges were invariably connected with 
the Benedictine establishments; and that both Popes 
and Councils perpetually inculcated the duty of study. 

* A council held at Rheims, under Innocent II. in 
1131, published a canon, prohibiting monks and 
canons-regular to study civil law or medicine; and 
the injunction was repeated by the Lateran Council in 
1139. These occupations were on this occasion ex- 
pressly ascribed to avarice. And we may remark, 
that the prohibition was confined to the monks — the 
secular clergy, in the entire ignorance of the laity, 
were permitted to practise both law and physic. 

t Bede, Alcuin, Willibrod, &c. were monks; and 
most of the Popes and Cardinals of the eleventh cen- 



332 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



quired any ecclesiastical celebrity, proceeded 
from the discipline of the cloister. 

Having thus intended to give a general 
view of the advantages w^hich the monastic 
system has conferred on society, we cannot 
fail to observe, that they are for the most part 
confined to ages of ignorance or turbulence ; 
that they were almost proportionate to the 
debasement of the people, and to the weak- 
ness or wickedness of the civil government. 
The former of those evils was somewhat al- 
leviated, the latter was partially obviated, by 
the monastic institutions. Herein is compre- 
hended the sum and substance of their utihty. 
In a civilized nation, under a just and enlight- 
ened rule, it is their necessary effect to ob- 
struct industry and retard improvement. But, 
on the other hand, if we consider them in re- 
ference to the times in which they rose and 
began to flourish, — if we compare the habits, 
the morals, the intelligence of the monks with 
those of their secular contemporaries, — shall 
we not immediately admit, that in bad ages 
they were probably the best men ; that they 
were tlie most useful members of a disjointed 
community ; that their vicious principles were 
less vicious than the general principles of so- 
ciety ; that they were in advance of the civ- 
ilization of their day ? If so — and to us it 
appears indisputable — let us be cautious how 
W8 cast unqualified censure upon a body of 
religious persons, who formed, for the space 
of five or six centuries, the most respectable 
portion of the Christian world. 

Superstitious tendency. — At the same time, 
%ve ought not to forget, that, even in those 
times to which their utility was confined, it 
was continually obstructed both by the orig- 
inal defects of their system, and its consequent 
corruptions. Almost from their first estab- 
lishment, in the East no less than in the West, 
we find them the faithful defenders, if not 
parents, of superstitious abuse. The adora- 
tion of saints, the miraculous qualities of relics, 
and the homage due to them, and, above all, 
the sanctity and worship of images, have been 
inculcated with peculiar zeal by the monks 
of every order, in every age of the church. 
Again, as they ever have been the patrons of 
religious abuse, so have they inflexibly op- 
posed any general attempt at church reform. 
Reforms, indeed, in their particular establish- 
ments have been incessant. Such, again, as 
touched the discipline of the secular clergy 
have sometimes found support in the jealousy 



tury rose from the ranks of the regular clergy. See 
Hist. Litt. de la France, xi. Siecle. 



of the regular orders. But any exertion, tend- 
ing to the restoration of pure Christianity, has 
ever found its fiercest opponents in the clois- 
ter ; and through such opposition many un- 
scriptural practices have been perpetuated 
both in the Eastern and Western Churches. 
Of course it is not intended to ascribe to them 
all the corruptions of religion ; indeed, we 
have already traced the origin of many of 
these to a period preceding the creation of 
monachism. The 'vices of the clergy' are 
acknowledged in ecclesiastical records long 
before the prevalence of monastic influence ; 
and it seems probable even that the traffic in 
indulgences finally so scandalous to the Men- 
dicants, was begun by the bishops. * But all 
existing abuses were carefully nourished and 
fostered by the hands of monks ; and the ex- 
ecution of miracles and other popular impos- 
tures was conducted with peculiar ingenuity 
and success by the inmates of the monastery .f 
And we may add, that the lucrative system 
of Purgatory was by them most zealously sup- 
ported, as indeed the wealth which flowed 
from it was distributed for the most part 
among those establishments. 

In early ages the monks were the subjects, 
and, as it were, the army of the bishops ; they 
maintained their rights, they fought their bat- 
tles, and profited by their protection. In the 
East this mutual relation long subsisted ; and 
as the original monasteries were expressly 
subjected, by the Council of Chalcedon, to 
the bishop of the diocese, and as many were 
indebted for their foundation to episcopal 
munificence and piety, the claims were just, 
and the connexion natural. But in the Ro- 
man Church it was violated almost by the 
first movements of papal ambition. 

Exemptions, In the year 601, Gregory the 
Great :j: (himself for some time the inmate of 

* See Mosheim, vol. ii. p. 420. We may remark, 
that the same author sometimes distinguishes the regu- 
lar canons as more exempt from the vices which he so 
indiscriminately objects to the other monastic orders. 

t The Carthusians are stigmatized by monastic 
writers for inferiority in that power, if not for the 
entire destitution of it. The consequence is, that, 
having performed few or no miracles, they boast very 
few names in the calendar of the saints. See Hos- 
pinian, lib. v. cap. vii. 

^ Giannone, Stor. Nap., lib. iv., cap. xii. Mos- 
heim, seemingly overlooking this circumstance, is 
disposed to attribute the growing alliance of the 
popes and monks in the eleventh century to the op- 
pression and rapacity of princes and bishops. (Cent, 
xi. p. 2, chap, ii.) Doubtless there were instances 
of this ; but the principle of the alliance was of much 
earlier origin. 



MONASTIC WEALTH. 



333 



a monastery) held a Council, in which were 
passed many regulations favorable to what 
the monks considered their independence. 
Thay were permitted to choose their own 
abbot; and the bishop was precluded not 
only from all interference in their temporali- 
ties, and all exercise of jurisdiction over them, 
but even from the celebration of the divine 
offices in their churches. From this event 
(if from any single event) we may probably 
date the undue aggrandizement of the mon- 
astic order, and its increasing influence on civil 
as well as ecclesiastical politics. But in inde- 
pendence it only so far gained, as to exchange 
a near for a distant master— a petty tyrant, it 
might be, for an imperious but partial despot. 
One evil effect of this change was presently 
felt, — the removal of the bishop's immediate 
superintendence facilitated the progress of 
abuse and licentiousness. * The eighth and 
ninth ages were, in truth, the most triumphant 
era of monasticism. f Whatsoever learning 
then existed was confined, or nearly so, to 
the convents ; and not only did nobles and 
kings contest with each other the honor of 
endowing them, but there were many who 
took refuge there in their own persons from 
the miseries and dangers of a turbulent world. 
By such secession they conferred the security 
which they courted ; and additional .sanctity 
seemed to suiTound the buildings which were 
dignified by the retreat of great, perhaps even 
of good, men. 

Absolute exemptions from episcopal au- 
thority were for some time rare. The first 
instance was probably that of Monte Cassino, 
which might be excused by its vicinity to 
Rome. But the example, though sparingly 
imitated, was by no means lost on following 
times ; and after the pontificate of Gregory 
VIL, the abbots began universally to claim 
the immediate protection of St. Peter ; and 
his Vicar was seldom slow to accord it. In 
process of time, entire congregations of mo- 
nasteries (the Clunian, for instance, and the 



* One of Charlemagne's Capitularies prohibited 
abbots and abbesses from keeping fools, buffoons, and 
jugglers, for their amusement. But this implied no 
particular censure on the monastic orders, since we 
observe the same prohibition to be extended to bish- 
ops. 

t Giannone, lib. v. cap. vi. The same have also 
been considered as the grand periods of episcopal 
authority. Both may be true. For the monasteries, 
though in some cases, and to a certain extent, inde- 
pendent of the bishops, were not yet placed in rivalry 
with them; but they probably made common cause, 
whenever the general interests of the Church were 
concerned. 



Cistertian) were included in a single exemp- 
tion ; so afterwards were the Mendicant Or- 
ders ; and finally the whole monastic body 
acknowledged no other dependence than on 
the Pope * alone. The abuse was at length 
pushed so far, that even a private clerk might 
obtain — of course by purchase — exemption 
from the control of his bishop. Undoubted- 
ly, during the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth 
centuries, the Holy See derived great power 
from the sort of separate hierarchy thus es- 
tablished ; and for the two following ages, 
when ambition became less its ruling spirit, 
and avarice more so, such exemptions became 
the means of abundantly gratifying the favor- 
ite passion. But in the excess to which they 
were then carried, they shook the foundation 
of papal power, by inflaming the jealousy and 
disunion of the regular and secular clergy ; 
and thus they mainly tended to promote, in 
due season, the rise of the Reformation, and 
to facilitate its progress. 

Monastic Wealth. Purgatory, Indulgences^ 
&fc. — At the same time, if the Popes were long 
supported and aggrandized through their close 
connexion with the monastic Orders, so were 
they very sedulous to return the favor, and to 
enrich those Orders, sometimes at the expense 
of the secular clergy, but more usually by 
contributions from the laity. In earlier ages, 
the profusion of kings and nobles abundantly 
satiated the avarice of every department of 
the church ; but when this spirit gradually 
expired, and new Orders vi^ere still every- 
where starting up, professing poverty, and 
clamorous for wealth, it became necessary to 
open new resources for their nourishment. 
These were easily discovered in the fruitful- 
ness of superstition. Purgatory presently as- 
sumed a more definite shape ; and it was no 
difficult office for the priests, who created it, 
to conduct its administration and economy 
Their power over the concerns of that state 
was believed on the same authority, which 
had establislied its existence. This grand in- 
vention, with the devices of masses, indid- 
gences, &c., which flowed from it, extended 
its influence from the highest even to the low- 
est classes of the people; so that through 

* The papal right to grant these exemptions does 
not seem to have been disputed. Yet it rested on no 
better foundation than a confused notion, confirmed 
and augmented by the Decretals, that there were no 
limits to that authority. We should observe, that 
even in the East there were also instances of the di- 
rect dependence of monasteries on the Patriarch ; but 
they were rare, and probably in faint imitation of 
the practice of the West. 



534 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



these means every condition of society be- 1 
came tributary to the church. The monks 
enjoyed a very great share in the profits of 
this imposture. During the tenth and elev- 
enth centuries, the reputation to M^hich they 
had ab-eady risen was so much augmented by 
the foundation and name of Cluni, that some 
are disposed to date their triumph over the 
secular clergy from this period * — it is cer- 
tain that the attention of churchmen was from 
this time more anxiously directed to their 
temporalities f than heretofore. . . After 
the institution of the Mendicants, the lucra- 
tive I departments of the profession were 
chiefly committed to their superintendence ; 
and it was especially through their heedless 
abuse of favors, as heedlessly lavished on them 
by a succession of necessitous Popes, and 
most so through the public and confessed ve- 
nality of indulgences, that the deformities of 
the papal system became generally acknow- 
ledged and execrated. These were the scan- 
dals which, more than any of its pretensions 
and impostures, awakened the indignation of 
mankind. And thus it came to pass, in the 
fulness of time, that out of the bosom of that 
very order which had been most instrumental 
in supporting papal power, and corrupting 
the very corruptions of religion, the voice of 
Providence was pleased to call forth the great 
restorer of his holy church. While the Ben- 
edictines were reposing in their luxurious 
edifices — while the Mendicants were openly 
j)rostituting for gold the offices and pretended 
solaces of religion, the progress of knowledge 
and the increase of corruption prepared the 
field of triumph for the Saxon reformer. 



* It is probable that they far surpassed the secular 
clergy of this time in austerity and even in real piety 
of life, which was not, indeed, any very difficult tri- 
umph. It is certain that they now began to apply 
not only to study, but to business, which the seculars 
almost equally neglected. Hence the succession of 
five monks, who, during the eleventh age, governed 
the Church for fifty years; and to whom Mosheim, in 
his unqalified hatred for every thing monastic, attri- 
butes almost all its sins. 

t Giannone (Stor. Nap., lib. vii., cap. v.) remarks, 
that censures and excommunications — those spiritual 
weapons which hitherto had been usually employed 
for the correction of sin — were from this period 
chiefly directed against persons who plundered or 
alienated the property of the Church. 

X It is worthy of remark that the French, in pur- 
suance of their constant determination to preserve 
themselves from pure papacy, strongly discouraged 
the acquisition of property in France by tJie Mendi- 
cants, fairly objecting to them their unequivocal vow 
of poverty. 



CHAPTER XX. 

History of the Popes, from the Death of InnO' 
cent III. to that of Boniface VIIL 

The ardor of the Popes for Crusades — its motives and 
policy — Honorius III. — Frederic's vow to take the cross, 
and procrastination — Gregory IX. — his Coronation — he 
excommunicates the Emperor — who thus departs for 
Palestine — Gregory impedes his success, and invades 
his dominions — their subsequent disputes — Innocent 
IV. — his previous friendship with Frederic — Council 
of Lyons — various charges urged against Frederic — In- 
nocent deposes Frederic and appoints his successor, on 
his own papal authority — Civil war in Germany — in 
Italy — death of Frederic — his character and conduct — 
his rigorous Decree against Heretics — Observations — 
Other reasons alleged to justify his deposition — this 
dispute compared with that between Gregory VII. and 
Henry — Taxes levied by the Pope on the Clergy — Cru- 
sade against the Emperor — Exaltation of Innocent — his 
visit to Italy and intrigues — his death — his qualities as 
a statesman — as a churchman — expression of the Sultan 
of Egypt— Alexander IV.— Urban IV.— Clement IV.— 
Introduction of Charles d'Anjou to the throne of Naples 
— Gregory X. — his piety, and other merits — Second 
Council of Lyons — Vain preparations for another Cru- 
sade — Death of Gregory — Objects of Nicholas II. — 
Martin TV.— Senator of Rome — Nicholas IV. diligent 
against Heresy — Pietro di Morone or Celestine V. — 
circumstances of his elevation — his previous life and 
habits — his singular incapacity — disaffection among the 
higher Clergy— his discontent and meditations— his re- 
signation — Boniface VIIL — his excessive ambition and 
insolence — on the decline of the papal power — his tem- 
poral pretensions — Sardinia, Corsica, Scotland, Hun- 
gary — Recognition of Albert King of the Romans — and 
act of his submission — Philip the Fair — The Galilean 
Church — origin of its liberties — Differences between 
Boniface and Philip — Bull Clericis Laicos — its substance 
and subsequent interpretation — Affairs of the Bishop 
of Parmiers — Bull Ausculta Fill — burnt by Philip — Con- 
duct of the French Nobles — of the Clergy— of Boniface 
— Bull Unam Sanctam — other violent proceedings — 
Moderation of Philip — further insolence of the Pope — 
Philip's appeal to the General Council — William of No- 
garet — Personal assault on Boniface — his behavior and 
the circumstances of his death. 

The Church of Rome had now so habitually 
stained herself with blood, as to be callous to 
the common feelings of nature, and insensible 
to the miseries of mankind. For more than 
a century she had employed her power in 
promoting the destruction of human life, by 
the most senseless expeditions: and as the 
ruinousness and vanity of the Crusades be- 
came more manifest, she seemed to redouble 
her exertions to renew and perpetuate them ; 
for she thrived by contributions levied for 
this purpose, and by the property which was 
thus thrown under ecclesiastical protection ; 
and she gathered strength through the weak- 
ness of monarchs, and the superstition of their 
subjects. Again, after Innocent had succeed- 
ed in throwing an additional outrage upon 
humanity and reason, by converting the ma- 



THE POPES FROM 1216 TO 1305. 



335 



chine, which had been intended against the i 
enemies of Christ, into an engine of domestic j 
persecution and torture, it became more than 
ever the interest of the pope to keep ahve a 
spirit, which might so easily be made to de- 
viate into arbitrary channels. And thus the 
zeal for Crusades, which inflamed the breast 
of Innocent, passed without any diminution 
into those of his successors. Moreover, it is 
well known how earnestly the holy See sup- j 
ported the interests of Frederic II. against 
Otho IV., as long as the former was the 
weaker party, and how zealously it began to 
raise enemies against him, as soon as he be- 
came powerful ; whiFe the industry, with 
which it renewed and prolonged the contests 
between the Guelphs and the Ghibelines — 
contests which lacerated the vitals of Italy — 
furnishes melancholy proof, that its interests 
were even at this time associated with every 
principle that is subversive of peace and bane- 
ful to society ; and that it pursued those inter- 
ests with callous, persevering, uncompromis- 
ing obduracy. 

Honorius III. — Innocent III. was succeeded 
by Honorius III., a native of Rome, who for 
four years had been governor of Palermo 
under Frederic II. ; but the remembrance of 
that connexion was easily thrown off, as soon 
as he rose from the condition of a subject to 
that of a rival. Frederic had made a solemn 
vow to Innocent, to engage without loss of 
time in a new crusade ; and on his coronation 
at Rome, in 1220, he renewed that promise 
with still greater solemnity to Honorius. In 
the year following, instead of proceeding on 
his expedition, he appears to have appointed, 
on his own authority, to some vacant see ; in 
virtue, as he maintained, of his royal right ; 
in violation, as the pope asserted, of the liber- 
ties of the church. During the time consumed 
in this dispute, Damietta fell into the power 
of the Mahometans. In the year 1223, at a 
council held at Terentino in Campania, the 
Emperor renewed his oath to depart, and that 
within the space of two years ; and to give 
earnest of his sincerity, he e.spoused the 
daughter of John of Brienne, King of Jeru- 
salem. In the year following, that he might 
atone to the church for his continued delay, 
and evince to her the sincerity of his affec- 
tion, he published some savage constitutions 
against heretics, which we shall presently no- 
tice. At the same time, in a long letter to 
the Pope, he complained of the general indif- 
ference to the cause of the Crusades, which 
then unfortimately prevailed throughout Eu- 



rope. * Some disputes with the Lombards 
formed the next excuse for his delay ; and in 
1227 Honorius died, still pressing the depart- 
ure of the monarch, and still pressing it in vain. 

Accession of Gregory IX. — Gregory IX., 
who was nephew of Innocent III., was imme- 
diately raised to the pontifical chair, with loud 
and unanimous acclamation. On the day of 
his coronation he proceeded to St. Peter's, 
accompanied by several prelates, and assumed 
the pallium according to custom ; and after 
having said mass he marched to the palace of 
the Lateran, covered with gold and jewels. 
On Easter Day, he celebrated mass solemnly 
at Sta. l^Iaria Maggiore, and returned with a 
crown on his head. On Monday, having said 
mass at St. Peter's, he returned wearing two 
crowns, mounted on a horse richly capari- 
soned, and surrounded by Cardinals clothed 
in purple, and a numerous clergy, f The 
streets were spread with tapestry, inlaid with 
gold and silver, the noblest productions of 
Egypt, and the most brilliant colors of India, 
and perfumed with various aromatic odors. 
The people chanted aloud Kyrie eleison, and 
their songs of joy were accompanied by the 
sound of trumpets. The judges and the offi- 
cers shone in gilded habits and caps of silk. 
The Greeks and the Jews celebrated the 
praises of the Pope, each in his own lan- 
guage ; a countless multitude marched before 
him carrying palms and flowers ; and the sen- 
ators and prefect of Rome were on foot at 
his side, holding his bridle — ^and thus was he 
conducted to the palace of the Lateran. 

The first and immediate act of a pontificate 

* See Fleury, Hist. Eccle. 1. 78, sect. 65, where 
a part of the Tetter is quoted. The actual restitution 
of the territories of the Countess Matilda to the Ro- 
man See, is by some ascribed to this Pontificate. 
Raynaldus (ann. 1221, Num. 29) asserts, that the 
imperial diploma existed in the Liber Censaum of the 
Vatican library — apud Pagi. Vit. HoDor. iii. Sect. 
XXX i. 

t This description is very feintly copied from a 
life of Gregory IX. cited by Odoricus Raynaldus; 
the following is a specimen: Divinis missarum officiis 
reverenter expletis duplici diademate coronatus sub 
fulgoris specie in Cherubini transfiguratur aspectum, 
inter purpuratam venerabilium Cardinalium, Cleri- 
corum et Praelatorum comiiilivam innumeram, insig- 
nibus papalibus prsecedentibus, equo in phaleris pre- 
tiosis evectus, per almse Urbis miranda moenia Pater 
Urbis et Orbis deducitur admirandus. Hinc cantica 
concrepant, etc. etc. See Pagi, Vit. Gregor. ix., s. 
iii. Fleury, 1. 79. s. 31. There seems no reason to 
believe, that these demonstrations of joy or ebullitions 
of adulation exceeded the customary parade of the 
thirteenth century. 



836 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



so gorgeously undertaken, was to urge the 
renewal of the Crusades, both by persuasion 
and menace, at the various courts of Europe. 
The forces of Frederic were already collected 
at Otranto, and, if we are to believe some 
writers,* the Emperor did actually embark, 
and proceed on his destination as far as the 
narrow sea between the Morea and Crete, 
when a dangerous indisposition obliged hmi 
to return. It is at least certain, that he once 
more deferred the moment of his final depar- 
ture. The Pope was infuriated ; he treated 
the story of illness as an empty pretence, and 
without waiting or asking for excuse or ex- 
planation, instantly excommunicated the Em- 
peror. This took place on the 29th of Sep- 
tember, within six months from his elevation 
to the See ; and the sword of discord, which 
was drawn on that day, had no secure or last- 
ing interval of rest, until the deposition, or 
rather the death of Frederic. 

The Emperor wrote several papers in his 
justification, and among them a letter to Hen- 
ry III, of England, containing much severe 
and just reproach against the Roman Church. 
* The Roman Church (such was the substance 
of his upbraiding) so burns with avarice that, 
as the ecclesiastical revenues do not content 
it, it is not ashamed to despoil sovereign Prin- 
ces and make them tributary. You have a 
very touching example in your father King 
John ; you have that also of the Count of 
Toulouse, and so many other princes whose 
kingdoms it holds under interdict, until it has 
reduced them to similar servitude. I speak 
not of the simonies, the unheard-of exactions, 
which it exercises over the clergy, the mani- 
fest or cloaked usuries with which it infects 
the whole world. In the meantime, these in- 
satiable leeches use honeyed discourses, saying 
that the Court of Rome is the Church, our 
mother and nui-se, while it is our stepmother 
and the source of every evil. It is known by 
its fruits. It sends on every side legates with 
power to punish, to suspend, to excommuni- 

* See Giannone, 1. xvi. c. 6. Slgonio seguito la 
fede di Matteo Paris, il quale (ad ann. 1227, p. 286) 
scrisse: * Animo nimis consternati in iisdem navibus 
quibus venerant plusqnam 40 armatorum mlllia sunt 
reversi.' But this passage more probably relates to 
the numerous pilgrims, who had actually sailed to the 
Holy Land for the purpose of meeting Frederic, and 
who immediately returaed on not finding him there. 
Fleury makes no mention of his having put to sea at 
all on this occasion; but Bzovius asserts — 'per tri- 
duum in mare provectus cursum convertit ac se neque 
maris jactationera neque incommodam valetudinem 
f)ati posse asseruiu' Ann. Eccles, ad ann. 1227. 



cate ; not to diffuse the word of God, but to 
amass money, and reap that which they have 
not sown.* And so they pillage churches, 
monasteries and other places of religion, which 
our fathers have founded for the support of 
pilgrims and the poor, x^nd now these Ro- 
mans, without nobility and without valor, in- 
flated by nothing but their literature, aspire to 
kingdoms and empires. The Church was 
founded on poverty and simplicity, and no 
one can give it other foundation than that 
which Jesus Christ has fixed.' At the same 
time the Emperor continued to prepare for 
immediate departure, in spite of the sen- 
tence which hung over him. The Pope as- 
sembled a numerous Council, and thundered 
forth a second excommunication ; and in the 
spring following, without making any humil- 
iation, or obtaining any repeal of the anathema 
under which he lay, Frederic set sail for the 
Holy Land. 

Frederic IL in Palestine. — If there had been 
a shadow of sincerity in Gregory's professed 
enthusiasm for the liberation of Palestine, — 
if he had loved the name and birth-place 
of Christ with half the ardor Vv'ith which he 
clung to his own papal and personal dignity, 
he would not have piu'sued the departed Em- 
peror with his perverse malevolence, he would 
not have prostituted the ecclesiastical censures, 
to thw"art his projects and blast his hopes. 
Yet he did so : his mendicant emissaries were 
despatched to the Patriarch and the military 
orders of Jerusalem, informing them of the 
sentence under which Frederic was placed, 
and forbidding them to act, or to communicate 
with him. At the same time, provoked, as 
some assert, f by a previous aggression from 
Frederic's lieutenant, he invaded with all his 
forces the Apuhan dominions of the Emperor. 
Under these adverse circumstances, Frederic 
made a hasty, but not inglorious,^ treaty with 

* In 1229, Gregory IX. levied an exaction of 
tenths in England with so much severity, that even 
the standing crops were anticipated, and the bishops 
obliged to sell their property, or borrow money at a 
high interest, in order to answer the demand. Erat 
Papa tot et tantis involutus debitis, ut unde bellicam, 
quam susceperat, expeditionem sustineret, penitus 
ignorabat, Matth. Paris, anno citato. Mention is 
made of the continual, though secret, maledictions 
with which the Pope was pursued. 

t Fleury, 1. 79, s. 43. Giannone, 1. 16, c. 6. 

% The possession of the City and of the Holy Se- 
pulchre was secured to the Christians, while the Tem- 
ple (now the Mosque of Omar) which had already 
been desecrated to the Mahometan worship, was left 
in the possession of the Saracens: a fair arrangement, 
which was misrepresented by the Pope and most ec 



THE POPES FROM 1216 TO 1305. 



337 



the Saracens, and instantly returned to the 
defence of his own kingdom — a measure 
which became the more necessary, since the 
Pope had issued a third excommunication, 
releasing his subjects from their oath of alle- 
giance.* We do not profess, in this peaceful 
narrative, to describe the details of military 
adventures, or to trace the perplexed and faith- 
less politics of Italy. We must be contented 
to add, that some successes of the Emperor 
led to a hollow and fruitless reconciliation ; 
that this again broke out (in the year 1238) 
into open war, which lasted till the death of 
the Pope, three years afterwards. The period 
of nominal peace had been disturbed by the 
constant complaints and recriminations f of 
both parties. The perusal of those papers is 
sufficient to convince us, that if both had some, 
the Pope had the gi-eater, share of blame ; and 
while the style, which the prelate assumes, is 
that of an offended and injured protector and 
patron, the language of the Emperor, though 
never abject, frequently descends to the bor- 
ders of querulousness and humility. 

Innocent IV. — The cause of Frederic gained 
nothing by the death of Gregory, since he 
was succeeded by Innocent IV.| This ex- 
traordinary person (Sinibaldo Fieschi, a Ge- 
noese) had been distinguished as cardinal by 
his attachment to the person, if not to the 
cause, of the emperor; and on his election to 
the pontificate, the people of Italy indulged 
the fond and natural expectation, that the dis- 
sensions which blighted their happiness would 
at length be composed. Not so Frederic ; for 
he was familiar with the soul of Innocent, 
and had read his insolent and implacable 
character. To his fi-iends, who proffered 
their congratulations, he replied, that there 
was cause for sorrow rather than joy, since 
he had exchanged a cardinal, who was his 
dearest friend, for a pope, who would be his 
bitterest enemy.§ And so, indeed, it proved. 



clesiastical writers, and restored to history by Gibbon 
and Sismondi. Rep. Ital. chap. 15. 

* The plea which he gave was ' because no one 
should observe fidelity to a man who is opposed to 
God and his Saints, and tramples upon his command- 
ments.' A new maxim (as Fleury simply observes,) 
and one which seems to authorise revolt. 

t These disputes are related at great length by 
Fleury, liv. 81, sect. 32, &c. 

X On June 24, 1243. Celestine IV., in fact, in- 
tervened, but died on the sixteenth day after his 
election. 

§ See Giannone, Stor. di Nap., lib. xvii., c. 3, 
and various authorities collected by Sismondi, Rep. 
Ital., ch. xvi. 

43 



On the occasion of an early and amicable 
conference. Innocent refused to withdraw his 
predecessor's excommunication, until Freder- 
ic should restore all that he was charged with 
having plundered from the Church. The 
meeting had no result ; and Innocent present- 
ly repaired to France, and summoned a very 
numerous council at Lyons. 

First Council of Lyons. — As soon as the 
members were assembled* (in 1245) Inno- 
cent, taking his throne, with Baldwin, empe- 
ror of the East, on his right hand, began the 
proceedings, by conferring the use of the red 
bonnet on his cardinals f — to the end that they 
might never forget, in the use of that color, 
that their blood was at all times due to the 
service of the Church. At the same time he 
adorned them with other emblems of dignity, 
in imitation of regal pomp and state, and in 
scorn (as it was thought) of a favorite ex- 
pression of Frederic, that a Christian prelate 
ought to emulate the meekness and poverty 
of the disciples of Christ. He then opened 
his discourse respecting the defence of the 
Holy Land, and of other states at that time 
endangered by the Tartar invasion,^ and con- 
cluded with some general reproaches on the 
character and conduct of Frederic, — that he 

* See Giannone, lib. xvii., cap. 3. Sismondi, Rep. 
Ital., ch. xvi. 

t Bzov, Ann. Eccles., ad ann. 1245. Giannone, 
loc. cit. Pagi. vit., Inn. IV. sec. xxxi. investigates 
the question whether this digniiy was conferred at 
that time, or two years later. 

X Besides the aflair of Frederic, to which our 
account in the text is nearly confined, the first Gene- 
ral Council of Lyons professed three grand objects. 
(1.) To assist the Latin emperor of Constantinople 
against the Greeks. (2.) To aid tlie emperor of 
Germany against the Tartars. (3.) To rescue the 
Holy Land from the Saracens. For the attainment 
of the first of these objects, the Pope ordained a 
contribution of half the revenues of all benefices on 
which the incumbents were not actually resident, 
(a wholesome and admirable distinction,) placing a 
still higher impost on the largest; also of a tenth of 
the revenues of the Church of Rome. For the second, 
he exhorte<i the inhabitants to dig ditches, and build 
castles. For the third, he commanded the priests, 
and others in the Christian army, to offer up continual 
prayers, moving the Crusaders to repentance and vir- 
tue. Besides which he promised a twentieth part of 
the revenues of benefices for three years, and a tenth 
of those of the Pope and his cardinals. He likewise 
encouraged all who had the care of souls to influence 
the faithful to make donations by testament and other- 
wise. The decree touching the levies of money dis- 
pleased many prelates, who openly opposed it, de- 
claring that the Court of Rome now perpetually 
despoiled them under that pretext. 



S3^8 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



had pefSectrted the pontiiFs and other minis- 
ters of the Church of God ; exiled and plun- 
dered the bishops ; imprisoned the clergy, and 
even put many to a cruel death, with other 
similar charges. The same were repeated on 
the next day of meeting, and supported and 
exaggerated by the suspicious testimony of 
two partial and intemperate prelates. On both 
occasions they were boldly repelled by the 
emperor's ambassador, Taddeo di Suessa. 
After the delay of a fortnight, occasioned by 
an unfounded expectation of Frederic's ap- 
pearance in person^ the council assembled for 
the third time ; and then, after premising some 
constitutions respecting the Holy Land, In- 
nocent, ' to the astonishment and horror of all 
who heard him,' pronounced the final and 
fatal sentence against Frederic. He declared 
that prince deprived of the imperial crown, 
with all its honors and privileges, and of all 
bis other states ; he released his subjects from 
their oatb ^ he even forbade their fuitlier 
obedience, on pain of excommunication, and 
commanded the electors to the empire to 
choose a successor. He presently recom- 
mended to that dignity Henry, Landgrave of 
Thuringia. For the kingdom of Sicily, he 
took upon himself, ' with the counsel of the 
cardinals, his brethren,' to provide a sove- 
reign. 

Deposition of Frederic. — Frederic was at 
Turin when he received the news of this 
proceeding. He turned to the barons, who 
suiTounded him, and, with deep indignation, 
addressed them. ' The pontiff has deprived 
me of the imperial crown — let us see if it be 
so.' He then ordered the crown to be brought 
to him, and placed it on his head, saying, 
' that neither pope nor council had the power 
to take it from him.' Most of the princes of 
Europe were, indeed, of the same opinion, 
and continued to acknowledge him to the end 
of his life. And we may remark, that the 
usurpation of Innocent was in one respect 
marked with peculiar audacity, — lie did not 
even plead the approbation of the Holy Coun- 
cil, but contented himself with proclaiming 
that the sentence had been pronounced in its 
presence.* 

Nevertheless, his edict found willing obe- 

*'Saci-o proesente Concilio.' Bzovius (Ann. 
Eceles., ad ann. 1445) gives the precious documenl 
entire, prefaced, of course, with unqualified eulogy. 
Pagi, however, (Vit. Inn. IV., sec. xx.,) argues, 
that the approbation of the Council was implied in 
its proceedings, if not actually expressed in the title 
of the sentence 



dience from the superstition or the turbulence 
of the German barons. Henry was supported 
by numerous partisans, and waged a prosper- 
ous warfare against Conrad, the son of Fred- 
eric ; and on his early death, William, Count 
of Holland, was substituted by the Pope as a 
candidate for the throne. Innocent's genius 
and activity suggested to him the most refined 
arts to insure success, and his principles per- 
mitted him to adopt the most iniqukous. He 
even departed so far from the observance of 
humanity, and the most sacred feelings of 
nature, as to employ his intrigues to seduce 
Com ad from the service of his father, into 
rebellious and parricidal allegiance to the 
Church. That virtuous prince, rejecting, with 
firmness, the impious proposition, replied, that 
he would defend the side he had chosen to 
the last breath of life ; * and neither the Pope 
nor the Church gained even a temporary ad- 
vantage by an attempt which covers them with 
eternal infamy. 

His death and character. — The same indus- 
trious hostility which had kindled rebellion 
among the German princes, was exerted with 
no less effect among the contentious states of 
Italy. The Guelphic interests were every- 
where strengthened by the energy of Inno- 
cent ;. and the utmost eflforts of Frederic were 
insufficient to restore tranquillity to Germany, 
or even to obtain any important triumphs over 
his Italian enemies. He died in Apulia, in 
the year 1250 ; and though he had never for- 
mally renounced the title of Emperor, his 
deposition was virtually accomplished by the 
edict of Innocent, since the rest of his life was 
spent in uninterrupted confusion and alarm, 
in the midst of battle, and sedition, and treason, 
without any enjoyment of the repose of royalty, 
and with a very limited possession either of its 
dignity or authority. The character of Fred- 
eric nas been vilified by Guelphic writers, and 
probably too highly exalted by the opposite 
faction. In the conduct of affairs purely tem- 
poral, he is celebrated for justice, magnifi- 
cence, generosity, as well as for the patronage 
of arts and literature. Familiar with the use 
of many languages, and himself an author, 
he exhibited that disposition to cultivate sci- 
ence, and nourish every branch of Imowledge, 
which is so seldom associated with great 
vices. In regard to his long and comphcated 
contentions with the Church, it is unquestion- 
ably true that he violated, without any known 
necessity, certain solemn obligations respect- 
ing the time of commencing his Crusade, 

* Giannone, Stor. Nap., lib. xvii., ch. 4, 



THE POPES PROM 1216 TO 1305. 



339 



His reluctance to engage at all in such san- 
guinary and fruitless enterprises may be ac- 
knowledged and justified; but his repeated 
breach of faith gave some reason to the Holy 
See for suspectuig his subsequent promises. 
It is also true that he exiled some bishops, 
and imprisoned othei-s, and even proceeded to 
greater extremities against some individuals 
of the inferior orders of the clergy ; and also 
that he levied contributions and imposts on 
all classes of his ecclesiastical subjects.* But 
those who felt his rigor may probably have 
deserved it by moral or political misconduct ; 
and it was just and legal f that the clergy 
should contribute some proportion to the sup- 
port of the state. It may seem strange that, 
while his adversaries heap upon him the bit- 
terest charges of impiety and blasphemy, | his 
friends persist in asserting the unalterable 
fidehty and affection which he bore to his 
mother church, the protectress of his infancy ; 
that he was ever eager to advocate her cause, 
and promote her interests. In support of 
this singular pretension, it is advanced, that 
he was the inflexible and implacable extirpa- 
tor of heresy. This fact, though urged by his 
admirers, is not disputed by his enemies. It 
is faithfully recorded, that at an early period 
(in 1224) he published three constitutions, 
which aggravated the guilt and punishments 
of heresy even beyond those of treason, and 
placed the temporal authorities at the disposal 
of the ecclesiastical inquisitors. § ' Those (he 



* Hence (says Giannone) probably arose the re- 
port, that he had commonly proclaimed his intention 
of reducing the clergy to primitive poverty; ' so that 
Matthew Paris, who, before Frederic's deposition, 
had always adhered to his party, as soon as he under- 
stood that such were his common expressions, as he 
was himself abbot of Monte Albano (St. Alban's,) 
in England, and wealthy and well beneliced, was dis- 
pleased with such a proposition, and so began to 
change his style, and to write against him, in a man- 
ner different from his former.' Stor. di Nap., lib. 
xvii., c. 4. 

t Giannone pi"oves that such had been the invaria- 
ble custom, at least in the southern provinces of the 
empire of Frederic. 

^ One of these is the celebrated expression respect- 
ing the Three Impostors, then commonly attributed 
to Frederic, though solemnly and publicly denied by 
him. Another is a tale, recorded by certain monks, 
that, when they requested him to spare their crop of 
wheat, Frederic commanded his soldiers ' to desist, 
and to respect those ears of corn, since some day the 
grains which they contained might become so many 
Christs.' Giannone, loc, cit., on authority of Simon 
Hanh, Hist. Germ, in Frederico II. 

§ Several authors assert that, in virtue of a pro- 
mise made to Innocent III., he established a perma- 



ordained) who have been arrested for heresy, 
and who, being moved by the feai' of death, 
are desirous to return to the Church, shall be 
condemned to the penance of perpetual im- 
prisonment. The judges shall be bound to 
seize the heretics discarded by the inquisitors 
of the holy See, or by othei-s zealous for the 
Catholic faith, and to confine them closely 
until their execution, according to the sen- 
tence of the Church . . We also condemn 
to death those who, having abjured to save 
their life, shall return into error. We deprive 
heretics, and all who abet them, of all benefit 
of appeal ; and it is our will that heresy be 
entirely banished from the whole extent of 
our empire. And as the crime which assails 
God is greater than that of treason, we ordain 
that the children of heretics, to the second 
generation, be deprived of all temporal bene- 
fits, and all public offices, unless they come 
forward and denounce their parents.' * 

Such were the measures by which an inde- 
pendent, and powerful, and (for those days) 
an enlightened monarch, evinced his affection 
for the Church of Rome! Such were the 
favors by which he courted her friendship, 
and sought to merit her gratitude ! by feeding 
her fiercest passion — by sanctioning the most 
fatal of all her evil principles. It is true that 
Frederic may thus have established some 
claims on the sympathy of the furious zeal- 
ots of his time ; but his indulgence to thase 
churchmen was no deed of friendship to the 
Church. To protect and foster the vices of 
a system, is to prevent its permanence, and 
poison its prosperity; and if ever, during his 
long reign, he appeared as the real friend of 
Rome, it was the time when he least profes- 
sed that name — at the time when he exposed 
her abuses, and proclaimed her shame, and 
called upon her to repent and amend. And 
assuredly, when he lent his obsequious sword 
to swell the catalogue of her crimes, he was 
already preparing for his latter years the tem- 
pest which disturbed and tormented them ; 
nor did it happen without the spirit of God, 
that his calamities were inflicted by that same 
hand, whose darkest atrocities had been ap- 
proved and directed by himself. 

It is strange, too, that among the four rea- 
sons by which the Pope justified his sentence 
of deposition, it was one, that Frederic had 

nent Inquisition in Sicily in the year 1213. Stor. di 
Nap. loc. cit. This, however, is scarcely probable, 
for the Inquisition was not at that time permanently 
established even at Toulouse. 

* Fleurv, Hist. Eccl., lib. Ixxviii., sec. Ixv. 



340 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, 



rendered himself g*m*% of heresy., by his con- 
tempt of pontifical censures, and his unholy 
alliance with the Saracens. Thus, then, did 
that prince, according to the strict letter of his 
own constitutions, become liable, on his con- 
demnation by the Church, to the monstrous 
penalties contained in them. 

Disputes between Church and Empire. — An- 
other, * perhaps a more plausible reason, was 
this, — that he had been deficient in that fidel- 
ity, which he owed to the Pope, as his vassal 
for the kingdom of Sicily ; for that claim, 
however absurd in origin and principle, had 
been previously asserted and acknowledged. 
But, in truth, when we compare the character 
and causes of this second conflict between the 
Church and the Empire with those which 
marked the contest of Henry with Gregoi-y 
VII. and his successors, we find it much 
more diflEicult to discover what was the spe- 
cific and tangible ground of quarrel. In the 
former instance there existed one grand and 
definite object, for which both parties perse- 
veringly struggled ; in the latter, many vague 
complaints and indeterminate offences were 
advanced and retorted ; but no single great 
principle was avowedly contested, nor was 
any one additional right or privilege acquir- 
ed or confirmed to the Church by its final 
triumph. Only the power and influence of 
Rome were made more manifest ; and other 
nations were taught to tremble at the omnipo- 
tence of the double sword. 

This leads us to remark another distinction 
— that, in the contest with Henry, it was, in 
reality, the Church of Rome which rose in 
ofiposition to the empire — the spiritual, or, at 
least, the ecclesiastical, interests of the See 
were those most consulted and most promi- 
nent in the debate. In that with Frederic, it 
was rather from the Court of Rome, that the 
spirit and motives of policy proceeded. In 
the former case, the material sword was in- 
troduced as secandary and subsidiary to the 
spiritual ; but in the latter, if the contrary 
was not actually the case, f at least the two 



-* See Sismondi, Rep. Ital., ch. xvi. 
f In the year 1251, ChrLstianus, (or Conrad,) 
Archbishop of Mentz, was actually deposed by Inno- 
cent, for reluctance to use arms in the defence of the 
Church. ' He said, that the works of war did not 
become the sacerdotal character; but that he was 
ever willing to use the sword of the spirit, which v/as 
the word of God. The Scriptures had commanded 
him to put his sword in the sheath.' Of this offence 
(and no other charge is mentioned) he was accused 
by the king and certain of the laity before the Pope, 
and was immediately degraded from his See. Pagi, 
Innoc. IV. 3 sec. xlvii. 



weapons were so dexterously substituted and 
interchanged for each Other — the one was so 
continually presented under the holy sem- 
blance of the other — as to show the profi- 
ciency which the See had latterly made in 
the art of deluding the human race. 

Again — the avarice or the necessities of 
Rome compelled her, during these disputes, 
to a measure which, however expedient at 
the moment, was finally very injurious to 
her — that of levying taxes rigidly and gener- 
ally upon the clergy. It was not in England 
only (though there most successfully ) * that 
Gregory IX. exacted from all ranks of eccle- 
siastics the tenth of their movables immedi- 
ately on his breach with the emperor ; and 
every one recollects with what repugnance 
his second requisition (in 1240) was admitted 
by our clerical forefathers. From the mo- 
ment that the Pope was found so infatuated 
as to publish a Crusade f against a Catholicr 



* The pages of Matthew Paris abound with instan- 
ces of pontifical rapacity and insolence. See ad 
annas 1244, 1245, 1246, 1247, 1250, 1252, &c. . 
. Sometimes a legate h. latere was the instrument ; 
sometimes the Mendicants acted as tax-gatherers; 
and even Ireland did not escape their visitations. In 
1247, the complaints both of the French and English 
clergy assumed a formidable shape for that age. The 
lasting effect was, that the former devotion to Rome 
was turned into '^ execrabile odium et maledictiones 
occultas.' For all both saw aad felt that the Pope 
was insatiable in his extortions, to their great loss 
and impoverishment. And there were many who be- 
gan to question whether he had really received from 
heaven the power of St. Peter to bind and to loose, 
seeing how very unlike he was to that apostle. ' Re- 
sokitum est igkur o& iniqua loquentium, &c.' . . 
and this as well in France aa in England, 

t The same indulgences were promised to those 
wlio armed against the emperor as against the sultan ; 
and the apostolic preachers, under Innocent at least, 
even pointed out the former as the easier and broader 
road to salvation. Sismondi, Rep. Ital., ehap. xvi-» 
Fleury, Hist. Eccl., lib. Ixxxiii., sec. xxxiii. The 
nobility of France, and the Queen Blanche, were 
highly offended by this measure of*Innocent, during 
the Crusade of St. Louis. ' The Pope (they com- 
plained) is preaching a new Crusade against Christ- 
ians for the extension of his own dominions, and 
forgets the king, our master, who is suffering so much 
for the faith.' ' Let the Pope (the queen replied) 
keep those who go into his service; and let them de- 
part, never to return.* The nobles also reprimanded 
the Mendicants who had preached this Crusade. ' We 
build for you churches and houses : we receive, nourish, 
and entertain you. What good does the Pope for 
you'? He fatigues and torments you; he makes you 
his tax-gatherers, and renders you hateful to your 
benefactors.' They excused themselves on the plea 
of the obedience due to him. . . Here we dis- 
cover the elements of the Gallicaa liberties. 



THE POPES FROM 1216 TO 1305. 



341 



emperor, and to feed his own temporal ambi- 
tion by despoiling his faithful Catholic clergy, 
the minds of all reasonable laymen were start- 
led and revolted by the former outrage, while 
the hearts of the clergy, being touched by the 
injustice of the latter, began gi-adually to close 
against so rapacious a protector. 

Conduct of Innocent— When Innocent re- 
ceived the news of the death of Frederic, his 
exultation broke forth without restraint or 
moderation ;— 'Let the heavens rejoice, and 
let the earth be in festivity ; for the thunder 
and the tempest with which a powerful God 
has so long threatened your heads, are chang- 
ed by the death of that man into refreshing 
V^reezes and fertilizing dews.' * It was thus 
that he addressed the clergy of Sicily, while, 
at the same time, he prepared to reduce that 
province, together with the kingdom of Na- 
ples, under his own immediate government, 
and attach it in perpetuity to the dominions 
of the Church. In pursuance of this project, 
he quitted Lyons, his constant residence | 
during the uncertainties of the war, and vis- 
ited, in a sort of triumphal procession, the 
Guelphic cities of Italy. He was everywhere 
received with an enthusiasm which he had 
not merited by any regard for any interests 
except his own ; and he is even supposed 
somewhat to have chilled the misplaced grat- 
itude of his allies by the unexpected assertion 
of some spiritual pretensions over themselves. 
In Sicily, and the south of Italy, he succeeded 
in creating a powerful party ; but it was over- 
thrown by the arms of Conrad and Manfred, 
the sons of Frederic. Foiled by force, the 
Pope had recourse to intrigue ; and he began 
to treat successively with the kings of Eng- 



* In a similar spirit of Christian forgiveness, the 
same Pope is related to have expressed his exultation 
at the death of Grosstete, bishop of Lincoln. ' I re- 
joice; and let every true son of the Church rejoice 
with me — that my great enemy is removed.' . . . 
Assuredly that admirable prelate had gone very far 
in disaffection, not hesitating to denounce Innocent, 
almost with his dying breath, as Antichrist; 'For 
by what other name are we to designate that power, 
which labors to destroy the souls that Christ came to 
Bavel ' 

t On the departure of the Pope from Lyons, the 
Cardinal Hugo made a valedictory address to all the 
population of both sexes; and it contained the fol- 
lowing sentence: — 'Amici, magnam fecimus, post- 
quam in hancUrbem venimus,utilitatem et eleemosy- 
nam. Quando enim primo hue venimus, tria vel 
quattuor prostibula invenimus. Sed nunc recedentes 
unum solum relinquimus. Verum ipsum durat con- 
tinuatum ab orientali parte civitatis usque ad occi- 
dentalem.' This is related as fact by Matthew Paris - 
Ad ann. 1251. 



land and France, with a view to bestow the 
crown of the Sicihes on a branch either of 
the one family or tJie other. In the mean- 
time, the death of Conrad revived in him the 
expu'ing hope of uniting it to his own. Am- 
bition resumed her sway ; and he broke off 
the imperfect negotiations. The kingdom of 
Naples was agam thronged with his emissa- 
ries ; seditions were in every quarter excited 
in his favor ; and even Manfred himself, in 
the belief that resistance would be vain, ad- 
vanced to the frontiers to offer his submission, 
and deigned to lead by the bridle the horse 
of the pontiff as he crossed the Garigliano. 

This event, which seemed to secure to the 
Court of Rome the throne of Naples and Sic- 
ily, and thus to extend its dominions beyond 
any limits which it had at any tmie reached, 
or, till lately, aspired to, took place in the 
summer of 1254. The duration of this un- 
natural prosperity was even shorter than could 
have been predicted by the most penetrating 
statesman ; for before the conclusion of the 
very same year, Manfred had again possessed 
hhnself of the keys of the kingdom. But In- 
nocent did not live to witness this second re- 
verse ; — he had already expired * at Naples, 
in mature old age, and in the confident per- 
suasion that he had achieved the dearest ob- 
ject of his ambition, and that he died the 
most powerful prince who had ever filled the 
throne of St. Peter. 

The Character of Innocent IV. — During a 
pontificate of eleven years and five months, 

* Soon after Innocent's death, (of which the exact 
day, it is proper to remark, is disputed — Pagi, Iim. 
IV., sec. Ixv.) a cardinal had the following vision. 
He saw a noble matron, on whose brow the word Ec- 
clesia was written, present her petition at the Judg- 
ment-seat, saying, Justissime Judex, juste judica. She 
then brought forward these charges against Innocent 
IV. (1.) At the foundation of the Church, Thou 
didst give it liberties proceeding from Thyself; but 
he has made it the vilest of slaves, (ancillam vilissi- 
mam.) (2.) It was founded to benefit the souls of 
the miserable; — he has made it a table of money- 
gatherers. (3.) It was founded in Faith, Justice, 
and Truth; — but he has staggered Faith, destroyed 
Justice, and clouded Truth. Justum ergo judicium 
redde mihi. Then the Lord said to him. Go and re- 
ceive thy reward according to thy meiits. And thus 
he was carried away. The cardinal then woke, 
through the terror of this sentence, and shouted so 
loud, as to excite the suspicion of insanity. Ista 
visio (continues Matthew Paris) (nescitur si fantas- 
tica) multos perterruit ; et utinam cum efFectu casti- 
gans emendavit. That it was generally propagated, 
and perhaps believed at the time, is sufficient to prove 
to us (if we needed indirect proof) what was the 
sort of reputation which Innocent IV. possessed 
among his contemporaries. 



342 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



he had displayed all the qualities which con- 
summate an artful politician, and which dis- 
grace a bishop and a Christian. As a states- 
man, he designed daringly, he negotiated 
skilfully, he intrigued successfully; he per- 
fectly comprehended the means at his dis- 
posal, and adapted them so closely to his 
puiposes, that his reign presented a series of 
those triumphs * which are usually designated 
glorious. As a churchman, he bade defiance 
to the best principles of his religion ; he set 
at nought the common feelings of humanity. 
The spiritual guide to eternal life, he had no 
fixed motive of action, except vulgar temporal 
ambition. 'The servant of the servants of 
God,' he rejected with scorn the humiliation 
of Frederic, f and spurned a suppliant empe- 
ror, who had been his friend. And lastly, 
when the infant son of Conrad was presented 
*o his tutelary protection by a dying father, 
the prayer was haughtily refused ; and ' the 
father of all Christians, and the protector of 
all orphans,' hastened to usurp the hereditary 
rights of a Christian child and orphan. These 
circumstances duly considered, with every 
allowance for times and prejudices, seem, 
indeed, almost to justify the expression of the 
sultan of Egypt, in his answer to a letter of 
Innocent — the taunt of a Mussulman addres- 
sed to Christ's vicar upon earth; — 'We have 
received your epistle, and listened to your en- 
voy : he has spoken to us of Jesus Christ — 
whom we know better than you know, and 
whom we honor more than you honor him.'' I 

Alexander IV. — Alexander IV. succeeded 
to the chair, to the passions, and to the pro- 
jects of Innocent ; and it was the leading ob- 
ject of his reign of six years to maintain or 



* We should mention, however, that the fall of 
Frederic is not wholly attributable to Innocent's in- 
fluence. A very strong republican and anti-imperial 
spirit previously prevailed in many, especially the 
northern, cities of Italy, which the Pope could not 
have created, though he very well knew how to avail 
himself to it. Another remark we may hei-e make 
— that Innocent was much more successful in foment- 
ing seditions, and making parties in foreign states, 
than in securing the subordination of his own capital. 
There were few cities in Italy where he had less 
influence than at Rome; which may account for his 
continual absence from it. See Sismondi, Rep. Ital., 
chap, xviii. Matthew Paris, Hist. Anglise, ann. 
1254. 

f Sismondi, Rep. Ital., chap. xvii. 

X De quo Christo plus scimus qua.m vos sciatis, et 
magnificamuseum plusquam vos magnificatis. Bzov., 
Ann. Eccles., ad ann. 1264. Matthew Paris, Hist, 
ad ann. eundem. The letter is a very sensible com- 
position, and deals very directly with the subjects on 
which it treats. 



recover the temporal possession of the king- 
dom of Manfred. But he possessed neither 
the firmness of character nor the various tal- 
ents necessary for success. The machine, 
which had not always moved obediently even 
to the hand of Innocent, seemed to lose, in 
his feebler grasp, all the elasticity of its action ; 
and it became evident, before the end of his 
j pontificate, that the sceptre of Naples and 
' Sicily was not destined to a bishop of Rome. 
j At the same time, Alexander was celebrated 
I for the exercise of some of those virtues, 
which were not found in his predecessor — 
for earnestness of piety, or, at least, for assid- 
uity in prayer, and the strict observance of 
Church regulations. * The favors which he 
bestowed upon the Mendicant orders will 
prove his zeal, indeed, rather than the wisdom 
of his policy. But the Crusade which he 
preached, from whatsoever motive, against 
Eccelino, the tyrant, was almost justified by 
the crimes of that miscreant ; for though a war 
proclaimed 'in the name of God' is, in most 
instances, only wickedness cloaked by blas- 
phemy, yet we may view it with some indul- 
gence, when it is directed against the convicted 
enemy of mankind. 

IJrhan IV. and Clement IV. — For the seven 
following years (from 1261 to 1268) the chair 
was occupied by two Frenchmen, Urban IV. 
and Clement IV., who have obtained an emi- 
nent place in civil as well as ecclesiastical his- 
tory, by the introduction of Charles of Anjou 
to the throne of Naples. Whether from per- 
sonal hostility to the actual occupant of that 
throne, or from ecclesiastical rancor against 
the son of Frederic, or from a political de- 
termination to cut off all connexion between 
the south of Italy and the empire, or from all 
these causes united, the holy See, by whom- 
soever administered, did not remit or relax its 
exertions for the expulsion of Manfred. The 
negotiations with the court of France, which 
Innocent IV. had commenced and interrupted, 
were renewed and concluded by Urban IV. ; 
and during the following reign of Clement, 
the Crusade against a legitimate and vhtuous 
monarch was completed with the most san- 
guinary success. The brother of St. Louis 
supported his usurpation by the same merci- 
less sword which had achieved it ; and the 
historians of Italy still recount, with tears of 



* Alexander IV. is thus characterized by Matthew 
Paris; — Sa*.is benignus et bene religiosus; assiduus 
in orationibus, in abstinentia strenuus, sed sibilis 
adulantium seducibilis et pravis avarorum suggestion- 
ibus inclinitivus. Pagi is very much offended by the 
qualification of the praise. 



THE POPES FROM 1216 TO 1305. 



343 



indignation, the more than usual horrors of 
the French invasion. 

But, however strong this Pope's nationality- 
may have been, it did not cause him to forget 
his papal interests. The conditions which he 
exacted from Charles, on investing him with 
the crown of Naples, contained most of the 
claims then in dispute between kings and 
popes, such as the unqualified appointment 
to vacant sees, the exclusive care of the tem- 
poralities during vacancy, and even the aboli- 
tion of all pretensions rising from the regalia.* 

Gregory X. — On the death of Clement, tlie 
See was vacant, through the disunion of the 
cardinals, for nearly three years. At length, 
in 1271, an Italian, a native of Piacenza, was 
elected, and assumed the name of Gregory X. 
— ' a person (says Fleury) f of little learning, 
but of great experience in secular affairs, and 
more given to the distribution of alms, than 
the amassing of riches.' He was in the Holy 
Land at the tijne of his appointment ; and as 
he returned with a keen and recent impres- 
sion of its sufferings, and with an enthusiasm 
freshly kindled by that spectacle, the first act 
of his pontificate was directed to the revival 
of the crusading ardor; and the same con- 
tinued to the end of his life to be the favorite 
object of his exertions. He was successful, 
because he was sincere. Those, who cared 
not for his reasoning, listened to his disinter- 
ested supplications ; those who were not in- 
flamed by his enthusiasm, still respected and 
loved it. It was no longer against a Christian 
sectarian, or a Catholic Emperor and his per- 
secuted race, that the monarchs of Europe 
were called upon to arm ; it was no longer 
for the peculiar aggrandizement of the Court 
or Church of Rome, that the father of Chris- 
tians summoned them to battle ; they had 



* See Giannoae, Stor. di Nap., lib. xix., cap. v. 
In a Bull, dated in 1266, he declared that the dispo- 
sition of all benefices rightfully belonged to the Pope. 
The claims of the princes were supported by a decree 
of the Council of Lyons. See Dupin, Siecle xiii , 
sec. X. That author observes generally that com- 
Eaendanis of benefices, and the distinction between 
simple benefices and those with cure of souls, were 
the introduction of this age; and that the jurisdic- 
tion, privileges, and immunities of the clergy, were 
thus extended as far as possible. Pluralities were 
strictly prohibited, and commonly enjoyed. On the 
other hand, ecclesiastics were compelled to contri- 
bute, not only to the real or pretended necessities of 
the church, but frequently, under one pretext or other, 
to the exigences of the state. Hence their murmurs 
and discontent. The possession and enjoyment was 
ihe habit and the right — the contribution was novel 
and vexatious. 

t Hist. Eccl., lib. Ixxxvi. sec. xvii. 



already learnt to distinguish between the in- 
terests of the Vatican and the honor of Christ ; 
and the magic which a spiritual Pope had so 
long exei-cised over the human mind, lost 
much of its fascination and power, as soon as 
he degenerated into a temporal prince. 

But Gregory X. had higher and less am- 
biguous claims on the gratitude of Christen- 
dom than any zeal for the deliverance of Pal- 
estine could possibly give him. He labored 
to compose the dissensions of his distracted 
country^ to heal the wounds which had been 
so wantonly inflicted by the selfish ambition 
of his predecessors. He interposed, impar- 
tially, and therefore not vainly, to reconcile 
the opposite factions of Guelphs and Ghibe- 
lines ; * and exhibited to them the new and 
venerable spectacle of a pacific Pope. He in- 
terposed too in the affairs of the empire ; but 
it was again for the purpose of terminating a 
division which threatened the peace of Ger- 
many ; and he proved the sincerity of his in- 
tention by confirming the election of Rodolph, 
who had secured and deserved the affections 
of his people. Another project, on which he 
was bent with like earnestness, had the same 
respectable character, — the reconciliation of 
the Greek and Latin Churches ; and in this 
difficult affuii* he also obtained a complete 
(though very transient) success, by the con- 
cessions of the Emperor Michael, and the 
temporary or nominal submission of his 
Church. 

The Second Council of Lyons. — It was at 
the second Council of Lyons, that the deputies 



* Leonardus Aretinus (Histor. Florent. lib. iii. p. 
48, edit. Argent, 1610) bears ample testimony to the 
sanctity and pacific character of Gregory, and details 
the circumstances of his attempt to reconcile parties 
at Florence. The following is given as part of his 
address to the citizens: — Quae est igitur hjec tam 
praepotens causal Quod Guelphus est (inquit) aut 
Gibellinus — nomina ne ipsis quidem qui ilia proferunt 
nota! — Ea nimirum causa est cur eives necantur, do- 
mus incenduntur, evertitur patria, sititur proximi 
sanguis. Oh puerilem stultitiam ! oh amentiam non 
ferendam ! Gibellinus est — ^at Christianus, at civis, 
at proximus, at consanguineus. Ergo heec tot et tam 
valida conjunctionis nomina Gibellinis succumbent'? 
Et id unum atque inane nomen (nam quid significet 
nemo intelligit) plus valebit ad odium, quara ista 
omnia tam praeclara et tam solida et expressa ad cari- 
tatem, &c. These sentiments (the historian adds) 
were grateful to the multitude, but displeased the 
aristocracy. The Pope was then obliged to lay the 
city under an interdict; and his admirable intentions 
involved him in an obstinate contest with the nobles. 
But any doubts which migjit still remain respecting 
his sanctity were removed (as Leonardus gravely 
asserts) by the numerous piracies performed at his 
tomb. 



344 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



of the East presented their faithless homage 
to the Roman pontiff. But that prelate had 
two other, and, perhaps, dearer objects, in the 
summoning of that vast assembly.* The one 
was to complete the preparations for this long- 
projected Crusade ; the other was the worthier 
of his wisdom, and even of his piety — to re- 
form the obnoxious abuses of his Church. In 
the course of the six sessions of the Council, 
thirty-one constitutions were enacted for the 
better administration of the Church, and they 
did honor at least to the intentions of those 
who promulgated them. Some eight or ten 
of these related to the election of bishops ; 
several others to cures and benefices, to the 
discipline or temporalities of the Church. 
Another (the 21st) was levelled against the 
unlimited growth of Mendicant orders; dis- 
banding all, which had not formally received 
the papal confirmation, and discouraging the 
foundation of others. But that among the 
acts of this assembly, which was at the time 
the most celebrated, and perhaps in effect tlie 
most permanent, was the law which regulated 
the method of papal election, by severe re- 
straints imposed upon the conclave.f It was 
then enacted, that the cardinals should be 
lodged in one chamber, without any separa- 
tion of wall or curtain, or any issue — that the 
chamber should be so closed on every side, 
as to leave no possibility of entrance or exit. 
*No one shall approach them or address them 
privately, unless with the consent of all pres- 
ent, and on the business of the election. The 
conclave (properly the name of the chamber) 
shall have one window, through which neces- 
sary food may be admitted, without there be- 
ing space for the human body to enter. And 
if (which God forbid) in three days after their 
entrance they shall not yet have come to a 
decision, for the fifteen following days they 
shall be contented with a single dish, as well 
for dinner as for supper. But after these 
fifteen days they shall have no other nourish- 
ment than bread, wine and water, until the 
election shall be made. During the election. 



* Five hundred bishops, seventy mitred abbots, 
and a thousand inferior clergy and theologians com- 
posed this Council, assembled in 1274. The legates 
of Michael the Greek Emperor, and of the King of 
the Tartars were present. Also the ambassadors of 
France, Germany, England, Sicily, &c., and one 
Prince, James of Arragon. Pagi, Greg, x., s. xxv. 

t Pagi, Vit. Greg. X. sect. xli. Fleury, llv. 
Ixxxvi., sect. xlv. It was quite obvious that, as men 
and cardinals are constituted, these regulations could 
not be enforced rigorously. But with some modifi- 
cations they subsist even to this moment. 



they shall receive nothing from the apostol- 
ical chamber, nor any other revenues of the 
Roman Church.' 

Intended Crusade^ and Death of Gregory. — - 
The expedition to Palestine gave promise of 
the most favorable issue. The Emperor Ro- 
dolph had engaged to conduct it ; Philip the 
Hardy, King of France, Edward of England, 
James of Arragon, and Charles of Sicily, had 
pledged their faith to attend it : supplies had 
been secured by the universal imposition of a 
tax on Ecclesiastical property ; and the fol- 
lowing year was devoted to the necessary 
preparations. At the end of that year,* before 
one galley had departed, or perhaps one sol- 
dier embarked, the Pope himself fell sick and 
died. From that moment (says Sismondi) 
the kings into whbm he had inspired his en- 
thusiasm, renounced their chivalrous projects ; 
the Greeks returned to their schisms, and the 
Catholics, divided afresh, turned against each 
other those arms which they had consecrated 
to the deliverance of Palestine. 

JVicholas III. — The short reigns of Innocent 
v., Adrian V. and John XXI,, were not dis- 
tinguished by any memorable event. Nich- 
olas III., a Roman of the family of theUrsini, 
succeeded in 1277, and devoted himself with 
great prudence and success, not so much to 
enlarge the temporal edifice of his church, as 
to secure the foundations on which it stood. 
For that purpose he resumed some negotia- 
tions, commenced by Gregory X. at Lyons, 
with Rodolph, King of the Romans, and 
brought them to so fortunate a termination, 
that that prince finally satisfied all the dona- 
tions of preceding Emperors, and recognised 
the cities of the ecclesiastical states, as being 
absolutely independent of himself, and owing 
their entire allegiance to the Pope. Nicholas 
had another object of jealousy in the increas- 
ing power of Charles, King of Sicily, and he 
had the address f to engage that prince to re- 
sign two very important dignities, which he 
had probably acquhed through the subservi- 
ence of Clement IV. One was the office of 
Imperial Vicar-general in Tuscany ; the other 
was that of Senator of Rome. We have al- 
ready had occasion to mention the inefficacy 
of the Pope's civil authority in his own capi- 
tal ; and this had lately been subjected even 
to additional insult by the frequent appoint- 



* In January, 1276. 

•f The art with which he played off the Emperor 
and King of Sicily against each otlier, until he ob- 
tained all that he required from both, was worthy of 
the most refmed ages of papal diplomacy. See Sis- 
mondi, Rep. Ital. cliap. xxii. ann. 1277, 1278. 



THE POPES FROM 1216 TO 1305. 



345 



merit of foreigners to the highest offices. 
Pope Nicholas pubhshed a constitution to 
prevent the recurrence of this evil, and to 
limit the time of possession to one year. 

It is worth remarking, that, in defence of 
his temporal sovereignty, as well over the 
states, as over the city, of Rome, he appealed 
to the immovable foundations on which he 
conceived them to rest. In favor of the first, 
he pleaded the donations of Lewis the Meek, 
and the confirmations of Otho I. and St. 
Henry ; * in favor of the second, the ' Dona- 
tion of Constantino ;' and he maintained, that 
the temporal power of the Pope and his 
Cardinals was absolutely necessary for the 
free exercise of then' spiritual functions. He 
reigned only two years and nine months : he 
is commonly described as possessing many 
good qualities ; and we read of no other seri- 
ous charge against him, than that he heaped 
upon his greedy relatives and connexions the 
most splendid benefices of the church, with 
unmerited and shameless profusion. 

Martin IF. — The King of Sicily was suc- 
cessful in procuring the election of a French- 
man, Martin IV., who is chiefly remarkable 
in history for his entire subservience to the 
interests of his patron. In violation of both 
the clauses of the constitution of Nicholas, he 
accepted the office of Senator, and held it for 
life. As this was the first instance of such 
condescension on the part of St. Peter's suc- 
cessors, it has not escaped the notice of the 
historian. And if indeed the claims on the 
temporal sovereignty of Rome, which they 
had asserted for above two centuries, had 
been well founded, it would have been a 
strange and unprecedented degradation for a 
sovereign prince to exercise a simple magis- 
tracy in his own city, f But Martin was 
probably less disposed to examine the remote 
and general question of right, than to avail 
himself of the substantial power thus firmly 
vested in his own person. 

He enjoyed his dignity for a very short time. 



* Fleiirj', liv. Ixxxvii., sect. xv. and xvi. 

t Sismondi (chap, xxii.) asserts that he immedi- 
ately transferred his dignity to Charles, following 
Jordanus, apnd Raynaldum, and other authorities. 
The words of the appointment sufficiently express the 
extent of the power conferred. ' Nobiles viri . . 
Electores ordinati . . . domino Martino Papse IV. 
unanimiter et concorditer transtulerunt et plenarie 
commiserunt regimen senatus Urbis,ejusque territorii 
et districtus toto tempore vitae suae : et dederunt sibi 
plenam et liberam potestatem regendi toto tempore 
Urbem . . . per se, vel per alium, vel per alios, et 
eligendi senatorem, vel senator?-:,' &c. &c. 
44 



Sicilian Vespers,' and the misfortunes of his 
countrymen. He was buried in the Church 
of St. Lawrence, and many sick were healed 
at his tomb, in the presence of vast numbers 
of the clergy and laity, — according to the evi- 
dence of a contemporary author, who affirms 
that those miracles still lasted while he was 
writing, which Avas six weeks after the de- 
cease of the pontiff.* The mention of these 
impostures is so common, even in the pages 
of the most enlightened Catholic historians, 
that we are not justified in passing them over 
in entire silence. In fact, they formed so es- 
sential a part of the Roman Catholic system, 
that we should do injustice to its whole charac- 
ter, if we were not occasionally to notice them. 

Martin was succeeded by a noble Roman, 
Honorius IV. ; and he, by another native of 
the Roman states, Nicholas IV., who was 
elected in 1288. The claims of this Pope on 
historical notice, are confined to some diligent 
but almost hopeless exertions to excite the 
princes of Europe to another Crusade ; and to 
some as zealous and as fruitless efforts for the 
extirpation of heresy. In 1288, he stimulated 
his Mendicant emissaries to peculiar diligence 
both in Italy and Provence, and put in prac- 
tice a somewhat singular method for securing 
the orthodoxy of his people.f He obliged the 
converted heretic to be bound in a pecuniary 
recognizance against relapse, and to find suf- 
ficient securities for payment. Avarice was 
scarcely become even yet the ruling passion 
of the Vatican ; but since the sway of Inno- 
cent III., it had been rapidly gaining ground ; 
and the edict of Nicholas gives fearful indica- 
tions of its progress. In the year following, 
an ordinance was published at Venice, for the 
purpose of facilitating the operations of the 
Inquisition ; and it was approved and con- 
firmed by the pontiff. 

Election of Pietro di Morone, or Celestine V. 
— Nicholas died soon afterwards; and the 
history of his successor is distinguished by so 
many strange circumstances from the ordina- 
ry annals of papal biography, that it may afford 
relief as well as advantage to unfold its par- 
ticulars. Through the disunion of the cardi- 
nals, the See had already been vacant for 
seven-and-twenty months, and no progress 

* Fleury, liv. Ixxxviii., sect. xvi. Both Martin 
and his predecessor were extremely attached to the 
Franciscan Order. 

t The idea was not original. Instructions to the 
same effect were given to the Minorites by Alexander 
IV. in 1258. It was then provided, that the money 
so raised should be employed in the prosecution of 
heretics. 



346 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



seemed yet to have been made towards the 
decision. They were still assembled in con- 
clave, and still without any prospect of imme- 
diate accommodation, when, on some day in 
the beginning of July, 1294, one of their num- 
ber was prevented from attending the delib- 
eration by the sudden and violent death of 
his brother. By this casual occurrence, the 
thoughts of the venerable society were direct- 
ed toman's mortality; and their reflections 
assumed a serious and solemn character. At 
length, returning to the subject before them, 
the bishop of Tusculum asked with vehe- 
mence, ' Why then delay we so long to give 
a head to the Church ? whence this division 
among us ? ' To which Cardinal Latino add- 
ed, ' It has been revealed to a holy man, that 
unless we hasten to the election of a Pope, in 
less than four months the anger of God will 
burst upon us.' Hereupon, Benedict Gaiet- 
ano, (the same who was afterwards Boniface 
VIII.) sarcastically smiled and said, 'It is 
brother Pietro di Morone, to whom that rev- 
elation has been vouchsafed ? ' Latino ans- 
wered, ' The same ; he has written to me that, 
when engaged in his nocturnal devotions be- 
fore the altar, he had received the command 
of God to communicate this warning.' Then 
the cardinals began to discourse of what they 
knew concerning that holy man. One dwelt 
on the austerity of his life, another on his 
virtues, another on his miracles : presently 
some one proposed him as a candidate for the 
See ; and a discussion immediately arose on 
that question. 

The debate was of very short duration, for 
reason had given place to passionate emotion, 
and passion was mistaken for inspiration. 
Cardinal Latino first gave his suffrage for 
Pietro di Morone : his example was eagerly 
followed by his colleagues, and the sudden 
and ardent unanimity of the conclave was 
attributed to the immediate impulse of the 
divinity.* 

Its choice had fallen upon a weak and aged 
recluse, whose life had been devoted to the 
most rigorous observances of superstition, and 
whose inveterate habits of solitary meditation 
disqualified him for the commonest offices of 



* A suspicious historian would perhaps except 
Benedict Gaietano from the charge of superstitious 
enthusiasm. Possibly even then he proposed to profit 
by the weaknesses of Pietro; but lie could scarcely 
have considered them as the object of God's especial 
interposition; or have believed that an old man, who 
had not hitherto filled any office in society, had been 
Eelected by the especial favor of Providence to occupy 
die hi°fhest. 



society. His very name was derived from 
the mountam top where his existence had 
passed away. The cave in which he dwelt 
had been the refuge of a dragon, who obse- 
quiously resigned it to his human successor ; 
and we are seriously assured, that his infancy 
had been the object of that miraculous agency, 
which he so profusely exercised in his later 
years ; and that even at his entrance into this 
polluted world, he was protected by the sem- 
blance, or the reality, of the monastic habit.* 
The deputies proceeded to announce to him 
the astounding change in his fortune. They 
arrived at the city of Sulmone, and having 
received permission to present themselves, 
ascended with toil and sweat the narrow and 
rugged path, which led through a desolate 
wilderness to the cell they sought. The cell 
was closed against them, and they were com- 
pelled to make their communication through 
a small grated window. Through the inter- 
stices they beheld a pale old man, attenuated 
with fasting and macerations, with a beard 
dishevelled, and eyes inflamed with tears, 
trembling with the agitation into which the 
awful announcement had thrown him. The 
Archbishop of Lyons then assured him of the 
enthusiasm which had united the Cardinals 
in his favor ; and pressed him, by accepting 
the dignity, to compose the troubles of the 
Church. Pietro answered, 'I must consult 
God — go and pray likewise.' He then pros- 
trated himself on the earth, and after remain- 
ing some time in supplication, he rose and 
said, ' I accept the pontificate, I consent to the 
election — I dare not resist the will of God, I 
will not be wanting to the Church in her ne- 
cessity.' No sooner was the result of this 
interview bruited abroad, than the sides of 
Mt. Morone were frequented by assiduous 
visitants, whom piety, or interest, or curiosity 
conducted to the cavern of the hermit-pope. 
Churchmen and laymen of every rank hasten- 
ed to pay homage to his virtues or his dignity ; 
and his earliest levee was adorned by the 
presence of two kings.f 

* All these fables are sedulously and solemnly re- 
lated by Bzovius. Manebat mairi fixum quod nas- 
centi olim filio contigerat, ac tanquam magnum ali- 
quod divinumque portendebat. Ex utero siquidem 
materno exierit circumamictus indumento quodam, 
quod nihil ab his quibus religiosi liomines ve^tiuntur, 
differebat. Ad ann, 1294. 

t Charles le Boiteux of Sicily, and his son Charles 
Martel, titular Prince of Hungary. The Pope elect 
descended to Aquila to assume his pontificals, on an 
ass, and the two princes held the bridle. 

Intumidus vilem Murro conscendit asellum, 



THE POPES FROM 1216 TO 1305. 



347 



His Character. — It was immediately discov- 
ered that the quaUfications of Celestine V. 
(Pietro assumed that name) fell far short even 
of the ordinary limits of monastic capacity. 
He was entirely ignorant of all science and 
all literature ; even the Latin language was 
nearly strange to him; against the compre- 
hension of worldly matters his eyes were 
closed by perpetual seclusion, and his blind- 
ness was confirmed by old age ; his simplicity 
tempted and rewarded deception, and he was 
guilty of the most extraordinary errors in the 
discharge of his easiest duties. Besides this, 
he brought with him from his cell and his 
convent (for he had been the founder of a new 
Order of Monks, distinguished for their illite- 
rate vulgarity) a disaffection towards the high- 
er ranks of the secular clergy, which was not, 
perhaps, without reason ; and a contempt for 
their luxuries and abhorrence for their vices, 
which formed the holiest feature in his char- 
acter. It was probably this disposition, which 
endeared him to the laity, as well as to many 
among the regular clergy ; and no doubt it 
was the alienation from his own official coun- 
sellors, which subjected him too obsequiously 
to the influence of the king of Sicily. For 
under this influence he was assuredly acting, 
when, without any foresight of the inevitable 
consequences of the measure, he added to the 
college of Cardinals seven natives of France. 

These were circumstances sufficient to ex- 
cite the dissatisfaction of that body, and their 
suspicions respecting the nature of the spirit 
which had decided their choice. They pro- 
fessed apprehensions, which were not wholly 
unreasonable, lest, by some new imprudence, 
the Pope should compromise or concede the 
mviolable rights of the Church. — They dis- 
liked the frugal severity of his Court ; they 
complained with justice, that he preferred an 
obscure residence in the kingdom of Naples 
to the Holy and Imperial City ; and the bit- 
terness of their displeasure was completed, 
when he revived, in all its rigor, the obnox- 
ious constitution of Gregory X. respecting the 
manner of papal election. 

In the meantime, Celestine had discovered 
his own disqualifications, and his inability to 
correct them. Amidst the incessant toil of 
occupations which he disliked and dignities 
which he despised, he sighed for the tranquil- 
lity of his former solitude ; and then, that his 

Regum fraena nianu dextra laevaque regente 

Pontificis. . . 
Might there not in this act be some of that ' Humility 
which apes the Divinity'?' 



pious meditations might not wholly be dis- 
continued, he caused a cell to be constructed 
in the centre of his palace, whither he fre- 
quently retired to prayer. On such occasions, 
he sometimes gave vent to his deep disquie- 
tude. ' I am told that I possess all power 
over souls in this world — why is it then that 
I cannot assure myself of the safety of mine 
own ? that I cannot rid myself of all these 
anxieties, and impart to my own breast that 
repose, which I can dispense so easily to 
others ? Does God require from me that 
which is impossible ; or has he only raised 
me in order to cast me down more terribly? 
I observe the Cardinals divided ; and I hear 
from every side complaints against me. Is it 
not better to burst my chains, and resign the 
holy See to some one who can rule it in 
peace ? — if only I could be permitted to quit 
this place and return to my solitude!' 

His Resignation. — Several of the Cardinals 
having observed that disposition, were sedu- 
lous to encourage it. It was entirely in ac- 
cordance with their general wishes, with that 
most especially of Benedict Gaietano ; since 
he designed himself for the successor. Those, 
on the other hand, who profited by Celestine's 
simplicity, or reverenced his piety, or admired 
his popular austerities, dissuaded him from so 
unprecedented a project. But the good man 
was sincere and inflexible;* and after tasting 
for only five months of the bitterness of power, 
he pronounced his solemn resignation f of the 
pontificate. 

Thus far his vows were accomplished witl^ 



* Bzovius describes his ardor for abdication, by 
the strong expression, ' that no one ever accepted of- 
fice so eagerly as he resigned it.' That writer (if 
we coidd forget the miraculous absurdities which 
overload his narrative) has described this curious epi- 
sode in papal history more fairly than Mosheim; for 
the latter overlooks the old hermit's absolute incapa- 
city, in a partial eagerness to attribute the discontent 
of his clergy to the consciousness of their own vices, 
and the fear of a rigorous reformation — though that 
may unquestionably have been one of their motives. 

t ' I, Celestine V., moved by sufficient causes — by 
humility, by the desire of a better life, by respect for 
ray conscience, by the feebleness of my body, by my 
deficiency in knowledge, by the evil disposition of the 
people ; and to the end that I may be restored to the 
repose and consolation of my past life — resign the 
papacy freely and voluntarily, and renounce that office 
and that dignity, &c. . . . ' Such was the form of 
his resignation, as given by Fleury (1. 89, s. 34) on 
the authority of Wadingus, 1294, n. 6. As his power 
to resign was by some held doubtful, the Cardinals 
suggested to him first to publish a general Constitu- 
tion, authorizing a Pope to abdicate his office. He 
did so. 



348 



HISTORY OP THE CHURCH. 



out any obstruction. But the last aspirations | 
of his prayer were not accorded, nor was it 
given him again to breathe the peaceful 
breezes of Mt. Morone. The shadow of his 
dignity continued to haunt him after he had 
cast away the substance ; the man who had 
possessed the chair of St. Peter, and abdicated 
it, could not possibly descend to insignificance 
or rise to independence. The merit of re- 
signing a throne was insufficient to atone for 
the imprudence of accepting it ; and Celestine 
was condemned for the remainder of his days 
to strict confinement by the jealousy of Boni- 
face. * 

Boniface VIII. — As the pontificate of Boni- 
face VIII. is the hinge on which the subse- 
quent history of papacy almost entirely turns, 
we must follow its particulars with more than 
usual attention. Whatsoever flexibility or 
show of moderation Benedict Gaietano may 
have exhibited before his advancement, he 
threw off all disguise and all restraint as soon 
as he had attained the object of his ambition. 
His pride seemed to acknowledge no limit, 
and no considerations of religion, or policy, 
or decency could repress his violence. In 
1298, Albert of Austria caused himself to be 
saluted king of the Romans ; and having slain 
his competitor in battle, made the usual over- 
ture to the Pope for confirmation. But this 
favor Boniface was so far from according, that 
he placed the crown f upon his own head, and 
seizing a sword, exclaimed, 'It is I who am 
Csesar, it is I who am Emperor ; it is I who 
jvill defend the rights of the empire !' There 
IS a solemn and affecting function in the Ro- 
man Cliurch, (celebrated on the first day of 
Lent,) in which ashes are thrown on the 
heads of the proud and great, to remind them 



* Soon after his resignation, he escaped from some 
attendants whom Boniface had placed over him, with 
the view of returning to his ancient cell; but finding 
himself pursued, he turned towards the eastern coast, 
in the hope of finding a refuge in Greece. He was 
speedily overtaken ; but in the meantime he had ma- 
terially swelled the catalogue of his miracles, and 
established that sort of reputation by which he merit- 
ed his canonization. 

f We may here observe that, in consistency with 
his principles, Boniface VIII. introduced the use of 
the double crown. It appears from the images of 
the Popes, as well as from historical evidence, that 
from St. Sylvester to Boniface VIII,, they were con- 
tented with a single crown. From Boniface to Ur- 
ban v., they doubled the symbol of royalty, as its 
substance was really falling from under them. From 
Urban downwards, throughout the decline and over- 
throw of their authority, they have fondly clung to the 
majesty of the triple crown, 



of their insignificance and mortality. While 
the Pope was performing this ceremony, one 
Spinola, Archbishop of Genoa, a political ad- 
versaiy, presented himself in his turn to re- 
ceive the lesson of humiliation. Boniface 
beheld him, and dashing the ashes in his face, 
said to him, ' Ghibeline ! remember that thou 
art dust, and that with thy brother Ghibelines, 
thou wilt return to dust.' * As the kingdoms 
of Europe were then situated, not only in po- 
litical reference to papal usurpation and pre- 
dominance, but also in respect to the revival 
of learning, the progress of civilization, the 
change of principles, and the decay even of 
some inveterate prejudices, there only wanted 
an intemperate defender, such as Boniface, 
to decide the wavering balance, and precipi- 
tate before its time the baseless despotism of 
Rome. 

Those historians are, notwithstanding, in 
error, who date the decline of the papal su- 
premacy from the reign of Innocent III. On 
the contrary, the system had not then quite 
attained the fulness of its force ; it had not 
then achieved its greatest triumph, which, 
without question, was the deposition of Fred- 
eric II. And if it is true, that, from Innocent 
IV. to Boniface VIII., no additional ground 
was gained, that no fresh claims were assert- 
ed, even that some former claims were less 
effectually enforced ; it is certain, on the other 
hand, that not one iota of the papal preten- 
sions had been resigned ; and that they had 
met for the most part with ready, or at least 
undisputed, acquiescence. But in the mean- 
time, the understanding of mankind had been 
no longer stationary ; knowledge and genius 
and reason had revived and taken courage, 
and were advancing to the assertion of their 
eternal rights ; and in the eye of the philoso- 
pher, it was a circumstance of evil omen to 
the projects of Boniface, that they were urged 
by the contemporary of Dante. Nevertheless, 
whether insensible to the weakness of his 
own cause, or to the progress of the princi- 
ples opposed to it, or imagining by violence 
to supply the want of strength, he resolved to 
push the temporal pretensions of the See to 
their most extravagant limits, f 

* These anecdotes are related by Sismondi (Rep. 
Ital. chap, xxiv.) without suspicion, on the authority 
of Pipini and Muratori. 

f Ruggiero di Loria having conquered Gerba, and 
some other islands, till then nearly unknown, near the 
coast of Africa, was contented to receive them in fief 
and on condition of tribute, from Boniface, who 
vouchsafed him a Bull of Investiture, in 1295. (In- 
sulas objacentes Africte, Gerbam nimirum et Cherchi- 



THE POPES FROM 1216 TO 1305. 



349 



His temporal pretensions. — His first meas- 
ures wore, indeed, a specious appearance, 
since he presented himself as the advocate of 
peace. He endeavored to reconcile Charles 
of Sicily and James of Arragon ; and more 
than once obtruded his mediation upon the 
Kings of England and France : these attempts 
seem to have had no other fruit, than a con- 
siderable contribution levied upon the English 
clerg}\ He then turned his attention in other 
directions. In 1297, he gave the kingdom of 
Sardinia and Corsica in fief to James of Ar- 
ragon and his posterity, on certain conditions 
of aid and subsidy to Rome. In 1300 he laid 
claim to the kingdom of Scotland, and direct- 
ed Edward I. to withdraw his soldiere from 
that country ; and in the correspondence thus 
occasioned between those two gi-eat usurpers, 
each party might have found it easier to in- 
validate the claims of the other, than to estab- 
lish his own — this burst of empty arrogance 
passed of course without effect. He pretend- 
ed to the disposal of the crown of Hungary, 
and gave it to a grandson of Charles le Boi- 
teux ; and when some of the nobles (in 1302) 
ventured to support a rival prince, he addres- 
sed his legate there established, in the follow- 
ing terms: — 'The Roman pontiff, established 
by God over kings and their kingdoms, sove- 
reign chief of the hierarchy in the church 
militant, and holding the first rank above all 
mortals, sitteth in tranquillity in the throne 
of judgment and scattereth away all evil with 
his eyes. * ... You have yet to learn that 
St. Stephen, the first Christian King of Hun- 
gary, offered and gave that kingdom to the 
Roman Church, not willing to assume the 
crown on his own authority, but rather to re- 
ceive it from the vicar of Jesus Christ ; since 
he knew, that no man taketh this honor on 
himself, but he that is called of God.' f In 
1303 Boniface found it expedient to acknow- 
ledge as king of the Romans the same Albert 
whom he had formerly reviled : this conces- 
sion was attended by a recognition of his own 
authority, by that prince, to the following ef 

naSj quas Loria barbaris eripuerat, jure fiduciario, 
sedis Apostolicse liberalitate Bonifacius ei possiden- 
das aitrfbuit. Raynaldus. Ann. 1295, s. xxxvi.) It 
was on the ground of this precedent, that two centu- 
ries afterwards, Alexander VI. assumed the right to 
dispose of all undiscovered tracts, continental or in- 
snkr; and to concede the whole extent of terra in- 
cognita to Ferdinand and Isabella, by drawing a line 
on the map fi'om pole to pole. Giannone, lib. xix. 
cap. 5. 

* Prov. XX. 8. 

t Heb. V. A. 



feet. ' I acknowledge that the Roman empire 

has been transferred by the holy See, from 
the Greeks to the Germans in the person of 
Charlemagne 5 that the right to elect a king 
of the Romans, destined to be emperor, has 
been accorded by the holy See to certain 
princes ecclesiastical and secular ; and that 
the kings and emperors receive from the holy 
see the power of the sword.' He concluded 
that act of subservience by an unconditional 
promise of military aid, if it should be re- 
quired by the Pope. His sincerity was never 
put to trial, and when we consider for how 
long a period, and with what general success, 
the dependence of the empire had been as- 
serted by the Popes, and recollect the peculiar 
foundation on which that claim rested, we 
shall scarcely wonder at its unequivocal ac- 
knowledgment by Albert. From these facts, 
we may at least observe the assiduity, with 
which Boniface pressed his temporal preten- 
sions in every quarter of Europe. We shall 
now proceed to the principal theatre of his 
exertions, and watch the accumulation of the 
tempest which followed them. 

Philip the Fair of France. — The throne of 
France was then occupied by Philip the Fair 
— a man as arrogant, as jealous, as violent as 
Boniface, and perhaps even surpassing him in 
audacity. The clergy of France, though very 
faithfully attached to the Catholic Church and 
respecting the Pope as its head, had on vari- 
ous occasions, from the earliest period of 
papal usurpation, displayed an independent 
spirit of which we find no trace in other 
countries — yet not such as to give the slight- 
est indications of schism, or even to prevent 
the holy see from making some successful 
inroads. The first * mention that we find of 
the liberties of the Galilean (as distinguished 
fi-om the Roman) Church, is in the year 1229, 
and on an occasion of which it has no reason 
to be proud. A very rigorous Ordonnance 
was then published in the king's name for the 
extinction of Heresy — enjoining the immedi- 
ate punishment of offenders, commanding the 
strictest search to be made for them, and of- 
fering a reward on conviction — and the end 
of this was — ' to establish the liberties and 
immunities of the Gallican Church,' — Bu£ 
the act from which those liberties really date 
their origin, is the celebrated Pragmatic Sanc- 
tion of St. Louis, published in 1269, on his 
departure against the Saracens. Its constitu- 
tions will be recorded in the next chapter. 
Their leading object was to protect episcopal 

* Fleury, liv, Ixxix. sectr L. 



350 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



election and preferment to benefices, the priv- 
ileges granted to monasteries and ecclesiasti- 
cal persons, and the property of the church 
generally, from the intrusions and exactions 
of Rome. Thus this matter rested till the 
reign of Boniface VIII. The fixed and dis- 
tinct principle on which the Galilean liberties 
were finally placed (the inferiority of the Pope 
to a General Council) was not yet established, 
not perhaps even broached ; but enough had 
been done to prove to a moderate Pope, that 
neither the king nor the clergy of France 
were prepared to acknowledge an implicit 
obedience. 

Btdl Clericis Laicos. — The first difference 
between Boniface and Philip was merely suf- 
ficient to discover the disposition, and inflame 
the animosity of both. The Pope had learnt, 
that the kings both of France and England 
had levied contributions on their clerical,, as 
well as their lay, subjects, for purposes of state. 
In consequence, he published, in 1296, his 
celebrated Bull, beginning Clericis Laicos, of 
which the substance was this : ' Antiquity re- 
lates to us the inveterate hostility* of the laity 
to the clergy, and the experience of the pres- 
ent age confirms it manifestly — since, without 
consideration that they have no power over 
ecclesiastical persons or property, they load 
with impositions both prelates and clergy, 
regular and secular; and also, to our deep 
affliction, prelates and other ecclesiastics are 
found, who, from their greater dread of tem- 
poral than eternal majesty, acquiesce in this 
abuse.' He then proceeds to pronounce sen- 
tence of excommunication against all who 
shall hereafter exact such impositions, wheth- 
er kings, princes, or magistrates, and against 
all who shall pay them. 

Disputes between Boniface and Philip. — 
Very soon afi:erwards, Philip published, in re- 
tort, an edict, forbidding the export of money, 
jewels, and other articles specified, out of his 
dominions. The Pope, who was thereby de- 
prived of his ecclesiastical contributions, pre- 
sently put forth a long reply and remonstrance, 
in which he explained his preceding Bull to 
mean, that the consent of the Pope is neces- 



* On this sentence, Fleury, the most candid of 
Catholics, very simply remarks, ' That aversion of 
laymen for the clergy, which the Pope mentions, as- 
cended not to a very high antiquity; since for the 
five or six first ages, the clergy secured the respect 
and affections of all men, by their chai'itable and dis- 
interested conduct.' (liv. Ixxxix. s. xliii.) No clergy, 
which shapes its conduct by any other principle, ever 
will secure, or ever ought to secure, either affection 
or respect. 



sary for the levying of the aforesaid contribu- 
tions; that, in circumstances of great national 
exigency, even that might be dispensed with; 
and that the prohibition did not extend to do- 
nations strictly voluntary.* At the same time 
he enlarged on the liberty of the Church — 
the ark of Noah — the spouse of Jesus Christ 
— to which He had given power over all the 
body of the faithful, and over every individual 
member of it. By these general expressions 
he intended to insinuate, not only that princes 
had no power over the Church, but that the 
Church possessed unlimited control over prin- 
ces. The rejoinder on the part of the king 
had more reason in its theology, and more 
piety in its reason. It professed a holy fear 
of God, and respectful reverence for the min- 
isters of the Church; but, in the full con- 
sciousness of justice, it repelled with disdain 
the senseless menaces of man. In the follow- 
ing year, the Pope had the prudence to ad- 
dress to the archbishop of Rheims such an 
interpretation of the Bull as left to Philip no 
reasonable ground of complaint ; and French 
historians, with great probability, attribute the 
rare moderation of Boniface to his necessities 
or his avarice, f 

The truce thus tacitly established between 
the parties was of very short duration. In- 
deed, where were so many undefined and dis- 
putable rights, it was not possible that peace 
could long subsist between two rivals equally 
disposed to encroachment and usurpation. In 
the year 1301, Philip arrested (and seeming- 
ly with justice) Bernard de Saisset, bishop 
of Pamiers, a creature of the Pope, on the 
charge of sedition and treasonable language, 
and caused him to be confined until the sen- 
tence of degradation should be passed on him, 
previous to the infliction of legal punishment. 
At the same time he wrote a respectful letter 
to Boniface, praying him to deprive the cul- 
prit of his clerical privileges, or at least to take 
measures for his conviction. But Boniface, 
having learnt that a bishop had been placed 
in confinement, addressed his answer (which 
he sent by a special legate) to that point only ; 
and denying that laymen had received any 
power over the clergy, he enjoined the king 
to dismiss the prisoner freely to the pontifical 
presence, with full restitution of all his pro- 
perty, at the same time reminding him that 



* Pagi, Vit. Bonif. VHI., sect, xxviii. 

t To the same cause we may probably ascribe the 
proclamation of the first Jubilee, in the year 1300, 
by Boniface, — an institution to wlach we shall recur 
in a future chapter. 



THE POPES FROM 1216 TO lg05 



351 



he had himself incurred canonical punish- 
ment for having rashly laid his hand on the 
person of a bishop. On the same day, or 
very soon afterwards, he published a Bull, 
addressed also to Philip, in which, after ex- 
horting his son to listen* with docility to his 
instructions, he proceeded in the following | 
terms : — ' God has set me over the nations j 
and over the kingdoms, to root out and to j 
pull down, and to destroy and to throw down, 
to build and to plant, f in his name, and by 
his doctrine. Let no one persuade you, then, 
tliat you have no superior, or that you are not 
subject to the chief of the ecclesiastical hier- 
archy. He that holds that opinion is sense- 
less, and he that obstinately maintains it is an 
infidel, separate from the flock of the good 
Shepherd.' . . He then continued, still out 
of his affection | for Philip, to charge him 
with many general violations of the ecclesias- 
tical privileges, or, as they were then more 
commonly called. Liberties; and concluded 
by informing him, that he had summoned all 
the superior clergy of France to an assembly 
at Rome, on the 1st of the November follow- 
ing (1302,) in order to deliberate on the reme- 
dies for such abuses. 

Philip burns the Pope's Bull. — Philip was 
astonished by this measure, but not so con- 
founded as to deviate either into timidity or 
rashness. He convoked a full and early as- 
sembly or parliament of his nobles and clergy. 
In the meantime, he burnt the Bull of the 
Pope as publicly as possible, and caused that 
act to be proclaimed with trumpets through- 
out the whole of Paris. In his subsequent 
address to his parliament, he mentioned the 
proceedings of Boniface, disclaimed with 



* Ausculta,fili — the two first words of this Bull 
— have affixed to it its historical name. It was pub- 
lished in December, 1301, and was preceded only two 
days by another constitution of Boniface, called Sal- 
vator Mundi, by which he suspended all favors and 
privileges which had been accorded by his predeces- 
sors to the kings of France, and to all their subjects, 
whether lay or clerical, who abetted Philip. Pao-j 
Bonif. VIIL, sec. Ivii. "" ' 

t Jerem, i. 10. The words are addressed to Jere- 
miah, in respect to his prophetic mission; but they 
had been perverted to the support of the papal pre- 
tentions long before the time of Boniface. See, for 
instance, the letter of Honorius III., written in 1225, 
to Louis of France. The 'plenitude of power 
which the Holy See has received from God' is there 
placed chiefly on that foundation. 

t Another reason, by which he justified his inter- 
ference, was his own responsibility to God for the soul 
of King Philip. 



scorn any temporal allegiance to hira, retorted 
the charges of corruption and mal-adminis- 
tration, declared his readiness to risk any loss 
or suffering in defence of the common in- 
terests, and referred the decision of the ques- 
tion to the assembly. The barons and lay 
members pronounced their opinions loudly 
and unhesitatingly in favor of the king. With 
them the question was, in a great degree, na- 
tional. They were jealous of the honor of 
the crown, and eager to protect it from any 
foreign insult. And though a calmer judg- 
i ment would, perhaps, have taught them, that 
I such a restraint upon the monarchy might, in 
its effects, be beneficial to all classes of the 
people, they sacrificed every consideration of 
policy to the passion of the moment. The 
situation of the clergy was exceedingly diffi- 
cult, since they had two duties to reconcile, 
which, even in ordinary times, were not al- 
ways in strict accordance, and which were 
then in direct opposition. Their first attempt 
was to explain and justify the intentions of 
the Pope ; but that was repelled with general 
contempt and indignation. Then they ex- 
pressed a dutiful anxiety to assist the king, 
and maintain the liberties of the kingdom ; 
but at the same time they pleaded the obedi- 
ence due from them to the Pope, and prayed 
for permission to attend his summons to 
Rome. This permission was clamorously 
refused by the king and his barons. 

The clerg}^ then addressed a letter to the 
Pope, in which they expressed an apprehen- 
sion lest the violent and universal hostility, * 
not of the king and his barons only, but of 
the body of the laity, should lead to an entire 
rupture between France and Rome, and even 
between the clergy and the people ; and they 
prayed that he would release them from the 
summons to Rome. At the same time the 
barons also wrote — not, indeed, to the Pope, 
but to the College of Cardinals — in severe 
censure of the new and senseless pretensions 
of Boniface, on whom personally they cast 
the entire blame of the diflference. In reply, 
the cardinals disavowed, on the part of Boni- 
face, any assertion that the king of France 
held his temporalities of the Pope ; while, in 
defence of his ghostly authority, they main- 



* ' The laity absolutely fly fi-om our society, and 
repel us from their conferences and councils, as if we 
were guilty of treason against them. They despise 
ecclesiastic censures, from whatsoever quarter they 
may come, and are preparing and taking precautions 
to render them useless.' Fleury, Hist. Eccles., liv. 
xc,., sec, ix. 



352 



HISTORY OP THE CHURCH. 



tained, ' that no man in his senses can doubt, 
that the Pope, as chief of the spu'itual hie- 
rarchy, can dispense with the sin of every 
man Hving.' In his reply to the dutiful sup- 
plication of the prelates, the Pope rebuked 
them for their want of courage and attach- 
ment, enforced on them the indisputable 
subjection of things temporal to things spirit- 
ual, and persisted in commanding their at- 
tendance at Rome. 

Bull Unam Sanctam. — The great majority 
disregarded the summons ; but some few 
were found who considered their first obedi- 
ence as due to their ecclesiastical sovereign. 
These proceeded to Rome ; and, in spite of 
their small number, Boniface availed himself 
of the name of this Council to publish the 
Decretal, commonly known as the Bull Unam 
Sanctam. The propositions asserted in this 
celebrated constitution are, first, the Unity of 
the Holy Catholic Church, without which 
there is no salvation ; wherein is one Lord, 
one faith, one baptism. Hence it follows, 
that of this one and only Church there is one 
body and one head, (not two heads, which 
would be monstrous,) namely, Christ, and 
Christ's vicar, St. Peter, and the successor of 
St. Peter. The second position is, that in the 
power of this Chief are two swords, the one 
spiritual, and the other material ; but that the 
former of these is to be used by the Church, 
the latter for the Church ; the former is in 
the hand of the priest, the latter in the hand 
of kings and soldiers, but at the nod and suf- 
ferance of the priest. It is next asserted, that 
one of these swords must be subject to the 
other sword, otherwise we must suppose two 
opposite principles, which would be Mani- 
chaean and heretical. Thence it is an easy 
inference, that the spiritual is that which has 
rule over the other, while itself is liable to no 
other judgment or authority than that of God. 
The general conclusion is contained in one 
short sentence, — 'Wherefore we declare, de- 
fine, and pronounce, that it is absolutely es- 
sential to the salvation of every human being, 
that he be subject unto the Roman pontiff.'* 

But Boniface did not content himself with 
mere assertions. On the very same day he 
also published a Bull of excommunication 
against all persons, of whatsoever rank, even 
kings or emperors, who should interfere in 
any way to prevent or impede those, who 

* The texts on which these propositions were 
chiefly founded are John x. 16; RoIn^^s xiii. 1 ; Je- 
remiah i. 10; 1 Corinthians ii. 15. 



might desire to present themselves before the 
Roman See. This edict was, of course, un- 
derstood to be directly levelled against Phihp. 
Soon afterwards he sent a legate into France, 
the bearer of twelve articles, which boldly 
expressed such papal pretensions, as were in 
opposition to those of the king ; and con- 
cluded with a menace of temporal as well as 
spiritual proceedings. The claims contained 
in these articles have been already mentioned, 
and do not require enumeration. But what 
may raise our surprise is, that the- answer of 
Philip was extremely moderate ; that he con- 
descended to explain away much that seemed 
objectionable in his conduct; that he prom- 
ised to remedy any abuses which his officers 
might have committed, and expressed his 
strong desire for concord with the Roman 
Church. 

His moderation may have been affected, 
and his explanations frivolous, and the abuses 
in question he may not have seriously intend- 
ed to alleviate. But at least it is true that he 
had never sought the enmity of Rome ; and 
had Boniface availed himself of that occasion 
to close the breach, when he might have 
closed it with profit and dignity, his last days 
might have been passed in lofty tranquillity ; 
he would have been respected and feared, 
even by those who hated him ; and posterity 
would still have admired the courage and the 
policy which had contended against the most 
powerful prince in Europe, in no very blind 
or superstitious age, without disadvantage or 
dishonor. But the Pope did not perceive this 
crisis in his destiny. He proceeded in his 
former course — he proclaimed his dissatis- 
faction at the answers of the king, and repeat- 
ed and redoubled his menaces. 

Philip had then recourse to that public 
measure which so deeply influenced the fu- 
ture history of papacy — the convocation of a 
General Council, to pronounce on the pro- 
ceedings of the Pope. But while he was 
engaged in preparations for this great contest, 
and for the establishment of a principle to 
which his clergy were not yet prepared to 
listen, * a latent and much shorter path was 
opened to the termination of his perplexities. 

Outrage on Boniface. — William of Nogaret, 
a celebrated French civilian, in conjunction 

* Not only did the bishops and the whole clergy 
decline any active part in the proceedings against the 
Pope, but they refused any share in them, and only 
consented to the convocation of the council through 
the necessity of seeking some remedy for the disorders 
of the Church. 



THE POPES FROM 1216 TO 1305. 



353 



with certain Romans of the Colonna family, 
who had fled for refuge to Paris from the 
oppression of Boniface, passed secretly into 
Italy, and tampered successfully with the 
personal attendants of the Pope. The usual 
residence of the latter was Anagni, a city 
some forty or fifty miles to the south east of 
Rome, and his birth-place. There, in the 
year 1303, he had composed another Bull, in 
which he maintained, 'that, as vicar of Jesus 
Christ, he had the power to govern kings 
with a rod of iron, and to dash them in pieces 
like a potter's vessel ; ' * and he had destined 
the 8th of September, the anniversary of the 
nativity of the Virgin, for its promulgation* 
A rude interruption disturbed his dreams of 
omnipotence, and discovered the secret of 
his real weakness. On the very day preced- 
ing the intended publication of the Bull, 
Nogaret, with Sciarra Colonna, and some 
other nobles, escorted by about three hun- 
dred horsemen, and a larger number of par- 
tisans on foot, beai'ing the banners of France, 
rushed into Anagni, with shouts of ^ Success 
to the king of France! — Death to Pope 
Boniface ! ' ' After a feeble resistance, they 
became masters of the pontifical palace. 
The cardinals dispersed and fled — through 
treachery, as some assert, or, more prob- 
ably, through mere timidity. The greater 
part of the Pope's personal attendants fled 
also. 

Boniface, when he perceived that he was 
surprised and abandoned, prepared himself 
with uncommon resolution for the last outrage. 
'Since I am betrayed (he cried) as Jesus 
Christ was betrayed, I will at least die like a 
Pope.' He then clothed himself in his official 
vestments, and placed the crown of Constan- 
tine on his head, and gi-asped the keys and the 
cross in his hands, and seated himself in the 
pontifical chair. He v/as now eighty-six 
years of age. And when SciaiTa Colonna, 
who first penetrated into his presence, beheld 
the venerable form and dignified composure 
of his enemy, his purpose, which doubtless 
was sanguinary, seemed suddenly to have de- 
serted him, and his revenge did not proceed 
beyond verbal insult, f Nogaret followed. He 



* Psalms ii. 9. 

t Some modern French historians assert that Bon- 
iface was severely wounded by the assailants — a story 
%vhich is idly repeated by Mosheim, and re-echoed 
even by Gibbon. It is the unanimous affirmation 
of contemporary writers, that no nand was raised 
against him. See Sismondl, chap. xxiv. The words 
of S- Antoninns (part 3., tit, xx,, cap. 8. sec. xxi.) 
45 



approached the Pope with some respect, but 
at the same time imperiously informed hinij 
that he must prepare to be present at the 
council forthwith to be assembled on the sub- 
ject of his misconduct, and to submit to its 
decision. The Pope addressed him — ' Wil- 
liam, of Nogaret, descended from a race of 
heretics, it is from thee, and such as thecj 
that I can patiently endiu-e indignity.' The 
ancestors of Nogaret had atoned for their 
errors in the flames. But the expression of 
the pontiff was not prompted by any oflence 
he felt at that barbarity ; not by any conscious- 
ness of the iniquity of his own oppression,* 
or any sense of the justice of the retribution ; 
it proceeded simply from the sectarian hatred 
which swelled his own breast, which he felt 
to be implacable, and which he believed to be 
mutual. 

While their leaders were thus employed, 
the body of the conspirators dispersed them- 
selves throughout the splendid apartments in 
eager pursuit of plunder. Any dehberate plan 
which might have been formed against the 
person of the Pope, was disappointed by their 
avarice. During the day of the attack, and that 
which followed, the French appear to have 
been wholly occupied in the ransack. But 
in the meantime the people of Anagni were 
recovered from their panic ; and perhaps they 
were more easily a^vakened to the shatne of 
deserting their Pope and their citizen, vdien 
they discovered the weakness of the aggres- 
sors, and the snare into which their license 
had led them. They took up arms, assaulted 
the French, and having expelled or massacred 
them, restored to the pontiff his freedom and 
authority. 

His Death. But they were unable to restore 
his insulted honor and the spirit which had 
been broken by indignity. Infuriated by the 
disgrace of his captivity, he hurried from 
Anagni to Rome, burning for revenge. But 
the violence of his passion presently over- 
powered his reason, and his death immediate- 
are express. ' Domino autem disponente, ob digni« 
tatem Apostolicas Sedis, nemo, ex inimicisejus aiisus 
fuit mittere in eum manus ; sed indutum sacris vestibus 
dimiserunt sub honesta custodia, et ipsi insistebant 
praedse, &c.' See Pagi, Bonif. VIII,, sec. ixx. 

* Boniface VIII. was a very faithful patron of the 
Inquisition ; and if his name is not distinguished in 
the list of persecuting popes, it is rather from the 
want of opportunity, than of inclination. Persecu- 
tion being now systematized by the regular machinery 
of the inquisition, there were fewer occasions for in- 
dividual distinction. See Whately on * The Errors 
of Romanism,' ch. v., sec. iii., vi., p. 241 — ^244. 



354 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



ly followed. He was attended by an ancient 
servant, who exhorted hiin to confide himself 
in his calamity to the Consoler of the afflicted. 
But Boniface made no reply. His eyes were 
haggard, his mouth white with foam, and he 
gnashed his teeth in silence. He passed the 
day without nourishment, the night without 
repose ; and when he found that his strength 
began to fail, and that his end was not far dis- 
tant, he removed all his attendants, that there 
might be no witness to his final feebleness and 
his parting struggle. After some intei*val, his 
domestics burst into the room, and beheld his 
body stretched on the bed, stiflT and cold. The 
stafiT which he carried bore the mark of his 
teeth, and was covered with foam ; his white 
locks were stained with blood ; and his head 
was so closely wrapped in the counterpane, 
that he was believed to have anticipated his 
impending death by violence and suffoca- 
tion.* 

This took place on the 10th of October; 
and precisely on the same day, after an inter- 
val of three hundred and three years, his 
body was dug up, and transferred to another 
place of sepulture. Spondanus,f the Catholic 
historian, was at Rome at the moment. He 
relates the circumstances, and mentions the 
eagerness with which the whole city rushed 
to the spectacle. His body was found, cov- 
ered with the pontifical vestments, still fresh 
and uncorrupted. His hands, which his ene- 
mies had asserted to have been bitten away in 
his rage, were so free from decay and mutila- 
tion, with every finger entire, that even the 
veins and nerves appeared to be swelling with 
flesh and life. 

After the death of Boniface the French in- 
terest presently prevailed in the College ; and 
in the year 1305 the archbishop of Bourdeaux, 
a native of France, was elected to the chair. 
He took the title of Clement V., and presently 
ti'ansferred the papal residence from Rome to 
Avignon. 

* Sisinondi,Rep. Ital.,end of chap. xxiv. ' Con- 
cerning which Boniface (says Matthew of Westmin- 
ster) a certain versifier wrote as follows : — 

Ingreditur Vulpes, regnat Lpo, sed Canis exit; 

Re tandem vera si sic fuit, ecce Chimera! — 

Flores Histor. ad ann. 1303. 

Others give the same in the form of a prophecy, 
delivered by Morone during his imprisonment. As- 
cendisti ut Vulpes, regnabis ut Leo, et morieris ut 
Canis. Antiq. Eccles. Britann. ad ann. 1295. 

f Spondanus continued the History of Baron ius 
from the year 1197, in which it concludes, to 1646. 
See also Bzovius on this same occurrence. — Ann. 
1303. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

(I.) On Lewis IX. of France — His public motives — con- 
trasted with those of Constantine and Charlemagne — 
His virtues, piety, and charity— Particulars of his civil 
legislation — His superstition — The original Crown of 
Thorns — its removal to Paris — its reception by the king. 
His death — His miracles and canonization — The Bull 
of Boniface VIII. — (II.) On the Inquisition, — Whether 
St. Lewis contributed to its establishment — Origin of 
the Inquisition— Office of St. Dominic and his contem- 
poraries — Erection of a separate tribunal at Toulouse — 
by Gregory IX. — The authority then vested in the Men- 
dicants — Its unpopularity in France — Co-operation of 
St. Lewis — Conduct of Frederic II. — Of Innocent IV. 
— Limits to the prevalence of the Inquisition. — (III.) On 
the Oallican Liberties. — Remonstrance of the Prelates of 
France respecting excommunications. Firmness of 
Lewis — His visit to the Cistercian chapter. The sup- 
plication of the monks, and the reply of the King — 
Early spirit and sense of independence in the French 
clergy — The Pragmatic Sanction of St. Lewis — Its prin- 
ciple — The six articles which constitute it — Conse- 
quences of the policy of Innocent III. — (IV.) On the 
Crusades. Remarks on the character and circumstan- 
ces of the first Crusade — Exertions of St. Bernard for 
the second Crusade — its fatal result — Excuse of that 
abbot— Causes of the fall of the Latin kingdom of Je- 
rusalem — Third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh Cru- 
sades—The eighth and ninth. St. Lewis— Termination 
of the Crusades, and final loss of Palestine — General 
remarks — (1.) On the Origin and first motives of re- 
ligious pilgrimage— Treatment of first pilgrims by the 
Saracens — Pilgrimage during the 10th and 11th centu- 
ries—Conquest of Palestine by the Turks— Practice of 
private feuds and warfare in Europe — prevalent in the 
10th century — The superstitious spirit of the same age 
— associated with the military — General predisposition 
in favor of a Crusade — Failure of Sylvester II. and 
Gregory VII. — (2.) On the Objects of the Crusades — 
what they v/ere — what they were not — The object of 
the first distinguished fi-om that of following Crusades 
— Conduct and policy of the sovereigns of Europe — Of 
the Vatican — Gradual change in its objects. — (3.) On 
the Results of the Crusades— Advantages produced by 
them — Few and partial— on government- on commerce 
— on general civilization — Evils occasioned — Religious 
wars— Immoral influence— Corruption of Church disci- 
pline — Canonical penance— Introduction of the Plenary 
Indulgence— its abuses— The Jubilee— Interests of the 
clergy. JVoie (A.) On the collections of papal decretals 
—That of Gratian— the Liber Sextus — Clementines, &c. 
— JVote (B.) On the University of Paris — The Four 
Faculties — Foundation of the Sorbonne. — JVote {C.) 
On certain Theological Writers — Rise and progress of 
the Scholastic System of Theology— Peter the Lombard 
—His ' Book of the Sentences '—St. Thomas Aquinas 
—His history and productions— St. Bonaventure— the 
character of his theology — The Realists and Nomin- 
alists—or Thomists and Scotists. — The Immaculate 
Conception. 

It is seldom that the stream of ecclesiastical 
history receives any important contribution 
from the biography of kings. Our more 
peaceful course is uideed perpetually troubled 
by the eddies of secular polity, and most so 
in the most superstitious ages. The names of 
Constantine and Charlemagne have, it is also 
true, desei-ved an eminent rank among the 
heroes of the church. But if we pass ovef 



LEWIS IX. OF FRANCE. 



355 



the legendary tales of the monarch-monks of 
the darkest days, we shall scarcely discover 
any other powerful prince whose policy was 
formed either on an ardent sense of religion, 
or an attachment to ecclesiastical interests, 
until we amve at the reign of Lewis IX. 
And here we must at once distinguish the prin- 
ciples of that prince from those either of Con- 
stantme or of Chai-lemagne. By whatsoever 
motives of genuine piety those two sovereigns 
may really have been influenced, it is certain 
that their ecclesiastical institutions were chief- 
ly regulated for political ends. It was their 
object — an object worthy of then* royal rank 
and virtues — to improve the moral and relig- 
ious condition of their subjects through the 
instrumentality of Christ's ministers ; and at 
the same time to raise the dignity and charac- 
ter of those, whose sacred office, when they 
are not the worst of men, is calculated to 
make them the best. But the actions of 
Lewis were not guided by any such consid- 
erations. They proceeded from that which it 
was the purpose of the others' policy to cre- 
ate — an absorbing Christian piety, with its 
train of concomitant excellences. On this 
subject there is no difference among histori- 
ans, except in as far as some are more dis- 
posed to ridicule the superstitious excesses 
into which he fell, through the practice of 
his age, than to do justice to the lofty motives 
whence his virtues proceeded. 

Section I. 

On Lewis IX. 

Lewis IX. was born about the year 1215, 
and came to the throne at a very early age. 
He was educated by a mother named Blanche, 
who was eminent for her devotion to God 
and the church ; and we should here remark, 
that he drew his first breath, and received his 
earliest notions of ecclesiastical polity, among 
the groans of the suffering Albigeois. The 
sanctity of his private life was not suUied by 
any stain, nor was it clouded by any austerity. 
'Never, since I was born/ (says Joinville,) 
* did I hear him speak ill of any one.' He 
loved his subjects ; and had his lot been cast 
in happier days, he would have loved man- 
kind. But the principles of his church so 
contracted those of his religion, that his 
benevolence could never expand itself into 
philanthropy. 

He was <3evout in private prayer, as well as 
a constant attendant on the offices of the 
church. On the one hand, his submission to 
the admonitions, and even to the personal 



corrections, of his confessor, is diligently re- 
corded ; and on the other, his adoration of 
the Holy Cross * is recounted with no less 
admiration. He would descend from his seat, 
and advancing in a homely garment, with his 
head, neck, and feet bare, and his children 
behind him, bend with such profound hu- 
mility before the emblems of his salvation, 
that the spectators were moved to tears of 
affection and piety. He appears, too, from 
the same accounts, to have washed the feet of 
monks and of mendicants, by a very common 
exercise of self-abasement. And we may 
overlook this foolish affectation in that sub- 
stantial excellence, which distributed his char- 
itable benefactions without thrift or partiality, 
through every class of those who needed 
them. The foundation of many churches 
and monasteries secured at the same time the 
gratitude and fidelity of his spiritual subjects. 
Hume has ascribed to Lewis IX., together 
with ' the mean and abject superstition of a 
monk, the magnanimity of a hero, the integ- 
rity of a patriot, the humanity of a philoso- 
pher.' — That insatiable zeal for crusades, 
which neither his reason, which was power- 
ful, nor his humanity, nor his philosophy, nor 
all united, were even in later life sufficient to 
allay, afforded at the same time the most per- 
nicious proofs of his superstition and his 
heroism. But his patriotism was more hon*- 
orably displayed in the internal regulation of 
his kingdom ; in the removal of abuses, in the 
advancement of civilization ; and in this office, 
(as his domestic biographer observes,) he so 
combined the secular with the spiritual intei- 
ests of his subjects, that he seemed to dis- 
charge by the same acts the double office of 
priest and king, f He detested the practice 
of usury ; and to that motive we may perhaps 



* See the book ' De Vita et Actibus Ludovici,' 
&c. by his chaplain, William (Carnotensis) of Char- 
tres ; and his ' Vita, Conversatio et Miracula,' by F. 
Gaufridus his confessor. One object of the latter is 
to point out the exact correspondence of the charac- 
ter of Lewis with that of Josiah. The particular 
description and changes of his coarse raiment; the 
days of his fasting, of his abstinence from meat, or 
from fruit and fish, or from every kind of fish except 
one, or from everything except bread and water, and 
such like details of his devotional observances, are 
related by both writers ; especially by the confessor, 
and in his 17th chapter. The king's eleemosynary 
liberality forms the worthier subject of that which 
follows. Both his biographers were Dominicans. 

f ' Quod eliam quodammodo regale sacerdotiura, 
aiit sacerdotale regimen vidcretur par iter exercere.'— 
G u ;i olm . Carnotensis . 



S5e 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



cised the trade exclusively. Still v/e must 
doubt the wisdom, while we censure the cru- 
elty, of the edict, by which he expelled them 
fi-om the country. He enacted a very severe 
(according to our notions, a barbarous) * law 
against blasphemy. While we praise his 
bold, though seemingly ineffectual, attempts 
to restrain the moral profligacy of his nobles, 
we shall scarcely less applaud the vigor, with 
which he exerted against that body the power 
of royalty, in a cause almost equally sacred. 
It was a leading object of his policy, to pro- 
tect the lower classes of his subjects against 
the brutal f oppression of the aristocracy ; 
ami to unite the interests of the crown and 
the people against that privileged order, which 
was equally hostile to the independence of 
both. Justice he commonly administered in 
person, J and tempered it with his natural 
clemency. At the same time he endeavored 
to purify its sources by permanent alterations, 
and to secure at least for future ages the bles- 
sings, which he might despair effectually to 
impart t& his own. Accordingly, he struck 
at the root of the evil, and made it the grand 
object of his efforts, to substitute trial by evi- 
dence for the 'judgments of God ;' and most 
especially for the most sanguinary among 
them, the decision by duel. His ordinances 
on those subjects were obeyed within the 
boundaries of his own domains : but he had 



* He caused the lips (or, as some say, the fore- 
head) of those convicted, to be seared with a hot iron. 

•f Having Tearnt, on one occasion, that a nobleman 
had hanged three cfiildren for the offence of hunting 
rabbits, Lewis condemned him to capital punishment. 
But the rest of the nobility united with so much de- 
termination to preserve the life of their fellow-tyrant 
and the prerogatives of their order, that the king was 
obliged to commute the punishment for deprivation 
©f property. 

X ' I have often seen the saint,' (says Joinville,) 
* after fee had heard mass, in summer, come out to the 
Forest of Vincennes, and seat himself at the foot of 
an oak, and make us sit all round him. And those 
who had any business eame and spoke to him without 
any officer giving them hinderance» — And sometimes 
he would come to the Garden of Paris, and have 
carpets spread for us to sit near him; and then he 
administered justice to his people, as he did at Vin- 
cennes.' — Histoire du Roy St. Louis, p. 23. Edit. 
Paris, 1617. This history, which is the life of an 
admirable king and Christian, by a candid, loyal, 
unaffected sokiier, is a beautiful specimen of inarti- 
ficial biography. But, unhappily, the most beneficial, 
and, therefore, the noblest acts of the monarch, are 
not those which have most attracted the attention of 
the soldier. The details of his campaigns, and many 
anecdotes of his private life, are related with minute- 
ness and seeming accuracy ; but his great legislative 
eaactments arc slightly, or not at all noticed. 



not the power to enforce them universally 
The Barons, who were severally the legisla- 
tors in their own estates, adhered to the ven- 
erable establishments of former days ; and a 
more general diffusion of knowledge was re- 
quired, before the plainest reason, aided even 
by royal authority, could prevail against the 
inveterate sanctity of instituted absurdities. 

It was the same with those humane endeav- 
ors to arrest the practice of private warfare, 
in which he anticipated the course of civiliza- 
tion by more than two centuries.* But when 
be despaired of effecting this object at once, 
he attempted at least to mitigate the mischief 
by a judicious prohibition — that neither party 
should commence hostilities till forty days 
after the offence shad been offered.f Thus 
was he compelled to temporize with a great 
national evil, of which he felt at the same time 
the whole extent, as well as his own incapa- 
city to correct it. From these instances Ave 
may observe, that the civil legislation of St. 
Lewis was generally founded on wise policy, 
and that it always sprang from benevolent 
motives. We shall presently notice some of 
his ecclesiastical enactments ; but, at the same 
time, it must be admitted, that the charge of 
' abject superstition ' alleged against him by 
the philosophical historian is not less just, 
than the merits also ascribed to him ; nor will 
it here be out of place to recount one cele- 
brated incident in support of this imputation. 

Reception of the Croion of Thorns. — The 
History of the Church comprises the records 
of superstition, which in those corrupt ages 
was indeed so interwoven with piety, that it 
is rare to find them separate. The character 
of St. Lewis particularly exemplified their 
combination ; it may be perpetually detected 
in his warlike enterprises ; but there is not 
one among his spiritual adventures which 
better illustrates himself and his age than the 
following: — The original Crov/n of Thorns 
had been long preserved at Constantinople as 
the most precious and venerable among the 
relics of Christ ; yet such were at this time 
the necessities of the government, that the 
holy treasure was consigned in pawn to the 
government of Venice. It was delivered over 
to the commissioners of the Republic, who 



* The right of private feud cannot be considered 
as abolished, until nearly the end of the 15th century. 
In collecting a large and, for those days, a valuable 
library, and in encouraging the progress of knowledge 
among his subjects, St. Lewis opened the only certam 
path to their civilization 

t Some attribute this regulation to Philippe A«- 
guste. 



LEWIS IX. OF FRANCE, 



357 



immediately set sail, in a wintry and incle- 
ment season, full of religious confidence, and 
were preserved (as it was thought) through a 
perilous voyage by the holiness of their charge. 
The pledge, which the Greeks were too poor 
or too wise to redeem, was eagerly purchased 
by St, Lewis, and the relic, after a few months 
at Venice of repose and adoration, continued 
its pilgrimage to the west. During the com-se 
of an overland journey it was again distin- 
guished by the favor of the elements; and 
though the rain fell abundantly during the 
nights, not a drop descended by day to inter- 
rupt its progress. At length when it arrived 
at Troyes in Champagne, the event was noti- 
fied to the king at Paris, and he instantly set 
off to welcome it, accompanied by the Queen 
Blanche his mother, by his brothers, by some 
prelates, and other nobles. 

The royal company met their holy acquisi- 
tion in the neighborhood of Sens, and after 
they had uncovered the case and beheld the 
object, and moistened it with pious tears, they 
assembled the clergy of the diocese and form- 
ed a solemn procession towards the city. As 
they approached the gates, the king and his 
eldest brother, the Count d'Artois, received 
the venerated burden on their shoulders ; and 
in this manner, with naked feet, and no other 
covering than a shirt,* they carried it, in the 
midst of the adoring crowd, into the cathe- 
dral. . . Thence it proceeded to Paris, and 
there its arrival was hailed with a repetition 
of the same degrading solemnities. The 
whole clergy and the whole people were in 
motion, and again the two illustrious brothers, 
barefoot and naked as before, supported and 
deposited it in the destined sanctuary. An 
annual festival was instituted to comrae^riorate 
an event of such national importance — the in- 
troduction of this new palladium. But its 
value was soon afterwards diminished by the 
importation of a formidable rival for the pop- 
ular adoration. It was not long before the 
royal enthusiast succeeded in procuring some 
substantial fragments of the real Cross ; and 
this acquisition again furnished him with an- 
other pretext to multiply to his lively subjects 
the occasions of religious festivity. 

His Death mid Canonization. — In the year 
1270, St. Lewis died before Tunis, while in 
the prosecution of his second crusade. His 
last words were said to have been these f — 



* Vita et Convers. S. Ludovici, &c., per F. Gau- 
fridum. Aug. 11, 1239, was the day consecrated by 
this exploit. 

t So says William of Chartres, and Boniface VIII. 
in his Bull of Caaoiiizatioa, confirms it. 



< Lord, I will enter into thine house ; I will 
worship in thy holy temple, and give glory to 
thy name. Into thy hands I commend my 
spirit.' From the beginning of his life to its 

I latest breath the same principle predominate^ 
the same religious fervor ^(however it may 
sometimes have been perverted) influenced all 

I his actions ; and, perhaps, in the interminable 
catalogue of her Saints, the Church of Rome 
cannot number a name more worthy of that 
celestial dignity than Lewis IX. But the 
merit to which that pious monarch was chief- 
ly indebted for his heavenly office, was not 
that to which he had ever particularly pre- 
tended. His eminent vu'tues, his religious life 
and death, even his services to the Catholic 
Church, might seem to have entitled him to 
that high reward. But those claims had been 
wholly insufficient, had it not also been con- 
clusively attested that he had performed many 
manifest and astonishing miracles. 

The canonization of Lewis IX, took place 
twenty-seven years after his death, and almost 
the whole of that time was employed in col- 
lecting the necessary documents.* The rapid 
succession of the Popes was the cause which 
retarded it ; and it may seem as if in mockery 
of his holy character, that the performance 
of this office did at last devolve upon Boni- 
face VIII. It was Boniface who preached 
the panegyrical sermon, and enlarged on 
those various virtues which had no counter- 
part in his own bosom. It was the genius of 
arrogance which paid homage to the spirit of 
humility, and exalted it even to the thrones 
of heaven. ' Let the hosts of heaven rejoice 
at the arrival of so noble and glorious an in- 
habitant — an approved and eminent husband- 
man of the Christian faith is added to their 
multitudes. Let the glorious nobility of the 
celestial citizens sound the jubilee of joy, for 
an honored stranger is adscribed to their 
ranks. Let the venerable assembly of the 
Saints arise with gladness and exultation, to 
receive a com[)eer who well deseiTes such 
dignity. Arise, thou innumerable council of 

* In the first of the two sermons delivered by 
Boniface on that occasion, he expressly asserts, that 
after the fullest examination into the evidence for the 
miracles, he has ascertained that sixty-three miracles 
were assuredly performed, besides others which God 
evidently vouchsafed to him — (sexagiata tria., inter 
caetera quoe Dominus evidenter ostendit, certitudina- 
liter facta cognovimus.) Respecting the tedious du- 
ration of the investigation, Boniface remarks, in the 
same discourse, Avith great simplicity — 'Et ita per 
tot et totiens e».minatum est, rubricatum et discussum 
negocium, quod de lioc plus facta est descriptura, 
quam imus as inns posset portare.' 



358 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



faith ; zealots of tlie faith arise, and sing the 
hymn of praise in concert with the Cliurch 
which is your own. . . He offered offence 
to no one, to no one violence or injury. He 
carefully observed the boundaries of justice, 
without deserting the path of equity. He 
punished with the sword the daring and law- 
less enterprises of the wicked. An ardent 
lover of peace and concord — an anxious 
promoter of unity — hostile to scandals and 
dissensions,'* &c. &c. We may remark that 
this last topic, in the mouth of Boniface VIII., 
was at best an equivocal eulogy. A zeal for 
' unity,' and an abhorrence of ' scandals and 
dissensions,' is a praise which, when proceed- 
ing from pontifical lips, conveys the necessary 
suspicion of intolerance. Lewis has been 
accused of that crime — ^the ruling iniquity of 
his age — and we shall now examine on what 
facts that charge is really founded. 

Section II. 

On the Inquisition. 

It is asserted, and with truth, that the Inqui- 
sition was permanently established in France 
during the reign of St. Lewis ; that he never 
ceased to manifest great partiality for the 
Dominicans and Franciscans, f and all invest- 
ed with the inquisitorial office ; and that it 
was even at the particular solicitation of the 
king,t that Alexander IV. confirmed, in 1255, 
the institution of that tribunal, and appointed 
the Prior of the Dominican Convent at Paris 
to be Inquisitor-general in France. That we 
may be able to estimate the real weight of 



* It is diffieult to conceive a more turgid and tau- 
tologous composition than this celebrated bull.. The 
merits which Lewis really possessed, are enumerated 
without taste or feeling ; and the author of the pane- 
gyric seems to have been wholly incapable of esti- 
mating the character wiiich he pretended to eulogize. 

f It appears that he intended to educate two of his 
sons in monasteries, and that by his Testament he 
consigned one to Dominican, the other to Franciscan 
tuition. — Gaufridus, Vita et Conversat. chap. 14. 

X See Limborch, Hist. Inquisit. lib. i. cap. 16. 
The annalist Raynaldus has expressed his pious re- 
gret, that the admirable institution of the Saint was 
feebly supported, and even entirely overthrown by his 
degenerate successors! We should observe that the 
domains of the Count of Poitiers and Toulouse, who 
Mvas then Alphonso, brother of the king, were except- 
ed from the jurisdiction of the prior, as being already 
subject to a special commission on rhatters of faith. — 
Fleury, liv. Ixxxiv. § Ixxxv. The act of St. Lewis 
was to establish that generally throughout his king- 
dom, which had hitherto been confined to the most 
infected province.. 



these assertions, and (what is more important 
than the reputation of any individual) that we 
may understand on what ground that fright- 
ful structure was erected, we must trace as 
shortly as possible the causes which led to its 
foundation. 

The itinerant emissaries of Innocent III., 
among whom Dominic is the name most 
celebrated, first obtained the title of Inquisit- 
ors — that is to say, they were invested by the 
Pope with authority to discover, to convert 
or to arraign before the ecclesiastical courts 
all guilty or suspected of heresy. But thia 
was the limit of their commission. They did 
not constitute an independent tribunal, nor 
were they clothed with any judicial power. 
The process was still carried on, according 
to the practice then prevailing, before the 
bishop of the diocese, and the secular arm 
v>^as invited, when necessary, to enforce his 
sentence. But this form of proceeding was 
not found suflSciently rapid to satisfy the 
eagerness of the Pope and his missionaries. 
The work of extirpation was sometimes re- 
tarded by the compunctions of a merciful pre- 
late, sometimes by the reluctance of the civil 
authorities to execute a barbarous or unpop- 
ular sentence.* And to remove these im- 
pediments to the course of destruction, there 
was no resource, except to institute in the in- 
fected provinces, with the direct co-operation 
of the ruling powers, a separate tribunal for 
causes of heresy. This object was not imme- 
diately accomplished. In the meantime the 
Dominicans and Franciscans were s])reading 
their numbers and influence in every country. 
And as they were the faithful myrnjidons of 
the Roman See, and more devoted in their 
allegiance than either the secular or the regu- 
lar clergy, thus arose an additional reason for 
investing them with a distinct jurisdiction. 
By the council held at Toulouse in 1229, (of 
which the decrees have been noticed in a 
former chapter,) a canon was publislied which 
united ^ one priest with three laymen,' in a 
sort of council of inquisition. It is this regu- 



* It should be remarked on the other hand, that it 
was sometimes (especially in the beginning of the 
persecutions) precipitated by the agency of popular 
fury, excited by the preachers against the heretics. 
Their favorite text is said to have been (Psalm xciv. 
v. 16.) 'Who will rise up for me against the evil- 
doers'? Who will stand up for me against the work- 
ers of iniquityl ' Many of them were eloquent — the 
people were superstitious — the preachers were fana- 
tics. In fact, when the ecclesiastical censures were 
despised, and the secular power refused its aid, pop?* 
ular iu.^(luess >y.as their only remaining instruiBen.tj. 



THE INQUISITION. 



S59 



lation which is reasonably considered as the 
foundation of the Court of Inquisition. * 

To Pope Gregory IX. be ascribed the honor 
of this success! Still the court thus estabhshed 
continued to be a court of bishops. Its object 
was indeed exclusively such as the most zeal- 
ous pontiff could have desned; but it was 
composed of materials neither wholly desti- 
tute of human feeling, nor blindly subservient 
to the papal will. A further change was, 
therefore, necessary ; and, accordingly, about 
three years afterwards, Gregory found means 
to transfer the authority in the new court to 
the Dominican order. It was thus that the 
Inquisition, properly so called — that is, a 
court for the trial of heretics, erected by 
papal authority, and administered by papal 
dependents — was indeed instituted. . . Some 
popular commotions f followed its first pro- 
ceedings; — the persons of the judges were 
exposed to insult, and the whole body was, for 
a short time, expelled from the city. But the 
spirit of Rome was yet too powerful, — the fu- 
gitives were presently restored. And though 
the inquisitorial system never reached in 
France those refinements in barbarity which 
some other countries have endured — though 
it obtained, in truth, no very permanent foot- 
ing among a humane and generous people — 
it continued to subsist there for several years; 
and if there was any sceptre under which it 
can be said to have flourished, it was assur- 
edly the sceptre of St. Lewis. Still we must 
not forget that it was established in his boy- 
hood ; so that the guilt of that | act is unjustly 

* By the Council of Narbonne, held two years be- 
fore, it was enacted^ ' tiiat the bishops should estab- 
lish in each parish synodal witnesses to inquire into 
heresy, and other notorious crimes, and to make their 
repoi-t.' These were truly established inquisitors; 
—still their office was to report, not to judge. 

t Besides the indignation excited by the object of 
this institution, there was a general objection among 
laymen to the establishment oi any new ecclesiastical 
tribunal, to which all classes were alike amenable. 
And this was not diminished when, to the original of- 
fences of heresy, those of Judaism, Mahometanism, 
sodomy, sacrilege, and even polygamy, were added. 
But we have not observed that this wide extension 
of the objects of that court was ever made in France. 

X We must notice the injustice which has hastily 
been offered to the character of Lewis IX. by Mosh- 
eim. That writer having asserted (on the authority 
of the Benedictine compilers of the history of Lan- 
guedoc) that Lewis published a barbarous edict against 
heretics, in the year 1229, proceeds thus: — ' A great 
part of the sanctity of good King Lewis consisted in 
his furious and implacable aversion to heretics.' . . . 
Now, that this aversion formed, at any age, a promi- 
nent pai-t of his character, will be asserted by no one 



cast upon him. He perpetuated the evil which 
he found ; and in the religious code of those 
days, the ' unity of the Church' was so care- 
fully identified with the glory of Christ, that 
an ardent desire for the one might easily de- 
generate into a misguided zeal for the other : 
and thus, without intending to exculpate the 
royal persecutor, we are bound to distinguish 
between the crime of those who created that 
ecclesiastical system, and of him who blindly 
supported it; — of the churchmen* who art- 
fully confounded the essence of religion with 
the maintenance of their own power, and of 
the pious laymen, who adopted with reverence 
the undisputed and consecrated maxims. 

Progress of the Inquisition. The brutal 
edicts t of Frederic II., published about 1244, 
and not exceeded by the most barbarous em- 
anations of the Vatican, were not palliated by 
any motive of misdirected pietyt yet were 
they much more effectual than the encour- 
agement of Lewis in arming the fury of the 
Dominicans, at least within the limits of his 
empire. But the intolerant zeal of Frederic 
neither sofl;ened the hostility of Innocent IV., 
nor preserved himself from the anathemas of 
the Church. \ After his triumph. Innocent 
pursued and exceeded the footsteps of his 
predecessors. He established the Tribunal § 

who has studied the whole of his life. But in res- 
pect to this particular edict, was Mosheim ignorant 
that it was published under the regency of Queen 
Blanche, when the prince was not yet fifteen years 
old -? - 

* In 1239, one hundred and eighty heretics were 
burnt in Champagne, in the same flames, and in the 
presence of eighteen bishops. 'It is a holocaust 
agreeable to God! ' exclaimed a monk who witnessed 
the execution. . . . Was it to be expected that 
a woman and a child should rise up against an eccle- 
siastical practice, which was sanctioned by the con- 
current zeal of monks, of prelates, of popes, and of 
councils'? 

f Four of them are cited by Limborch, Hist, of 
Inquisit., lib. i. cap. 12. 

X He was accused of having favored and fostered 
heresies. His edicts may have had that tendency; 
but he was assuredly innocent of the intention. 

§ Giannone (lib. xix., chap. v. sect, iv.) seems to 
ascribe the establishment of the court virtually ad- 
ministered by the Mendicants, to Innocent IV., and 
with truth, so far as Italy was concerned. Two cir- 
cumstances (he remarks) were opposed to it. (1.) 
The judicial rights of the episcopal courts. (2.) The 
executive rights of the secular magistrates. The first 
was obviated by the nominal association of bishops 
in the inquisitorial office. The second, by permitting 
the magistrate to have his minister in the court, 
though at the appointment of the grand inquisitor. 
There v»as much art in this concession; for thus, 
while the ecclesiastics really held the whole power. 



360 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, 



of the Inquisition in the nortli of Italy, and in 
that form which made it most effectually the 
engine of the Vatican. It is true, that in this 
court the bishop was nominally appointed as 
coadjutor to the papal inquisitor ; but all sub- 
stantial judicial authority was placed in the 
hands of the latter. * The civil magistrate 
was likewise admitted to a seat among the 
members of the court ; but in reality bis 
power was ministerial only. The whole 
effective power, both judicial and executive, 
was vested in the Dominicans and Francis- 
cans. . . From Italy, the pestilence rapidly 
spread to the island of Sardinia, to Syria, and 
to Servia. f On the other hand into Spain, 
the field of its most destructive ravages, it 
was introduced so late as the reign of Ferdi- 
nand and Isabella — a reign more renowned, 
more panegyrized, than any other in the his- 
tory of that country. But from Spain even 
ihe despotism of Charles V. was insufficient 
to communicate it to the rest of his subjects ; 
the natural humanity of the Germans perse- 
veringly repelled that pestilence ; and the in- 
habitants of Naples on one side, and of the 
Low Countries on the other, resisted and re- 
jected it with equal constancy. 

We shall not enter more deeply into the 
records of the Inquisition, nor particularize 
the combinations of its machinery, and the 
exquisite harmony of its movements, because 
it did not reach that fatal perfection until a 



the secular authorities, by being united with them in 
name, were associated in hatred. They were tools, 
— they were mistaken for accomplices. 

* We learn from Bzovius at a later period, (ann. 
1302, sect. X.,) that Boniface VIII. transferred the 
inquisitorial office from the Franciscans to the Domi- 
nn;a8is, publishing at the same time some severe con- 
stitutions against heretics. There is one feature in 
them which we have not remarked in the earliest 
edicts. Not only were their defensores, receptatores, 
&c., included in the penalties, but also their filii et 
nepotes — children and grandchildren. The bishop 
of the diocese was permitted to act in concert with 
the inquisitors ; and the investigation was ordered to 
proceed ' simpliciter et de piano, absque, advocato- 
rum et judiciorum strepitu et figura! ' The accusers 
were allowed to give evidence secretly, if there should 
seem to be any danger to them from the publication 
of their names. 

•f- Limborch, lib. 1., cap. xvi. The ' Liber Sen- 
tentiarum Inquisitionis Tholosanse,' published at the 
end of his work, is of great value, not only as it 
faithfully represents the spirit of the ruling party in 
the Church at that time, (there were no doubt many 
individuals of greater moderation and humanity,) 
but also as the best storehouse of the opinions with 
which the heretics were charged, and for which they 
suffered. 



time posterior to the conclusion of this Hi^ 



tory. 



It is with no trifling satisfaction that 



we dispense with this labor ; for the details 
of ingenious barbarity, though they may 
awaken a transient attention, convey little 
that is instructive to a reasonable mind ; and 
the feelings of horror and indignation which 
they excite, do they not sometimes miss their 
true object, and exceed their just limits? — do 
they not sometimes rise into a detestation 
too general and too unqualified against the 
Church which peraiitted such iniquities.? — 
do they not sometimes close our charities 
against fellow Christians and fellow Catho- 
lics, who perhaps abominate, as intensely as 
we do, the crimes of their ancestors ? To ex- 
pose the deviations from the precepts of the 
Gospel and the principles of philanthropy, 
into which the Church of Rome, in different 
ages, has fallen, is a painful task so common- 
ly obtruded upon the historian, that he may 
well be spared the gratuitous denunciation 
of those which do not lie within the bounda- 
ries prescribed to his work. 

Section III. 

On the Gallican Liberties. 

St. Leivis and his Clergy. — A difference 
which took place between St. Lewis and his 
clergy, in the year 1263, throws some light 
both on his own character, and on the eccle- 
siastical history of the age. The bishops 
were desirous to make to the king a remon- 
strance from their whole body ; and when 
they were admitted into his presence, the 
bishop of Auxerre spoke in their name as 
follows : — ' Sire, all these prelates here assem- 
bled desire me to say, that you are permitting 
the Christian religion to fall to ruins, and to 
crumble in your hands.' On which the good 
king f made the sign of the Cross, and said, 
'Now tell me, bishop, how that is, and for 
what reason ? ' ' Sire,' continued the bishop, 
' the evil is, that no regard is any longer paid 
to excommunication. In these days, a man 
M'ould rather die under the sentence, than 
obtain absolution by making the necessary 
satisfaction to the Church. Wherefore, Sire, 
all these here present request, with one voice, 
that, for the honor of God, and in the dis- 



* It was indeed introduced into Spain under Pope 
Sixtus IV., before the close of the fifteenth century; 
but its first efforts, which were directed against the 
Jews, were merely characterized by savage barbarity. 

f Joinville, who tells the story, was present. Prem. 
Partie Vje de St. Louis, p. 24, 



GALLICAN LIBERTIES. 



361 



charge of your own duty,* it may please you 
to coinmand all your bailiffs, provosts, and 
other administrators of justice, as follows : — 
that, if any one be found in your kingdom 
who shall have lain under a sentence of ex- 
communication for a year and a day continu- 
ous, he be compelled, by seizure of his goods, 
to reconcile himself to the Church.' The 
holy man (le saint homme) answered, that he 
would issue such order in respect to those 
who should be proved guilty of injustice 
either to the Church, or to their neighbor. 
The bishop pressed, in reply, the exclusive 
privileges of ecclesiastical jurisdiction ; but 
the king firmly refused the secular aid, un- 
less the nature of the offence, and the justice 
of the censure, should be such as required its 
interference. This was the endeavor of a 
wise prince to distinguish the boundaries of 
ecclesiastical and civil jurisdiction, and to re- 
strain the former within its just limits ; and it 
shows at least, that, on matters which were 
still left; open to the exercise of reason, Lewis, 
how much soever he might love the religion, 
was not at all disposed to be overreached or 
overawed by its ministers. 

We may relate another anecdote of the 
same monarch, which will suggest one or 
two instructive reflections to the intelligent 
reader. St. Lewis had promised to be pres- 
ent at a chapter-general of the Cistercian or- 
der, to be held in the year 1244 with unusual 
solemnity. Innocent IV. received informa- 
tion of his intention ; and as the contest with 
Frederic involved him at that moment in 
some difficulties, he took measures to profit by 
the pious disposition of the king of France. 
The monarch arrived, attended by his moth- 
er, his brothers, and some nobles ; and all the 
abbots and the monks of the community, con- 
sisting of five hundred, went forth in proces- 
sion to meet and welcome the royal visiter. 
Immediately, while he was seated in the 
chapter, surrounded by his court, the abbots 
and the monks fell on their knees before 
him, with their hands in the attitude of pray- 
er, and their eyes suffused with tears — for 

* ' Pour Dieuj et pour ce qu' ainsi le devez faire.' 
We should observe that the demand on the part of the 
prelates was not new, and that it had even been grant- 
ed by the predecessor of Lewis. The first canon of 
the Council of Narbonne, held in 1227, mentions, as 
the law then in force, that whoever remained under 
the sentence, after three admonitions, should pay a 
fine of nine livres and a denier; but that whoever 
remained so for a whole year, should suffer the con- 
fiscation of all his property. Fleury, liv. Ixxix. sec. 
xxxii, 

46 



such had been the instructions of Innocent. 
Their prayer was this: — 'That, according to 
the ancient custom and liberty of France, he 
would protect their father and pastor, the 
holy pontiff, against the insults of the empe- 
ror ; that he would receive him, if necessaiy, 
into the bosom of his kingdom, as Alexander 
had formerly been received, while flying be- 
fore the Emperor Frederic, and Thomas of 
Canterbury, in his persecution by Henry of 
England.' . . St. Lewis descended from 
his seat, and placed himself in like manner 
upon his knees before the holy suppliants. 
But his reply was dictated by the calmest 
prudence and policy — 'that he would defend 
the Church, as his honor required, from the 
insultsof the emperor ; and no less willingly 
would he receive the exiled Pope into his 
kingdom, if his barons should so counsel 
him ; but that a king of France could on no 
occasion dispense with the counsels of his 
nobles.' * . . It was no secret from the 
king, nor, perhaps, even from his monastic 
petitioners, that the barons of France would 
never consent to open their rich domains, as 
a refuge for the rapacious court of Innocent 
IV. 

If St. Lewis, on the one hand, protected the 
liberties of his lay-subjects from the usurpa- 
tions of the clergy, he was no less vigilant, 
on the other, in shielding all pai-ties from the 
increasing exactions of Rome. Even from 
very early ages the Church of France had 
exhibited on some important occasions marks 
both of independence and good sense, above 
the level of other nations. The oriental ab- 
surdity of the Stylites was rejected by that 
more rational people. The rising authority 
of St. Leo was unable to silence the refracto- 
ry bishops of France. The use of images 
was for sometime discountenanced in that 
country. The Augustinian doctrine of pre- 
destination found, perhaps, its warmest ad- 
versaries among the divines of France. But 
most especially in the contest of Hincmar 
with Pope Nicholas, and some other occur- 
rences of the ninth century, do we detect 
the spirit of a clergy not prepared to pay im- 
plicit obedience to the foreign autocrat of the 
Church. Nevertheless, no formal declaration 
of resistance — no national attempt to emanci- 
pate the Galilean Church from any of its fet- 



* See Matthew Paris, ad ann. 1244, We must 
not confound this affair with a conference which did 
actually take place two years afterwards between the 
king and the Pope within the walls of Cluni, See 
Pagi, Vit. Innoc. IV., sec. xxxiii. 



362 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



ters, or give it security by a separate constitu- 
tion against further aggressions — had hitherto 
been made by any king of France. 

The Pragmatic Sanction. It was the last 
among the legislative acts of St. Lewis to 
publish those institutions which formed the 
basis of the boasted ' Liberties of the Gallican 
Cliurch.' Just before his departure for Tu- 
nis, he issued his Pragmatic Sanction. It 
was founded on the necessity of distinguish- 
ing temporal from spuitual authority, and 
became, in after times, the foundation of a 
more extensive emancipation. Like those, 
however, which were built upon it, it was pe- 
culiarly directed against the pecuniary usur- 
pations of Rome, and her claims to the pat- 
ronage of the Church. The latter subject 
had indeed occasioned the earliest conten- 
tions between the empire and the Vatican, 
at a time when the rights of the dispute were 
on the side of the latter. But since the days 
of Innocent II., the usurpations, whether in 
the imposition of taxes, or the distribution of 
benefices, had proceeded from the court of 
Rome ; and Lewis IX. having acquired by 
his pei-sonal character, as well as his wise 
'Establishments,'* the affection and fidelity 
of his subjects, felt strong enough to repress 
them. 

Accordingly, in the year 1269, that he might 
insure the tranquillity of his Church and king- 
dom during his absence, and also secure for 
his enterprise the protection of God, he pro- 
mulgated his celebrated Ordinance. It is 
comprised in six articles. (L) The churches, 
the prelates, the patrons, and the ordinary 
collators of benefices, shall enjoy their rights 
to their full extent, and each shall be sustain- 
ed in his jurisdiction. (2.) The cathedral and 
other churches shall possess the liberties of 
elections, which shall be carried into complete 
effect. (3.) We will, that simony, the pest of 
the Church, be wholly banished from our 
kingdom. (4.) Promotions, collations, pro- 
visions and dispositions of prelatures, dignities, 
and other ecclesiastical benefices and offices, 
whatsoever they may be, shall be made ac- 
cording to the institutions of common law, of 



* The 'Establishments of St. Louis'* belong, for 
the most part, to civil history. It is only necessary 
to observe, that though many particular enactments 
were severe, and even barbarous, according to the 
estimation of a civilized age, they were founded upon 
principles of policy, and even humanity, far above 
those of the times in which they were promulgated. 
Le Roi (says Millot) devint legislateur: I'anarchie 
feodale devoit finir.. Anotjier half century, and it 
did so. 



the councils, and of our ancient Fathers. (5.) 
We renew and approve of the liberties, fran- 
chises, prerogatives, and privileges, granted 
by the kings our predecessors, and by our- 
selves, to churches, monasteries, and other 
places of piety, as well as to ecclesiastical 
persons. (6.) We prohibit any one from, in 
any manner, levying and collecting the pecu- 
niary exactions and heavy charges which the 
Court of Rome has imposed, or may hereafter 
impose, upon the Church of our kingdom, 
and by which it has been miserably impover- 
ished — unless it be for a reasonable and very 
urgent cause, or by inevitable necessity, and 
with the free and express consent of the king 
and of the Church. * 

Six years earlier, when the archbishop of 
Tyre arrived in Firanee, as the legate of the 
Holy See, to impose a contribution on the 
clergy for the cost of a holy f war, an assem- 
bly of bishops referred his Bull to the king 
and ordained that, if any chose to accede to 
the claim, they would do so by then- own free 
will, not through any legal compulsion from 
Rome. . . It is obvious, from these occa- 
sional ebullitions, to observe, that the sordid 
policy of Innocent IV. was already producing 
its effect, in disposing the secular clergy to 
resist the despotism of Rome. Fifty years 
had not yet elapsed from the death of that 
pontiff, when we find the prelacy of France 
placed in direct opposition X to the Vatican, 

* ' Item exactiones et onera gravissima pecuniarum 
per Curiam Romanam Ecclesise regni nostri imposi- 
tQs vel imposita, quibus regnum nostrum miserabiliter 
depauperatum extitit, sive etiam iraponendas vel im- 
ponenda, levari aut colligi nuUatenus volumus, nisi 
duntaxat pro rationabili, pia et urgentissima causa, 
vel inevitabili necessitate, ac de spontaneo ac expresso 
consensu nostro et ipsius Ecclesiee regni nostri.' 
There are some copies in which the last article does 
not appear. But there is more reason for the opin- 
ion, that it was curtailed in those, than interpolated 
in the rest. Though the other articles do not make 
express mention of the court of Rome, yet it seems 
clear that the second, third, fourth, and a part of the 
first, are levelled against it. See Fleury, liv. Ixxxvi. 
sec. i. Dupin. Nouv. Biblioth., sec. xiii. chap. vii. 
The act was cited, as here given, by the Parliament 
to Lewis XL, in 1483, and in the Act of Appeal of 
the University of Paris, in 1495. 

t The Declaration of the bishops is given by Me- 
nard in his notes on Joinville, p. 287. 

■^ The same spirit, of course, extended itself to the 
lower clergy. It was during this reign that a Cure 
at Paris thus addressed his congregation. — 'You 
know, my brethren, that I am ordered to publish an 
excommunication against Frederic (11.) I am igno- 
rant of the motive. I am only certain that there has 
been a quarrel between that prince and the Pope— 



THE CRUSADES. 



363 



end a politic prince availing himself of that 
spirit to the disadvantage of the Holy See. 
As long as the Popes were contented to make 
common cause with their clergy against the 
secular authorities, they were indeed strong 
and formidable. But when they openly dis- 
tinguished between the interests of the court 
of Rome and of the rest of the hierarchy - - 
when they proceeded to supply the luxuries, 
or forward the ambitious projects of the one 
by invading the revenues of the other — from 
that moment the despotism of the apostolical 
Chair, notwithstanding the swarm of Mendi- 
cants which it created for its defence, had 
parted with its only ground or hope of per- 
manence. 

Section IV. 

On the Crusades. 

*The report of the Council of Clermont 
wafted a cheering gale over the minds of 
Christians. There was no nation so remote, 
no people so retired, as did not respond to 
the papal wishes. This ardent wish not only 
inspired the continental provinces, but the 
most distant islands and savage countries.' * 
Accordingly a mighty mass of fanaticism put 
itself in motion towards the East. The frame 
of society was convulsed, and seemingly dis- 
solved ; and as the will of Heaven is not un- 
commonly pleaded to justify the extravagance 
of man, the phenomena of the physical world 
were pressed into the same adventure : mete- 
ors and exhalations pointed out the road to 
Jerusalem, and the most ordinary signs of 
nature became portents and prodigies. The 
first burst of the storm fell upon some mise- 
rable Jews, who were living in peace under 
Christian protection, and rhany were massa- 
cred. It then rolled onwards ; and the follies, 
the sufferings, and the crimes, which marked 
the progi-ess of the first crusade, have not ever 
been equalled in the history of human mad- 
ness. Nevertheless, as a military enterprise, 
it was successful. Some exploits were per- 
formed of extraordinary daring. The same 

God alone knows which is right. I excommunicate 
him who has injured the other, and absolve him who 
has suffered the injury.' The congregation were 
amused with the sally. The emperor is said to have 
sent a present to the preacher; but the Pope con- 
demned him to canonical penance ; and he performed 
it accordingly. 

* Malmsbury, p. 416. He continues: 'The Welsh- 
man left his hunting; the Scotch his fellowship with 
vermin; the Dane his drinking party ; the Norwegian 
i>is ravv fish. 



agency which had lighted the flame was at 
hand to nourish it on every occasion of disas- 
ter ; and the spirit that v/as chilled by famine 
or by fear, was immediately revived and in- 
flamed by some new and stupendous miracle. 
Men who could be brought really to believe, 
while under the endurance of the most fright- 
ful reverses, that the favor of God was espe- 
cially extended and contmually manifested to 
them, were capable of more than human ex- 
ertion ; the entire abandonment of reason left 
space for the operation of energies which do 
not properly belong to man. 

The victory of Doryleum was followed by 
the siege of Antioch ; the capture of that city 
led the way to the investment of Jerusalena 
itself; and the banner of the cross was finally 
planted on Mount Sion amidst horrors, which 
probably had not been paralleled since the 
triumph of Titus over the same devoted city. 
Respecting the double massacre inflicted upon 
the infidels, we shall merely remark, that it 
had not the excuse of hasty uncontrollable 
passion, but that it was designed and deliber- 
ate. A deeply settled resolution of revenge 
may have had some share in the deed, but 
the policy of extermination had probably 
more ; and the spirit of religious persecution 
certainly directed the weapons and poisoned 
the wounds. In the meantime. Deux el volt 
— it is the will of God — was the watchword 
and the battle-shout of the Christians ; it 
overpowered the prayers of the women and 
the screams of their dying children ; * and 
was then loudest upon Sion and Calvary 
when the commandments of God and Christ 
were most insultingly violated. 

iS^. Bernard preaches the Second Crusade. — 
The loss of the Crusaders, in this first enter- 
prise, is calculated with probability at about 
1,200,000 lives ; but the Holy Sepulchre was 
freed from the pollution of the infidel ; and, 
what perhaps was of more consequence, as 
respects the continuance of similar expedi- 
tions, a Latin kingdom was established in 
Jerusalem. It is remarkable, that not one 
of the sovereigns of Europe adventured his 
person, or even deeply risked his repiitation, 
in the unknown perils of the first crusade. 
But, nearly fifty years afterwai-ds, the loss of 
Edessa, and some other reverses in the East, 
awakened the sympathy of Lewis VII. of 
France and Conrad III. of Germany, and 

* Christiani sic neci totum laxaverant animum, ut 
nee sugens masculus, aut foemina, nedum infans unius 
anni vivens manum percussoris evaderet. — Albert, p. 
283, cited by Mills, Hist. Crusades, chap, vi, 



364 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



they determined to aid an afflicted Christian 
and a brother king. For this purpose it was 
necessary to rouse the fuiy of Europe a 
second time ; and the eager co-operation of 
St. Bernard secured success. A less powerful 
instrument might have answered the object. 
Any intemperate enthusiast * can excite his 
fellow-mortals to deeds of wickedness; the 
genius of St. Bernard was given him to do 
good to mankind — but it was contracted by 
the severity of monastic discipline; it was 
stained with the prejudices of an ignorant 
age ; it was distorted by the very austerity of 
his virtues ; it was misdirected even by his 
piety. He entered with ardor upon his mis- 
sion of evil. He traversed fruitful provinces 
and populous cities. Vast multitudes every- 
where assembled to applaud and to listen; 
and the energy of his delivery and the vehe- 
mence of his tones and action, roused the 
feelings of many, who were even ignorant of 
the language in which he addressed them, f 
Such excitement, in a matter where passion 
and not reason was engaged, produced every 
effect of persuasion ; and if, besides, there 
were any so torpid, as to resist the natural 
eloquence of the holy man, he enjoyed that 
other resource, so potent in its influence where 
all the ordinary operations of the mind are 
suspended, — he possessed the gift of mira- 
cles, and proved his heavenly mission (so his 
credulous panegyrists assert) by many preter- 
natural signs. At the same time he affected, 
by a more dangerous assumption, the pro- 
phetic character; and, on the faith of Him, 
who can neither err nor deceive, he foretold 
and promised a splendid career of triumphs. 
Armed with so full and various a quiver 
against the feeble reason of a superstitious 
generation — with high personal celebrity and 
eloquence ; with the support of powerful 
princes ; with pontifical approbation ; with 
the repute of supernatural aid, and preten- 
sions to heavenly inspiration— what wonder 

* It is amusing to observe the contempt with whidi 
the Abbot of Clairvaux speaks of the hermit-preacher 
of the first crusade: ' Fuit in priori expeditione, an- 
tequam Hierosolyma caperetur, vir quidam, Petrus 
nomine, cujus et vos (ni fallor) saepe mentionem au- 
distis,' &c.— Bernard. Epist. 363, p. 328, vol. i. ed. 
Mabil. The reference is made by Mills, Hist. Cru- 
sades, chap. ix. 

t Latin was the language which he indiscriminately 
addressed to the vulgar in all the provinces in which 
he preached. Since preternatural powers have been 
ascribed to him, it has been thought remarkable that 
the gift, of which he seemed to stand most in need, 
was perversely witlilield. 



was it that St. Bernard confounded the sense 
and broke up the repose of Europe ; that he 
depopulated cities and provinces (such was 
his own rash boast,) and sent forth the whole 
flower and vigor of Christendom on the holy 
enterprise ! 

The history of religious war has not re- 
corded any expedition at the same time more 
fatal and more fruitless, than the crusade of 
St. Bernard. After two or three years of 
suffering and disaster almost uninterrupted, 
a miserable remnant of survivors returned to 
relate their misfortunes and marvel at their 
discomfiture. A general outcry was raised 
agamst the author of those calamities; in- 
numerable widows and orphans demanded 
of the prophet their husbands and their sires ; 
or at least they claimed the sacred laurels 
which he had promised — ^the triumphs which 
he had vouchsafed, in his dispensation of the 
boons of heaven, to the soldiers of the cross. 
The detected impostor was not ashamed to 
take shelter under the usual pretext of relig- 
ious hypocrites. He asserted that his pro- 
phecies (the prophecies of God) were only 
conditional ; that in foretelling the success of 
the cmsaders, he had assumed their righteous- 
ness and the purity of their lives ; that their 
own enormous crimes had diverted or sus- 
pended the designs of Providence, just as in 
ancient days the sins of the Jews in the wil- 
derness had foiled the policy and foresight of 
Moses. * If at any time we can regard with 
levity any pious artifice of the meanest ec- 
clesiastic for the most innocent purpose, still 

* This celebrated passage is in the beginning of 
the second book of his Treatise, ' De Consideratione,' 
addressed to PopeEugenius III., and should be cited: 
— ' Moyses educturus populum de terra ^Egypti me- 
liorem illis pollicitus est terram. Nam quando ipsum 
aliter sequeretur populus, solam sapiens terram'? 
Eduxit ; eductos taraen in terram quam promiserat 
non introduxit. Nee est quod ducis temeritati im- 
putari queat tristis et inopinatus eventus. Omnia 
faciebat Domino imperante. Domino cooperante, et 
opus corifirmante sequentibus signis. Sed populus 
ille, inquis, durae cervicis fuit, semper contentiosd 
agens contra Dominum et contra Moysem servum 
ejus. Bene illi creduli et rebelles — Hi autem quidl 
Ipsos Interroga. Quid me dicere opus est quod fa- 
tentur ipsi'? Dico ergo unum — Quid poterant confi- 
cere, qui semper revertebantur, cum ambularent"? 
Quando et isti per totam viam non redierunt corde 
in JEgyptuml Quod si illi ceciderunt et perierunt 
propter iniquitatem suam, miramur istos, eadera fa- 
cientes, eadem passos! Sed numquid illorura casus 
adversus promissa Deil Ergo, nee istorum. Neque 
enim aliquando proraissiones Dei justitiae Dei prseju- 
dicant.' 



THE CRUSADES. 



365 



our smile is not unmLx:ed with melancholy or 
contempt. But the crime of St. Bernard, the 
most enlightened prelate of his time, who 
usurped the attributes and forged the seal of 
God, in order to launch some hundreds of 
thousands of confidiug Christians into pro- 
bable destruction, or at best into successful 
massacre, excites a serious indignation, which 
it would be partial to suppress, and which 
neither his talents, nor his virtues, nor his 
piety, nor the vicious principles of his age, 
are sufficient to remove. 

Subsequent Crusades. — Forty yeai-s after the 
departure of this expedition, in the year 1187, 
Saladin gained the batde of Tiberias, and soon 
afterwards recovered from the Christians the 
possession of the Holy City. The Latin 
kingdom of Jerusalem had struggled through 
eighty-eight years of precarious existence, 
against internal dissension and tumult, and 
the perpetual aggressions of the infidel. Per- 
haps it must have yielded under any circum- 
stances to the genius of Saladin ; but its fate 
was precipitated by the feudal divisions of its 
defenders, the jealousy subsisting between 
the Knights of the Temple and those of the 
Hospital, and the violent quarrels in which 
the latter were engaged, through the effect 
of their papal immunities, with the avaricious 
hierarchy of Palestine.* 

The Third crusade (1189—92) was distin- 
guished by the adventures of the lion-hearted 
Richard. The Fourth followed only three 
yeai-s afterwards, under the auspices of Pope 
Celestine TIL, and terminated in inglorious 
failure. The Germans, of whom it chiefly 
consisted, accused the faint co-operation of 
the barons resident in the Holy Land. The 
Fifth and Sixth were created, or at least pro- 
tected and fostered, by Innocent IH. The 
former of these may possibly be ascribed to 
the still surviving spirit of popular supersti- 
tion, lashed into fanaticism by the preachmg, 
or at least by the miraculous pretensions, of 
an enthusiast named Fulk. But whatever 
may have been its origin, its termination — 
the capture of Constantinople — was certainly 
neither foreseen nor designed by its advocates. 
The warriors of the sixth crusade likewise 
declined from the original object of these mili- 
tary pilgrimages, and deviated, with greater 
promise of profit if not of glory, into the 
wealthy plains of Egypt. Their courage 
was repaid by the conquest of Damietta ; but 

* This subject will be again mentioned in the 
twenty-sixth chapter. 



the advantage thus obtained was neither great 
nor permanent. The force of the Christians 
in the East was weakened by division, and 
they were contented to despoil what they 
could not hope to possess. Still, if we are 
to assign to this expedition the concluding 
exertions of Frederic II., it terminated with 
more honor to the Christian name, and with 
a nearer approach to the liberation of the 
Holy Sepulchre, than any which had been 
undertaken since the first. And that its re- 
sults were not more lasting, is to be ascribed, 
not to the insincerity of the emperor, but to 
the narrow jealousy of a passionate pope, * 
who roused all his military and monastic 
myrmidons m opposition to that very cause 
which he, as well as his faithless predecessor, 
had dai-ed to designate the cause of God. 

Tfwse of St. Lends. — The chivalrous enter- 
prize of the Count of Champaigne, and Rich- 
ard Earl of Cornwall, followed the council of 
Spoleto, in 1234 ; and the imperfect success, 
which attended it, was rather occasioned by 
the dissensions of the Mussulman princes, 
than by the cordial co-operation of the Chris- 
tians. It added one to the list of the crusades ; 
and was presently succeeded by tv^^o others, 
the Eighth and Ninth, with which the melan- 
choly catalogue at length concluded. Both 
of these may probably be attributed to the re- 
ligious fervor of St. Lewis. In the access of 
a dangerous sickness, in the year 1244, that 
prince vowed the sacrifice of his personal ser- 
vice to God, should his health providentially 
be restored. It was so. In the following 
year, the numerous host of prelates, assembled 
at the council of Lyons, proclaimed the cru- 
sade, and enjoined four preparatory years of 
peace and seriousness throughout the western 
nations. During this interval large contribu- 
tions were levied both on the clergy and laity, 
and other effectual means adopted to secure 
success ; and at its expu-ation, the pious mon- 
arch spread his sails for the East. His imme- 
diate object, however, was not the liberation 
of the Sepulchre, but the conquest of Egypt ; 
and in the conduct of this campaign he close- 



* Greg^ory IX. Innocent III. died before the de- 
parture of the expedition, which he had been par- 
ticularly and personally diligent in promoting. See 
the preceding chapter. Not professing to give a 
regular history of these various expeditions, nor to 
mention more facts than are necessary for our infer- 
ences, we have not noticed the celebrated Ciusade of 
Children under this pope ; yet it may fairly be con- 
sidered as the consummation of the work of fanati- 
cism. 



366 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



ly imitated both the gallantry and the errors 1 
of his predecessors, who had triumphed and 
perished in the same field. The misfortunes 
of the sixth crusade, though still fresh in the 
memory of mankind, taught as usual no les- 
son and conveyed no warning to the genera- 
tion which followed ; and the repetition of 
similar blunders only led to a more disastrous 
result. The army was defeated, and Lewis 
himself fell a captive into the power of the 
infidel. But his follies were redeemed by the 
gold of his subjects ; and he returned to expiate 
his fatal enthusiasm by the exercise of peace- 
ful virtues, and to repair, by useful and hu- 
mane institutions, the wrongs which he had 
done to his people. 

But the spark of superstition was neither 
extinguished by the discharge of his best du- 
ties, nor chilled by the advance of age. After 
an interval of twenty years of wisdom, he re- 
lapsed into the old infatuation, and unfurled, 
for the last time, the consecrated banner of 
fanaticism. His second expedition consisted, 
for the most part, as the first had done, of 
French and English ; and, like the first^ it was 
again directed against the Moslems of Africa, 
not agamst the usurpers of the Holy Land. 
The heroic plains of Carthage were occupied 
by the Christian force; and the tombs of Ter- 
tullian, Cyprian and Augustin may perhaps 
have been rescued from the pollutions of the 
unbeliever; but the army was still encamped, 
without any decisive success, before the walls 
of Tunis, when St. Lewis was called away 
for ever from the sanguinary scene. 

His death was immediately followed by 
the romantic adventures of the English Ed- 
ward, which closed the long succession of 
fruitless efforts for a worthless object. The 
power of the Infidel presently increased in 
might and boldness; and, in the year 1291, 
the last fragments of Christian rule were swept 
away from the surface of Palestine. . . Acre, 
the conquest of the English hero, was the last 
possession of the Cross : it had long been the 
only strong bulwark against the Moslem force. 
It was important, through its situation at the 
end of that large and fertile plain which ex- 
tends to the Jordan eastward, and which has 
been the field of decisive conflicts in every 
age of the history of Palestine ; it was import- 
ant, as the centre of commercial intercourse 
between the east and the west, the resort of 
all nations and all languages. But the uni- 
versal profligacy which prevailed withm its 
walls, and the crimes with which it was stain- 
ed, beyond the shame of any other Christian 



city, were thought to justify the judgment of 
God, when at length he delivered it over to a 
Mahometan conqueror.* 

The Causes of the Crusades.— To this hasty, 
but necessary outline of the history of the 
Crusades, we are called upon to subjoin some 
general observations on their causes, their 
objects, and their results: not aspiring to em- 
ulate the eloquence with which this subject 
has been so commonly treated, nor affecting 
to add any thing original in thought or ex- 
pression to the successful labors of our pre- 
decessors ; but simply to justify the preten- 
sions of this work, which would vainly assume 
the title of an Ecclesiastical History, if it 
should pass in entire silence over the most 
amazing phenomenaj which ever proceeded 
from the abuse of religion. And if, indeed, it 
be a true reflection, that the only enterprise, 
in which the nations of Europe have at any 
time engaged with a single arm and a com- 
mon soul,— and that, too, no vague and tran- 
sient adventure, but the passion or policy of 
two hundred years, — ^stands singularly mark- 
ed in the historic temple, as a monument of 
human absurdity: if this be true, is it possible 
to search too frequently for the sources of such 
unanimous infatuation, or to ascertain too mi- 
nutely what passions of what prejudices, oi 
what interests those were, which availed to 
dispossess and enchain for so long a period 
the reason of mankind? Moreover, as we 
have found occasion to observe, that an indul- 
gent Providence will sometimes extract bless- 
ings from man's blindest follies, it becomes us 
also to inquire, whether the fruits of those 
wild enterprises were any other than shame, 
degradation, and misery. Though, indeed, in 
this case, it might seem presumptuous to look 
for any manifestation of divine compassion, 
where impiety called itself religious devotion, 
and massacre pleaded for reward, and pleaded 
in the blessed name of Christ, 

Pilgrimage. — To visit the spots which have 
been consecrated by immortal deeds, — to 
tread in the footsteps which those have traced 
whose memory we love and revere, — is the 
suggestion of natural piety, not the maxim or 
observance of religion. Nevertheless, such 
practice is easily associated with any religion, 
whenever the qualities of its founder have 
been such as to excite the enthusiasm of its 



* E questo pericolo non fii senza grande e giusto 
giudizio di Dio, che quella citta era plena di piu 
peccatori uomini e femine d'ogni dissolute peccato, 
che terra chi fosse Ira' Christiani. Giovanni Villanf> 
lib. vii., c. 144, as cited by Mills, Hist. Crusades 



THE CRUSADES. 



367 



votaries ; and thus the performance of holy 
pilgrimage became an early, a frequent, and 
almost a peculiar usage of the Christians. 
From an innocent, perhaps useful custom, it 
was gradually exalted into a spiritual duty ; 
and the journey to the sepulchre of the Sav- 
iour was encouraged and enjoined by some of 
the oldest Fathers of the established Church. 
The pure principle of pilgrimage was pres- 
ently mixed and alloyed by vulgar motives : 
a faint shade of superstition was insensibly 
heightened into a darker ; and the traveller 
returned from the holy places, no longer satis- 
fied with the consciousness of pious intent 
and sincere devotion, but also charged with 
relics of departed saints, or fragments of the 
holy crown or cross. . . This degenerate 
passion was nourished by the rulers of the 
church ; multitudes thirsted for those vain 
possessions, whom a mere ardor to worship 
at the tomb of Christ would scarcely have 
f&rtified against the toils of the journey ;4he 
Syrian dispensers of the profitable patrimony 
i7uceasingly discovered new treasures by rev- 
elation, or multiplied the original by miracles ; 
so that the crowds who thronged the sanc- 
tuaiy perpetually increased, and the sources 
which fed their credulity were never closed 
nor lessened. 

It was natural to expect that the conquest 
of Palestine by the unbelieving Saracens 
would have abolished the means, if it did not 
desecrate the objects, of pilgrimage. But it 
proved otherwise. The enlightened Caliphs 
immediately perceived the policy of tolera- 
tion ; they saw the direct advantages which 
flowed into Syria through the superstition 
and commerce of the West; they may even 
have learned from their own practice to re- 
spect the motives of the travellers, and the 
kindred passion which occasioned an annual 
visit to the Christian Mecca. Certainly they 
received the visiters without insult, and dis- 
missed them without injury. 

During the concluding portion of the tenth 
century, a strange impulse was given to the 
spirit of pilgrimage by an accidental cause, 
which, as it was sown in delusion, produced 
the customary harvest of wickedness. The 
belief prevailed of the approaching dissolution 
of the world and the termination of earthly 
things ; Mount Sion was to become the judg- 
ment-seat of the Most High ; and the Chris- 
tian nations were taught to depart and humble 
themselves before his throne. Those inter- 
ested exhortations were too obsequiously obey- 
ed; and though the notion which created 
them was after a few years falsified and ex- 



ploded, yet the habit of journeying to the 
Holy Land had in the meantime gained great 
prevalence, and the idea of an expiatory obli- 
gation became commonly attached to it. In 
the century following, the journey assumed 
not unfrequently the form of an expedition, 
and was sometimes undertaken by considera- 
ble bodies of associated and even armed de- 
votees. . We still peruse, in the narrative of 
Ingulphus, a native and historian of England, 
the adventures of seven thousand holy Ger- 
mans, v>^ho engaged in the entei-prise under 
the direction of the archbishop of Mayence, 
and in the society of thirty Norman horsemen. 
They encountered many dangers and suffered 
many losses ; but they attained their object, 
and worshipped at the fountain of their relig- 
ion. And when they recounted, in domestic 
security, their various fortunes, their listeners 
were more likely to be inflamed by the admi- 
ration of their success, than deterred by suf 
ferings or perils, which greater foresight or 
felicity might easily ward off" from themselves. 

Towards the close of the eleventh age, 
about the year 1076, the dominion of Palestine 
was torn from the Arabian dynasty by the 
wilder hand of tlie Turks. The pure fanati- 
cism of that rude people was not yet softened 
by friendly intercourse with the followers of 
the adverse faith, nor would it stoop to yield 
even to the obvious dictates of interest. Many 
outrages were at this time unquestionably per- 
petrated upon the strangers who visited the 
sepulchre, and upon the Christian natives and 
sojourners in Syria. Those who returned 
from the East were clamorous in their des- 
criptions and their complaints ; and tales of 
suffering and of sacrilege, of the prostration of 
Christ's followei-s, the profanation of his name, 
the pollution of his holy places, tales of Mos- 
lem oppression and impiety, were diffused 
and exaggerated and believed, with fierce and 
revengeful indignation, from one end of Eu- 
rope to the other. 

Warlike Spirit of the Age. — Whatsoever 
may have been the merits of the feudal prin- 
ciples in earlier times, they had degenerated, 
in the eleventh century, into a mere code 
of militaiy service and subordination. The 
whole business, the pleasure, the passion of 
that age was war. It animated alike the cities 
and the villages ; it presided over the domestic 
regulations of every family ; it was familiar 
with the thoughts, where it did not constitute 
the habits, of every individual. Even the 
higher orders of the clergy forgot their spirit- 
ual in their secular obligations, and very com- 
monly engaged in the same pursuits from a 



368 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



common necessity. * It was in vain that 
Charlemagne had restrained by his Capitula- 
ries that preposterous practice. The policy 
of Charlemagne was too wise for the times in 
which he lived: he attempted to anticipate 
the operation of progressive ages; he enacted 
some useful laws ; but he was unable to per- 
petuate a premature, and therefore transient, 
civilization. No sooner was he removed by 
death than inveterate barbarism resumed its 
sway, and the bulwark which his single hand 
had raised against the principles, customs, 
and prejudices of ancestral ignorance, was 
hastily swept away. During the two centu- 
ries which followed, in spite of the general 
exertions of the clergy, as a body, to arrest 
the desolating spirit, in spite of canonical leg- 
islation and ecclesiastical censure, the practice 
of private warfare continued with no mitiga- 
tion. Early in the eleventh age, the Treuga 
Dei (the Truce of God) was solemnly enjoin- 
ed, with the purpose of enforcing a suspension 
of hostilities during certain days in every 
week. But though this humane ordinance 
was frequently confirmed and reiterated, there 
was no age in which the military frenzy had 
such general prevalence throughout Europe, 
none in which the exercise of arms and the 
effusion of blood were so completely the habit, 
the motive, almost the morality, of the west- 
ern nations. 

Superstitious zeal — At a period when re- 
ligious notions or observances were mingled 
with all customs and all institutions, and thus 
interwoven with the whole texture of private 
as well as public life, — and when, besides, the 
corruptions of Christianity had so superseded 
its genuine spirit, that the notions which we 
have called religious should rather have been 
designated superstitious, — the ruling passion 
of the age was easily associated with its ruling 
weakness. Martial enterprise went hand in 
hand with enthusiasm, misnamed pious ; the 
exploits of the one were consecrated by the 
expressions, sometimes by the feelings, of the 
other ; and the words of the priest were re- 
peated, or the image of the Saviour embraced, 
even in the fiercest moments of the strife. 
Abject ignorance, followed by credulity, held 
dominion almost undisputed ; and the minds 

* Olim (says Guido, abbot of Clairville) noii habe- 
bant castella et arces ecclesise cathedrales, nee inee- 
debant pontifices loricati. Sed nunc, propter abim- 
dantiam teinpox'alium rerum, flainma, fen'o, csede 
possessiones ecclesiarnm prselati defendunt, quas de- 
berent pauperlbus erogare. Du Cange, Gloss. Lat., 
art. Advocatus. The abbot's olim extended through 
the first five centuries, and not much later. 



of men were destitute of any moral principles 
to restrain, or any moral knowledge to direct, 
the course of their passions. The faculties 
which distinguish sense from absurdity, piety 
from fanaticism, truth from falsehood and im- 
posture, were extinct or dormant; and a rest- 
less and irrational generation lay exposed to 
the impulse of any rising tempest. 

On such an age and race, — so inured to the 
use of arms, so alive to the emotions of re^ 
ligion, so familiar with the practice of holy 
pilgrimage, — the indignity of Turkish oppres- 
sion, the outrages on the name and sepulchre 
of Christ, fell with an electric efficacy. At 
another time, under other circumstances, the 
bolt might have passed by unfelt and almost 
unheeded; but al; that moment it was no 
premature nor unseasonable visitation, but it 
found men prepared, and intensely sensible 
to its operation ; and the flash which attend- 
ed it descended on materials prepared for ex- 
plosion. 

It argues a superficial knowledge both of 
nature and of history to suppose that a phe- 
nomenon, so astounding as the first crusade, 
could have been produced in any condition 
of society without strong predetermining 
causes; and that the preaching of the Hermit 
or even the indulgences of the Pope could 
have excited to that enterprise, minds that 
were not deeply disposed to receive' the im- 
pulse. There are some, indeed, who consider 
the increase of pontifical power during the 
eleventh age, under the auspices of Hilde- 
brand, to have been a leading cause in pro- 
ducing the Crusades. It is true that, a cen- 
tury earlier, the aspirations of Sylvester II. 
were without effect : it is more remarkable 
that even Gregory himself, though professing 
an ardent and even personal eagerness for the 
enterprise, carried his project to no result; 
while Urban, with much less individual in- 
fluence, accomplished the work with great 
facility. But in the time of Sylvester, some 
of the popular motives for the crusade did not 
yet exist, others had not attained sufficient - 
prevalence and maturity; and Gregory was 
diverted from his scheme by the more press- 
ing solicitations of domestic ambition. But 
when Urban threw the torch among the mul- 
titudes of Placentia and Clermont, their hands 
were prepared and eager to seize it, and ex- 
tinguish it in Moslem blood. A pilgrimage to 
the sepulchre of Christ was then a common 
and almost customary act of devotion ; a pil- 
grimage in arms was congenial with the spirit 
of a warlike race ; to liberate the holy places 
and to chastise the usurpers were objects con- 



THE CRUSADES. 



569 



sistent with each other, and with the ruling 
principles of the age. 

Objects of the first Crusade.— And such were 
the objects of the first crusade— to deliver the 
Holy Land from a state of imaginary pollution, 
and to take vengeance on the infidel possessor. 
No consideration of distant consequences, nor 
even of immediate utility, entered into them. 
Reason was not consulted, nor were her pre- 
cincts approached : of the passions themselves, 
those most akin to reason had no share in the 
adventure. Ambition was silent in the up- 
roar. * Policy might, indeed, have offered 
plausible justification, by suggesting that the 
hurricane which had wasted Asia might pre- 
sently break over Europe ; but the argumenta 
justi meht5,if they have satisfied some writers 
on this subject, entered not in any degree in- 
to the motives of the Crusaders. They were 
not men to calculate remote dangers ; still less 
did they perplex themselves with any theo- 
retical speculation as to the right of hostility, 
or seek their excuse in the antichristian prin- 
ciples of their enemy. From the rule and 
practice of Mahometan aggression, they might 
almost have inferred the right of reciprocal 
invasion ; but they looked for immortality, 
not for justification ; it never occurred to 
them to doubt the justice, or rather the hoh- 
ness, of their cause ; they sought no plea or 
pretext, except in the passion of their re- 
ligious frenzy and in the sharpness of their 
sword. 

There was still another motive which might 
have seemed substantial to the warriors of 
those days, and which they might equally 
have borrowed from the Infidel — a design to 
convert the miscreants by force, and to drag 
them in chains to the waters of baptism ; but 
even this project held no place among the in- 
centives to the first crusade. In later times, 
indeed, when, in the vicissitudes of military 
adventure, the arms of the Mahometan were 
found to preponderate, some faint attempts 
were made, or meditated, f to convince those 



* The success which had attended the Asiatic, and 
even Syrian, campaigns of Nicephorus, Phocas, and 
John Zimisces (963 — 975) might have offered rea- 
sonable hopes to the ambition of the Crusaders, and 
almost justified the military policy of the expedition 
— if ambition or policy had ever entered into their 
consideration. 

f In 1285, Honorius IV., in order to convert the 
Saracens, strove to establish at Paris schools for 
Arabic and other oriental languages. The Council 
of Vienna, in 1312, recommended the same method ; 
and Oxford, Salamanca, Bologna, as well as Paris, 
were places selected for the establishment of the Pro- 

47 



whom it proved impossible to subdue; but 
the earliest soldiers of the Cross were moved 
by no such design : they rushed in thought- 
less precipitation to an unprofitable end, and 
they believed that a Power irresistibly im- 
pelled them, and that that Pov/er was — the 
Will of God. 

Of those which followed, — These remarks 
are properly confined to the origin of the first 
crusade — to that burst of pure fanaticism 
which was itself unmixed with worldly in- 
centives, though it opened the field for other 
enterprises, proceeding from the usual motives 
of human action. An inattention to this dis- 
tinction has misled some writers, who, failing 
to discriminate between the circumstances 
which produced, and those which nourished, 
the crusades, have not taken an accurate view 
of either. A midtitude of causes combined 
to impel the machine when it was once in 
motion, though the agency which launched 
it was simple and uniform. In the first place, 
by the success of the first expedition, an im- 
portant kingdom was established in the East. 
Immediately measures were taken to provide 
for its protection, and secure its stability. 
Natives of most of the western states settled 
in Palestine. The Latin colony adopted the 
feudal discipline, and the common constitu- 
tion of Europe. Hence a thousand links 
were extended of sympathy and of interest ; 
and together they formed an entirely new 
ground for exertion, and gave a different 
character to the movement which agitated 
the West. Henceforward, reciprocal rela- 
tions existed ; the honor of Christendom was 
now engaged to maintain its conquests over 
the unbeliever ; it was held base to relinquish 
a possession, acquired through so many losses, 
even by those who might not think the losses 
counterbalanced by the possession. It is one 
thing to rush into a desperate enterprise, and 
another to encounter some additional risk in 
defence of that, which by much previous risk 
has been achieved. 

Not one of the sovereigns of Europe was 
either personally engaged in the first crusade, 
or very zealous in promoting it: it proceeded 
from soin-ces wholly distinct from the policy 
of courts and the springs of civil government. 
But the second, and most of the following 
expeditions, were undertaken, some with the 
aid and countenance, others under the very 
authority and direction, of the leading mon- 
archs. It is unnecessarv to observe how 



fepsorships. But the decree appears to have remain- 
ed without effect, until Francis Ivcalled it into life- 



370 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



many different ingredients were thrown into 
the cup of fanaticism by such co-operation, — 
obedience to the command, affection for the 
person, gratitude for the favor, hope from the, 
generosity, of the prince — and, what was 
scarcely less potent than these, the seal of ap- 
probation which stamped the practice, which 
gave it prevalence and fashion, which placed 
it among the ordinary means of distinction, 
among the legitimate duties of military ser- 
vice. . . Again, the policy, which nrixed 
itself almost necessarily with the royal mo- 
tives, entirely lost sight in some cases of the 
original object. The pollution of the holy 
places was forgotten in the fruitfid prospect 
of the plains of Egypt, or of the commerce 
which thronged the Afilcan ports ; in such 
manner, as to make it very questionable 
whether plunder, rather than conquest, was 
not the principal motive of three, at least, 
among the latest crusades. St. Lewis himself 
was, perhaps, as politic as he was pious ; and 
it is not easy to perceive how the sufferings 
of the Holy Land could have been much al- 
leviated by any advantages which be might 
have achieved before the walls of Tunis. At 
any rate, though the same vows and intentions 
might still be professed, very different incen- 
tives were certainly proposed, and very dif- 
ferent methods adopted, to accomplish them. 

Tlie policy of the Popes. — The principles 
and motives of the Vatican, which are gen- 
erally found so consistent, were subject to 
some fluctuation in the encouragement which 
it extended to the crusades. The feeling of 
Sylvester appears to have been the anticipation 
of that, which animated the first adventurers a 
century afterwards. Gregory VIL had more 
specific and tangible objects. His practical 
mind was not perhaps much moved by»the 
tears of Palestine and the tales of her pollu- 
tion ; but he considered the union of the rival 
churches, and the general triumph of the 
Christian over the Moslem cause, as projects 
not unworthy of the confederacy of the West, 
and of his own superintendence. 

The Popes of the 12th century followed, 
where they did not direct or inflame, the pas- 
sion of their age ; and the successive arma- 
ments of martyrs were launched with the 
apostolical benediction on their holy destina- 
tion. But the designs of Innocent IH. were 
of a different and more selfish description ; 
and he did not fear to pervert to their accom- 
plishment the machine intrusted to him for 
other purposes. The arms which had been 
consecrated to the service of Clirist, against 
tlie blasphemers of his name, were now turn- 



ed against the domestic adversaries of the See 
of Rome. The views and policy of Innocent 
were purely ecclesiastical : they did not ex- 
tend in any direction beyond the interests of 
the Church over which he presided ; and it 
was the impulse of the moment to crush the 
foe in his bosom, before he sought for a re- 
mote and defensive enemy. 

When the precedent of converting the ban- 
ner of the Cross into a badge of Papal sub- 
sei'vience was once established, the name and 
object of a holy war passed through different 
methods of profanation ; and the sword of 
the Crusader, after being steeped in heretical 
blood, was drawn, in the same hateful service, 
against a Catholic adversary. The Popes had 
thus accomplished their final object in sub- 
stituting the defence of the Church — which 
really meant the temporal interests of the See 
of Rome — as a recognised object for arming 
the subjects of all governments, in the name 
of Christ; and to this purpose the plenary 
indulgence, still the great lever of popular 
fanaticism, was commonly and not vainly 
applied. 

From that time forward it does not appear 
that the Vatican pursued any fixed policy 
respecting the expeditions really undertaken 
for the chastisement of the Infidel. Its gen- 
eral voice was indeed loud in their favor ; 
and bulls and exhortations were perpetually 
promulgated to quicken or revive the ardor 
of the Faithful. Notwithstanding, there were 
particular occasions — such as the attempts of 
Frederic II. and the seventh crusade — on 
which the pontifical power was employed to 
thwart, or even to prevent, the enterprise. 
But the secret of this fluctuation was too often 
and too openly betrayed. The advantage 
and aggrandizement of Rome was now be- 
come in papal eyes the only legitimate object 
of the religious spirit ; and, according to the 
more modern and favorite method, she now 
turned that spirit into the channel of her ava- 
rice. The Indulgence, which in the first 
instance was only granted as the reward of 
actual service in the holy cause, was, in pro- 
cess of time, publicly exchanged for gold ; 
and the timid or indolent devotee was first 
permitted, and afterwards encouraged, to re- 
deem by his wealth the toils and dangers of a 
military penance. Again : Innocent III. had 
taxed the clergy of Europe for the benefit of 
the Holy Land ; but presently we find com- 
plaints, that the tax was become the object, 
instead of the means, and the crusade only 
the pretext. And thus the treasury of Rome 
was filled, amidst the disappointment of all 



THE CRUSADES. 



371 



honest enthusiasts and the murmurs of a de- 
frauded priesthood. The memory of Gregory 
VII., and the fame of his spiritual triumph 
and lofty ambition, were put to shame by the 
sordid cupidity of his degenerate successors. 

Decline of the Crusading Spiiit. — The above 
obsei-vations are sufficient to show how wide- 
ly both the causes and objects of the Crusades 
varied during the long period of their contin- 
uance, and how far they sometimes deviated 
from the pure martial fanaticism of their ori- 
gin. As they were thus mixed up with the 
ordinary motives of poHcy, and were de- 
graded to the selfish service of Rome, so the 
fuel by which they were nourished gradually 
disappeared, and the flame insensibly burnt 
out ; and in this circumstance we observe the 
limits to which the influence of the Vatican 
itself was confined. When popular spirit 
was kindled by other causes, the Pope was 
abundantly powerful to fan and excite it ; 
when it had risen to the height of its fury, he 
had control sufficient to misdirect it ; but 
when it began to sink and die away, his ut- 
most efibrts were unable to sustain or revive 
it. As long as the Vatican was contented to 
feed and minister to tlie universal passion, its 
influence, which was really great, appeared 
to have no bounds ; but when that passion 
had once subsided, the Pontiffs lost their hold 
on human weakness ; and neither the increase 
of exemptions * or indemnities, nor the mul- 



* Tlie Crusaders, besides their plenary indulgences, 
had several alluring temporal privileges, which are 
perhaps correctly reduced under the following heads: 
— 1. They were exempted from prosecution for debt 
during the time of their service. 2. From paying 
in'eresl for the money which they had borrowed for 
the outfit. 3. For a certain time, if not entirely, 
from the payment of taxes. 4. They might alienate 
their lands without the consent of the superior lord. 
6. Their persons and effects were taken under the 
protection of St. Peter, and anathemas denounced 
against all who should molest them. 6. They enjoy- 
ed all the privileges of ecclesiastics; such as not be- 
ing bound to plead in civil courts, &c. — (See Robert- 
son's Proofs and Illustrations.) It remained, of 
course, very uncertain how far these privileges would 
be acknowledged by the secular authorities, and to 
what extent those civil courts would consent to forego 
their jurisdiction over so large a multitude; and thus 
the real value of these papal immunities depended 
on the Pope's influence, and various other causes. 
The serfs who exchanged their agricultural service 
for that of the Cross appear by that act to have ob- 
tained their freedom: at least, that which was con- 
ferred by common military service, would scarcely be 
withheld from the crusader. 



tiplication of mdulgences, availed to inflame 
the descendants of those spontaneous enthu- 
siasts, who, in obedience to the preaching of 
the Hermit, had rushed forth to restore the 
honor of Christ, and avenge the wrongs of 
his worshippers. 

Effects of the Crusades. ---As the causes^from 
which the crusadhig frenzy at first broke forth, 
were of long and regular growth, so likewise 
was the process of its extinction slow and 
gradual. Throughout the space of two hundred 
years, the original flame, though continually 
sinking, was not wholly lost; — it was still min- 
gled, though in smaller proportions and fainter 
colors, with the various mass of new motives, 
which ineffectually endeavored to supply its 
place, and which really derived their bright- 
ness from it. But when at length the sky 
cleared, and the last clouds had passed away, 
what were the traces of evil or of good which 
were left upon the face of the earth ? What 
peiTnanent effects were engraven upon the 
destinies of Europe by the violent hand which 
had so long dh'ected them ? From a system of 
military aggression, which had no foundation 
in reason, or even in those passions which are 
nearest to reason, few indeed Avere the fruits 
which could be expected for the benefit of 
society ; and if any such did in effect proceed 
from the crusades, it was through circumstan- 
ces wholly independent of their design. It 
appears to us, that these fortuitous advantages 
were both few in number and extremely par- 
tial. Perhaps it would be unreasonable to 
dispute that the decline of the baronial des- 
potism, with the birth of municipal rights on 
the one hand, and the just extension of royal 
authority on the other, was accelerated by the 
violent alienations of property which the cru- 
sades occasioned ; but those salutary changes 
would have been produced, and perhaps at 
no later period, by the sure agency of wiser 
principles, advancing with the advancement 
of knowledge. We may indeed hail the acci- 
dent which hastened (if it hastened) their ap- 
pearance ; but we should err were we to as- 
cribe to it their existence. The commercial 
benefits which historians too generally connect 
with the expeditions to the East were princi- 
pally confined to three cities of Italy — Venice, 
Genoa, and Pisa;* and if they were thence 



* The results were probably unfavorable to Ham- 
burgh, Lubeck, and the other towns forming the 
Hanseatic League, by draining the capital southwai'd. 
Besides the aristocratic military spirit, which was 
nourished by the Crusades, is essentially anti-com- 
mercial. 



372 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



partially reflected to some other parts of the 
Peninsula, that AVas a poor compensation to 
the commonwealth of Europe for the violent 
extortions which exhausted its more powerful 
members — France, Germany, and England. 
Their treasuries were drained, and the mighty 
sources of their national industry dried up, 
that the sails of two or three small republics 
might overspread the Mediterranean, and re- 
ceive the first fruits of the contributions so 
painfully levied for the chastisement of the 
Infidel, 

Tlie loss of Christian life occasioned by the 
Crusades is fairly calculated at more than two 
millions. But if the mutual animosities of 
princes, or, what w^as even more destructive, 
the rage of private warfare, had been suspend- 
ed during their continuance, some consolation 
for the sacrifice would have been oflTered to 
humanity by the repose and concord of the 
survivors. The fact, however, vi^as otherwise : 
for a veiy fewyeai-s after the departure of the 
first crusaders, the Truce of God was indeed 
observed ; but immediately the tide of feudal 
barbarism returned into its former channel, 
and proved that the passion for international 
or domestic broils was neither consumed in 
foreign adventure, nor superseded by the thirst 
for it. It is even probable that the nature of 
such contests was still further nnbittered by 
the introduction of those habits of unrelenting 
ferocity, which are invariably generated by 
religious warfare. 

It is, again, at least questionable, whether 
the arts of peace and civilization acknowledge 
any obligation to the influence of the Crusades. 
The barbarians gazed in ignorant admiration 
at the splendid magnificence of Constantino- 
ple — ' How great is this city ! how noble and 
beautiful ! What a multitude of monasteries 
and palaces it contains of exquisite and won- 
drous fabric ! How many structures are scat- 
tered even in the streets and alleys, which are 
marvellous to behold ! It were tedious to 
recount what an abundance of all good things 
is found there, of gold and of silver, of every 
form of vestment, and of the relics of the 
saints. ' * The records of the time are filled 



* Fulcher. ap. Bongurs. vol. i. p. 386. Fulche- 
rius Carnotensis was chaplain to the Count of Cliar- 
tres. The origimil passage is cited by Mills, Hist. 
Crus. chap. iii. It is certain that the collecting of 
relics was a very favorite occupation with the crusad- 
ers, who thus enriched with many remarkable trea- 
sures the sanctuaries of the West. But to this pursuit 
their curious industry seems to have been confined. 
We do not learn that they brouglit back any other 



with similar expressions of wild astonishment. 
But have we any proof that these enthusiasts 
profited by what they beheld ? — that they imi- 
tated what they admired ? — that they strove 
to transplant to their own soil that exotic ge- 
nius and taste of which they felt the excel- 
lence.^ Or were they merely ruffled by a 
transient inconsequential emotion, unconnect- 
ed with any principle of action, or intelligence 
of observation ? ... It is asserted, that 
if the Greeks were far superior to the western 
nations in the culture of humanity, the Sara- 
cens were scarcely less so ; and the strangers 
had thus a double opportunity of discovering 
and correcting their deficiencies. But it is 
forgotten that the soldier of the Cross was no 
enlightened and leisurely traveller, searching 
to instruct himself and his generation ; but a 
fierce, unlettered fanatic, proceeding on a pur- 
pose of bloodshed. In his prejudiced eyes, 
the civilization of the Greeks was inseparably 
associated with luxurious indolence and ef- 
feminate timidity ; that of the Saracens with 
an impious faith and blaspheming tongue ; 
and the disdain with which he regarded the 
one, and the detestation with which he ap- 
proached the other, repelled him equally from 
the imitation of either. And if it be true, that, 
during the long period of two hundred years, 
some trifling advancement in the arts of civili- 
zation did in fact take place, it would still be 
difficult to specify a single invention as the 
indisputable effect of the Crusades. Chrono- 
logical coincidences are sometimes mistaken 
for moral connexions ; and the changes whicli 
distinguish any age are thus too commonly as- 
cribed to the passion or principle which may 
have predominated at the time. But in the 
present case, when we reflect that during the 
eleventh century — before the commencement 
of the crusades — the human mind had already 
revived and entered upon its certain career 
of improvement, we may indeed Avonder that 
its progress was so slow, and its exertions so 
barren, during the two which followed ; but it 
would be preposterous to attribute the few 
advantages, which may really have been in- 
troduced, to a cause which Avas in itself 
decidedly hostile to every moral meliora- 
tion. 

For, since knowledge is the only sure in- 
strument for the elevation of man, can we 

contributions to the store of European piety, or any 
to the store of its learning. On the other hand, 
many monks took up arms, who \^'ould have been 
more innocently and more profitably employed at 
home 



THE CRUSADES. 



S73 



imagine a condition of society more fatal to 
its progress than that which was regulated by 
the co-operation of superstitious zeal with 
military turbulence? — wherein two princi- 
ples, separately so fruitful of mischief and 
misery, were leagued together against the vir- 
tue and happiness of mankind ? What need 
we to pursue the inevitable consequences ? 
War assumed a more frightful character by 
the impulse of fanaticism ; and the ordinary 
barbarities of European strife were multi- 
plied in the conflicts of the East. This ne- 
cessarily grew out of the very nature of the 
contest. When the authority of Heaven is 
pleaded for the infliction of punishment, it 
creates an implacable and remorseless spirit ; 
since it supersedes, by a stern necessity, all 
ordinary motives, and stifles the natural plea- 
dings of humanity. The crusaders exclaim- 
ed, ' It is the will of God ! ' and in that fancied 
behest the fiercest brutalities, which the world 
had ever beheld, sought not palliation, but 
honor, and the crown of eternal reward. 

The spirit of religious persecution appears 
to have borrowed the peculiar * features, 
which afterwards distinguished it, from the 
practice, and even from the principles, of the 
Crusades. To destroy the votaries of a dif- 
ferent faith was esteemed an act of religion ; 
and that, too, not so much because they were 
dangerous, as because they differed. The prin- 
ciple, which was originally intended against 
Mahometans only, took root generally. The 
rude understandings of a superstitious race 
were pei-plexed. One sort of difference might 
be as offensive to Heaven as another. The 
word heresy was not less diligently and deeply 
stigmatized in the tablets of the church, than 
infidelity. To the Pope, the infallible inter- 
preter of the spu'itual oracles, the former was 
at least as formidable and as hateful as the 
latter. And thus the weapon which had 
been applied with so much praise of piety to 
chastise the one, might be turned, M'ith the 
same salutary efficacy, to the extirpation of the 
other. Through such an inference, which 

* We more particularly mean the practice of as- 
saulting whole sects and districts of heretics, as such, 
by authorized military force. The religious wars 
between the Catiiolics and the Arians Avere of a very 
different character from those between the Church 
and the Albigeois, &c. ; and from the Arian Contro- 
versy to the time of the Crusades, persecution, in the 
West, had never the opportunity, whether it had the 
■will or not, of destroying by wholesale. The exist- 
ence of the heresy of the Vaudois during that period, 
though not improbable, is not historically certain. 



then appeared not unreasonable, urged by the 
authority of a powerful pontiff", the practice 
of rehgious massacre was introduced into the 
church of Christ ; and when the ministers of 
bigotry had once revelled in blood, they were 
not soon or easily compelled to relinquish the 
cup. Among the many evil consequences 
of the Crusades, we may account this, per- 
haps, as the worst, — that they put arms into 
the hands of intolerance, and finally kindled 
in the bosom of Europe the same fanatical 
passions, with which they had desolated the 
East. 

If we are to believe the contemporary 
historians, the heroes of the cross were re- 
markable for theu- contempt of every moral 
principle ; and tlie cities of Palestine were 
peculiarly polluted by the prevalence of vice. 
If those who resorted to the birth-place of 
their religion were not touched even on that 
holy spot by its plainest precepts — if the wo- 
men were involved with the men, the priest 
with the waiTior, in equal and indiscriminate 
profligacy — there can be no doubt in which 
direction the moral system of Europe was in- 
fluenced by the Crusades ; nor can we sup- 
pose that the habits acquired in Syria were 
forgotten or abjured by the returning pil- 
grim. 

The Plenary Indulgence. Ecclesiastical 
writers are equally loud in theu' complaints, 
respecting the corruption sustained through 
the same means by the discipline of the 
church. The final cessation of canonical 
penance is ascribed to the introduction of 
the plenary indulgence. In uncivilized ages, 
the moderate use of the spiritual authority 
was unquestionably attended with advantage. 
The practice of prayer, of fasting, of alms- 
giving, under the superintendence of a pious 
confessor, was salutary to the offending indi- 
vidual and useful to society. It taught humili- 
ation to the proud sph'it ; it taught the exercise 
of charity ; and it may often have produced the 
genuine fruits of repentance. It is true that, 
in early times, some discretion had commonly 
been intrusted to the bishop, to mitigate and 
even, within certain limits, to commute the or- 
dinary penalties ; and it was not later than the 
eighth century, that even pilgi'images to cer- 
tain specified places were substituted for the 
appointed penance. But before the times of 
the Crusades there was no mention of plenary 
indulgence. It had not hitherto been held 
out to the sinner that, by a single act, he 
might be discharged from all the temporal 



374 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



penalties imposed on him by the Divine Jus- 
lice. Til is was an innovation exceeding the 
boldness of all former changes, and suited to 
the extraordinary occasion which called for 
it. But it is properly observed, that those 
who introduced it had forgotten the legiti- 
mate object of canonical penance; that it was 
enjoined to the sinner, not so much for his 
chastisement, as for the disciphne and purifi- 
cation * of his soul. But what, after all, were 
the religious duties or merits, which took the 
place of the original system, and through 
which this full indulgence was acquired ? To 
wear those arms, of which it had been pen- 
ance indeed to be deprived ; to turn them 
against a foreign, instead of a domestic foe ; 
to engage in a mighty and soul-inspiring en- 
terprise, instead of contesting the boundaries 
of a manor, or the fosse of a fortress. Such 
were the previous habits of the Crusaders ; 
and a system, which offered pardon on such 
easy terms, must have acted with many as 
a positive encom-agement to sin. 

As the process of canonical penance was 
commuted for the plenary indulgence, so was 
the indulgence itself directly and unreserved- 
ly f commuted for money. On the conse- 
quences of this second cori'uption we shall 
not further dwell, than to mention it among 
the causes which finally operated to quench 
the crusading ardor. So soon as absolutions 
wore made matters of open traffic, the motive 
became too manifest ; and thus at length the 
preachers of Crusades attracted so few listen- 
ers, that it became necessary to promise tem- 
porary indulgences — of days or even years 
—-to any who woiUd consent to attend their 
sermons. | 

The evil did not expire with its occasion ; 
and after the Crusades were at an end, the 
popes discovered for it a new, an easier, and 
perhaps a more profitable object. By the in- 

* Such was the original design of penance; but it 
is also true, that the idea of expiation, or an atone- 
ment for sin by suflering, very soon entered into the 
consideration, and very commonly took place of the 
first motive. That idea is at variance with the first 
jninciples of Christianity; and so far as it was pre- 
valent, the penitential system was founded on a false 
principle, and its abolition can be no matter of regret 
to any true Christian. 

t Penances, as we have mentioned, had been pre- 
viously commuted, and commuted for money too, 
when they were commuted for alms: only, that which 
had hitherto been sparingly and decently and indi- 
rectly practised, grew into an avowed, authorized, 
habitual abuse. 

f Soe Fleury's Discourse on the Crusades, 



stitution of the Jubilee (in the year 1300,) the 
place of pilgrimage was skilfully changed 
from Jerusalem to Rome ; and the Tombs 
of the Apostles supplied, in the popular in- 
fatuation, the Cross and the Sepulchre of the 
Saviour. A consoling compensation was thus 
made both to the avarice of the Vatican and 
the superstition of the people ; and the indul- 
gence Avas not abandoned, nor its venality at 
all restrained, until the insulted sense and 
piety of mankind at length revolted against 
the enormous abuse. 

If, then, we are obliged to admit that the 
effects of the Crusades were generally per- 
nicious ; if it is true that they caused an use- 
less waste of human life, that they increased 
the ferocity of war,, that they gave a deadlier 
form to religious persecution, that they de- 
pressed the level of morality, that they intro- 
duced into the discipline of the church its 
mortal corruption, — their good effects will be 
found insignificant in the comparison, even 
though we should account among them the 
aggrandizement of the sacred order ; for one 
of their effects certainly was the immediate 
increase of the ecclesiastical revenues. The 
property of the Crusaders was commonly 
placed, during the expedition, under the 
bishop's protection ; and in case of his death, 
it often fell, without supposing any direct 
fraud, into the possession of the church. 
Again, — though there were wanting neither 
priests nor monks who assumed the cross in 
person, yet the number of those was by no 
means proportionate to the wealth and mul- 
titude of the holy community ; so that they 
suffered less severely than any other class the 
ijn mediate evils of the conflict. But the tax 
which was imposed on them by Innocent, 
did in effect much more than counterbalance 
those temporary gains ; and even in the most 
sordid calculation of the sacerdotal interests, 
we may safely pronounce that they did not 
permanently profit by that commotion, which 
overthrew for a season the general welfare of 
society. 



NOTE (a) on papal DECRETALS. 

In the first ages of Christianity the letters 
written by the leading Fathers of the Church 
for the regulation of doctrine and discipline 
were called Decretals (Epistolae Decretales.) 
As the authority of the bishop of Rome grad- 
ually rose above that of other bishops and 
patriarchs, he also claimed an especial defer- 



PAPAL DECRETALS. 



375 



ence for his epistles ; and in a synod held at 
Rome, in 494, under Pope Gelasius, the de- 
cretals of the Roman prelate were invested 
with the same authority as the canons of 
councils. 

Collection of Gratian. — After the time of 
Charlemagne, the Popes, as they felt their 
growing power, proceeded not only to deny 
the necessity of any confirmation of their de- 
cretals, but to distinguish and exalt them, so 
as to supersede the canons of the church. 
As they increased in weight, they multiplied 
in number. Gratian, a native of Chiusi in 
Tuscany, a monk of St. Felix of Bologna, 
published his celebrated collection in 1151. 
Many had been previously put forth, but 
without obtaining any public authority. But 
that of Gratian was more favorably received, 
and was made the subject of the public lec- 
tures of the canonists. It was entitled the 
Book of Decrees, or simply The Decretal — 
Decretum,* and was divided into three parts. 
The first of these, called The Distinction, 
comprised one hundred and one articles, re- 
garding chiefly the different descriptions of 
laws, ecclesiastical and civil ; the authoi-ity of 
the canons and decretals ; the ceremonies of 
ordination ; the duties of the clergy; the power 
of the pope. The second — The Causes — con- 
tained thirty-six sections, relating to various 
matters of church discipline and jurisdiction ; 
— simony, appeals, evidence, elections, cen- 
sures, testaments, sepultures, usury; of the 
rights of monks and abbots ; of commendams, 
oaths, war, heresies, sorcery, &c. The third 
part — On the Consecration — treated of the 
consecration of churches ; of the celebration 
of mass and the divine offices; of the eucha- 
rist and other sacraments ; of fasts and festi- 
vals, and some other subjects. The work 
abounded in errors, not only as it attributed 
to the false decretals and other fabrications 
the authority of genuine compositions, but 
also as it falsified many of the passages cited 
from unsuspected monuments. Nevertheless, 
it was received without hesitation ; and, after 
furaishing alone the materials of canonical 
learning to the schools of Europe, it became 
a sort of basis on which new and additional 
decrees and commentaries were fixed and 
long supported. Another collection was made 
by Bernardo Circa, Bishop of Faenza, in the 
year 1191. This work was intended as a 
supplement to the Decretals of Gratian, and 

* The author admitted the object and difficulty of 
his work, when he called it Concordia Discordantium 
Caaonum. 



was therefore called the Book of Extrava- 
gants, i. e. of matters not comprised in the 
Decretals. But as this was a private compi- 
lation, it obtained no force ; and accordingly, 
about the year 1210, Innocent III. caused a 
more perfect collection to be made, and gave 
it the seal of public authority. This was called 
the Roman Collection. 

As circumstances changed, and edicts in- 
creased in multitude, fresh compilations were 
thought necessary ; and Gregory IX. * avail- 
ed himself of so favorable an occasion for es- 
tablishing and extending the monarchy of his 
see. In that, which was pubhshed under his 
auspices, and which affected to be modelled 
on the code of Justinian, f such former con- 
stitutions, as seemed to him unsuitable to the 
character of his own times, were fearlessly 
cut away, and others inserted, on the pleni- 
tude of his own authority, which were more 
congenial to the age and more favorable to 
pontifical usurpation. As the compilation 
of Tribonianus had been divided into five 
books, so was that of Gregory. This work 
was immediately published throughout all 
the schools and universities of Europe; and 
as it was composed with great diligence and 
enforced by the highest authority, it was very 
generally and even eagerly received. 

To this collection Boniface VIII. added, 
about the year 1299, an additional book, 
commonly known as the Sixth (Liber Sex- 
tus,) and containing all the constitutions pos- 
terior to the pontificate of Gregory IX. This 
too was universally acknowledged, excepting 
perhaps in France. It was further augment- 
ed, in the following age, by the Clementines ; | 



* It is usual to reckon five different compilations 
of Decretals between Gratian and Gregory IX. — that 
of the Bishop of Faenza, three during the pontificate 
of Innocent III., and a fifth containing the Letters 
of Honorius III. — Dupin, Bibl. Nouv., S. XII. ch. 
iii. and x. Raimond de Pennafortwas the person to 
whom Gregory committed the labor of his compila- 
tion. The effect of these successive collections (as 
even the moderate Roman Catholic Historians avow) 
was to complete the overthrow of the ancient law, to 
establish the absolute and unbounded power of the 
pope, and to create an infinity of suits and processes, 
to be decided by the venal justice of the court of 
Rome. They were extensions of the principles of 
Gratian, as Gratian had enlarged upon those of the 
false Decretals, in at least two important points — in 
exempting the pope from the authority of the canons, 
and the clergy universally from every sort of lay juris- 
diction. See Fleury's Seventh Discourse. 

t The MS. of the Pandect was discovered among 
the ruins of Amalfi, in 1137. 

+ John XXII. published, in 1317, the Constitutions 



376 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



and they were succeeded by the Extrava- 
gants — a name adopted, probably, from tlie 
work of the Bishop of Faenza. These were 
the labors of the popes of Avignon; and 
as the Decretum was intended to correspond 
with the Pandects, and the Decretals with 
the Code, so the Extravagants had their mo- 
del in the Novelise of the imperial legislator. 
Under these heads the different branches of 
pontifical jurisprudence were, for a long pe- 
riod, comprised,* until they were further aug- 
mented by the much more modern addition 
of the Institutions. 

NOTE (b) on the university OF PARIS. 

The numerous public schools or academies 
which had previously been formed in various 
parts of Italy and France, at Salamanca, at 
Cologne, and elsewhere, assumed the form 
by which they were afterwards characterised 
during the thirteenth century. The most 
celebrated was that of Paris. It was adorn- 
ed more than any other by the multitude, the 
rank, and the diligence of its students, and by 
the abilities and various acquirements of its 
professors ; and since, while other acade- 
mies confined their instructions to particular 
branches of science, that of Paris alone i)re- 
tended to embrace the entire range, it was 
the first which took the title of University. 
In its origin, f in the century preceding, it 
had been composed of two classes — of artists, 
who gave instructions in the arts and philos- 
ophy ; and of theologians, who delivered ex- 
positions and commentaries, some of them 
on the Holy Scriptures (they were afterwards 
called Biblici ;) others (denominated Senten- 
tiarii) on Peter the Lombard's Book of the 
Sentences. These two appear to have been 
the earliest Faculties ; nor is mention made 
of any others I in the Constitutions delivered 

of his predecessor, Clement V. They were divided, 
as was the Liber Sextus, into five books, and recom- 
mended by a bull to the most eminent universities. 

* In this short account we have chiefly followed 
Giannone, Stor. di Nap., lib. xix. cap. v. s. 1. See 
also Dupin, Nouv. Biblioth., Siecle XII. chap. xvii. 

t We refer not to its antiquity, — since it boasts to 
have been founded by Charlemagne, and augmented 
by Lewis the Meek and Charles the Bald. Its com- 
pletion it certainly owed to the kings of the third 
race, especially Lewis the Young and his son Philippe 
Auguste, It had some celebrity at the end of the 
tenth century; but before that epoch, the academy at 
Rheims seems to have been in greater repute. 

X Dupin, Nouv. Biblioth., Siec. XIII., chap. x. 
Mosheini, Cent. XIII. p. ii. chap. i. 



in 1215 by the legate of Innocent III. But 
the other two — law and- medicine — were 
founded immediately afterwards; and in a 
letter addressed by the university, in 1253, to 
all the prelates of the kingdom, the four fac- 
ulties are boldly compared to the four rivers 
of the terrestrial paradise. Over each of 
these societies a doctor was chosen to pre- 
side, during a fixed period, by the suffrages 
of his colleagues, under the title of doyen, or 
dean. 

In the first instance, the members of the 
academy were divided into two classes only 
— masters and scholars. There were no dis- 
tinctions in grade or tide ; no previous cer- 
emonies were necessary for advancement to 
any office. But the introduction of various 
degrees, to be conferred after certain fixed 
periods of study, followed very soon ; and 
four were expressly specified — those of bach- 
elor, licentiate, master, and doctor — in the 
reform by which Gregory IX. gave a per- 
manent character to the university. While 
some of the Italian academies may have 
been more eminent for a peculiar proficiency 
in the science of law or of medicine, * the 
palm of theological superiority was conceded, 
without any dispute, to Paris. To afford still 
greater facilities and encouragement to this 
study, Robert de Sorbonne, a man abounding 
both in weakh and in piety, the chaplain and 
friend of St. Lewis, founded, about the year 
1250, that very renowned institution, which 
has associated his name, for so many centu- 
ries, with the theological labors, glories, and 
controversies of his countrymen. 

These few sentences may be sufficient to 
call the reader's attention to an important and 
attractive subject, and even to render intelligi- 
ble such passing mention, as will be made 
hereafter, of the university of Paris. But as 
the particulars of its origin, its construction, 
its growth, and its prosperity, do not strictly 
belong to ecclesiastical histoiy, we must not 
permit them to usurp those scanty pages, 
which may be more appropriately, if not 
more instructively, occupied. 

* As was Bologna, for instance, for the former, and 
Salerno for the latter. Gratian published his Decre- 
tal at Bologna; and the stimulus thus given to the 
study of canon law continued long to produce its ef- 
fect. The study of civil law in the same school is 
dated from about twenty years earlier — i. e. from the 
discovery of the Pandect. The medical precepts, 
which issued from Salerno, are said to have been de- 
rived from the books of the Arabians, or the schools 
of the Saracens in Spain and Africa. 



THEOLOGICAL WRITERS. 



377 



NOTE (c) ON CERTAIN THEOLOGICAL WRITERS. 

The fathers of the early Church were cau- 
tious in provoking subtle speculations on the 
holy mysteries, and seldom engaged in that 
field of theology, unless to repel the invasion 
of some popular error. And even then they 
"vvere usually contented to arm themselves 
with scripture and tradition as the princi- 
ples of theii- defence, reserving the resources 
of reason for what they considered its le- 
gitimate object in theological controversies, 
the interpretation of the sacred writings. 
When philosophy was at length admitted to 
partake in tliese debates, the method first 
adopted, as most congenial to the sublime 
truths of religion, was that of Plato ; and if 
they were sometimes exalted by this alliance 
into fantastical mysticism, they at least escap- 
ed the degrading torture of minute and pug- 
nacious sophistry. But the rival system also 
found some early advocates, * though insuffi- 
cient to give it general prevalence. Boethius 
applied the principles of Aristotle to the mys- 
teries of the Trinity and the Incarnation, 
thus moving many abstruse and inexplicable 
questions ; and John Damascenus afterwards 
published a methodical exposition of all the 
questions or difficulties of theology. In the 
West, in the ninth century, John Scotus 
Erigena fell into the same snare ; but his 
method of subtilizing was not suited to the 
genius of his age ; and during that which fol- 
lowed, every operation of the human mind 
was suspended. 

But when reason again awoke, she was 
straightway delivered mto the fetters of Aris- 
totle. Towards the middle of the eleventh 
century, his philosophy was taught, after the 
Arabian method, in the public schools ; and 
though, in the first instance, it was confined 
to the illustration of profane subjects, yet 



* To such, and to the errors occasioned by them, 
is the allusion of Prudentius. Pref. secunda in Apo- 
theosim. 

Statum lacessunt omnipollentis Dei 

Calumniosis litibus: 
Fidem minutis dissecant ambagibus, 

Ut quisque lingua nequior : 
Solvunt ligantque qufestionum vincula 

Per syllogjsmos plectiles. 
Vae captiosis sycophantarum strophis, 

Vse versipeili astutise! 
Nodos tenaces recta rumpit regula, 
Infesta dissertantibus. 
Prudentius flourished at the end of the fourth cen- 
tury. 

48 



as men became commonly imbued with its 
principles, and as the whole system, political 
and moral, in those days, was interwoven 
with religious, or at least with ecclesiastical, 
considerations, it was not long before the 
prevalent system passed obsequiously into 
the service of theology.* John the Sophist, 
Rocellinus, Berenger, Lanfranc, Anselm, in- 
troduced that method : it was improved by 
Abelard ; it was rapidly propagated in all the 
schools of Europe ; f and its immediate and 
necessary effect was to multiply, without any 
limit, the difficulties which it affected to re- 
solve. The objects of the investigation were 
too immense for human comprehension, yet 
they were sought by the meanest exercise of 
human ratiocination. The end was unattain- 
able ; and, had it not been so, the means were 
those least likely to have attained it. Never- 
theless, the disputants proceeded with eager- 
ness and confidence ; and thus it proved that, 
m this boundless field, the most different con- 
clusions were reached by paths nearly simi- 
lar ; and that out of every question which it 
was proposed to resolve, a thousand other 
questions started forth, more abstruse, more 
absurd, more immeasurably remote from the 
precincts of reason and of sense | than the 
original. 



* 'Fatendum simul est, (says Brucker, Hlstoria 
Critica Philosophise,) ex quo Philosophia Saracenica 
seculi xii Occidentis Christianis innotuit, plenis eos 
amplexibusinconditum philosophise genus i'ecepisse,et 
insanientiura more in Dialecticam debacchatos, malum 
malo augendo ad Theologiara earn transtulisse.' (See 
Per. ii., par. ii., lib. ii., cap. ii. and iii.) That author 
shows, that, from the seventh until nearly the twelfth 
age, philosophy was confined to the possession of ec- 
clesiastics, and to the limits of the Trivium and 
Quadrivium. The system which succeeded was call- 
ed scholastic, as emerging from the schools of the 
monasteries. After the time of Gratian, the study 
of canon law was very commonly mixed up with it; 
and the combination of the three incongruities, Canon 
Law, Scholastic Philosophy, and Theology, formed 
what Brucker aptly denominates a Triplex Mon- 
strum. 

t Otho Frisingensis introduced the scholastic sys- 
tem into Germany. That prelate, the son of Leopold, 
marquis of Austria, and Agnes, daughter of Henry 
IV., was made bishop of Frisingen, in Bavaria, in 
the year 1138. He attended Conrad to the Holy 
Land in 1147, and died nine years afterwards. He 
wrote (in seven books) a Chronological History of 
the World, from the Creation to his own time, which 
is frequently cited by the ecclesiastical annalists. 

X Among the multitude of these questions, there 
were some which ended, and after no very long inves- 
tigation, in absolute infidelity. The Latin writers of 
the thirteenth age abound with complaints (exagger- 



378 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, 



Peter the Lombard. To impose some re- 
straint on this great intellectual licentiousness, 
— to revive some respect for ancient authori- 
ties, — to erect some barrier, or at least some 
landmark, for the guidance of his contempo- 
raries, Peter the Lombard published, about 
the middle of the tvk^elfth century, his cele- 
brated ' Book of the Sentences.' Born in the 
country vv^hence he derived his surname, and 
educated at Bologna, then more famous as a 
school for law than divinity, he proceeded to 
Paris for the prosecution of the latter study. 
He was recommended to the patronage of St. 
Bernard ; and presently attained such emi- 
nence in academical erudition, that he was 
raised, in the year 1150, to the See of Paris. 
The Book of the Sentences is a collection of 
passages of the Fathers, especially of St. Hila- 
ry, St. Ambrose, St. Jerome, and St. Augustin, 
explaining and illustrating the principal ques- 
tions, which then so violently agitated the 
scholastic doctors. The aut?ior was cautious 
in intermixing original observation with the 
venerable oracles of the early Church ; and 
he trusted, by the ancient simplicity of his 
work, and his contempt of the fashionable 
subtleties, to restore some respect for the less 
vicious system of older times. The intrinsic 
merit of this production, the talents and ex- 
tensive learning which it exhibited, recom- 
mended it to universal attention ; and the 
* Master of the Sentences' long retained an 
undisputed supremacy in the theological 
schools. But the effect of his work was not 
that which he had warmly and, perhaps, rea- 
sonably anticipated. The schoolmen made 
use of his text, principally that they might 
hang on it theii- futile disceptations and com- 
mentaries ; and so fruitful was that elaborate 
book in matter for ingenious disputation, that 
Peter the Lombard, so far from having arrest- 
ed the current, is usually ranked among the 
chiefs or fathers of the scholastic * theology. 



ated, no doubt, but not unfounded) of the progress of 
unchristian opinions, directly deduced from Aristote- 
lian principles — tliat the soul perished with the body 
— tliat tlie world had had no beginning, and would 
Iiave no end— that there was only one intellect among 
all the hunian race — that all things were subject to 
absolute fate or necessity — that the universe was not 
governed by Divine Providence, &c,, &c. We should 
observe, that the Aristotelians declined what might 
have been the personal consequences of these opinions 
by a subtile distinction. These matters (they said) 
are philosophically true — but they- are theologically 
false — Vera sunt secundum Philosophiam, non secun- 
dum Fidem Catholicam. See Mosheim, Cent. XIII. 
p. i. chap, ii., and p. ii. chap. v. 

* See Dupin, Nouv. Biblioth., Cent. XII. chap.xv. 



St. Thomas Aquinas. If the dominioii of 
Aristotle was for a moment suspended by the 
decree of the council of Paris,* (in 1209) which 
condemned to the flames his metaphysical 
works, it was effectually restored by the pa- 
tronage of Frederic XL That emperor caused 
numerous translations to be made from his 
most celebrated compositions, and diffused 
through Italy, and especially at Bologna, the 
genius which had hitherto ruled with peculiar 
prevalence in France. At the same time, a 
new description of disputants had grown up, 
for whose character and offices the scholastic 
method was admirably calculated, and who 
carried it to its most pernicious perfection.! 



Neanmoins on peut le considerer comme !e chef de 
tous les scholastiques ; car quoiqu'il ait suivi dans 
son ouvrage une methode bien differente des autres, 
quant h. la maniere de trailer les questions de Theo- 
logie ; son livre leur a tontefois servi de fondement 
et de base, et lis n'ont fait en apparence que de com- 
me nter. 

* The reason assigned for the condemnation of 
Aristotle on this celebrated occasion was, that his 
works had given occasion to the errors of Amalric, 
and might probably do so to many others. (See 
Brucker, Loc. cit.) And they did so ; but the errora 
which scholastic subtlety raised, were as easily laid 
by a different formula of the same incantation — they 
appeared and disappeared, fleeting, impalpable, un- 
substantial. The permanent heresies of the age 
stood on firmer ground. The grievances of the Wal- 
denses and the Wicliffites were not the creations of 
sophistry ; so neither could sophistry, though back- 
ed by persecution, silence the murmurs which they 
caused. 

t We should here observe that the popes, however 
they profited by the influence of the mendicants, were 
by no means decided advocates of the scholastic the- 
ology. The celebrated Epistle of Gregory IX. to 
the doctors of Paris, contains (for instance) these 
words — Mandamus et strict^ prsecipimus, quatenus, 
sine fermento mundanas scientise, doceatis theologi- 
cam puritatem, non adullerantes verbum Dei philoso- 
phorum figmentis . . . sed content! terminis a 
patribus institutis, mentes auditorum vestrorum fructu 
coelestis eloquii saginetis, ut hauriant a fontibus Sal- 
vatoris. The passage is cited by Mosheim. Cent. 
XIII. p. ii. chap. iii. Brucker (Hist. Crit. Philo- 
soph. p. ii. Pars. ii. lib. ii, c. iii.) cites the follow- 
ing passage from a bull of the same pope published in 
1231. — ' Magistri vero et Scholares Theojogiae . . 
nee philosophos se ostentent, sed satagant fieri Theo- 
didacti — nee loquantur in lingua populi linguam 
Hebrseam cum asotica confundentes, sed de ill is tan- 
tum in scholis quaestionjbus disputent, quae per libros 
theologicos et sanctorum patrum tractatus valeant ter- 
minari.' But the system was extremely popular with 
the students; their ardor was aided by the edicts of 
Frederic IT.; and the system of Aristotle, superior 
to all edicts, was destined to yield only to the pre- 
dominance of another system, that of polite litera- 
ture and natural reason. See Petrarch's complaints 



ST. BONAVENTURA. 



379 



The mendicants now gave laws to the acade- 
mies of Europe ; and the rules which they 
imposed were drawn from the code of Aris- 
totle. At this time arose Thomas Aquinas, 
the ' angelic doctor,' the Coryphseus of the 
disciples of the Stagyrite. He was descended 
from an illustrious family and born in the 
neighborhood of Naples, in the year 1224. 
He entered vei*y young into the Dominican 
Order, and studied at Paris and at Cologne, 
under Albert the Great, a German scholastic, 
the dictator of his day.* St. Thomas (he was 
in due season canonized by John XXII.) died 
at the early age of fifty; but the writings which 
he has left behind him compose seventeen 
folio volumes. The most important among 
them are his Coiyimentaries on Aristotle, and 
his Sum of Theology. But they likewise con- 
tain most voluminous observations on various 
books of the Old and New Testament, and 
investigations of many theological, metaphy- 
sical, and moral questions. They were 
studied in those days with insatiable avidity. 
They are now confined to the shelves of a few 
profomid students, whence they will never 
again descend. It might seem harsh indeed 
to say of them, ' that they are of less account 
in the eyes of a sage, than the toil of a single 
husbandman, who multiplies the gifts of the 
Creator and supplies the food of his breth- 
ren. ' f But there is room for doubt whether 
any important practical benefits were ever 
derived from them ; whether the reflections 
which they awakened were generally profit- 
able either to the present condition of man, 
or to his future prospects. And we certainly 
cannot question, that the spirit of contentious 
disceptation, which they nourished and pro- 
pagated, was injurious to one of tlie best 
])rinciples of religion, religious forbearance 
and universal charity .| 

of the dishonor brought on theology, by ' the profane 
and loquacious dialecticians ' of his day. De Renied. 
Utriusq. Fortun. and Tiraboschi, vol. v. p. i. lib. ii. 

* This honor was, however, contested by our 
countryman, Alexander Hales, a Franciscan, who 
taught philosophy at Paris, and acquired the formid- 
able title of ' The Irrefragable Doctor.' Another 
and more attractive appellation was ' The Fountain 
of Life.' He entered into the Franciscan Order in 
1222, and died at Paris twenty-three years after- 
wards. His most important work was a Commen- 
tary on the ' Book of the Sentences,' composed by 
the order of Innocent IV. 

t The words are Gibbon's— applied to a different 
subject. 

i Fontenelle, we believe, (see Tiraboschi, Stor. 
Lett. Ital., vol. iv. p. i. lib. ii.) has somewhere said 
of St. Thomas Aquinas, * that in another age and 



St. Bonaventura. Contemporary with St. 
Thomas Aquinas was another celebrated or- 
nament of the church, St, Bonaventura. He 
was a native of Tuscany, * and entered in the 
year 1243 into the Order of the Franciscans. 
He likewise completed his studies at Paris, 
and with such success, as to acquire the title of 
the Seraphic Doctor. In the year 1256 he was 
appointed General of his Order, and died at 
no very advanced age. His works are less 
voliiminous than those of Aquinas, and bear 
the stamp of a very different cliaracter.f The 
tendency of his mind was rather towards the 
extreme of mysticism, than that of minute and 
frivolous disputation. It rose into the regions 
of spiritual aspiration ; it courted no intellect- 
ual triumphs and despised the abuse of rea- 
son. By this quality he has obtained, and in 
a gi-eat degree merited, the eulogies of Ger- 
son ; \ who has pronounced (and the authority 
is respectable) that his works surpass in use- 
fulness all those of his age, in regard to the 
spirit of the love of God and Christian de- 
votion which speaks in him ; that he is pro- 
found without being prolix, subtle without 
being curious, eloquent without vanity, ardent 
without inflation. There are many (says the 
critic) who teach the accuracy of doctrine; 
there are others who preach devotion ; there 
are few who in their writings combine both 
these objects. But they are united by St. 
Bonaventura, whose devotion is instructive, 
and whose doctrine inspires devotion. 

The celebrated controversy between the 
Realists and the Nominalists, § of which the 



under other circumstances he would have been Des 
Cartes.' No one ever questioned his genius and im- 
mense erudition ; or that he has intermixed some sen- 
sible remarks wilh the fashionable sophistry, — only 
we should not value him too highly for this. A great 
mind should oppose the evil principles of the time — « 
at least it should lead no aid to them. Roger Bacon 
in the same age acted a nobler part. 

* The Italians are justly proud of the success of 
their countrymen in the schools of Paris. Besides 
the three eminent ecclesiastics mentioned in the text, 
they enumerate, among the Parisian Professors of the 
same age, John of Parma, a Franciscan; Egidio da 
Roma, an Augustinian ; Agostino Trionfo of Ancona ; 
and Jacopo da Viterbo. Through the following cen- 
tury the series continued, though with diminished 
brilliancy — and then it ceased. 

t Both these doctors are praised for professional 
disinterestedness. Bonaventura is related to have 
refused the archbishoprick of York; Aquinas that of 
Naples, as well as other dignities. 

X See Dupin. Nouv. Biblioth. Cent. XIII., chap, 
iv. 

§ Roscellinus, a native of Brittany, has the repute 
of having invented these opinions. He was opposed 



380 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



origin was not long posterior to the general 
study of Aristotle, was continued with no great 
intermission till the days of Luther. The 
fourteenth century was particularly disturbed 
by its violence. Two of the leading champions 
of that age were John Duns Scotus, * and his 
disciple William of Occam. The former had 
ventured boldly to impugn some of the posi- 
tions and conclusions of St. Thomas Aquinas, 
and his opinions found many advocates. These 
formed the party of the Nominalists; and 
since, in the political disputes of the day, they 
favored the cause of the emperor, they fell 
under the spiritual denunciations of the Vati- 
can. Again, the Dominicans for the most 
part rallied round the banners of Aquinas and 
the pope, while the Franciscans commonly 
defended the tenets of Scotus, a member of 
their own order. Thus the controversy as- 

by Anselm, and compelled to abjure before a Council 
at Soissons, in 1092. He seems also to have incurred 
some danger from a popular tumult. He was exiled 
from France, and then passed a short time in Eng- 
land, where he gave great offence by censuring the 
concubinage of the clergy, attested by their numerous 
illegitimate children, and by calumniating (as is said) 
Archbishop Anselm. The writers of the Hist. Litt. 
de la France treat hira throughout as a heretic— but 
none of his writings (if any ever existed) now re- 
main. 

* This — the subtle — doctor died in the year 1308. 
He was a native of Dunse, in Scotland, and a Fran- 
ciscan. 



sumed a new name, as its character became 
more rancorous ; and tlie ambitious polem 
ics of that and of succeeding ages severally 
enlisted among the conflicting ranks of the 
Thomists and the Scotists. The principal 
points * of theological difference between 
these renowned adversaries, were 'the nature 
of the divine co-operation with the human 
will,' and ' the measure of divine grace' neces- 
sary for salvation. These were subjects which 
have employed the devout in every age, and 
provoked the perpetual exercise of reason. 
But the production, which was more effect- 
ual, perhaps, than any other, in exalting the 
reputation of Scotus, was his demonstration 
of the immaculate conception of the Virgin 
Mary. The Dominicans maintained that the 
holy Virgin was not exempt from the stain of 
original sin ; the deeper devotion, or the bold- 
er hypocrisy of the Franciscan supported the 
contrary opinion. That either party was 
right, it is beyond the capacity of man to 
ascertain; and it is clear, that both were 
equally absurd, in as far as both were equally 
positive. Yet, will it be believed that this 
inscrutable and most frivolous question form- 
ed an important subject of difference in the 
Roman Catholic church — a subject deemed 
not unworthy of the cognizance of popes and 
of councils — for the space of more than two 
hundred years ? 



* See Mosheim, Cent. XIV., p. ii., chap. iii. 



HISTORY OF THE POPES. 



381 



PART V. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

Residence of the Popes at Avignon. 

(I.) History of the Popes. — Clement V. — conditions im- 
posed on him by Philip — he fixes his residence in 
France— Charges against the Templars— their seizure 
— Council General of Vienna- its three professed ob- 
jects—Condemnation and punishment of the Templars 
— Remarks — Questions on the orthodoxy of Boniface 
VIII. — Ecclesiastical abuses — Attempt at Reform — Ele- 
vation and character of John XXII. — his avarice — the 
apostolical chancery— his contest with Liswis of Bavaria 
— the Emperor advances to Rome — creates a rival Pope 
— fruitless issue of the struggle — appeals from Pope to 
a General Council— charges of heresy against John — 
his opinion respecting the intermediate State — commo- 
tion in the Church— rhis dying confession. — Remarks — 
Benedict XII. — his virtues and endeavors to reform the 
Church — Clement VI. — Deputation from Rome — its 
three objects — the Jubilee — multitude of pilgrims — 
conduct of the Romans — Temporal prerogatives exer- 
cised by this Pope — Restrictions imposed in conclave 
on the future Pope — Innocent VI.— and instantly broken 
by him — his character and objects — disputes with the 
German Church — Urban V. — passed some time at Rome 
— but returned to Avignon-^Gregory XI. — deputation 
from Rome — Catharine of Sienna — her pretensions — 
Embassy to Avignon — interview with the Pope — he 
goes to Rome and dies there — Observations— (II.) Ge- 
neral history of the Church, its heresies, 8;c. — (1.) Decline 
of the papal power — Intestine convulsions of the Ec- 
clesiastical States — consequent deficiencies in papal 
revenues — means employed to replenish them — profli- 
gacy of the Court of Avignon — surpassing that of Rome 
— Temporal weakness and dependence of the Avignon 
Popes — Growing contempt for spiritual censures — Ap- 
peals to General Council — Disputes between the Pope 
and the Franciscans — Diffusion of knowledge among 
the laity.— (2.) Attempts at Reform feeble and inefl'ect- 
ual. — (3.) The character of the rigid Franciscans — 
Schism in that Order — The Spirituals and Brethren of 
the Communit}' — Their treatment by Clement V. — By 
John XXII. — The Bull Gloriosam Ecclesiam — Some 
Spirituals burnt for heresy — their consequent increase 
— they unite with Lewis of Bavaria — The Pope aided 
by the Dominicans — Remarks — Charles IV. — Change 
in the Imperial policy — Triumph of the Pope and In- 
quisitors — Final division of the Franciscans — The Beg- 
hards — The Lollards — their origin and character — their 
alleged opinions and mysticism — Some contemporary 
institutions of the Church — Heresy and persecution of 
Dulcinus — The Flagellants — their origin — progress — 
practice and sufferings — Concluding observations. 

Section I. 

History of the Popes. 

When Philip undertook to raise the arch- 
bisliop of Bourdeaux to the pontifical chair, six 
conditions are beheved to have been imposed 
by the monarch, and accepted by the subject. 
Five of them stipulated for the entire forgive- 
ness of all the insults which had been offered 
to Boniface, and the Roman See ; for the res- 
toration of the friends of Philip to communion 
and favor ; for the power of exacting tenths 



for the five following years ; for the condem- 
nation of the memoiy of Boniface ; for resti- 
tution of dignity to two degraded cardinals, 
and the creation of some others, friends of 
the king. The sixth was not then specified ; 
the mention of it was reserved for a more 
convenient season ; * and we may remark, 
that the others were obviously not suggested 
by any long-sighted policy aiming at the per- 
manent humiliation of the Roman See, but 
rather by passion and temporary expediency. 
If we except the nomination of new cardinals, 
who would probably be French, there is not 
one among the conditions dictated, under the 
most favorable circumstances, by the great 
enemy of the See, which tended in effect to 
reduce it to dependence on his own throne, 
or even materially to weaken any one of the 
foundations of its power. Nor should this 
surprise us ; since the violence which Philip 
exhibited throughout the contest, and the 
provocations which he received, make it pro- 
bable, that his animosity was rather personal 
against Boniface, than political against the 
Church, or even Court, of Rome. 

The Secession to Avignon. — The first act of 
the Pope elect was to assemble his reluctant 
cardinals at Lyons, to officiate at his corona- 
tion ; f and his reign, which began in 1305 and 
lasted for nine years, was entirely passed in 
the country where it commenced. Clement 
V. was alternately resident at Bourdeaux, 
Lyons, and Avignon ; and he was the first 
among the spiritual descendants of St. Peter, 
who insulted the chair and tomb of the apostle 
by continual and voluntary absence : his ex- 
ample was followed by his successors until 
the year 1376. Thus for a period of about 
seventy years, the mighty pontifical authority, 



* Bzovius, Contin. of Baron. Annal. Ann. 1305, i. 
Fleury, liv. xc. a. xlix. Giannone, lib. xxii. cap. 
viii. Historians are not agreed what the sixth con- 
dition was — some assert that it was to heap additional 
anathemas on Boniface, and burn his bones ; others 
suppose it to have been fulfilled by the condemnation 
of the Templars, others by the transfer of the papal 
residence to France. The violence of Philip's cha- 
racter, and tlie mere temporary character of most of 
his other stipulations, make the first, perhaps, the 
most probable conjecture. 

t King Philip officiated also, and condescended 
to lead the Pope's horse by the bridle, according to 
the ancient fashion of Imperial humiliation. Lyons 
boasted to be a fiee city, and the bishop had, in fact, 
gained the principal authority there, to the exclusion 
of that of the king of France. 



382 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



which was united by so many ties to the name 
of Rome, which in its nature was essentially 
Italian, and which claimed a boundless extent 
of despotism, was exercised by foreigners, in 
a foreign land, under the sceptre of a foreign 
prince. This humiliation, and, as it were, 
exile of the Holy See,* has been compared by 
Italian writers to the Babylonian captivity; 
and a notion, which may have originated in 
the accidental time of its duration, has been 
recommended by other points of similarity. 
French authors have regarded die secession 
to Avignon in a very different light — but we 
shall venture no remarks on the general char- 
acter of this singular period, until we have 
described the leading occurrences which dis- 
tinguished it. 

Clement V. immediately fulfilled most of 
the stipulated conditions — he restored the par- 
tisans of the French king to their honors ; he 
created several new cardinals, Gascons or 
Frenchmen; he revoked the various decrees 
made by Boniface VIII. against France, even 
to the Bull Unam Sandam — at least he so 
qualified its operation, a.s not to extend it to a 
country which had merited that exception by 
its faithful attachment to the Roman See ; — 
but when called upon to publish a formal con- 
demnation of the memory of that pontiff, he 
receded from his engagement with the direct 
avowal, that such an act exceeded the limits 
of his authority, unless fortified by the sanction 
of a General Council. 

Very soon afterwai'ds, rumors v/ere propa- 
gated respecting various abominations, both 
rehgious and moral, perpetrated by the Order 
of the Knights Templars — not in occasional 
licentiousness, but by the rule and practice of 
the society. Information of these offences was 
first communicated to Philip, afterwards to 
the pope ; both parties attached, or affected to 
attach, infinite importance to it ; and at length 
it was determined to refer that question also 
to a General Council. The Pope issued or- 
dei-s for such an assembly, and appointed 
Vienne,in Dauphiny, as the place of its meet- 
ing. In the meantime, Philip caused all the 
Templars in his dominions to be seized in one 
day (October 30, 1307 ;) and Clement exerted 
himself with various, but very general, suc- 
cess to engage the other sovereigns of Europe 
to the same measure. 

Council of Vienne. — On October 1, 1311, 
the Council assembled. Its professed objects 



* The Popes who reigned at Avignon, and who 
were all French, were — Clement V. — John XXH. — 
Benedict XH. — Clement VI. — Innocent VI. — Urban 
V. — Gregory XL 



were three: — !. To examine the charges 
against the Templars and secure the purity 
of the Catholic Faith. 2. To consult for the 
relief of the Holy Land. 3. To reform the 
manners of the clergy and the system of the 
Church. * The first of these terminated in 
the entire suppression of the Order; their 
property f was transferred to the Knights of 
the Hospital, who were considered a more 
faithful bulwark against the progress of the 
Infidel — (it was thus that the second purpose 
of the assembly was also supposed to be ef- 
fected ;) while their persons were consigned 
to the justice of provincial Councils, to be 
guided by the character, confession, or con- 
tumacy of the individual accused. By these 
means the greater part unquestionably escaped 
i with their lives; 'but several were executed, 
and among these the Grand Master and the 
Commander of Normandy suffered under 
singular circmnstances. They had confessed 
their guilt, and were consequently condemn- 
ed by the bishops, to whom that office had 
been assigned by the Pope, to the mitigated 
punishment of perpetual imprisonment. On 
hearing this sentence, they retracted their con- 
fession and inflexibly protested their entire in- 
nocence. The cardinals remanded them foT 
further trial on the morrow, but in the mean- 
time, Philip, having learnt what had passed, 
and not brooking even so trifling a delay in 
the chastisement of an enemy, caused them to 
be burnt alive in a small island in the Seine, 
on the same evening. They endured their 
torments with great constancy ; and the as 
sembled crowd, as it believed their guilt, was 
astounded by their firmness. 

Pi'obable Innocence of the Templars. — On 
the reality of their guilt or innocence depends 
the character of Clement v.; for it is not pro- 
bable that he was deceived in a matter so im- 
portant, involving the lives and property of so 
numerous and powerful a body, and to a cer- 
tain extent the interests and honor of so many 
kings and nations. It is true, that it was by 
Philip that the first attack was made both up- 
on their character and their persons ; but the 



* Bzov. Contin. Baron. Ann., 311, s. i. Fleury, 
1. xci. sect. xxvi. 

f Excepting that in Spain and Portugal, which 
was consecrated to the formation of a new order, 
with the prospect of a Moorish Crusade, under the 
especial superintendence of the pope. We find it, 
moreover, affirmed by Dupin, Nouv. Biblioth. Cent. 
XIV. chap. ii. that the publication of the Bull for 
the dissoliiiion of the order was prevented in Ger- 
many, and that. the Templars were there acquitted by 
a Provincial Council. 



HISTORY OF THE POPES. 



383 



blast which he sounded was presently repeated 
by the Pope, and reiterated in every quarter 
of Europe. Again, the Templars were rich ; 
and notwithstanding the nominal disposal of 
their property which was made at Vienne, 
there were few princes who entirely lost so 
favorable an opportunity for spoliation.* It is 
admitted, indeed, that Philip continually dis- 
claimed any avaricious motive for his aggres- 
sion ; and that he does not appear in fact to 
have turned his success to those ends ; but he 
was irritated by their opposition to some for- 
mer schemes, and against the Grand Master, 
in particular, he was known to entertaui a 
personal and implacable animosity. ... As 
to the proofs of their guilt — the confessions, 
which several are affirmed to have made, do 
not rest on any satisfactory evidence, though 
it seems probable, that some did really ac- 
knowledge all that was imputed to them. 
But of these, some may have been driven into 
weakness by torment or teiTor ; while others, 
individually guilty, may have imputed to the 
society their private crimes. At any rate, 
their confessions are confronted by the firm- 
ness of many others, who repelled, under 
every risk and torture, the detestable accusa- 
tions. Indeed many of the charges were of 
a nature so vei7 monstrous, f so very remote 
from reason or nature, as almost to carry with 
them their own confutation — at least, the most 
explicit and unsuspicious evidence was neces- 
sary to establish their truth ; and none such 
was offered. 

Philip was more successful iii his efforts 
to destroy an ancient and powerful Military 
Order, than to disgrace the memory of an 
insolent pontiff; and the Council, which sup- 
pressed the Templars with such little show 
of justice or humanity, contended with in- 
vincible eagerness for the reputation of Bo- 



* As the princes ei)joyed the rents of the landed 
estates, until the commissioners of the Knights of 
Rhodes had made out their claims, there arose great 
delays in resigning them. Philip himself retained a 
certain sum for the expenses of the prosecution; but 
not sufficient to justify any suspicion of rapacity. 

t They are contained (see Bzovius, Ann. 1308, s. 
iii.) in six charges and fourteen questions — involving 
infidelity, blasphemy, and the most abominable im- 
purities. That which the sufferers appear most gen- 
erally to have confessed under the torture, was the 
public denial of Christ, as a condition of admission 
into the Order, attended with insults to the cross. 
We need scarcely refer the reader to the excellent re- 
marks of Voltaire and Sismondi on this subject. The 
latter especially confirms his opinion, that the Temp- 
lars were sacrificed, by contemporary authority and 
substantial reasons. Ital. Rep., ch. xix. 



niface. It was perseveringly attempted to 
attach the stain of heresy to his name ; but 
though the king pursued this design with all 
the vehemence of malignity and revenge, the 
prelates assembled at Vienne, three hundred 
in number, * unanimously proclaimed his 
spotless orthodoxy — that he died, as he had 
lived, in the bosom of the Catholic faith. 
Disappointed in this favorite hope, the king 
was compelled to seek consolation in an edict 
published at the same time by the pope, which 
accorded a gracious pardon to the enemies 
and caluminators of Boniface. 

The abuses of the Church. — For the third 
and worthiest object of the labor of the Coun- 
cil, an abundant harvest was provided by the 
multiplied abuses of the Church. It was 
complained that (in France at least) the Lord's 
day was more generally devoted to business 
or to pleasm-e than to divine worship ; that 
the ecclesiastical jurisdiction was frequently 
delegated to improper persons, and by them 
so scandalously perverted, that the censures 
of the Church had lost theh power and their 
terrors ; that many contemptible individuals, 
defective alike in learning and in morals, were 
admitted to the priesthood ; that prebends and 
other dignities, being now in most cases filled 
by the pope, seldom by the bishop, were 
usually presented to strangers and even for- 
eigners, men of dissolute morals, elevated by 
successful mtrigues at the Court of Rome ; 
and that thus the young and deserving as- 
l)Lrants for ecclesiastical promotion were fre- 
quently compelled to abandon the profession 
with disgust, and invariably became the bit- 
terest and most dangerous enemies of the 
Church. Another abuse was, the immoderate 
indulgence of pluralities ; many held at the 
same time four or five, some not fewer than 
a dozen benefices. Another evil mentioned, 
is the non-residence of many of the higher 
clergy, occasioned by the necessity of person- 
ally watching their interests at the Vatican. 
The sumptuous luxury in which they lived, 
and the negligence and indecency with which 
the divine services were performed, consti- 
tuted another charge against the beneficed 
clergy. The profligacy and simony, publicly 



* Bzov. ad ann. 1312, i. A very tedious process 
against the orthodoxy of Boniface had been carried 
on in 1310, before the pope at Avignon, where No- 
garet appeared as his principal accuser, and the agent 
of Philip. But Clement, unwilling on the one hand 
to ofl^end the King, and not daring on the other to 
scandalize the Church, interposed so many delays, 
that Philip at length decided to await the decision 
of the General Council. See Fleury, 1. xci. s. xliii» 



384 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



practised at the Roman Court, swelled the 
long list of its acknowledged deformities. * 
On the dissolution of the Council, Clement 
published, in 1313, its canons, which were 
fifty-six in number. Most of these were, in- 
deed, nominally directed to the reformation 
of the Church ; the progress of heresy was 
vigorously opposed ; and attempts were made 
to prevent or heal some divisions now begin- 
ning to spring up ivithin the Church: sub- 
jects to which we shall presently recur. 
Some constitutions likewise regulated the re- 
lation of the bishops to the Monastic Orders ; 
and others imposed greater decency on the 
loivei' f orders of the clergy ; but the grand 
and vital disorders of the Church, those from 
which its real danger proceeded, and which 
were in fact the roots whence the others 
started into life and notice, these were left to 
flourish unviolated, and to spread more and 
more deeply into the bosom of the commun- 
ion. 

Election of John XX//.— Clement V. died J 
very soon afterwards, and his death was fol- 

* The pope ordered all the bishops to bring with 
them to the Council expositions of all which seemed 
to demand correction. Two of these memoirs are 
still extant, and from them the abuses here briefly 
enumerated are taken. See Fleury, liv. cxi. s. li.. 
Hi. Semler, sec. xiv. cap. ii. « Infinita fere sunt 
quie reformari deberent; ignorantur quasi totaliter a 
Christianis articuli fidei et alia quae ad religionem et 
salutem animarum pertinent . . . Monachi non 
vivunt in suo monasterio; sicut equus eflfrenis discur- 
runtj mercantur, et alia enormia faciunt, de quibus 
loqui verecundum est et tnrpe . . prjelati non possunt 
bonis personis hodie providere obstante multitudine 
Clericornm apud Curiam Romanam impetrantium, 
qui quidem nunquam Ecclesiam intrarunt . . etiam 
pueri obtinent dignitates . . Utinam Cardinales, qui 
sunt animalia pennata, plena ocnlis ante et retro, 
talia perspiciant . . similes sibi similes eligunt . . 
bene dico opus esse in Capite etiam et in membris 
reformatione. ' The author of this bold appeal to the 
Head, which was not itself excepted from the general 
censure, is not known to posterity — the document is 
given by Raynaldiis e Cod. Vaticano. Bzovius (ann. 
1310, sec. vi.) enumerates, at great length, fifteen 
of the principal abuses with which the Church was 
charged on this occasion. 

f The following is the Twenty-second Canon. 
' Clerici conjugati carnificum seu macellariorum aut 
tabernariorum officium publice et personaliter exer- 
centes, vestes virgatas, partitas, neque statui suo con- 
ducentes, portantes severius puniantur. See Bzovius, 
Contin. Ann. Baron., ann. 1313, sec. i. 

■^ He died immensely rich, through the sale of 
benefices and other such traflic ; and the moment that 
he was known to have expired, all the inmates of his 
Dalace are stated to have rushed with one consent to 
his treasury: not a single servant remained to watch 



lowed by an obstinate difference between 
the French and Italian cardinals respecting 
the nation of his successor. This was pro- 
longed by the impatient interference of the 
populace, * excited, as it would seem, by 
some Gascon soldiers, who proposed to ter- 
minate the dispute by seizing the persons of 
the Italians. Accordingly, they set fire to the 
conclave ; but the terrified cardinals escaped 
by another exit, and immediately dispersed 
and concealed themselves in various places 
of refuge. Such, indeed, was their panic, or 
at least their disinclination, that two years 
elapsed before they could be reassembled. 
At length, after a second deliberation, which 
lasted forty days, they elected James of Euse, 
a native of Cahors, cardinal bishop of Porto 
— such long delay and repeated consultation 
did it require, to add to the list of pontifical 
delinquents the name of John XXII. ! That 
Pope was of very low origin, the son of a 
shoemaker or a tapster ; f but he had natural 
talents and a taste for letters, which were 
early discovered and encouraged, and his 
gradual rise to dignity in the Church was not 
disgraced by any notorious scandals.:): But 
he had not long been in possession of the 
highest eminence, before he abandoned him- 

tlie body of his master, insomuch that the lights which 
were blazing round fell down and set fire to the bed. 
The flames were extinguished; but not till they had 
consumed half the body of the richest Pope who had 
3'et governed the Church. Sismondi believes thia 
anecdote. 

* The conclave was held at Carpentras, a place on 
the banks of the Rhone, not far from Avignon. It 
iiappened that the Court was assembled there when 
the Pope died ; it therelbre became the legal place for 
the new election. 

•f Giovanni Villani, lib. ix. c. Ixxix. Giannone, 
lib. xxii. cap. viii. 

I The violent party-writers of the day, Francis- 
cans and Ghibelines, who heaped every epithet of 
abuse upon the hostile name of John XXII., have 
been too hastily credited by some modern writers. 
Giovanni Villani admits that he was modest in his 
manner of life, sober, not luxurious, nor profuse in 
his personal expenditure. In the course of almost 
every night, he rose to say his office and to study; he 
celebrated mass almost every day ; was easy of access 
and rapid in the performance of business. He waa 
hasty in temper, of an informed and penetrating un- 
derstanding, and magnanimous in affairs of import- 
ance. (See Fleury, 1. xciv. s. xxxix.) These 
qualities and habits at least repel the charge of uni- 
versal profligacy which has been brought against him. 
Nevertheless, it is the opinion of Sismondi (chap, 
xxix.) that his elevation was not less ascribable to 
his intrigues and effrontery than to his talents; and 
the public acts of his pontificate require no comment 



HISTORY OF THE POPES. 



385 



self, without scruple or shame, to his predom- 
inant passion, avarice. He was not, indeed, 
exempt from the ambitious arrogance with- 
out the Church, and the vexatious intolerance 
within it, which seem at this time to have 
been communicated by the chair of St. Peter 
to its successive possessors — in a greater or 
less degree to each, according to his previous 
disposition to those qualities ; but avarice 
was the vice by which John was individual- 
ly and peculiarly characterized, and to which 
he gave, during his long pontificate, the most 
intemperate indulgence. 

The Apostolical Chancery. — Not contented 
with the usual methods of papal extortion, he 
displayed his ingenuity in the invention of 
others more effectual ; he enlarged and ex- 
tended the Rule of the Apostolical Chance- 
ry ; * he imposed the payment of annates on 
Ecclesiastical Benefices ; he multiplied the 
profitable abuse of dispensations; he increas- 
ed in France the number of bishoprics ; and 
commonly took advantage of the vacancy of 
a rich See, in order to make five or six trans- 
lations, promoting each prelate to a dignity, 
somewhat wealthier than that, which he had 
before held : so that all were contented, (says 
Giannone) f while all paid their fees. In a 
word, he considered kingdoms, cities, castles 
and territories to be the real patrimony of 
Christ, and held the true virtue of the Church 
to consist, not in contempt of the world and 
zeal for the faith and evangelical doctrine, but 
in oblations and tithes, and taxes, and collec- 
tions, and purple, and gold and silver. Such 
is the language of the Italian historians, and if 
it be somewhat exaggerated by their general 
prejudices against the popes of Avignon, the 
immense \ treasures which were unquestion- 
ably amassed by John ; prepare us to believe 

* He reduced the system of Apostolical taxation 
to a code of canon law. A deacon or sub-deacon 
might be absolved for murder, for about twenty 
crowns; a bishop for about three hundred livres : 
every crime had its price. See Denina, 14, vi. 

t We might be disposed to receive this with some 
little suspicion- even from Giannone — since he was 
not only an Italian, but a decided anti-Gallican also 
— were not the facts directly derived from Giovanni 
ViHani. 

X Giov. Villani (lib. xi. cap. xx.) asserts (on the 
authority of his own brother, resident at Avignon, 
who received his information from the treasurers of 
tlie pope) that the treasure found on the death of John 
XXII. amounted to more than eighteen millions of 
florins in gold coin ; while that in services of the 
table, crosses, crowns, mitres and other trinkets of 
gold and precious stones, rose to about seven millions 
more — total, twenty-five millione of golden florins. 
49 



much that is asserted respecting the methods 

of his exaction. 

Contest with Louis of Bavaria. — But the 
circumstance, by which this pontificate was 
most distinguished, and which for a moment 
raises us from the sordid details of fi-aud and 
extortion to the recollection of the loftier vices 
of the Gregories and the Innocents, was a 
contest which the Pope perseveringly main- 
tained with the Emperor, Louis of Bavaria. 
Having entered at greater length, perhaps, 
than was necessary into the description of the 
two former conflicts between the empire and 
the holy See, and of that also between Philip 
and Boniface, we shall not pui*sue the partic- 
ulars of this last and feeblest effort of declin- 
ing papacy. The leading events are briefly 
these. The Electors assembled at Frankfort 
in 1314 were divided ; and while some chose 
Louis for successor to the throne, others sup- 
ported Frederic, Archduke of Austria. John * 
refused to confirm either of the Pretenders, 
and they continued to dispute the empire with 
the sword till the year 1323, when Frederic 
was defeated and taken prisoner. The Duke 
of Bavaria then took upon himself the impe- 
rial administration, without at all soliciting 
the sanction of the Pope. Thereupon the 
latter pronounced sentence against him, and 
prepared to support Leopold, the brother of 
Frederic. Louis boldly appealed to a General 



The greater part of this was amassed by John, and 
chiefly by his reservations of all the benefices of all 
the collegiate Churches of Christendom. His ordi- 
nary pretext was the liberation of the Holy Land. 

The ' Storia or Nuova Cronica,' of Giovanni 
Villani, a citizen of Florence, begins at the earliest 
age and continues to the year of his death, 1348. It 
chiefly relates to the aftairs of Florence, and is most 
instructive during the last century. His brother 
Matteo continued the History (with an addition by 
his own son Philip) as far as the year 1364. 

* In a bull published in 1317, John maintained 
that all imperial vicars lost their authority at the 
death of the Emperor, and that it devolved on the 
Pope. ' God himself,' he continued, ' has confided 
the empire of the earth, as well as that of heaven, to 
the sovereign pontiff. During the interregnum, all 
the rights of the empire devolve upon the diurch; 
and he who, without the permission of the apostolic 
see, continues to exercise the functions intrusted to 
him by the Emperor in his lifetime, offends against 
religion, plunges into crime, and attacks the divine 
Majesty itself.' See Sismondi, Rep. It., ch. xxix. 
This claim was pressed more than once by the Avig- 
non Popes — the more eagerly becauee the legitimacy 
of ' the King of the Romans' was involved in that 
of the Emperor ; and the Pope, who pretended to 
the prerogatives of the one, had a nearer interest ia 
usurping the functions of the other. 



a&6 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



CounciJ, and to a future and legitimate Pope, 
and he received in return an ineffectual sen- 
tence of excommunication and deposition. In 
the meantime, the war between the opposite 
parties had been maintained with great fury 
in Italy, and upon the whole to the advantage 
of the Guelphs, through the powerful aid of the 
King of Naples, still faithful to the Roman 
See. Consequently Louis was pressed to 
cross the Alps. He assembled a parliament 
at Milan, and assumed with great solemnity 
the iron crown. From Milan he advanced to 
Rome : the celerity of his march anticipated 
all opposition, and the ceremony of his coro- 
nation was there performed, with abundant 
pomp and acclamation, in January, 1328. 
Vigorous measures of hostility were at the 
same time adopted — a sentence of degradation 
against John XXIT., and the appointment of 
a new and imperial Pope, who assumed the 
name of Nicholas V, But though an empe- 
ror might at this time be sufficiently powerful 
txD repel with impunity the pontifical censures, 
his aggressive attempts were at least as futile 
as those of bis adversary. Nicholas was re- 
jected by the Catholic world ; and, after two 
years of vain pretension, surrendered his title 
and his person* to John. The Emperor had 
been previously compelled to retire from 
Rome. So that, after a fruitless contest of 
about seven years, the relative situation of the 
combatants was little altered ; and the sen ten - 
ees of degradation and deposition, mutually 
reiterated, had no other effect than to prove 
to the world (though not so to the individuals 
engaged) that there was something in the 
claims of both parties extravagant and un- 
founded; and that the temporal authority on 
the one hand, and the spiritual on the other, 
though occasionally confounded by the abuse 
of both, were in fact, as they were in essence 
and origin, independent. 

We observe that, in one respect at least, 
Louis deviated during this contest from the 
tactics of his two predecessors, and adopted 
those of the French King. The appeal fi'om 
the authority of the Pope to that of a General 
Council was the severest wound which could 
be inflicted on papal arrogance. It was niore 

* According to the account of Giovanni Villani 
flib. X. cap. clxiv,) he was delivered up by the 
Pisans, and' sent to Avignon. He threw himself at 
the feet of the Pope, and prayed for mercy : e con bel 
sermone e autoritk se confesso peccatore eretico col 
Bavero insieme, che fatto 1' havea. ■ It should be ad- 
ded, that John treated him extremely well, and that 
he died a natural death at Avignon three years after- 
wards. 



than that, — since it led almost iiecessarfly to 
the limitation of papal power. In an age of 
darkness, such an appeal might have been 
treated as a wanton, though bitter insult. But 
reason was at length awakened, and men were 
beginning to consider what ought to be, as 
well as what had been. The promulgation 
of a new and grand ecclesiastical principle, 
on the authority of a king and an emperoi', 
would excite some consideration even among 
the most bigoted ; and there would be few 
who did not begin to entertain a question res- 
pecting the spiritual omnipotence of the Pope. 

Charges of Heresy against John XXIL — 
Another measure was taken by the Emperor, 
also after the example of Philip^ which tended 
more directly to the same end. In the Assem- 
bly held at Milan, at which several prelates 
attended, John XXIl. Avas formally impeach- 
ed on the charge of heres}^ Sixteen articles 
were specified, in which he erred against the 
constitutions of the General Councils ; and he 
was pronounced to have virtually forfeited 
the pontifical dignity. It was a bold proceed- 
ing in Louis on the judgment of a provincial 
meeting of his own partisans, to convict the 
Vicar of Christ of heretical depravity.* It 
was indeed to repel usurpation by usurpation, 
and to seize the spiritual sword in his strife to 
recover the material. The accusations were 
probably false, and certainly fruitless: they 
acquired no general credit at the time, nor 
liave they adhered to the memory of the ac- 
cused. Nevertheless, tlie mere assumption 
of papal falibility m matters of faith by two 
powerful monarchs, and the vigor of the mea- 
sures taken on that assumption, naturally coi>- 
firmed the confidence of those whom reason 
had already led to the same conclusion. 

7%e Beatific Vision. — But it also happened 
very strangely, that the same extraordinary 
charge was again incurred by John XXII. 
towards the end of his life, and with much 
greater appearance of reason. In some public 
discourses delivered in the course of the years 
1331 and 1332, he had rashly declared his 
opinion, that the souls of the faithful, in their 
intermediate state, were indeed permitted to 
behold Christ as a man ; but that the face of 
God, or the Divine Nature, was veiled from 
their sight until their reunion with the body 

* The Pope^s disputes with the Spiritual Francis- 
cans had raised a considerable party, even in the 
church, against him. Besides, all the theologians 
and sectarians, who were discontented with papal 
government, declared in favor of Louis, See the 
latter part of this chapter. 



HISTORY OF TIjE POPES. 



S87 



at the last day.* The pubhdation of tliis new 
doctrine produced a deep sensation through- 
out Christendom. The immediate admission 
to the beatific Vision, a received and popular 
tenet, had been openly impugned by the high- 
est spiritual authority: it became necessa- 
ry either to resign the tenet or to condemn 
the Pope. Robert, King of Sicily, warmly 
exhorted John, whom he had attached by a 
long and useful alliance, to retract the offen- 
sive declaration. Philip VI. of France united 
with equal ardor in the same solicitation. 
The most learned Dominicans, together with 
all the doctors and divines of Paris, humbly 
urged the same entreaty. Laymen joined 
with churchmen, the friends of the Pontiff 
with his bitterest enemies, in rejecting and 
denouncing his erl'or. The Pope was so far 
moved by such general and powerful interfer- 
ence, that he assembled, at the close of 1333, 
his Cardinals in public consistoiy ; and after 
having caused to be read in their presence all 
the passages of all writers who had treated 
the subject, (the labor of five days,) he protest- 
ed that he had not designed to publish a de- 
cision contrary to Scripture or the orthodox 
faith ; and that, if he had so erred, he express- 
ly revoked his error. This explanation may 
possibly have been considered somewhat equi- 
vocal ; at least it had not the effect of allaying 
the irritation which prevailed, and a second 
consistory was appointed for the same purpose 
in the December following. But on the even- 
ing preceding its assembly, John was seized 
by a mortal malady. Nevertheless, he sum- 
moned his Cardinals around him, and one of 
the last acts of his long life (he died at 90) was 
to read in their presence a bull, containing the 
following declaration : ' We confess and be- 
lieve that souls purified and separated from 
their bodies are assembled in the kingdom of 
heaven in paradise, and behold God and the 
Divine Essence face to face clearly, in as far 
as is consistent with the condition of a sepa- 
rated soul. Any thing which we may have 
preached, said, or written contrary to this 

* Mosh., Cent. XIV., p. ii,, ch. ii. ' The recom- 
pense of the saints, before the coming of Jesus Christ, 
was the bosom of Abraham ; after his coming, his 
passion, and ascension, their recompense, till the day 
of judgment, is to be under the altar of God, that is, 
under the protection and consolation of the humanity 
of Jesus Christ. But after the judgment they shall be 
on the altar, that is, on the humanity of Jesus Christ, 
because then they shall behold not only his humanity, 
but also his divinity as it is in itself; for they shall 
see the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.' These 
are the expressions of John, as given by Fleury, liv. 
xciv., sect. XXI. 



opinion, we recall and cancel.' * Still even 
the expiring confession of the Pontiff was not 
considered sufficiently explicit to satisfy the 
measure of orthodoxy ; and thus it came to 
pass that John XXII., after having ruled the 
apostolical church for above eighteen years, 
which he passed for the most part m amassing 
treasures,! in fomenting warlike tumults, and 
in chastising heretics, died himself under the 
general imputation of heresy. But the error 
of the pontifical delinquent was discreetly 
veiled by the church which it scandalized ; 
and when Benedict XII., his successor, hast- 
ened, in the year following, to restore the una- 
nimity of the fltithful respecting the Beatific 
Vision, he described it as a question which 
John was preparing to decide, when he was 
prevented by death.J 

The reasons which gave such popularity 
to the orthodox opinion on this subject, and 
excited such very general opposition to the 
other, were chiefly these : — If the Virgin, the 
Saints, and Martyrs, were not yet admitted to 
the Divine presence ; if they were only in 
distant and imperfect communication with 
the Deity, it was absurd to uphold their medi- 
atorial office ; it was vain to supplicate the 
intercession of beings who had no access to 
the judgment-seat of Christ. Moreover, the 
mere insult thus offered to the dignity of the 
saints, and the disparagement of their long- 
acknowledged merits, were offences very 
sensibly felt and resented throughout the 
Catholic world. Another reason is likewise 
mentioned; and it may, in fact, have been 
the most powerful motive of dissatisfaction — 
if the dangerous opinion were once establish- 
ed, that the souls of the just, when liberated 
from purgatory, must still await the day of 
judgment for their recompense, the indidgen- 
ces granted by the Church would be of no 
avail ; 'and this (as the King of France very 
zealously proclaimed) would be effectually to 
vitiate the Catholic faith ! ' <S 



* Bzov., Ann. 1334. i. Fleury, liv. xciv., sect. 
xxxviii. 

t In the histories of his life we find many edicts 
directed against alchy mists and the adulterers of coin, 
— proving at least how much of his attention was 
turned in that direction. He issued money from the 
pontifical mint, and counterfeited, with some loss of 
reputation, the florins of Florence. Giov. Villani, 
lib. ix., cap. clxx. 

:j: In the bull Benedictus Deus, of which the sub- 
stance is given by Fleury, liv. xciv., sect. xliv. 

§ See the end of the Tenth Book of Giovanni 
Villani. In the course of the controversy, excited 
solely by his own vanity, John professed the most im- 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, 



Benedict XIL — Benedict XII. was bora at 
Saverdun, in the county of Foix, and was the 
son of a baker. He possessed considerable 
theological learning, but such little talent for 
the management of an intriguing court, that 
he suspected and proclaimed his own inca- 
pacity* for the pontifical functions. But it 
proved otherwise; for he brought to that 
office a mind sensible of the corruption which 
surrounded him, and of the abuses which dis- 
figured his Church, and he employed his use- 
ful administration in endeavors to remedy 
such of them as were placed within his reach. 
In the first exercise of his power, he dismiss- 
ed to their benefices a vast number of courtly 
ecclesiastics, who preferred the splendor, and 
perhaps the vices, of Avignon, to the dis- 
charge of their pastoral duties. A large body 
of cavaliers had been maintained by the pomp 
of his predecessor, with whose services Ben- 
edict immediately dispensed. He was spar- 
ing in the promotion of his own relatives, lest 
the king should make them the means of 
exerting influence over himself He under- 
took the serious reform of the Monastic Or- 
ders — not confining his view to the less pow- 
erful communities, but purifying, with indis- 
criminate severity, the poor and the opulent, 
the Mendicants, Benedictines, f and Augusti- 



partial desire for truth ; but it was observed that he 
showered his benefices most liberally upon those who 
supported the new opinion. Philip of France came 
boldly forward as the champion of orthodoxy, and the 
inviolable unity of the Church — ' dicendo laicamente 
come fidel Christiano, che invano si pregherebbero i 
Santi, 6 harebbesi sperenza di salute per li loro meriti, 
se Nostra Donna Santa Maria, e Santo Giovanni, e 
Santo Piero, e Santo Paolo e li altri Santi non po- 
tessero vedere la Deitade al fino al di del Giudizio, e 
havere perfetta beatitudine in vita eternaj e che per 
quella opinione ogni indulgenza e perdonanza data 
per anlico per Santa Chiesa, 6 che si desse, era vana. 
Laqual cosa sarebbe grande errore e guastamento 
della Fede Catholica.' 

* The cardinals, twenty-four in number, agreed 
with an unusual decision and unanimity, ascribed by 
some to divine inspiration, by others to a ridiculous 
mistake. Jacques Fournier (such was his name) 
being also a cardinal, was present at his own election, 
and when he heard the determination of his brethren, 
he reproached them with having elected an ass. He 
was certainly the least eminent member of the Sacred 
College ; and to that circumstance, according to Gio- 
vanni Villani (lib. xi. cap. xxi.,) he was indebted for 
his elevation. The cardinals, intending in the scni- 
tiny to throw away their vctes, fatally concurred in 
heaping them upon hhu — * ch' era tenuto il piu me- 
Bomo de' Cardinali.' 

•f Vit. Benedict. XH. ap. Baluzium, Benedict 
has been celebrated by the pen if Petrarch — 



nians ; and the Order of Citeaux, to which 
he had himself belonged, was the first object 
of his correction. He established numerous 
schools within the monasteries, and also com- 
pelled the young ecclesiastics to frequent the 
universities of Paris, Oxford,* Toulouse, and 
Montpellier. In the education of the clergy 
he saw the only reasonable assurance for the 
stability of the Church. Lastly, he even dis- 
played a willingness to restore the papal resi- 
dence to Italy, if it should appear that his 
Italian subjects were desirous of his pres- 
ence ; but the Imperialists were at that mo- 
ment so powerful, and the party spirit so 
highly inflamed, that he received little en- 
couragement in that design. 

Clement VI. — Clement VI., who succeeded 
Benedict, in the year 1342, did not imitate his 
virtues ; but while, in his public deportment, 
he more nearly followed the footsteps of John 
XXII., he appears even to haye outstripped 
that pontiff in the license of his private fife. He 
was scarcely installed in his dignity, when he 
was addressed by a solemn deputation from 
the Roman people. It consisted of eighteen 
members, f one of whom was Petrarch ; and 
it was charged with three petitions. The 
first was, that Clement would accept, per- 
sonally and for his life only, the offices of 
Senator and Captain, together with the mu- 
nicipal charges ; the second, that he would 
return to the possession of his proper and 
peculiar See ; the third, that he would anti- 
cipate the Secular Jubilee ordained by Boni- 
face VIII., and appoint its celebration in the 
fftieth year. The Pope accepted for himself 
the proffered dignities, but without prejudice 
to the rights of the See ; to the second, which 
was an important and wise request, he return- 
ed a friendly but decided refusal ; but the 



Te cui Telluris pariter Pelagique supremum 
Contulit Imperium virtus meritnmque pudorque. 
Yet we observe (in Bzovius, ann. 1339, s. 1,) that 
on one occasion this virtuous pontiff reserved the 
appointment to all the prelacies of all the churches 
for the space of two years. Did he overlook in hia 
reforming zeal the abuses by which he profited*? 

* About twenty years later, an Archbishop of Ar- 
magh complained, that when he was resident at Ox- 
ford, the University contained thirty thousand stu- 
dents; whereas, at the time when he wrote (in 1358) 
it contained only six thousand. The reason given 
for the decrease was, that the Mendicants, who oc- 
cupied several of the chairs, had seduced so many of 
the young students into their Order, that parents were 
no longer willing to expose their children to that risk. 

I The orator on this occasion was Colas di Rienzo, 
afterwards the Tribune of the Republic, 



HISTORY OF THE POPES. 



380 



third, which only tended to swell the profit- 
able abuses of religion, he accorded without 
hesitation. The following is the substance 
of the bull which he issued (in 1343) for 
this purpose — ' That the love of God has ac- 
quired for us an infinite treasure of merits, to 
which those of the Virgin and all the Saints 
are joined ; — that he has left the dispensation 
of that treasure to St. Peter and his succes- 
sors ; — and consequently, that Pope Boniface 
VIII. had rightfully ordained, that all those 
who in the year 1300, and every following 
centurial year, should worship for a specified 
number of days in the churches of St. Peter 
and St. Paul, at Rome, should obtain full in- 
dulgence for all their sins. But we have 
considered (he continues) that in the Mosaic 
Law, which Christ came spiritually to ac- 
complish, the fiftieth year was the jubilee and 
remission of debts ; and having also regard to 
the short duration of human life, we accord 
the same indulgence to all henceforward who 
shall visit the said churches, and that of St. 
John Lateran, on the fifl;ieth year. If Ro- 
mans, they must attend for at least thirty fol- 
lowing days ; if foreigners, for at least fifteen.' 

Celebration of the Jubilee. — This proclama- 
tion was diligently published in every part of 
Christendom, and excited an incredible ardor 
for the Pilgrimage. During a winter of un- 
usual inclemency, the roads were thronged 
with devout travellers, many of whom were 
compelled to pass the night without shelter 
or nourishment, in the fear of robbery, and 
the certainty of extortion. The streets of 
Rome presented for some months the specta- 
cle of a vast moving multitude, continually 
flowing through them, and inexhaustibly ren- 
ovated. The three appointed churches * were 
thronged with successive crowds, eager to 
throw off the burden of their sins, and also 
prepared to deposit some pious offering at 
every visit. 

It is affirmed, that from Christmas till Eas- 
ter, not fewer than a million, or even twelve 



* ' In visiting the three churches (says Matt. Vil- 
lani,) including the distance from his lodging and the 
return to it, each pilgrim performed about eleven 
miles. The streets were perpetually full, so that every 
one was obliged, whether on foot or on horseback, to 
follow the crowd ; and this made the progress very 
slow and disagreeable. The Holy Napkin of Christ 
was shown at St. Peter's every Sunday and solemn 
festival, for the consolation of the pilgrims (Romei.) 
The press then was great and indiscreet ; so it hap- 
pended that sometimes two, sometimes four, or six, 
or even twelve, were found there crushed or trampled 
to death.' 



hundred thousand strangers, were added to 
the population of the pontifical city ; for as 
many as returned home after the completion 
of the prescribed ceremonies, were replaced 
by fi-esh bands of credulous sinners, — and 
those again by others, in such perennial 
abundance, that, even during the late and 
unwholesome season of the year, the number 
was never reduced below two hundred thou- 
sand. Every house was converted into an 
inn ; and the object of every Roman was to 
extort the utmost possible profit from the oc- 
casion : neither shame nor fear restrained the 
eagerness of their avarice. While the neigh- 
boring districts abounded with provisions, the 
citizens refused to admit a gi'eater supply, 
than was scarcely sufficient to satisfy, at the 
highest expense, the simplest demands of the 
pilgrims ; and thus those deluded devotees, 
after surmounting all other difficulties on 
their errand of superstition, were at length 
delivered up to be starved, as well as plun- 
dered, by the inhabitants of the Holy City. 
Such was the moral effect produced upon 
the Roman people by a festival, which was 
established for their pecuniary profit, and 
which disturbed the social system through 
every rank and profession, from one end of 
Christendom to the other.* 

Clement renewed with Louis of Bavana 
those vexatious disputes, which had beea 
begun by John XXII., and conducted with 
so little advantage or honor to either party. 
Neither had the present difference, after 
many haughty words, any lasting result ; 
though it seems probable, that the Pope 
might have succeeded in exciting a civil 
war in the dominions of his adversaiy, had 
not the latter escaped that calamity by death. 
The same pontiff defended his temporal pre- 
rogatives in a correspondence with Edward 
III. of England. At another time, publicly and 
in full consistory, he presented to Alphonso 
of Spain the sceptre of the Fortunate Islands. 
Nor was this right contested: the less so, 
perhaps, since St. Peter had claimed, in much 
earlier ages, the peculiar disposal of all insu- 
lar f domains. Clement also made an im- 



* This account is abbreviated from Mattoo Vilkni, 
lib. i. cap. Ivi- It is to be observed, that the Pope 
received a sh ire of the oblations left by the pilgrims 
in the different churches. Clement VI. employed the 
fruits in an unsuccessful attempt to recover the prop- 
erty of his church from the nobles, who had usurped 
it. 

t Urban II., in his Bull of 1091, presented the 
island of Corsica to the Bishop of Pisa; and we all 
recollect that our Henry II. received from Adrian IV. 



390 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 



portant acquisition to the patrimony of the 
Apostle by the purchase of the city of Avig- 
non. The jurisdiction over that territory be- 
longed to the Queen of Naples, as Countess 
of Provence ; and for 80,000 golden florins 
she consented, in a moment of poverty, to 
part yvith the valuable possession. A splen- 
did palace, which Benedict XII. had begun, 
was now completed and amplified by Clem- 
ent ; and the luxury of the cardinals follow- 
ed, at no very humble distance, the example 
of the popes. These circumstances seemed 
to remove still farther the prospect of the 
Pope's restoration to his legitimate residence, 
and thus heightened the alarm, which some 
were beginning to entertain for the stability 
of the papal power. 

Clement VI. died five years afterwards, in 
1352 — celebrated for the splendor of his es- 
tablishment, for the sumptuousness of his ta- 
ble, and for his magnificent display of horses, 
squires, and pages ; for the scandalous abuse 
of his patronage ; for manners little becom- 
ing the sacred profession, and for the most 
unrestrained and unmufiled profligacy.* 

Oath or Capitulation taken in Conclave. — 
During the vacancy of the See, the cardinals, 
while in conclave, passed certain resolutions 
for the limitation of the pontifical power and 
the extension of their own wealth and privi- 
leges ; and the whole body bound themselves 
by oath to observe them. One of their num- 
ber was then elected, Etienne Aubert, bishop 
of Ostia, who took the name of Innocent VI. ; 
and almost his earliest act was to annul, as 



the donation of Ireland. En qiioi (says Fleury) ce 
qui me paroit le plus remarquable n'est pas la pre- 
tention des Papes, raais la credulite des Princes. But 
credulity, like many other weaknesses, is very com- 
naonly the oflfspring of interest. 

* See Matt. Villani, lib. iii. cap. 43. He delight- 
ed to aggrandize his relatives, by conferring on them 
baronies in France, and raising them, hovi^ever young 
and abandoned, to the highest dignities. ' At that 
time there was no regard to learning or virtue; it 
sufficed to satiate cupidity with the Red Hat — Huomo 
fii di convenevole scienzia, molto cavallaresco, poco 
religioso, Delle femine essendo Archivescovo non si 
guardo, ma trapasso il modo de' secolari giovani 
Baroni : e nel Papato non sene seppe contenere ne 
occultare; ma alle sue camere andavano le grandi 
dame, come i prelati, e fra I' altre una Contessa di 
Torenna fu tanto in suo piacere, che per lei faceva 
gran parte delle grazie sue. Quando era infermo le 
Dame il servivano, e governavono come congiunte 
parent! gli altri secolari. II lesoro della Chiesa 
stribui con larga mano. Delle Italiane discordie 
poco si euro, &c.' We observe, that some of the car- 
dinals so appointed incurred the severe reproach of 
Innocent VI. by their undisguised debaucheries. Matt. 
Villan. lib. iv. cap. Ixxvii. 



pope, what he had subscribed as cardinal. 
We must detest his priyate perjury ; yet, as 
the Sacred College had no power of legisla- 
tion, unless under the presidency of the pope, 
and as their office while in conclave was ex- 
pressly restricted to the election of a pope, 
their constitutions could not legally be bind- 
ing either on the church or on the future pon- 
tiff". The attempt of the cardinals is chiefly 
important, as it shows the power and the 
arrogance into which they had risen during 
the disorders of the Church ; and the con- 
duct of the pope is remarkable, as having 
furnished an example and a plea to several 
of his successors, who violated similar en- 
gagements in afl;er times with the same per- 
fidy. In every instance the future pope was 
a voluntary partyto the compact deliberately 
made in conclave ; in most cases he confirm- 
ed it after his election ; he finally broke or 
evaded it in all. 

Innocent VI. — Yet Innocent VI. was a man 
of simple manners and unblemished moral 
reputation ; and having found the Church 
nearly in the same condition in which John 
XXIT. bequeathed it to Benedict, he imitated 
the latter in his judicious effbrts to reform it. 
But, though he held the See for more than 
nine years, it seems doubtful whether his 
mild and perhaps feebly executed measures 
were eflTectual in removing any important 
abuse. At least, in the year 1358 we perceive 
him engaged in a dispute with his German 
clergy, not respecting the relaxation of their 
discipline, but upon a subject which was 
usually much dearer to the Popes of Avig- 
non. Innocent demanded an extraordinary 
subsidy of the tenth of all ecclesiastical rev- 
enues, for the use of the apostolical cham- 
ber. The clergy of the three provinces of 
Treves, Mayence, and Cologne boldly refused 
payment ; the spirit of interested opposition 
spread rapidly ; and all orders of ecclesiastics 
throughout the whole empire united to re- 
sist the demand. The Pope yielded without 
struggle or remonstrance ; but he immediate- 
ly sought his consolation in the exercise of 
one of the grossest usurpations of his See. 
He sent his messengers into every part of 
Germany, widi orders to collect half the rev- 
enues of all vacant benefices, and to reserve * 



* Even the see of Avignon was left without a 
bishop during this and the preceding pontificate; it 
was reserved, and its revenues usurped by these popes 
at their own pleasure. Thus it would seem that the 
reforms of Innocent VI. were not more disinterested 
than those of Benedict. See Vita Urbani V. ap 
Baluz. and Baluzius's Notes. 



HISTORY OF THE POPES. 



391 



them for the use of the Holy See. The Em- 
peror (Charles IV.) approved the resistance 
of his bishops;* but on the one hand he 
denounced, in the strongest language, their 
pride, their avarice, and luxurious indul- 
gences ; while, on the other, he warmly de- 
manded of the Nuncio from Avignon, where- 
fore the pontiff was so forward in taxing the 
property of the clergy, so remiss and languid 
in the restoration of their discipline ? We 
should add, however, that Innocent, on his 
side, did not disregard that appeal, but turn- 
ed himself to restrain the vices of the German 
prelates ; while the Emperor exerted his au- 
thority to protect them from the spoliations 
to which they were perpetually liable from 
powerful laymen. 

Urban V. — He was succeeded, in 1362, by 
Urban V., whose reign was distinguished by 
the first serious attempt to restore the i)ontrfi- 
cal court to Rome. On the solicitation of 
his Italian subjects, urged by the eloquence 



* In an assembly of the princes of the empire held 
on this subject in 1359, Conrad d'Alzeia, Count Pal- 
atine, who was charged witli the defence of the 
clergy, addressed the meeting to this effect: — ' The 
Romans have always considered Germany as a mine 
of gold, and have invented various methods to exhaust 
it. And what does the pope give in return, but epis- 
tles and speeches'? Let him be master of all the 
benefices as to their collation, but let him leave the 
revenues to those who own them. We send abund- 
ance of money into Italy for divers manufactures, 
and to Avignon for our children who study there, and 
who there solicit, and let us not say purchase, bene- 
fices. No one is ignorant what sums are every year 
carried from Germany to the court of Rome, for the 
confirmation of prelates, the obtaining of benefices, 
the carrying on of suits and appeals before the Holy 
See — for dispensations, absolutions, indulgences, 
privileges and other favors. In all former days the 
archbishops used to confirm the elections of the bish- 
ops their suffragans ; but in our time John XXII. 
violently usurped that right. And now another pope 
demands from his clergy a new and unheard-of sub- 
sidy, threatening his censures on all who shall refuse 
or oppose. Resist the beginning of this evil, and 
permit not the establishment of this degrading servi- 
tude.' — (Fleury, 1. xcvi. s. xxxviii.) It was in the 
same year that the Emperor addressed to the Arch- 
bishop of Mayence the following complaints respect- 
ing the secular habits of his Clergy: — De Christi 
Patrimonio ludos, hastiludia ettornearaenta exercent; 
habitum militarem cum praetextis aureis et argenteis 
gestant, et calceos militares-; comam et barbam nu- 
triunt, et nihil, quod ad vitam et ordinem Ecclesias- 
ticum spectat, ostendunt. Militaribus se duntaxat et 
secniaribus actibus, vita et moribus, in suae salutis 
dispendium et generate populi scandalum, immis- 
cent. — The passage is cited by Robertson, History 
Charles V., B. ii. 



of Petrarch, * and on an understanding of 
perfect friendship and mutual co-operation 
with the emperor, he abandoned the splendid 
security of Avignon, and departed, with his 
reluctant court, for Rome. On his way, a 
popular tumult at Viterbo dismayed and even 
endangered some of the cardinals; but no 
other impediment was offered ; and in Octo- 
ber, 1367, the pope once more occupied the 
half-dismantled palace of his predecessors. 
He divided a peaceful residence of about 
three years between Rome f and Montefias- 
eone, where he passed the summer months ; 
and his alliance with Charles IV. of Germa- 
ny, whatever may have been the dispositions 
of his subjects, guaranteed him against any 
political outrage. Nevertheless, in 1370, pro- 
bably on the persuasion of the Fronch cardin- 
als, \ he returned to Avignon, where he died 
immediately afterwards. 

Gregory XL — Again was a Frenchman, 
Gregory XL, elected to the chair, and he pro- 
fessed his inclination to repeat the experiment 
which had been made by his predecessor ; 
but his resolution was weakened and retarded 
by the intrigues of his countrymen. He list- 
ened, indeed, with attention to the prayer of 
a solemn deputation from the Roman people, 
in 1374 ; but he took no immediate steps to 
grant it. 

Catharine of Sienna. — Two yeai-s afterwards 
he was still at Avignon, when he was again 
importuned on the same subject by a very dif- 
ferent instrument of solicitation. There was 
one Catharine, the daughter of a citizen at Si- 
enna, who had embraced the monastic life, and 
acquired extraordinary reputation for sancti- 
ty. In the rigor of her fastings and watdi- 
ings, in the duties of seriousness and silence, 
in the fervency and continuance of her pray- 
ers, she far surpassed the merit of her holy 



* ' Cogita tecum ' (says Petrarch) ' in die ultimi 
judicii an resurgere amas inter Avinionicos peccato- 
res famosissimos nunc omnium qui sub coelo sunt, an 
inter Petrum et Paulum, Stephanum et Lanrentium, 
&e. &c.' The same argument, which is the con- 
cluding one, may probably have been adopted a few 
years afterwards by Catharine of Sienna. Petrarch 
became a very ardent eulogist of this Pope. 

t The Pope had the honor, during this period, of 
entertaining both the Emperors as his guests. Charles 
IV. visited him at Montefiascone in 1368; John 
Palfeologus in the year following at Rome. 

X Spondanus, Ann. 1370, s. iv. St. Brigida,who 
was at that time in Italy, is related to have assured 
the Pope, on the authority of an express revelation 
from the holy Virgin, that his return to Avignon 
would be immediately followed by his death — abiit 
nihilo-minus. Peter of Arragon likewise prophesiea 
the Grand Schism from the same e^ent. 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



sisters ; and the austerities which she prac- 
tised prepared people to believe the fables 
which she related : * for she professed to have 
derived her spiritual knowledge from no hu- 
man instructer — from no humbler source, 
than the direct and personal communication 
of Christ himself On one occasion especial- 
ly she had been blessed by a vision, in which 
the Saviour appeared to her, accompanied by 
the Holy Mother and a numerous host of 
saints, and in their presence he solemnly es- 
poused her, placing on her finger a golden 
ring, adorned with four pearls and a diamond. 
After the vision had vanished, the ring still 
remained, sensible and palpable to herself, 
though invisible to eveiy other eye. Nor 
was this the only favor which she boasted to 
have received from the Lord Jesus : she had 
sucked the blood from the wound in His side ; 
she had received His heart in exchange for 
her own ; she bore on her body the marks of 
His wounds — though these too were imper- 
ceptible by any sight except her own.f 

We do not relate such disgusting impiety, 
either because it was uncommon in those 
days, or because it was crowned by the sol- 
emn approbation of the Roman Church ; for 
the wretched fanatic was canonized, and 
occupies no despicable station in the Holy 
Calendar : but it is a more extraordinary cir- 
cumstance, awakening a deeper astonishment, 
that Catharine of Sienna was invited from 
her cell by the messengers of the Florentine 
people, and officially charged, by the compat- 
riots of Dante and the contemporaries of Pe- 
trarch, with an important commission at the 
Court of Rome; the office of mitigating the 
papal displeasure, and reconciling the Church 
with the Repubhc was confided to her en- 
thusiasm. She was admitted to an early 
audience. Her arguments, which she deliv- 
ered in the vulgar Tuscan, were explained by 
the interpreter who attended her; and in 
conclusion, the Pope (assured, no doubt, of 
her devoted attachment to the Church) ex- 
pressed his willingness to leave the differences 
entirely to her decision. X But the embassy 

* Fleury thinks that she believed them herself, and 
he may be right: — Une imagination vive, echauffee 
par les jeunes et les veilles, pouvoit y avoir grande 
part: d'autant plus, qu'aucune occupation exterieure 
lie detournoit ces pensees. — Liv. xcvii. s. xl. 

•}• On the body of St. Francis the wounds were 
visible — a distinction conferred, as his disciples as- 
sert, on him alone. See Spondanus, ann. 1376. s. iv. 

X Spondanus, ann. 1376, s. ii. It does not ap- 
pear, by the way, that the Florentines were ready to 
extend the same deference to her judgment. See 
Sismondi, chap. xllx. 



of Catharine was not confined to that object 
only ; for, whether in obedience to the wish 
of the Florentines or to the suggestions of her 
own spirit, she urged at the same time the 
duties, which the pontiff owed to his Italian 
subjects, to the tombs of the x^postles, to the 
chair of his mighty predecessors ; and her 
reasons are said to have influenced a mind 
already predisposed to listen to them. 

Respecting the motives which created that 
disposition, it must be mentioned that the 
residence at Avignon was no longer recom- 
mended by that careless security which at 
first distinguished it from Rome. The open 
country had been invaded and the city men- 
aced by one of those Companies of associated 
brigands who were the terror of the fourteenth 
century. During the pontificate of Innocent 
VI. the inhabitants and the court had been 
compelled to seek for safety sometimes in 
their arms,* sometimes in their riches ; and 
though the danger might not be very pressing, 
yet being near at hand and fresh in recollec- 
tion, it perhaps influenced beyond its impor- 
tance the Councils of Avignon. The Pope's 
resolution, however, still wavered ; and was 
at length decided by a second embassy from 
Rome, which arrived about two months after 
the visit of St. Catharine. The envoys ex- 
pressly assured him, that unless he returned 
to his See, the Romans would provide a Pope 
for themselves, who would reside among 
them ; his cardinal legate at the city gave him 
the same assurance ; and it afterwards ap- 
peared, that overtures had already been made 
to the Abbot of Monte Cassino to that effect. 
This was no moment for delay. Gregory 
immediately departed for his capital ; and 
thence, whatever may have been his private 
intentions, he was not destined to return. 

The place of the death of a pope was at 
that time of more lasting importance to the 
Church than his living residence, because the 
election of a successor could scarcely fail to 
be affected by the local circumstances under 
which he might be chosen. There could be 
no security for the continuance of the papal 
residence at Rome, until the crown should 
be again placed upon the head of an Italian. 
At Avignon, the French cardinals, who 
were more numerous, were certain to elect 
a French pope ; but the accident which 
should oblige the Conclave to assemble in an 
Italian city, might probably lead, through the 
operation of external influences, to the choice 
of an Italian. That accident at length occur- 



* Matt. Villan., lib. vii. cap. xcvi. 



ITS HERESIES AND DIVISIONS. 



393 



red, and its consequences will be pursued in 
the folio wiag chapter. 

Section II. 

General History of the Church, its Heresies, &fc. 

In the meantime, the account which has been 
given of the pontiffs of Avignon is sufficient 
to throw some light on their individual mer- 
its, and, what is of much more consequence, 
on the general character and principles of 
their government. But a deeper considera- 
tion of this important period, suggests some 
reflections which it is proper to express; 
while there are some facts, less closely con- 
nected with papal biography, but not less 
strictly appertaining to the histoiy of the 
Church, which have not been noticed, but 
which cannot wholly be overlooked. Ac- 
cordingly, we shall first observe the decline 
which took place, during these seventy years, 
in the pontifical power, and point out some 
of its most efficient causes. We shall then 
inquire, whether any attempts were made to 
obviate that decay, by measures of reform or 
renovation. The heresies which divided the 
Church, and the efforts which aimed to ex- 
tinguish them, will be the last, and not the 
least instructive, subject of our examination. 

I. Decline of the papal power. — The various 
and desultory warfare, alike savage in its cir- 
cumstances and fruitless in its results, which 
was waged in Italy by the legates and mer- 
cenaries of the Pope, * in defence of the pat- 
rimony of St. Peter, is described by the civil 
historians of those times ; nor shall we de- 
scend to recount the intrigues which were 
employed in the same contest, or the bulls 
which were so repeatedly and vainly launch- 
ed from Avignon. But the evil, which these 
measures were intended to repress, was deep- 
ly felt at the time, and was fatally pernicious 
in its consequences. We have observed that, 
even during his residence at Rome and in the 
fulness of his power, the Pope was seldom in 
undisputed possession of the apostolical do- 



* It is truly remarked by Sismondi, that the Avig- 
non Popes prosecuted these wars with, greater ardor, 
than they would have done, had they been resident in 
Italy, or than they could, had they drawn their re- 
sources only from Italy. They suffered no personal 
dangers, they saw nothing of the evils which they in- 
flicted, and they derived their supplies from the con- 
tributions of the whole church. The complaints 
which the Florentine? had against the papal Guber- 
natores are enumerated with great warmth by Leo- 
nardus Aretinus. Hist. Florent,, lib. viii., 181, 2. 
50 



mains. But, in the season of his emigration, 
he could place little reliance on the friends 
whom he had deserted, while the license of 
his enemies and depredators increased with- 
out restraint. Cities and populous districts 
were thus separated from the ecclesiastical 
states, and several among the Roman barons, 
who were his feudatories, usuiped in per})e- 
tuity the lands of the Church. The deficiency 
thus occasioned in the pontifical treasury must 
needs be supplied from some new sourre ; 
since the change in nation and residence had 
abated nothing of the pomp and prodigality 
of the Vicars of Christ. The funds to which 
they had chiefly recourse for this purpose 
were twofold. By the more general and 
easy sale of indulgences, they levied a pro- 
ductive tax upon the superstition of tlie peo- 
ple ; at the same time they made a dangeroiis 
experiment on the submission of the clergy 
by various imposts on all ecclesiastical pro- 
perty.* The right of presentation to all vacant 
sees appears to have been first usurped by the 
Popes of Avignon. It was abused as soon as 
usurped ; and the system of reservation de- 
prived the diocese of its pastor, while it car- 
ried away its revenues into the apostolical 
chancery. At the same time the frequent 
contribution of tenths and first-fruits, raised 
under crusading or other pretences, gave 
deeper offence to the sacred order, as it 
touched their interests more directly and 
personally. It was vain to imagine, that the 
monstrous system of papacy could long sub- 
sist, unless supported by the attachment and 
almost unanimity of the ecclesiastical body ; 
nor could such concord easily take place, un- 
less the Pope could contrive to identify his 

* The following are mentioned as the sources of 
the papal exactions from England during the four- 
teenth century: — (1.) Peter's Pence ; for the supposed 
support of the English pilgrims at Rome: it scarcely 
exceeded 200/. a-year. (2.) King John's census, of 
1000 marks. This was tolerably well paid, till the 
time of Urban V., in 1366, when king, clergy, lords, 
and commons, proclaimed the payment illegal, and 
it ceased. (3.) The payment of First-fiuits. The 
origin of this is referred to the presents which, in 
very early ages, a bishop at his consecration, or a 
priest at his ordination, paid to the officiating prelate. 
It was abolished by Gregory the Great, but soon 
grew up again, and insensibly came to be rated at a 
year's income. Presently, when prelates obtaine' 
their sees by provisions, those first-fruits flowed into 
the apostolical treasury. Those of smaller benefices 
were at first granted, seemingly in the thirteenth cen- 
tury, to bishops and archbishops. At length, Clement 
V. reserved for his own use all first-fruits, and John 
XXII. imitated his example. See Lingard's Hist. 



394 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



interests with those of the clergy, or at least 
to persuade the clergy of such identity. But 
from the hour that his exigencies could only 
be supplied at their expense, — that his dig- 
nity, his luxuries, his very vices, tended to 
impoverish, and no longer to enrich, them ; 
from that hour a very powerful, though very 
sordid instrument of connexion began to give 
way, and the discontent, which might orig- 
inate in pure selfishness, found abundant fuel, 
as well as ample justification, in the manifold 
abuses which disgraced the papal court. 

Rapacity of the Popes, and projligacy of the 
Court. — Still there had been less danger from 
this disaffection, had the Popes pressed their 
impolitic exactions with any show of modera- 
tion ; had they been contented to satisfy their 
necessities, or even to maintain with judicious 
liberality the ceremony and pomp of office. 
But so far were they removed from any such 
discretion, that it rather seomed their object so 
to reign, as to unite prodigality with avarice 
— to spend profusely and hoard insatiably. 
It was this spirit of rapacity which presided 
over the councils of Avignon. The lofty pre- 
tensions which animated and even dignified 
the Pontiffs of former days, were degraded 
into mere lifeless instruments to the lowest 
worldly purposes. We seek not now for 
the deep religious enthusiasm of the earliest 
Popes, for that had long been extinguished ; 
but the exalted and magnanimous audacity 
of the Gregories and even the Innocents, — 
the settled ecclesiastical fanaticism (if we may 
use the expression,) which so long dazzled 
the reason of man, — these too had at length 
given place to baser principles and passions. 
The cloud of mystery, which had so long 
hung over the chair of St. Peter, filling the 
nations with awe for the invisible power and 
majesty residing there, was at length dispersed 
and broken awa}^, and in its place was dis- 
covered the nakedness of human turpitude. 
The charm of opinion began gradually to dis- 
solve ; and whatsoever prejudices many still 
retained in favor of the papal government, 
they were weakened by the sordid motives 
which now directed it ; and an unpopular 
vice became still more detested, when it was 
found engrafted upon the ecclesiastical char- 
acter. 

Another cause, which materially assisted, 
during this period, in hastening the decline 
of papacy, was the shameless profligacy of 
the court of Avignon. There is no dispute as 
to this fact ; and even moderate writers have 
sti-ained their language, in order to present a 



just picture of that deformity. We refer not 
to the partial philippics of Petrarch ; nor to 
the unholy name of Babylon, which may first 
have been affixed to the city of the Popes, 
from a similarity in crime. But when Den- 
ina assures us, that the licentiousness of the 
clergy became excessive and universal, from 
the time that the scandals of Avignon had re- 
moved all restraint and shame ; and when Sis- 
mondi* declares, that that people and that court 
made themselves manners out of the vices of 
all other nations, those historians do not exceed 
the testimony of contemporary authorities. 
The causes and sources of this pestilence are 
disputed: it is ascribed by the French writers 
to the importation of Transalpine fashions and 
morals into their less corrupt climate ; while 
the Italians retoit the charge of greater im- 
purity, and enlarge, perhaps with more jus- 
tice, on the temptations which may ensnai-e 
a bishop who resides at a distance from his 
diocese, who is surrounded by a court of pre- 
lates also non-resident, without any spiritual 
care or any restraint from the observation of 
the people. Howbeit, this argument would 
have had more weight, had the court of Rome 
been less polluted: but whatever may have 
been the comparative delinquencies of Rome 
and Avignon, it is at least certain, that the 
latter were more indecent and more notori- 
ous ; that offences, which (if they were really 
practised) had been heretofore veiled or only 
partially known, were now exposed and stig- 
matized universally ; and that the only alter- 
native thenceforward remaining to the ponti- 
fical government was to correct those flagrant 
abuses, or by their means to fall, f 

The publication of the celebrated bull, call- 
ed Unam Sanctam, in which Boniface VIII. 
asserted the extreme pretensions of his see to 
both descriptions of supremacy, may be view- 
ed, perhaps, as the great Crisis in papal his- 
tory. As far as that moment, nothing had 
been ceded in the pontifical claims, and noth- 
ing abated in the arrogance with v^^hich they 
were pressed. It may be, that their founda- 



* Denina, Delle Rivoluz. d'ltalia, lib. xv., cap. vi. 
Sismondi, Rep. Ital., chap, xlviii. SeeBaluz., Pref. 
in Vitas Pontif. Avenionensium. 

t During the pontificate of John XXH., complaints 
against the clergy began to break out very commonly 
in France, occasioned by the excess to which they 
carried their jurisdiction, as well as other offences. 
But Philip the Regent protected them, — ' Jura eccle- 
siarum auxerim potius quam imminuta velim.' It is 
remarkable, that it was to this declaration that the 
kings of France are indebted for the title of Catholic, 
— so, at least, says Bzovius, Ann. 1329, s. xxiii. 



ITS HERESIES AND DIVISIONS. 



395 



tions had been silently crumbling beneath 
them, but their actual instabihty was still 
concealed by outward show and magnificent 
pretension. But from this point the descent 
was perceptible, and it soon became very 
rapid ; and Philip, having penetrated the se- 
cret of the real weakness of the See, effectu- 
ally brought about its humiliation. His attack 
on the personal safety of Boniface, though in 
a great measure defeated by the undaunted 
constancy of that Pontiff, disclosed to the 
whole world the domestic insecurity of the 
Bishop of Rome. 

Still it must be acknowledged that a Pope, as 
long as the seat of his government was his own 
capital, could not ever be the mere depend- 
ent of any sovereign ; and this is the argument 
by which Romaii Catholic writers most plau- 
sibly defend the temporal power of the Chief 
of their church. But no sooner had he cross- 
ed the Alps and transferred his court to 
France, than he descended to the condition 
of a subordinate prince. It was in vain, 
that the formalities of respect, and even the 
show of equality, were observed : the influ- 
ence of the King of France predominated in 
the councils of Avignon ; and the sense and 
the notoriety of temporal dependence dis- 
couraged the ghostly pretensions of the Pope, 
and blunted the edge of his weapons. For 
this, among other reasons, we are not sur- 
prised to observe, that the ecclesiastical cen- 
sures lost much of their efhcacy during this 
age ; that they were received in various coun- 
tries with various degrees of indifference, 
but that this indifference was everywhere 
increasing. Italy herself was the most con- 
spicuous for the general neglect with which 
she treated them .; and Italy, in her spiritual 
rebellion, did no more than imitate the pre- 
eminent obduracy of Rome, For Rome was 
irritated by the absence of her prelate ; and her 
habitual contumacy and lawlessness found 
great pretence and some justification, when 
she was deprived even of the ordinal^ ad- 
vantages of an episcopal residence. 

Another severe, and even incurable, wound, 
was inflicted on papal despotism by the threat 
of appeal to a General Council, which was 
first urged by Philip, and eagerly repeated by 
Louis of Bavaria. That there was a power 
superior to the Pope within the church itself, 
was a principle which was sure to find many 
advocates even in the ecclesiastical body. 
Once broached, and on such high authority, 
it was commonly discussed, and by discus- 
sion gained ground ; and though the progress 



of reason against established prejudice is usu- 
ally very slow, the mmds of many were pre- 
pared for this innovation during the fii-st half 
of the fourteenth century ; but it was not 
can-ied into full effect till somewhat later. 

Of the dissensions which divided the church 
during this period, and which we shall pres- 
ently notice, none probably occasioned so 
great scandal at the time, as the disputes car- 
ried on by the more rigid Franciscans against 
the Pope hunself. Between tlie higher ranks 
of the secular clergy and their acknowledged 
head, we have observed differences not un- 
common respecting their authority, their rev- 
enues, or the removal of their coiTuptions. 
But the regular orders had hitherto observed 
the strictest allegiance to a president, whose 
interests were inseparably connected with 
their own ; and this was the first occasion 
on which the pontifical court was disturbed 
by the sound of monastic insubordination. 
There was danger in an example, which might 
be followed by any discontented branch of the 
priesthood ; but the consequence, which real- 
ly and immediately followed it, was to open 
the eyes of the laity to the deformities of 
the system, and to rouse them against those 
abuses, which ecclesiastics themselves no 
longer conspired to defend. 

But another, and a still jmore certain instru- 
ment for the subversion of papacy had been 
now for some time in operation, and it ac- 
quired additional power during the fourteenth 
century ; an instrument, independent of the 
accidents of papal ' captivity ' or ecclesiastical 
discord, and one which, however aided by 
such circumstances, would surely have ac- 
complished its task without them. Human 
reason had at length been awakened from its 
long lethargy; and though its first flights 
were wild and irregular,* it was beginning to 
extend its influence and to know its authori- 
ity. The means of education were multipli- 
ed, its character was varied and exalted ; and 
what was most important to all purposes 
of general improvement, its advantages were 
no longer confined to a privileged body, but 
were diffused through every condition of 
society. The subjects, indeed, which still 
engrossed the greater portion of the learning 
of those days, were generally connected with 
theology, or with the constitution and disci- 
pline of the church. Still it was not to 
churchmen alone, that such discussions were 
confined. Those who profited by the ecclesi- 
astical system were no longer the only persons 
qualified to argue respecting it. No sooner 



396 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



were the gates opened, than the laity rushed 
into that province with great eagerness ; and 
the seeds of the Reformation were already 
scattered, though it was uncertain when they 
would break forth, or what fruits they would 
bear in their maturity. 

II. Attempts at Reformation, — The abuses 
which gave most offence at the commence- 
ment of this period, so as to excite the indig- 
nation of the better portion of the clergy, and 
even to claim the attention of the hierarchy, 
have been enumerated in a former page, as 
they were presented to the Council of Vienna. 
They were not corrected on that occasion, and 
they increased in consequence. 

We must not, however, suppose, that no 
regulations were enacted under the Avignon 
Popes for the amendment of the ecclesiastical 
system ; they were very numerous; * but the 
misfortune was, that they were generally mis- 
directed. They descended to insignificant 
p rticulars, or were fabricated by one portion 
of the clergy against another, or by the or- 
thodox against the heretics ; or they related 
to the imposts of the Pope and the means 
<->f evading them ; they never reached those 
grand deformities which endangered the 
chiurch, through the just offence which they 
gave to the laity. It is true that some papal 
constitutions were pubhshed both against the 
non-residence of the clergy and the holding 
of pleuralities. But the first could not be 
consistently enforced by a prelate who had 
iiever visited his own see; and the Popes, 
though they held decisive language, f were 

* A luirnber of the Councils assembled for this pur- 
pose, aiirl the prinripai canons enacted by them are 
mentioned bySemler, sec. xiv.,cap. ii. The follovv- 
inff are specimens: — Concil. Coloniense, ann. 1313. 
Ne clericis publica poenitentia imponatur, cum alii in 
albis procedunt, alii in nigris cappis, in facie laico- 
rum. Ne fiant imprecationes contra aliquas personas. 
Concil. Trevirevse, ej. ann. Contra gerentes cu- 
cuteras, sen cu'^usas, mitras, virgatas, scacatas vestes. 
Contra convivia in exequiis. . . Ut ante vel post vel 
super altare sit imago, sculptura, pictura, in cujus 
Sancti meritum constructum sit. . . Si infans caput 
ex utero emiserit a muliere baptizetur ; si solum caput 
vel pars corporis major appareat nee discerni potest 
sexus: dicat, Creatura Dei, ego, &c. &c., et ejit 
haptizatus. 

t John XXH. in 1317 put forth a constitution 
against all ambitious and avaricious clergymen, com- 
plaining of their non-residence, neglect of hospitality, 
the ruin of their churches, &c. And we observe, at 
the same time, that he deposed a bishop; not, how- 
ever, on any of these grave charges, but for the of- 
fence of contumacy. (Bzov., ann. 1317, s. xiii.) 
The same pontiff also published an edict against plu- 



manifestly insincere in the second. Or, if we 
are to admit that one or two among them 
were really earnest in their washes and en- 
deavors, they were at least prevented fi*om 
taking measures to effectuate them by the 
fear of offending the most powerful, though 
perhaps the least deserving, part of the sacred 
body. 

III. Divisions and Heresies. — ^When Fran- 
cis of Umbria first established his rigid Order, 
his rule was celebrated by the applause of 
successive popes. The impious fables which 
he propagated, respecting the miraculous im- 
pression of the Saviour's wounds on his body, 
and other such matters, were countenanced 
and dignified by the authority of the Church ; 
he was adopted with eagerness into the fami- 
ly of the Saints ;* and the extreme austerity 
of the institution seemed in some fashion to 
be sanctified by the superstitious reverence, 
thus studiously thrown around the name of 
the Founder. We are not, then, to be aston- 
ished when we observe, that several among 
his followers adhered to the very letter of his 
instructions with unprecedented pertinacity, 
and scorned the vulgar temptations to soften 
their severity. The example of relaxation 
set to them by almost every other Order, the 
desertion of the more numerous part even of 
their own brethren, the moderate indulgence 
I enjoined by the Pope himself, were insuffi- 
cient to seduce those honest fanatics from 
strict obedience to their law, or to abate the 



ralities, beginning ' Execrabilis quorundam,' &c., 
and continued in a strain of emphatic abuse. (See 
Vit., (3tia.) Joh. XXII. ap. Baluzium.) Similar 
laws were launched, with the same inefficiency, by 
Benedict XII., and afterwards by Innocent VI. A 
curious stoi*y is told to prove the zeal of this last. 
Innocent, before his elevation, had a favorite chap- 
lain, on whom had been conferred seven benefices. 
As soon as he became Pope, the chaplain again pre- 
sented himself, bringing with him a little godson, for 
whom he wished also to procure a benefice. But the 
Pope, like a just man, answered him: 'You have 
seven good benefices; resign the best of them to that 
boy.' On which, when Innocent saw that the pe- 
titioner was discontented, he again said, ' You have 
still six benefices, and fewer would suffice for your 
necessities : choose-, then, for yourself the three best 
of them, and resign tlie others, that I may bestow 
them, for the honor of God, on three poor clergymen.' 
The Pope was highly applauded for that act, as hav- 
ing therein followed the path of spiritual, rather than 
carnal aflfectjon. See Vita (4ta) Innocent. VI., apud 
Baluzium. 

* Both Francis and Dominic were canonized by 
the same pope, Gregory IX. (about 1235;) so like- 
wise was Anthony of Padua, and other less consider- 
able personages. 



ITS HERESIES AND DIVISIONS. 



S97 



vivid faith which they placed in their master. 
For indeed it was to faith that their feelings 
amounted, when they maintained that St. 
Francis was a second Christ — nothing inferior 
or dissimilar to the first ; and that the institu- 
tion which he left behind him was the true 
gospel of salvation. 

Entire and absolute poverty, the complete 
renunciation of all property, whether common 
or personal, was the fundamental principle of 
the society, the only principle of Christian 
obedience — the only rule of evangelical per- 
fection. In defence of that position, it be- 
came them at the same time to profess and 
argue, that the practice of Christ and his 
Apostles had been rigidly formed upon the 
same rule ; and this became accordingly the 
question in dispute with their theological ad- 
versaries. Those adversaries, as we may well 
suppose, were neither few nor of humble 
rank. A courtly and luxurious hierarchy 
were scandalized by that unquahfied asser- 
tion of the necessity of poverty ; and Christ's 
imperious vicegerent upon earth was shocked 
by so homely a picture of the humility of his 
heavenly Lord. 

Some unsuccessful endeavors were made 
in the -preceding century to bring the Fratri- 
celli, or Blinorites (so they were denominated) 
to a more reasonable view of the gospel in- 
stitution, and of the spvit of then- own rule : 
but it does not appear that any personal out- 
rage was offered them until the year 1306 ; 
and even then it proceeded, as was naturally 
to be expected, from the more worldly mem- 
bers of their own fraternity. From Italy, 
many then fled into Provence, and were scat- 
tered over the south of France ; and at this 
time they are represented to have united with 
the Spirituals, and the Beghards and Be- 
guines. The name Spiritual is said to have 
been first assumed by the followers of a schis- 
matic of that age, named Pierre d'Olive ; the 
others were the Tertiarii, or third order of 
Franciscans. All were equally opposed to 
the existing system of papal government. 
As their principles were henceforward iden- 
tified, so also was their history ; and the term 
spiritual is that by which the observers of the 
rule of absolute poverty were commonly dis- 
tinguished from theu' less austere Brethren of 
the Community. 

Disputes between the Popes and tlie Francis- 
cans. — Clement V. interposed his mediation 
between these contentious mendicants; and 
at the Council of Vienna he issued the Bull 
Exivi de Paradiso, with the design of bring- 
ing theni to concord by mutual concession. 



He permitted to the Spirituals the enjoyment 

of the most abject poverty ; while at the same 
time, to such Franciscans as resided in barren 
countries, where the resources of mendicity 
were precarious, he allowed the use of gran- 
aries and store-houses, as places of deposit for 
their common alms. Nevertheless, though all 
acts of violence were for the moment sus- 
pended, the division of the Order continued 
as before, and the mutual animosity was in 
no degree abated ; and a distinction in dress 
at this time introduced by the Minorites, 
who adopted a meaner and coarser habit, 
contributed no little to inflame the contro- 
versy. 

Matters stood thus, when John XXII. was 
raised to the pontificate ; and since the mod- 
eration of his predecessors had not availed to 
heal the schism, he entered without any delay 
into the opposite system. We observe that 
the Fratricelli are enumerated among the 
heretics condemned in an edict which he 
published in 1317 ; and in the year following 
he made them the object of a memorable hull : 
— " The glorious Church which has neither 
stain nor wrinkle, which Christ loved, and for 
which he delivered himself to death, that he 
might sanctify it by washing it with water in 
the Word of Life — this Church the Prophet 
knew by the revelation of the Spirit to be 
placed before all nations; and admiring the 
splendor of so much dignity, he exhibited it 
under the similitude of royalty, saying — A 
queen stood on thy right hand, in gilded 
garments, &c. &c." * Afier describing the 
nature of the union between Christ and his 
spouse the Church, and especially eulogizing 



* ' Gloriosam Ecclesiam, non habentem macularo 
aut riigam, (juain Chiistus dilexit, pro qua semet 
ipsiim tradidit, &c. NimJrum ipsa Christi Sponsa 
Virgo Mater Ecclesia, quia inclyto Capiti suo Domino 
Jesu Cliristo iiniolabilis fidei glutino copulatur, et 
ejus iini)erio prona ohedientia substernitur, cum lUo 
unum effecta, tarn incomparabilis unionis merito rebus 
omnibus, more regio, principatur. Quje dum pia et 
devota religione terrena despicit, caelestia petit, omne 
sinistrum premens, a dextris Sponsi gloriosaconsistit, 
Et quia geminae charitatis splendore omni ex parte 
rutilat, in vestitu aureo etiam angelicis spiritibus 
admiranda coruscat. Cujus inspstimabilis decor, 
quia vario vivendi genere ill una tamen charitate per- 
ficitur, quasi de vestis pulcherrima varielate Iveta- 
tur. . . ' Such were the senseless and even impious 
rhapsodies, with which a very bad pope celebrated 
the corrupt church, which he still further corrupted 
by his acts and his eulogies; — not that he was really 
blind to its deformities, but because he was too timid 
or too wicked to correct them, and because he be- 
lieved that the system, with all its vices upon its head, 
would slill last and be profitable /or his own time. 



398 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



the charity of the latter, the Pope proceeded 
to expose the errors of the Minorites. He 
classed them under five heads, and showed 
how they combined the various enormities 
of the Donatists, of the Waldenses, and the 
Manicheans, while they also followed the 
* foul traces ' of Montanus * and Priscilla. 
The burden of their offence was contempt 
of the ' bonds of the Church,' and disrespect 
for its ministers ; howbeit, being convicted by 
the edict of John of certain condemned and 
stigmatized heresies, they were consigned by 
the same act to inquisitorial authority. The 
agents of oppression executed their part with 
no delay ; and the very same year four of the 
Fratricelli were seized at Marseilles, and burnt 
to death. 

From this moment the contest assumed a 
much more serious character. The devotion 
of the Spirituals was now sealed, and their 
resistance sanctified, by the blood of their 
martyrs; their zeal, their activity, their num- 
bers everywhere increased; and the more 
violent were the proceedings of the inquisi- 
tors, the more advocates did the persecuted 
acquire, the more generally they rose into 
respect and consideration. Their great prin- 
ciple respecting the poverty of Christ was now 
made the subject of solemn deliberation; and 
the most celebrated divines of the age, espe- 
cially those of Paris, were officially consulted 
on the question, and finally the Pope himself 
descended into the field of controversy — and 
happier had been his fortunes, and his memo- 
ry more honored, had he confined his hostility 
to that bloodless warfare. At the end of 1322 
he published a Constitution, in which he con- 
futed the arguments of the Franciscans, and 
asserted for the monastic orders the right of 
property, instead of the simple use of their 
immediate necessaries. The Spirituals re- 



* In the account of Montanus (given in Chap. V. 
p. 78.) it is too confidently asserted that Ae ^ro/essetf 
to he the Paraclete or Comforter. It is indeed 
the deliberate opinion of Mosheim that he professed 
to be the Paraclete, sent down to complete the 
Christian system ; but that writer supposes the fanatic 
to have distinguished between the Paraclete and the 
Holy Spirit, and not to have proceeded so far as to 
assert his identity with the latter. Bishop Kaye is 
of opinion that Montanus only laid claims to inspi- 
ration by the Holy Ghost; and he certainly shows 
that the distinction, supposed to have been made be- 
tween the Holy Ghost and the Paraclete, has no 
foundation. It seems probable that the bishop's 
opinion is correct. At least theonly alternative is 
to believe, that Montanus pretended to be the Holy 
Ghost — an absurdity by no means unparalleled in the 
history of heresy. 



jected the right with the same obstinacj'', 
with which it was dictated by the Pope ; and 
it was at least a singular contest, and worthy 
of a more religious age and more reasonable 
motives, where the one party indignantly re- 
pudiated the worldly possessions, which the 
other imperiously obtruded — where a body 
of beggars preferred the endurance of a dead- 
ly persecution to the sacrifice of the duty of 
poverty. 

In this manner the dispute proceeded, until 
the rupture between John and Louis of Ba- 
varia became open and decided. Then the 
Emperor, as if to turn against the Church the 
old ecclesiastical policy, hastened to profit by 
the divisions of his adversary, and to foment 
the spiritual rebellion. The provinces of the 
empire were thrOwh open to all the denom- 
inations of schism and heresy; and the multi- 
form enemies of papacy found refuge in the 
dominions of Louis, and honor at his court. 
Marsilius of Padua, Csesenas, Bonagratia, and 
William Occam, were the most illustrious 
among those exiles. They directed their elo- 
quence, their learning, and their satire, both 
personally against John, and generally against 
the system of the Church ; and their writings, 
which were eagerly read even by that genera- 
tion, were transmitted with still greater profit 
to a less prejudiced posterity. 

On the other hand, the Pope * was ardent- 
ly supported by his Dominican emissaries. 
Their thirst for heretical blood was heated by 
a particular jealousy of the Franciscan Order. 
Wherever an avenue was open they penetrat- 
ed. They pursued the fugitives even into the 
remote plains of Poland and Hungaiy, and 
introduced into those ignorant regions the 
machinery of the Inquisition. But France 
and Italy f were the scene of their most suc- 
cessful exertions; and these were not con- 
fined to the pontificate of John. Even the 



* The history of John XXII. abounds with edicts 
against the various denominations of heresy. We 
are also bound to mention that he published (in 1326) 
one Constitution to repress the too great zeal of 
certain inquisitors in Sicily; but when we examine 
the nature of that zeal, we find that it had ventured 
to attack ' nostros et apostolicse sedis officiales vel 
nuntios, &c.' John, as well as several other popes, 
extended more protection to the Jews than they en- 
joyed elsewhere. 

t Vit. John XXII. ap. Baluz. Mosheim calcu- 
lates, from various records published and unpublished, 
that the names of about two thousand persons, of 
both sexes, may be enumerated, who suffered martyr- 
dom in France and Italy for their inflexible attach- 
ment to the poverty of St. Francis. Cent, xiv. p. 
2. ch. ii. 



ITS HERESIES AND DIVISIONS. 



399 



virtuous Benedict began his reign by an ana- 
thema against the Fratricelli; and it is re- 
markable, tlivit, in the Constitution which he 
pubhshed on this occasion,* the articles of 
their heresy are swelled to fifty- five. Their 
denial of the poioer of the Pope to permit them 
to have property is among the most curious, 
and not the least grave, of their offences ; — 
some very gross absurdities were also imputed 
to them, which may have been calumniously, 
as indeed they may have been truly, alleged. 
. . But there is one observation here neces- 
sary, which v/ill tend to account for the great 
multiplicity and vagueness of the charges ad- 
vanced. A furious war was at that time rag- 
ing in Italy between the imperial and papal 
factious ; and it was a part of the crooked 
policy of the churchmen of Rome to confound 
political enmity with spiritual perversity, and 
to brand the adversaries of the visible church 
with the crime of heretical depravity. Among 
the adversaries of the church they usually 
classed its reformers — ^those who were uideed 
its only real friends ; and thus it happened, 
that the term heresy came now to compre- 
hend every opinion unfavorable to the eccle- 
siastical government of the day, and the gates 
of the Inquisition received without distinction 
a various and indiscriminate multitude. 

Still, as long as the reign of Louis continu- 
ed, a secure asylum was offered to all descrip- 
tions of Dissenters ; and these, being already 
connected by one common principle and one 
common wrong, may have adopted fi*om each 
other the absurd opinions, which some of 
them certainly held. But the spirit which 
united them was deep animosity against the 
Pope, whom they accused in thek' turn of 
impiety and usurpation. In the year 1345, f 
Louis was succeeded by Chai'les IV. ; and as 
that Prince was chiefly obliged for his eleva- 
tion to pontifical influence, so his policy fol- 
lowed the interests of the Court of Avignon. 
If the principles of the Bavarian had con- 
tinued to govern his dominions for another 
generation, it is not improbable that the em- 
pire would have wholly freed itself from 



* Bzov. ad ann. 1335, s. ii. 

t About the same time died William Occhara, 
'pestilentissimusHaeresiareha.' — Bzovius (ann. 1347, 
s. xxxvi.,) though he designates this Englishman to 
have been ' omnium incentor malorum, auctor scele- 
rum, cukor tenebrarum, &c. &c.,' still does not at- 
tribute his death to divine interposition; — which is 
the more surprising, because he had not hesitated to 
pronounce somewhat earlier (ann, 1321, s. xxi.) that 
Dante died through the peculiar vengeance of Hea- 
ven, which visited his calumnies against the popes. 



papal supremacy, and raised the banners of 
Reformation in the fourteenth centuiy with 
no inconsiderable advantage to religion. But 
such anticipation of the irrore perfect triumph 
of a more enlightened age was cut short by 
the perfidy * of the Imperial counsels. The 
numerous insurgents against the despotism 
of Rome, whom Louis had encouraged and 
protected and created, were betrayed by his 
successor into the hands of the avenger. The 
peaceful provinces of the empire, hitherto 
sacred from the inroads of persecution, were 
now thrown open to the Dominicans. Their 
irruption was supported by secular edicts and 
arms ; and the extirpation of the ' Voluntary 
beggars' — the enemies of the Church and the 
' Roman empire,^ — was pressed with equal 
ardor by the pope and the emperor. The 
houses of the offenders were given to the tri- 
bunal of the Inquisition, to be converted into 
prisons for heretics ;f and their effects were 
pubhcly sold, for the equal profit of the in- 
quisitors who ordered, of the magistrates who 
enforced, and of the poor who witnessed, their 
execution. The survivors fled towards the 
banks of the Rhine, to Switzerland, Brabant 
and Pomerania ; but they were followed by a 
tempest of mandates and bulls, and hunted 
by the keen Dominicans even into their most 
distant retreats ; till at length it is admitted, 
that the greater part of Germany was restor- 
ed, after this sanguinary purification, to the 
peaceful embrace of the Church, 

But neither edicts, nor bulls, nor inquisitors, 
could suppress the spirit of the schism, though 
they might extinguish its name ; and those 
who preserved their obedience to the more 
rigid rule, were still found to be so numerous, 
and the love of that discipline was still in 
some provinces so prevalent, that the popes 
at length thought proper to sanction the in- 
stitution. Accordingly, the Franciscan Order 
was by authority divided into two bodies. 



* This is no ground perhaps for imputing to Charles 
personally, that his intolerance was aggravated by 
treachery. The individual stands convicted of per- 
secution only. But the circumstance of this change 
adds one to the many instairces, ?n which the steady, 
consistent perseverance of the Vatican has carried 
its point, through the fluctuations of the Imperial 
policy. 

f See Moshelm, Cent. xiv. p. H. ch. ii. Their 
crime is mentioned in ihe edict (published at Lucca in 
1369) which condemns them. ' They are a pernicious 
sect, who pretend to a sacrilegious and heretical 
poverty, and who are under a vow that they neither 
ought to have, nor will have, any property, whedier 
special oi' common, in the goods they use -* which 
they extend even to their wretched habits.' 



400 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCrf. 



which subsist to this day — the more indul- 
gent were called the Conventual Brethren 
— the more austere, the Brethren of Ob- 
servance. The disputes which afterwards 
disturbed this arrangement vs^ere partial and 
insignificant ; and the historian may express 
bis astonishment mixed with sorrow, that so 
simple a method of reconciliation could only 
be reached through the paths of intolerance 
and oppression. 

Beghards and Lollards. — The term Beg- 
hard was in this age commonly applied to 
the Tertiaries of St. Francis ; and, though in 
its origin probably innocent of such princi- 
ples, it was now involved in the guilt and fate 
of the anti-papal heresies. The ' Brethren 
of the free spirit,' the harmless mystics of the 
last century,* had been some time known by 
that appellation ; and sometimes they are de- 
signated as Lollards, in the records of the 
following age. The reason of their confu- 
sion is, that both names were indiscriminately 
used by the Church to stigmatize those who 
dissented from it, without any new^ inquiry 
as to the grounds and points of their dissent. 
Mosheim, who has investigated this subject 
with great diligence, considers the Lollards f 
to have been a society of pious laymen, form- 
ed in the first instance at Antwerp, for the 
purpose of visiting the sick and burying the 
dead during a season of pestilence ; for the 
clergy are affirmed to have deserted their 
official duties, as soon as they became attend- 
ed with peril. The humane motives and re- 
ligious practice of the new society caused it 
to spread throughout Flanders and many 
parts of Germany, and it was encouraged by 
the respect of the magistrates and the love of 
the inhabitants. Its success excited the jeal- 
ousy, as indeed it reflected on the reputation, 
of all the clergy ; but the Mendicants had per- 
haps a deeper motive for animosity against it, 
when they found that their own profits suffi3r- 
ed through its gratuitous charity. Accord- 
ingly, they raised the customary clamors of 
impiety and heresy: under the mask of ex- 
traordinary holiness, the Lollards concealed 
forsooth the blackest errors and the most 
enormous vices ! they were denounced at the 
pontifical throne, and their name has passed 



* See Mosheim, Cent. xiii. p. ii. ch. v. 

t Mosheim, Cent. xiv. p. ii. ch, ii. The word 
Lolhard means a singei — ^as Beghard means one who 
prays. The former were also called the ' Cellite 
brethren and sisters — the Alexian brethren ' — from 
the cells in which they lived, and the saint who was 
their patron. See Seraler, Secul. xiv. cap. i. 



into the language of the Church to designate 
a misbelieving and sanctified hypocrite. 

They may have held some foolish opinions 
— among those generally attributed to them 
the following are the most peculiar : that the 
mind ought to be called away from the ex- 
ternal and sensible parts of religion, and fixed 
on inward and spiritual worship ; that the 
soul which is wholly absorbed in the love of 
God is free from the restraint of every law, 
and may gratify its natural appetites without 
sin ; that perfect virtue and perfect beatitude 
may be obtained in this world ; and that per- 
sons so circumstanced are removed above 
every worldly consideration ; so that the 
moral virtues, as well as the religious cer- 
emonies, might be neglected without offence. 
Moreover they pretended that there were two 
Churches, the carnal Church, which was 
that of Rome ; the spiritual, which was con- 
fined to their own society* . . . Such 
were the crimes imputed to them by the 
Churchmen ; and this last may really have 
been the secret of their offence. Yet, though 
we should believe them to have held almost 
every tenet with which they are charged, 
(for the contempt of moral duties was clearly 
not a tenet, but a consequence calumniousjy 
drawn by their enemies,) may we not discern, 
that the principle from which they departed 
was excellent and holy ? It led them into 
some extravagances ; but were those so gross, 
or nearly so detestable, as the deliberate absur- 
dities which were committed by the Church 
itself during the same period ? — the insertion 
into the Liturgy of ' the words in which the 
angel Gabriel saluted the Virgin Mary' — the 



* Other charges are instanced by Bzovius (ann. 
1307, s. ix.) They held that the Mass, Baptism and 
Extreme Unction were useless ceremonies ; that Lu- 
cifer was an injured being, and that the angels, as 
well as all the enemies of their own sect, would be 
finally condemned ; that Mary did not continue a vir- 
gin after the nativity; that the body of the Lord in 
the Eucharist was not real; that marriage was only 
sanctified whoredom; that God neither punished nor 
regarded human sins. Besides this, they lay together 
promiscuously under the pretence of charity; they 
ate flesh when they would ; they observed no festivals 
and derided the merits and intercession of the saints; 
and finally they were so obstinate under persecution, 
that whatever might be their sex or age, they unani- 
mously preferred death to conversion. ... In this 
strange and calumnious catalogue we may observe the 
malignity, with which some tenets, merely rejecting 
the innovations of Rome, are mixed up with the most 
horrible crimes and blasphemies. Yet this was one 
of the most vulgar among the artifices of the Chm'ch 
men of those days. 



ITS HERESIES AND DIVISIOXS. 



401 



institution of festivals in honor of the lance, 
the nails, the crown of Christ * — the appoint- 
ment of a holy day for the solemn celebration 
of the wounds of Christ, miraculously im- 
pressed upon the body of St. Francis ! . . . . 
If we should believe all the calumnies that 
churchmen have ever fabricated in vilifica- 
tion of the Mystics, we shall find among them 
nothing so irrational, nothing nearly so impi- 
ous, as those authorized ecclesiastical mum- 
meries. 

The Lollards suffered some oppression in 
Austria and other countries; but a war of 
extermination does not appear to have been 
formally proclaimed against them. No doubt, 
they were confounded by the inquisitors, 
sometimes erroneously and sometimes wil- 
fully,, with the more avowed enemies of the 
papal government; and thus they shared that 
vengeance, which was chiefly intended for 
the Spirituals and Beghards. But whether 
through their greater obscurity or more man- 
ifest hai-mlessness, they escaped in compara- 
tive safety, without any direct attack, — and to 
this tolerance it may perhaps be attributed, 
that the sect of the Lollards f (properly so 
called) never rose into great power and never 
became dangerous to the Catholic Church. 

Dulcinus. — During the reign of Clement 
v., a preacher named Dulcinus, attended by a 
woman called Mai-garet, his wife or his mis- 
tress, presented himself in Lombardy, and i 
erected in the neighboring mountains the j 
standard of heresy. He was charged with 
contempt of the Catholic hierarchy, and with 
censuring the abuses of their immoderate 
wealth ; also with asserting a succession of 
three theocracies — that those under the Fa- 
ther and the Son were already passed ; that 
the third, under the Holy Spirit, was then in 
operation. :j: Lastly, to consummate his odium, 

* Others might be added. For instance, John 
XXII. re-established with fresh indulgences the festi- 
val of ' the body of Christ ' — granting to all Christ- 
ians a general pardon of forty days for every reverence 
made, on the name of Jesus Christ being pronounced 
by the priest. Giovanni Villani, lib. ii. cap. Ixxix. 

t The name Lollard, as is well known, was after- 
wards generally applied to various ad\ersaries of the 
popish establishment; but the real origin both of the 
name and sect was probably such as has been here 
described- 

i His followers called themselves ' the Spiritual 
Congregation and the Order of the Apostles.' ' We 
alone (they said) are in the perfection in which the 
apostles were, and in the liberty which proceeds 
immediately from Jesus Christ. Wherefore we ac- 
knowledge obedience neither to the pope nor any 
other human being : nor has he any power to ex-cora- 
51 



his followers, who were not veiy numerous, 
were assailed with the primitive and accus- 
tomed calumny of promiscuous prostitution. 
A crusade was preached by the Church 
against these m.iserable enthusiasts, and its 
armies were led to the assault by a zealous 
bishop. Surrounded and pressed among the 
Alpine passes, many had already perished 
from cold and want, before the sword was 
drawn to complete their destruction. It did so 
most effectually ; and Roman Catholic writ- 
ers record without emotion, that the heretic 
was torn in pieces limb from limb, after his 
' Spu'itual Sister' had suffered before his 
eyes by the same torture. As the massacre 
is recorded without emotion, so its conse- 
quence is told without understanding or re- 
flection — that the disciples of the martyr were 
multiplied by the deed, and increased beyond 
number. * 

The history and heresies f of Wiclif 
also belong to this period ; but we shall at 
present leave them unnoticed, as more im- 
mediately appertaining to English histoiy, 
and already familiar to most readers. And 
if we pass from the name of that great patri- 
arch of the Reformation to the mention of a 
transient sect of mere fanatics, we shall most 
faithfully exhibit the character of an age, in 
which the long reign of ignorance and error 
was first disturbed by the irregular struggles 
of reviving reason. The begiimings of those 
great revolutions, which renovate the v/hole 
frame of society, are invariably marked by 
some transient excesses, occasioned by the 
first fermentation of new and active princi- 
ples, in a body not yet qualified to give them 
full eflficacy. And so it befell in the present 
instance — an age, in which the true principles 
of Christianity were beginning once more 
to glimmer through the ecclesiastical system 
which had so long obscured them, was troubled 



raunicate us . . . The pope can give no absolution 
from sins unless he be as holy as St. Peter, living ia 
entire poverty and humility . . so that all the popes 
and prelates, since St. Sylvester, having deviated 
from that original holiness, are prevaricators and se- 
ducers, with the single exception of Pope Celestine, 
Pietro di Morone, &c.' See Fleury, liv. xci. sec. 
xxiii. 

* Supra numerum. See Vita (4ta) Clementis V. 
apud Baluzium. Bzovius, ad ann. 1310. sec. xiii. 

t Wiclif's Sixty-one Heresies are carefully enu- 
merated by Bzovius, (ann. 1352, s. xv.) and that au- 
thor expresses very sincere regret at his escape from 
the bishops, whom the pope had stirred against him. 
Indeed, notwithstanding his great protectors, the Re- 
former seems not to have been secure till the grand 
schism frittered away the power of papacy. 



402 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



by some of the wildest absurdities of super- 
stition. 

The Flagellants. — The sect of the Flagellants 
first betrayed its existence about the middle of 
the thirteenth century ; but it was discouraged 
by theauthoritiesboth spiritual and secular, and 
seemingly repressed : nevertheless, about the 
yeai* 1340, it broke out again with additional 
violence. Its first re-appearance was in Italy, 
in the neighborhood of Cremona :* suddenly 
a multitude, amounting to ten thousand per- 
sons, issued from the surrounding cities and 
villages, and paraded the countiy, flogging 
themselves and (in the first instance) begging. 
Tlie contagion spread with a rapidity which 
will afflict, but cannot surprise, the observer 
of religious absurdities ; and in the courso of 
ten years scarcely a country m Europe was 
exempt from its visitation. As the Flagellants 
increased in numbers, they adopted some sort 
©f system and method is their fanaticism ; 
which, though it may have varied under dif- 
ferent circumstances, possessed the same gen- 
eral character. Naked from the loins upwards, 
and marked on their fi-ont and back with red 
crosses, they spread themselves in numerous 
bands over the face of Europe. Twice eveiy 
day, in the most public places, they i>erform- 
ed their discipline, until blood flowed from 
the wounds ; and they completed their duties 
by one nocturnal and private flagellation. No 
one among them begged. No one was admit- 
ted into the society who was entirely destitute ; 
no one, unless he had made a full confession of 
his sins, unless he had received the consent of 
his wife^ unless he had forgiven his enemies 
every injmy.f Their appearance and charac- 
ter chiefly moved the enthusiasm of the Ger- 
mans, who opened their doors and entertained 
them at their tables. But it is affirmed, that 
lihey could never be persuaded to partake twic« 
©f the same hospitality, nor to prolong their 
visit beyond a single day: they then departed 
on their destination. Women were confound- 
ed with men in their irregular ranks ; and as 
they advanced in indiscriminate procession, 
each bearing in his hand a wooden cross, they 
chanted in their native language a hymn on 
the Passion of Christ, and frequently interrupt- 
ed their song by prostration and prayer. Their 
eyes were ever downcast, and the aspect which 
they wore was solemn and sorrowful. 

* Bzov. ann, 1340, s. xxiv. 

f See Bzov. ann, 1349, s. ii. It is the testinnony 
of an enemy. Spondanus (ann. 1349', sect, ii.) who 
confirms these particulars, also mentions that the 
Flagellants professed the authority of a letter, or 
>vriting, sent down to them from heaven. 



The innocence of their demeanor, the sre- 
verity of their discipline, the very singularity 
of their enthusiasm attracted a multitude of 
proselytes ; but as their numbers increased, 
their conduct no longer escaped reproach, 
and the offences of individuals threw suspic- 
ion and obloquy on the whole body. More- 
over, as they presently began to preach to the 
people, and as their society was not authorised 
by the pope, many Lollards and schismatics 
eagerly mingled in their companies, and car- 
ried into them the name of heresy, and sub- 
jected them to that fatal charge. Accord 
ingly, we read in the Roman Catholic records, 
that the Flagellants were a sect who slighted 
the priesthood and the Gospel — who had no 
revei-ence for the holy ceremonies, or evezi 
for the body of theXord : such was the con- 
fidence (says Spondanus) which they placed 
in their own madness. By thirty-three con- 
secutive days of flagellation, they held them- 
.selves absolred fi*om the most heinous sins, 
to the disregard oi the salutary penance and 
indulgences of the Church. And lastly, they 
maintained, that stripes were more honorable 
than martyrdom f that the baptism by water 
had passed away, and given place to the 
baptism by blood ; and that through this last 
alone was there any road to salvation.* These 
charges were partly fabricated, and no doubt 
partly true; and even the limits of the truth 
and the falsehood are not difficult to discern ; 
but the agents of persecution, who were pre- 
sently in motion, were not retarded by any 
such considerations. They marched onwards 
in the path of destruction ; and the Emperor 
Charles IV. encouraged and directed their 
zeal. It appears that, in the year 1351, a 
number of those pitiable enthusiasts were 
collected in Lithuania, in the exercise of their 
absurd practicesi Pope Clement VL pro- 
claimed a holy war;f the Master of the Teu- 
tonic order marched in person against them; 
and after a solemn fast and public prayer, that 
God would aid him in the extirpation of His 
enemies, for the gloiy of His Holy Name, he 
assaulted them, and massacred eight thous- 
and : the remainder, about two thousand 
more, were carried away captive into Prussia, 
that they might be restored, by a second bap- 
tisin, to the bosom of the Church. 

* See Mosheim, Cent. xiii. p. ii. chap, iii., and 
Cent. XIV. p. ii. ch. v. 

t Bzov., ann. 1351, s. viii. The pretext alleged 
for this expedition was, that when two Mendicants, 
on some occasion, interrupted the devotion of the 
Flagellants, these had stoned one of them to deathv 
It does not appear that they were armed^ 



FRANCISCANS AND OTHER MENDICANTS. 



403 



General Character of these Heresies. — When 
we examine the various denominations of 
heresy which appeared in the thirteenth and 
fourteenth centuries, and in the fourteenth 
most especially we obsei*ve that almost all 
were directed, wholly or in part, openly or 
covertly, in tenet or in practice, against the 
sacerdotal government and the system of the 
Roman Church. It was not so with those 
of earlier ages. Among the numerous sects 
which divided the ante-Nicene Christians, it 
has been already remarked, that not one orig- 
inated in any disaffection for the ministers of 
religion, or the ecclesiastical polity. In the 
times which followed, the Arian and Incarna- 
tion controversies, with tlieir numerous names 
and progeny, were confined to matters of 
faith. During the prolonged disputes which 
succeeded about the worship of images, no 
clamor was raised against the corruptions or 
undue aggrandizement of the hierarchy. The 
dissensions of the ninth century regarded the 
nature of the Eucharist and the doctrine of 
Fatalism, and the former of those subjects 
was revived in the eleventh ; but no sect had 
hitherto risen in revolt against the abuses and 
tyranny of the Church. The standard Was 
first erected in the twelfth age ; and from that 
moment there was never wanting a succes- 
sion of bold and righteous spirits who rallied 
round it. The depravity of the church sys- 
tem was indeed, in some respects, more scan- 
dalous in the fourteenth, than in any preced- 
ing century : yet was there no lack, even in 
much earlier ages, of such enormities, as might 
well have offended the reason and provoked 
the indignation of an evangelical Christian. 
But the fact was, that the civil institutions 
were at the same time so defective, and the 
dearth of knowledge so general, that the sins 
of the Church were overshadowed or kept in 
countenance by the secular depravity that 
surrounded them. Presently, as the social 
condition improved, the ecclesiastical abuses 
excited remonstrance and clamor ; the foun- 
dations were shaken, and the edifice itself as- 
sailed; but the clamor was still the clamor of 
the few — the voice of enlightened individuals 
or of scattered sects ; it did not yet endanger 
the established hierarchy, because it was not 
yet supported by the general prevalence of 
rational principles. The political system of 
the age still abounded with vices, and the 
learning in fashion was still perplexed with 
prejudice and fallacy. It is always with re- 
ference to such considerations as these, that 
we are to estimate the danger of ecclesiastical 
abuses and the necessity of reformation. It is 



not sufficient to compare existing defects with 
those which have been tolerated in the same 
church, or in a different church, in a different 
age. Such a comparison would only tend to 
blind and mislead us. They must be exam- 
ined in relation to the measure of civilization 
actually abroad — to tlie prevalence of know- 
ledge, to the authority of reason, to the gen- 
eral principles of human conduct. Thus it 
will happen, that a much slighter defect, in 
days of improvement and inquiry, may prove 
more perilous to the system in which it is 
suffered to remain, than a much grosser de- 
formity in a darker age: — it is the access of 
light which renders the stain conspicuous and 
offensive. And therefore it has ever been 
among the foremost duties of churchmen, and 
their surest wisdom, to detect the blemishes 
in their institution, and having detected, to 
remove them : since it avails them little to be 
fi-ee from the vices of preceding generations, 
unless they share the spirit, and adopt, to a 
great extent, the character and principles of 
then- own. 



NOTE ON THE FRANCISCANS AND OTHER 
MENDICANTS. 

(I.) As something has been said in this 
chapter respecting the intestine divisions of 
the Franciscans, it is proper here to mention 
the sect of the Fratricelli, or Ultra-Spirituals, 
who made some figure in the dissensions of 
the fourteenth age. They arose, in that which 
preceded, from the stock of St. Francis ; and 
as they disclaimed any right even to the use * 
of property, in which they surpassed the self- 
denial of the Spnituals, they may have de- 
served the praise which they arrogated, of 
being the genuine disciples of their Master. 
They professed great personal respect for 
Celestine V., who had been in some measure 
the founder of their Order ; but they hesitated 
to acknowledge the legitimacy of his succes- 
sors : they proclaimed the deep corruption of 
the Church, and they looked with ardent and 
almost pious enthusiasm for its immediate 
reformation. 

The Eternal Gospel. — This notion — that a 
thorough regeneration of the Church was near 
at hand, and that the reign of the true gospel 

* In 1279, Nicholas III. published a celebrated 
Constitution known as the Bull Exiit, in which he so 
interpreted the Franciscan Rule, as to prohibit to its 
observers every possession ; but to permit them the 
temporary use of houses, book?, &c. of which the 
property, in conformity with the edict of Innocent IV., 
V as to reside in the Church of Rome. 



404 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



was to be restored by the followers of St. 
Francis — was not the creation of the Fratri- 
celli, nor was it indeed of very recent origin. 
As early as the beginning of the thiiteenth 
century, a work was circulated, abounding 
with such like prophecies, under the name of 
the Eternal Gospel. It was founded on the 
text* — ' I saw another angel fly in the midst 
of heaven, having the Everlasting Gospel to 
preach unto them tliat dwell on the earth ; ' 
and it was such, as Mosheim has designated 
it, the senseless production of an obscure, silly 
and visionary writer. The perfect scheme of 
revelation which it propounded was this — ^as 
there were three persons in the godhead, so 
was it necessary that there should be three 
dispensations. The first was tliat of the Fa- 
ther, which ended at the coming of Christ — 
the second was that of the Son, which was 
now on the point of concluding, to give place 
to the third, and last. This rhapsody was as- 
cribed, but not with sufficient foundation, to 
Joachim, abbot of Flora in Calabria, who 
flourished about the year 1200 ; who had de- 
claimed against the abuses of the Church, and 
predicted their extirpation. But in spite of 
the respectable name, under which it had 
sought protection, the Eternal Gospel would 
not perhaps have attracted any general notice, 
had it not been adopted by the Franciscans, 
who eagerly appropriated the prophecies. 
Accordingly, about the year 1250, it was again 
published, with an elaborate Introduction, in 
which the assertion was advanced, that St, 
Francis was the angel mentioned in the Rev- 
ekitions ^ tliat the gospel of Christ was imme- 
diately to give place to this new and everlast- 
ing scri})tiu-e ; and that the ministers of this 
great Reformation were to be humble and 
barefooted friars, destitute of all earthly pos- 
sessions.! 

The Gospel might have passed unnoticed 
and despised ; but the introduction contained 
a doctrine too daring, if not dangerouS; to es- 
cape ecclesiastical reprehension ; and in the 
very year following its publication at Paris, 
the book was suppressed by Alexander IV. 
Yet such was the tenderness of a Pope for the 
reputation of the Mendicants, that the censures 
were lenient, and the edict was issued with 
reluctance. 

The introduction has been commonly as- 
cribed to no less distinguished an ecclesiastic 
than John of Parma, General of the Francis- 

* Revelations xiv. 6. 

t This account is chiefly taken from Mosheim 
(Cent. XHI. p. ii. eh. ii.) who has investigated the 
subject with great diligence. 



cans ; though the opinion is more probable 
that it was composed by one^Gerard, his friend. 
It is true, indeed, that writers of that order 
have entirely disclaimed the work, and imput- 
ed it to their rivals, the Dominicans, but with- 
out any plausible reason. And as the intro- 
duction was manifestly a Franciscan fabri- 
cation, so is it extremely probable that the 
Eternal Gospel also proceeded from the same 
forge. 

Pierre d" Olive. — We should also mention 
one Pierre Jean d'Olive, a native of Serignan, 
in Languedoc, who acquired some reputation 
towards the end of the same century, by a 
similar description of merit. He, likewisCy 
was a leader of the Spirituals, a disciple of the 
Abbot Joachim, and a reformer of ecclesiasti- 
cal iniquities. He published a work called 
Postilla, a commentary on the Revelations,, 
in which he boldly denounced the Roman 
Church as the ' Mystery, Babylon the Great, 
the Mistress of Harlots, and abominations of 
the Earth.'* But he mixed so much wild and 
senseless superstition with his reforming zeal, 
that his labors were neither profitable to the 
Church, nor dangerous to the despotism of 
the Pope. 

(II.) Contest between the Mendicants and 
Cur 6s about Confession. — ^We read from time 
to time of disputes, which arose in various 
countries between the Mendicants and the 
secular clergy, respecting the administration 
of several Church ceremonies, but most espe- 
cially of the rite of Confession. It may, there- 
fore, be useful to trace very concisely the his- 
tory of that contest. A canon of the Fourth 
Lateran Council (commonly known as Omnis 
utriusque Sexiis) gave the entire powder of re- 
ceiving confessions to the priest ; but Gregory 
IX., by a bull of Sept. 26, 1227, opened that 
privilege also to the Preachers. The Cures re- 
sisted ; and in 1250 the Faculty of Paris loudly 
declared in their favor : so that Innocent IV., 
who in 1244 had shown every disposition to 
favor theMendicantSyprohibited them, in 1254, 
from hearing confessions without the permis- 
sion of the priest. But Alexander IV. inmie- 
diately revoked this bull, and presently after- 
wards issued others, to the interest of the 
Mendicants. Great heats were thus excited, 
and in the hope to allay them, Martin IV. 
published, in 1282, a sort of edict of compro- 
mise, by which the Mendicants were permit- 
ted to receive confessions, yet so that the same 
persons v/ere still obliged to confess once a 

* Revelations xvii> 5> 



THE GRAND SCHISM. 



405 



year to their own priest, according to the canon 
of the Lateran. 

Thereon arose a fresh question — whether 
the people were obliged again to confess to 
their cures the same sins which they had 
before confided to the Mendicants, and for 
which they had received absolution ; and va- 
rious appeals were made to the Popes on this 
point. Nicholas IV. delivered no express res- 
ponse ; but Boniface VIII. published a decre- 
tal called Supra Cathedram, in which he en- 
gaged to grant the privilege to the Mendicants 
by his own plenitude, in case they had previ- 
ously asked the favor of the Bishops, and it had 
been refused. Benedict XI. was still more 
decided ; for he gave the Mendicants direct 
permission to hear confessions, and also deci- 
ded that the people were not obliged to recon- 
fess the same sins. This decretal, again, was 
revoked in the Council of Vienne, and re- 
placed by the Clementine Dudum, which re- 
vived the Constitution of Boniface. 

The above account, which is the bare out- 
line of a tedious and angry controversy, is 
nevertheless sufficient to exhibit, not only the 
obstinacy with which the contending parties 
advanced or defended their privileges — not 
only the value which both of them affixed to 
the possession of that particular privilege, 
which contained indeed the grand secret of 
ecclesiastical influence, but also the vacillating 
policy of the Vatican, and the little consistency 
with each other or with themselves, which 
directed, in their councils, the chiefs of an in- 
falhble Churcli, 



CHAPTER XXIIL 

7%e Grand Schism of the Roman Catholic 
Church. 

Remonstrance of the Romans to the College — its reply — 
The Conclave — Probable extentof popular intimidation 
— Constitution of the Conclave — various designs of the 
parties — violence of the people — Election of the Arch- 
bishop of Bari, Urban VI. — his character, and general 
reception — his first acts of harshness, and their etTect — 
The Cardinals retire to Anagni, and annul the election 
of Urban — they choose Robert, Cardinal of Geneva, 
Clement VII. — his character — real merits of the ques- 
tion — Retreat of Clement to Avignon — Division of Eu- 
xope — St. Catharine and other enthusiasts — Conduct of 
Urban to six Cardinals accused of conspiracy— Death 
of Urban, and election of Boniface IX.— The Jubilee- 
its extension — Sale of indulgences — Privileges granted 
to some German tovi^ns — Exertions of the University 
of Paris for the extinction of the Schism — Address to 
the King — tJiree methods proposed in it — favorable cir- 
cumstances—Death of Clement VII. —Election of 
Pietro di Luna, Benedict XIII.— Grand embassy of the 
King to Benedict— its failure— Continued exertions of 



the King and the University — attempts to influence 
Boniface— his assurance to the Roman deputies— The 
French withdraw their obedience from Benedict — 
Blockade of the palace at Avignon— Benedict restored 
j to liberty and office — simoniacal rapacity of Boniface 
I — The Jubilee of 1400 — Boniface succeeded by Innocent 
VIT. — Death of Innocent— Solemn engagement of the 
Conclave — Election of Angelo Corrario, Gregory XII. — 
Attempt at a conference — Perjury of Gregory — Retire- 
ment of Benedict to Perpignan — Convocation of the 
Council of Pisa — proceedings of that council— deposi- 
tion of the two competitors — and election of Alexander 
V. — his birth and character — Conduct of the Antipopes 
— Intercourse of Alexander with the Roman people — 
— his death — Election of Baltazar Cossa, John XXIII. 
— Sigismond emperor — Convocation of the Council of 
Constance — choice of the place — its advantages — num- 
ber of members — its objects — Proposition of John XXII. 
— Two opinions respecting the course to be followed — 
Arrival of Sigismond — (Question as to the power of the 
Council over the Pope — division of the Council — it de- 
cides on the method of cession — cession of the Pope — 
suspicions of the Council — Escape of John from Con- 
stance — Question de aitferihilitate Papa — the Pope be- 
trayed to Sigismond — his deposition, and the charges 
against him — his sentence — conduct and imprisonment 
— opinions of the justice of the sentence — Sigismond 
goes to Perpignan — Conference there — Union of all 
parties — Obstinacy of Benedict — he retires to Peniscola 
— is deposed by the Council of Constance — his conduct 
— the Council proceeds to the election of a new pope — 
— Otho Colonna, Martin V. chosen — Observations — 
Death of Augelo Corrario — Pertinacity, death, and cha- 
racter of Pietro di Luna — Fate of John XXIII. — his 
liberation — return to Ilalj' — counsels of his friends — he 
goes to Florence, and makes his submission to Maitin 
— his treatment, conduct, and character. 

The number of Cardinals at the death of 
Gregory XI. was twenty-three, of whom six 
were absent at Avignon, and one was legate 
in Tuscany. The remaining sixteen, after 
celebrating the funeral ceremonies of tl>e de- 
ceased, and appointing certain officers to se- 
cure their deliberations from violence, pre- 
pared to enter into conclave. But the rites 
of sepulture were scarcely performed, when 
the leading magistrates of Rome presented 
to them a remonstrance to this effect : — On 
behalf of the Roman senate and people, they 
ventured to represent, that the Roman Church 
had suffered for seventy years a deplorable 
captivity by the translation of the Holy See 
to Avignon ; that during that period the cap- 
ital of the Christian world had suffei-ed morfii, 
both in its spiritual and temporal interests, 
than when it was subject to the cruel domina- 
tion of the barbarians ; that tumults, seditions, 
revolts, and sanguinary wars, had desolated, 
without interruption, the ecclesiastical states ; 
that its cities and its provinces were in part 
usurped by domestic tyrants, and occupied in 
part by the neighboring republics, or by the 
Lombard princes ; that fire and sword were 
carried even to the gates of Rome, which had 
neither power nor authority to repress such 
fury ;— so that the aspect of the Holy City, 



406 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



tlie head of religion, formerly venerable 
throughout the whole earth, was no longer to 
be recognised through its strange and foul 
disfigurements. That the sacred edifices, 
those august monuments of ancient piety, 
were left without honor, or ornament, or rep- 
aration, nodding to their ruin ; that even the 
Titles of the cardinals, abandoned by those 
who derived their dignities from them, were 
left without roof, or gates, or walls, the abode 
of beasts, which cropped the grass on their 
very altars. That the Faithful were no long- 
er attracted to Rome, either by devotion, 
which the profanation of the churches pre- 
cluded, or by interest ; since the Pope, the 
source of patronage, had scandalously desert- 
ed his church — so that there was dangei-, lest 
that unfortunate city should be reduced to a 
vast and frightful solitude, and become an 
outcast from the world, of which it was still 
the spiritual empress, as it once had been the 
temporal. Lastly, that, as the only remedy 
for these evils, it was absolutely necessary to 
elect a Roman, or at least an Italian Pope — 
especially as there was every appearance that 
the people, if disappointed in their just ex- 
pectation, would have recourse to compul- 
sion. . . . The Cardinals replied, that as 
soon as they should be in conclave they would 
give to those subjects their solemn delibera- 
tion, and direct their choice according to the 
inspiration of the Holy Spirit. They repell- 
ed the notion, that they could be influenced 
by any popular menace ; and pronounced 
(according to one account) an express warn- 
ing, that if they should be compelled to elect 
under such circumstances, the elected would 
not be a pope, but an intruder.* They then 
immediately entered into conclave. 

The Conclave at Rome, — In the meantime 
the populace, who had already exhibited proofs 
of impatience, and whom the answer of the 
cardinals was not well calculated to satisfy, 
assembled in great crowds about the place of 
assembly. It may be true (though the cir- 
cumstances rest for the most part on French 
and partial authority,) that the civil magis- 
trates had previously possessed themselves 
of the keys of the gates, which were usually 
confided to ecclesiastical officers, in order to 
preclude the escape of the cardinals to a more 
secure place of deliberation ; that in the room 
of the ordinary police they introduced a num- 



* ' Quam si facerent, eos ex nunc avisaverunt, 
quod si ex ejus occasione aliquem eligerent ille non 
esset papa sed iulrusus. ' — Aut. Vit. Greg. XI. ap. 
Bosquet. Mairab.j Hist, du Grand Schisme, !iv. i. 



ber of Montanarii, the wild and lawless inha- 
bitants of the adjacent mountains, who para- 
ded the streets in arms by day and by night ; 
that a quantity of dry reeds and other com- 
bustibles was heaped together under the win- 
dows of the conclave, with threats of confla- 
gration ; that, at the moment when the Col- 
lege was proceeding to election, the bells of 
the Capitol and St. Peter's were sounded to 
arms : * — these, and other circumstances of 
direct constraint and intimidation, are assert- 
ed by some writers, and though probably ex- 
aggerated, have undoubtedly some foundation 
in truth. But it is without any dispute, that 
a vast crowd of people continued in tumult- 
uous assemblage during the whole delibera- 
tion of the conclave,.^ and that the debates of 
the Sacred College were incessantly interrupt- 
ed by one loud and unanimous shout — ' Ro- 
mano lo volemo lo Papa — Romano lo volemo 
— o almanco almanco Italiano ! ' — ' We will 
have a Roman for Pope — a Roman, or at 
least, at the very least, an Italian ! ' 

Let us now inquire, whether the College 
was then so constituted, as to make it likely 
that its free choice would have fallen upon a 
Roman, or even an Italian. Of the sixteen 
cardinals in conclave, eleven were French, 
one, Pietro di Luna, a Spaniard, and four 
Italians. The unanimity of the French 
would, of course, at once have decided the 
question ; but it happened that they were di- 
vided into two parties. Seven amongst them 
were Limousins, natives of the same prov- 
ince ; and having succeeded during the last 
twenty-nine years, in electing four successive 
popes from their own country, they were nat- 
urally eager to keep possession of so profita- 
ble a distinction. But the other four, unwil- 
ling to appropriate the pontificate to a single 
district, even though that district was French, 
designed that the choice should fall on one 
of themselves. The Limousins found in their 
superior numbers their hope of success and 
their excuse for perseverance ; and at length 
the others, being more keenly excited by pro- 
vincial than by national jealousy, began to 
turn their thoughts to a coalition with the 
Italians. These last were equally bent on the 
election of one of their own party ; and as 
their only chance of success arose from the 
division of the French, they very readily join- 
ed their forces against the exclusive ambition 
of the Limousins. Such were the intrigues 

* Adsturnum, according to the Roman expression 
of that time. 

t Spondanus, ann. 1378, s. viii. et. seq. 



TIIE GRAND SCHISM. 



407 



which commenced immediately after the death 
of Gregory, and ripened during the eleven * 
days which followed ; and such was proba- 
bly t the state of parties when the cardinals 
entered the conclave. There were materials 
in abundance for long and angry dissensions ; 
and though the indignation of the Limoushis 
against their compatriots might finally have 
forced their consent to the election of an Ital- 
ian, rather than a native of any other French 
province, still it was not without a sti'uggle, 
that they were likely to forego the courtly 
magnificence of Avignon, to which a French 
pontiff would surely have restored them, for 
a remote and tumultuous residence among 
the citizens of Rome. 

But the internal disputes of the College 
w^ere speedily silenced by the tempest from 
without. Even after the sacred body had 
been shut up in deliberation, the Bannerets, 
or heads of the twelve regions of the city, 
forced themselves, together with their disor- 
derly followers, in contempt of custom and 
decency, into the recesses of the conclave. 
Here they repeated their demands with re- 
doubled insolence, and direct menaces. The 
cardinals are recorded to have returned their 
former reply, with the additional declaration, 
that in case any violence were used, he, whom 
they should so elect, and whom the people 
would take for a real pope, would in fact be 
no pope at all.| The people received this an- 
swer with indignant clamors ; § the disorder 

* Gregory XL died oa the 27th of March, and 
the cardinals entered into conclave on the 7th of 
Api-it. 

t Fleury (liv. xcvii. s. xlviii.) seems persuaded 
that there was some secret understanding in favor of 
the Arciibishop of Bari (who was afterwards elected) 
even before the cardinals entered into conclave. But 
the view of Maimbourg is more probable, that so 
wide a division, with so many opposite interests and 
passions, was not so easily reconciled. 

X ' Ista verba manifeste sonant minas; et ideo ex- 
presse nos dicimus, quod, si per vos aut ipsos aliqua 
contra nos attententur, et contingat nos talium occa- 
sione et timore aliquemeligeie, credetis habere papam 
et non habebitis, q«ia non erit-' — Vita Greg. XI. ap. 
Baluziiun. 

§ One of the cardinals addressed them from the 
window: — ' State a pace — perche i Sigiiori Cardinali 
dicono cosi, che domani faranno dire una messa dello 
Spirito Santo, e poi faranno che voi sarete content!.' 
Qui vero Romani maledicti tunc responderunt sic — 
' No — mo lo volemo, mo.' Et interim ridebant inter 
se, et unus faciebat alteri signum, ut plus clamarent 
ut supra. In circuitu item Conclavi erat maxima 
multitudocum caboris et flautis, et eodem modo clam- 
abant fortiter juxta posse.' — Vita (seeunda) Greg. 
XI. apud Baluzium. We should observe, however, 
that this is not the description of a sanguinary mob. 



round the chapel augmented ; the most fi-ight- 
ful threats were uttered in case of hesitation 
or disobedience ; and the same shout, which 
was indeed the burden of the uproar, contin- 
ued to penetrate the conclave — ' A Roman 
for our pope ! a Roman — or at least, at the 
very least, an Italian ! ' 

Election of Urban VI. — These were not 
circumstances for delay or deliberation. If 
any inclination towards the choice of an Ital- 
ian had previously existed in the college, it 
was now confirmed into necessity ; and on 
the very day following their retirement the 
cardinals were agreed in their election. How- 
beit, they studiously passed over the fourltal 
ian members of their own body, and casting 
their eyes beyond the conclave, selected a 
Neapolitan named Bartolomeo Prignano, the 
Archbishop of Bari. The announcement was 
not immediately published, probably through 
the fear of popular dissatisfaction, because a 
Roman had not been created -, and presently, 
when the impatience of the people still further 
increased, the Bishop of Marseilles went to 
the window, and said to them, ' Go to St. Pe- 
ter's, and you shall learn the decision.' Where- 
upon some who heard him, understanding 
that the Cardinal of St. Peter's, a Roman, 
had been indeed chosen, rushed to the palace 
of that prelate, and plundered it — for sucJi 
was the custom then invariably observed ou 
the election of a pope. Others thronged in 
great multitudes to offer him their salutations ; 
and then they bore him away to St. Peter's, 
and placed him, according to ancient usage, 
upon the altar. It was in vain that the good 
cardinal, enfeebled by extreme old age and 
painful disease, disclaimed the title, and trem- 
bled at the honors that were forced on him. 
' I am not pope,' said he ; ' and I will not be 
antipope. The Archbishop of Bai-i, who is 
really chosen, is worthier than I.' They as- 
cribed his resistance to modesty or decent dis- 
simulation, and continued through the whole 
day to overwhelm him with the most painful 
proofs of their joy. In the meantime the 
other cardinals escaped fi^om the conclave in 
great disorder and trepidation, without digni- 
ty or attendants, or even their ordinary habili- 
ments * of office, and sought safety, some in 
their respective palaces, and others in the 
Castle of St. Angelo, or even beyond the walls 
of the city. On the following day, the people 
were undeceived ; and as they showed no 
strong disinclination for the master who had 



* Reeesserunt pedes, unus sine Capa, alter cuni 
Capa, alter sine Capacio, soli, sine sociis scutiferis . 
— Vit. Greg. XI. ap. Baluz. 



408 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



been really chosen for them, the Archbishop 
of Bari was solemnly enthroned, and the scat- 
tered cardinals reappeared, and rallied round 
him in confidence and security. 

The archbishop's exalted reputation justifi- 
ed the choice of the college, and secured the 
obedience of the people. Through a long 
life, devoted to the service of the Church, he 
had reconciled the most ardent disposition 
with the most devout humility, and improved 
by assiduous study apovi^erful comprehension. 
He submitted to the utmost severity of eccle- 
siastical discipline ; yet his deep and danger- 
ous enthusiasm did not close his mind against 
the liberal pursuit of learning, and the patro- 
nage of learned men. His zeal for the Church 
■was not stained by the suspicion of bigotry, 
nor inconsistent v^ith a stern opposition to its 
abuses ; and among many other virtues, he 
was perhaps chiefly famed for the rigorous 
exercise of j ustice. Such was the character 
to which Rome looked with sanguine hope 
for the repair of her declining fortunes ; nor 
was it, indeed, without the general approba- 
tion of Christendom, that Urban VI. ascended 
the apostolical chair. The cardinals sent the 
customary communications to the courts of 
Europe of the free and canonical election 
which they had made,* and peaceably as- 
sumed their official stations about the person 
of the pontiff. 

His harshness. — The ceremony of corona- 
tion was duly performed, and several bishops 
were assembled on the very following day at 
vespei-s in the pontifical chapel, when the 
Pope unexpectedly addressed them in the 
bitterest language of reprobation. He accus- 
ed them of having deserted and betrayed the 
flocks which God had confided to them, in 
order to revel in luxury at the court of Rome ; 
and he applied to their offence the harsh re- 
proach of perjury. One of them (the Bishop 
of Pampeluna) repelled the charge, as far as 
himself was concerned, by reference to the 
duties which he performed at Rome ; the 
others suppressed in silence their anger and 
confusion. A few days afterwards, at a pub- 
lic consistory. Urban repeated his complaints 
and denunciations, and urged them still more 
generally in the presence of his whole court. 
In a long and intemperate harangue, he ar- 
raigned the various vices of the prelates — their 
simony, their injustice, their exactions, their 
scandalous luxury, with a number of other 

* A similar announcement was made to the six 
cardinals remaining at Avignon, who immediately 
recognised the new pope. 



offences— -in unmeasured* and uncompro- 
mising expressions ; and while he spared no 
menace to give weight to his censure, he 
directed the sharpest of his shafl;s against the 
cardinals themselves. . . . There is not any 
dispute, that his violence proceeded from an 
honest zeal for the reformation of the Church ; 
but the end was marred by the passionate in- 
discretion, with which he pursued it. The 
consistory broke up ; and the members car- 
ried away with them no sense of the iniqui- 
ties imputed, no disposition to correct their 
habits or their principles, but only indigna- 
tion, mixed with some degree of fear, against 
a severe and discourteous censor, f 

The cardinals continued, notwithstanding, 
their attendance at, the Vatican for a few 
weeks longer, and then, as was usual on the 
approach of the summer heats, they withdrew 
from the city, with the pope's permission, and 
retired to Anagni. The four Italians alone 
remained at Rome. The others were no 
sooner removed from the immediate inspec- 
tion of Urban, than they commenced, or at 
least more boldly pursued, their measures to 
overthrow him. On the one hand, they 
opened a direct correspondence with the 
court of France and university of Paris ; J on 
the other, they took into their service a body 
of mercenaries, commanded by one Bernard 
de la Sale, a Gascon ; and then they no longer 
hesitated to treat the election of Urban as null, 
through the violence which had attended it. § 



* " Nullo reprehensionibus modo imposito. " — 
Ciacconius. 

f " Hunc et posteris diebus, cessante jam metu, 
venerariut pontificem perseverarunt. Sed fnit in illo 
homine naUira inqnieta et dura; et tunc prseterspem 
ad tantae dignitatis fastigium sublevatus intolerabilis 
videbatur. Nulla patribus gratia, quod se potissi- 
mum delegisseut, nulla humanitas, nulla conciliatio 
animorum. Contumax, et minabundus, et asper ma- 
lebat videri, et metui potius quam diligi. Ea per- 
versitas Patres coegit metu et indignatione aliorsum 
respicere. Itacjue clam inter se de electioiie con- 
quest!, '.' &c. — Leonardus Aretinus, Histor. Florent., 
lib. viii. ad finem. Leonardus was himself person- 
ally attached to the popes of that succession. By 
some the character of Urban is compared to that of 
Boniface VIII. Baluzius, the organ of the French 
cpinioa, represents him as a very monster — *' Cujus 
electio facta arte diabolica." 

X This learned and now influential body was court- 
ed with equal assiduity by Urban. In a letter ad- 
dressed to it on this same occasion, that pontiff com- 
pared it to a constellation irradiating every other 
academy ; to a fountain whence the purest doctrine 
perennially flowed; to a tree bearing excellent fruit. 
See Spondanus, Ann. 1378, s. xviii. 

§ There exists a letter written during that crisis 



THE GRAND SCHISM. 



409 



Clement VJL elected at Fondx. — To give 
consequence to this decision, they assembled 
with great solemnity in the principal church, 
and promulgated, on the 9th of August, a 
public declaration, in the presence of many 
prelates and other ecclesiastics, by which the 
Archbishop of Bari was denounced an in- 
truder into the pontificate, and his election 
formally cancelled. * They then retired, for 
greater security, to Fondi, in the kingdom of 
Naples. Still they did not venture to proceed 
to a new election in the absence, and it might 
be against the consent, of their Italian breth- 
ren. A negotiation was accordingly opened ; 
and these last immediately fell into the snare, 
which treachery had prepared for ambition. 
To each of them Separately a secret promise 
was made in writing, by the whole of their 
colleagues, that himself should be the object 
of their choice. Each of them believed what 
he wished ; and concealing from each other 
their private expectations, theyf pressed to 
Fondi with joy and confidence. The College 
immediately entered into conclave ; and, as 
the French had, in the meantime, reconciled 
their provincial jealousies, Robert, the Car- 
dinal of Geneva, was chosen by their unani- 
mous vote. This event took place on the 20th 
of September (1378); the new pope assumed 
the name of Clement VII., and was installed 
with the customary ceremonies. 

Robert of Geneva was of noble birth, and 
even allied to several of the sovereigns of 
Europe. He possessed talents and eloquence, 
a courage which was never daunted, and a re- 
solution which was never diverted or wearied. 
Little scrupulous as to means, in his habits 
sumptuous and prodigal, he seemed the n)an 
most likely to establish his claims to a disput- 
ed crown, and to unite the courts of Christ- 



by Marsiiius d'Inghen, ancient Rector of the Univer- 
sity of Paris, who happened to be residing with Ur- 
ban at that time. His description of affairs is such 
as we have given. See Fleury, 1. 97, s. 52. 

* In this document, the cardinals, after describing 
the tumults of the Romans, declared, that they elected 
the Archbishop of Bari in the persuasion that, seeing 
the circumstances under which he was chosen, he 
would in conscience have refused the pontificate; that 
on the contrary, forgetful of his salvation, and burn- 
ing with ambition, lie consented to the choice; that 
under the effect of the same intimidation, he was 
enthroned and crowned, and assumed the name of 
pope, though he ratlier merited that of apostate and 
Antichrist. They then anathematized him as an 
usurper, and invoked against him all aids and suc- 
cors, divine and human. 

f They were now reduced to three, bv the deatls 
of the Cardinal of St. Peter's. 
52 



endom in his favor. His age, besides, which 
did not exceed thirty-six, gave promise of a 
vigorous and decisive policy. 

Nevertheless, his first endeavors had very 
little success. It was in vain, that the sacred 
college sent forth its addresses to princes and 
their subjects, detailing all that had occurred 
at Rome, Anagni, and Fondi, and protesting 
against the violence, which occasioned the 
illegal election of Urban. It was argued, on 
the other hand, that the Cardinals had assisted 
at the subsequent ceremonies of enthronement 
and coronation ; that they had announced 
their choice in the usual language to all the 
courts of Europe; that they had continued 
their personal attendance on the Pope for 
some weeks afterwards, and had even allow- 
ed four months to elapse, before they with- 
drew their obedience. Besides which, many, 
no doubt, were well pleased to see the chief 
of their church restored to his legitimate re- 
sidence ; they disliked the irregular influence 
of the French, and were glad to shake off 
their spiritual usurpation. In truth, the rea- 
sons, which were advanced with such ardor 
and obstinacy on both sides, were not per- 
fectly conclusive for either ; and though it is 
certain that the election was conducted under 
some degree of intimidation,* the subsequent 
acquiescence of the Cardinals makes it highly 
probable, that the legitimacy of Urban would 
never have been questioned, had he followed 
the usual course of pontifical misgovernment, 
or even published his schemes of reformation 
with less earnestness, or more discretion. 
The severity of his rebukes rankled hi the 

* Sismondi (Repub. Ital., ch. 1.) does not con- 
sider tlie choice of the Cardinals to have been decid- 
ed by the tumult of the people, because after all they 
did not elect a Roman, and therefore incurred some 
danger even by that compromise with their indepen- 
dence. However, the real object of the populace was 
effected, if they obtained a Pope who would probably 
reside at Rome: this, and not the place of his na- 
tivity, was the point Avhich touched their interests, 
— and the election of a Neapolitan secured it almost 
as certainly, as that of a Roman. Upon the whole, 
it seems most probable (and the result of the second 
election confirms this) that, had no external influence 
been exercised, the Cardinals would have chosen an 
Ultramontane, or, at any rate, not tlie Archbishop 
of Ban. Sismondi's eloquent description of this 
affair is chiefly drawn from the contemporary account 
of Thomas d'Acerno, Bishop of Lucera, who was 
present. On the other hand, Baldus, a celebrated 
lawyer and adherent of Urban, does not dispute the 
influence of the popular uproar, but rests the legiti- 
macy of that Pope on the subsequent confirmation 
and obedience of the sacred college. 



410 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



conscience of those who deserved them; and 
his menaces persuaded the court, that, to pre- 
serve its beloved impurities, it must depose 
a master who presumed to arraign them. A 
Pope, so dangerous to the vices * of the pow- 
erful clergy, could not hope to maintain with- 
out dispute an ambiguous right. 

Such was the origin of the schism which 
divided the Roman Church for about forty 
years, and accelerated more than any other 
event the decline of papal authority, f We 
have related the particulars with some minute- 
ness, not only in justice to the importance of 
the subject, but also to show, that the great 
difficulties, which were soon afterwards found, 
even by impartial judges, in determining the 
rights of the competitors, were not without 
foundation ; but that both parties had a plausi- 
ble plea for their respective obedience, though 
the true policy and interests of the church 
clearly recommended an undivided adherence 
to the cause of Urban. 

France declares for Clement — The hopes 
of Clement were fixed on the court of France; 
he knew that prejudices in his favor naturally 
existed in that kingdom, and he knew, too, 
that the first steps towards his general ac- 
knowledgment must be taken there. Charles 
v., affecting great impartiality, and admitting 
the deliberation due to so grave a question, 
convoked at Vincennes a grand Assembly of 
his clergy, nobles, and council. This august 
body, after individually abjuring the influence 
of all personal considerations, expressed an 



* He strictly forbade the Cardinals, on pain of 
excommunication, to accept any presents. He en- 
deavored to restrain the luxury of all his prelates, 
and even to reduce their tables to a single dish, — a 
laudable moderation, of which he set the example 
himself. Again, he threatened the French, that he 
would create so many Cardinals as to place them in a 
minority in the college. •' Item Cardinali de Ursinis 
dixit quod erat unus Sotus." (Thomas d'Acerno, p. 
725.) His harsh and offensive manner increased the 
unpopularity of his proposed reforms. 

t The entire number of the schisms, which have 
disturbed the Roman Catholic Church, is variously 
estimated by its historians. Johannes Marius, a 
Belgian, historian of Louis XII., (a Latin translation 
of whose work is published, together with that of 
Theodoric of Niem,) makes the fated number to be 
twenty-four, — the last of which, the Schism of Anti- 
christ, the most deadly of all, had not yet in his time 
befallen. The first in his catalogue is that of the 
Novatians; the sixteenth was that occasioned by 
Gregory VII. ; the twentieth by Frederic Barbarossa ; 
the twenty -second was that, which we are now des- 
cribing. His Book is divided into three parts, of 
which the second, " De Conciliis Ecclesiae Galli- 
canae," contains some useful information. 



unanimous * conviction of the legitimacy of 
Clement. The king was guided by their voice, 
and declared on the 13th of November in his 
favor. The Queen of Naples, the city of 
Avignon, and the six Cardinals who resided 
there, had already come to the same deter- 
mination. In the meantime, a passionate war- 
fare of bulls and anathemas commenced on 
both sides ; but happily the thunders must 
on this occasion have fallen harmless, even 
in the judgment of a moderate Catholic, since 
it was impossible certainly to decide which 
were the genuine bolts ; and the ambiguous 
election of the rivals placed them both in the 
situation of Antipopes, rather than of Popes. 

But they were not contented with those 
innocuous conflicts; the rights which were 
inefi^ectually asserted by ecclesiastical cen- 
sures, appealed for protection to the sword : 
a succession of combats desolated the South 
of Italy, and ended in the discomfiture of 
Clement. His first refuge was Naples; but 
at length, finding it impossible to maintain 
himself in Italy against an Italian rival, he re- 
tired to the residence most suited to his for- 
tunes and his prospects, Avignon. From a 
city which was already consecrated by the 
tombs of so many Popes, supported by the 
court and nourished by the clergy of France, 
he bade defiance to his Transalpine adversa- 
ry ; and since he could not command, he was 
contented to divide, the spiritual obedience of 
Europe. 

Division of Europe. — It does not enter into 
the plan of this History to pursue the affairs 
of the Church into all their connexions with 
political matters ; to attend the march of pa- 
pal armies, hateful alike in their reverses and 
their triumphs ; or to trace the flimsy threads 
of intrigue, by which the momentary interests 
of Popes and kings have been suspended. It 
is enough to say, that, notwithstanding an in- 
temperate ambition and some acts of singular 
imprudence. Urban continued to retain the 
greater part of his adherents. The Kings of 
Scotland and Cyprus, the Counts of Savoy 
and Geneva, the Duke of Austria, and some 
other German princes, and even the Kings 
of Castille and Arragon, were finally united 
with France in allegiance to Clement. But 



* In a Council previously held (on Sept. 8), to 
examine the rights of the dispute between Urban and 
the French Cardinals, before the election of Robert 
of Geneva, the majority declared for the Cardinals, 
though they advised the king still to suspend his de- 
cision. Gibbon remarks, that it was the vanity, 
rather than the interest of the nation, which deter^ 
mined the court and clergy of France. 



THE GRAND SCHISM. 



411 



the other states of Europe remained faithful 
to the vows, which they had earliest taken ; 
and it was no unreasonable reply to the Anti- 
pope, Robert of Avignon, that he should be 
the last to reject that Pontiff, whom the Car- 
dinal, Robert of Geneva, had officially recom- 
mended to universal obedience. The doctors 
and learned men of the age were similarly 
divided, and their division produced the most 
voluminous controversies. And lastly, as is 
observed by some Roman Catholic writers, 
many pious and gifted persons, who are now 
numbered among the saints of the Church, 
were to be found indifferently in either obe- 
dience ; which sufficiendy proved (they assert) 
that the eternal salvation of the faithful was 
not in this case endangered by their eiTor. 
In this holy society, Catharine of Sienna was 
again conspicuous, as the advocate and adviser 
of the Roman Pope. She declared herself 
(sa3^s Maimbourg) loudly for Urban, and em- 
ployed whatever talents, and eloquence, and 
force she possessed, in writing aud exhorting 
all the world to acknowledge him. At the 
same time, in six epistles, which she addressed 
to himself, she discreetly recommended him 
to relax somew^hat from that extreme auster- 
ity, which had made him so many enemies. 
To what extent Urban profited by that coun- 
sel we are scarcely able to decide, though 
some assert, that he held his holy monitress 
in much veneration. But we are credibly in- 
formed, that his predecessor, who had cer- 
tainly been influenced by her persuasions, 
when at length, on his death-bed, his stronger 
reason prevailed, called around him his friends 
aud assistants, and solemnly cautioned them 
against all pretenders of either sex, who should 
propound their private revelations as rules of 
conduct and policy. ' Since I, (he said,) hav- 
ing been seduced by such as these, and having 
rejected the rational counsel of my friends, 
have dragged myself and the Church into the 
perils of a schism, which is now near at hand, 
unless Jesus, her Spouse, shall interpose in 
his mercy to avert it.' * 

Such persons, notwithstanding, were found 
in abundance on both sides ; and their wild 
visions were interpreted by the devotees of 

* " Ille positiis in extremis, habens in manibus 
sacrum Christi Corpus, protestatus est coram omnibus, 
ut caverent ab homiuibus, sive viris sive mulieribus 
Bub specie religionis loquentibus visiories sui capitis; 
quia per tales ipse seductus, dimisso suorum rationa- 
bili consilio, se traxerat et ecclesiam in discrimen 
schismaiis imminentis, nisi misericors provideret 
sponsus Jesus." See Gerson, De Examinatione 
Doctrinarum, Parsii., consid. iii. 



the day, and recorded by the grave historians 
of after times ; and it was this, among other 
circumstances, which has seduced Roman 
Catholic writers to the very consoling conclu- 
sion, that, though a schism did unquestion- 
ably exist, yet there were none who could 
properly be termed schismatics ; that the ad- 
herents of Urban and of Clement were equal- 
ly the children of the church ; and that, while 
the faithful differed as to the name of the bish- 
op, they were united in unshaken allegiance 
and attachment to the See.* 

Certainly the character of Urban was not 
pern)anently softened by the admonitions of 
his inspired instructress ; and to many reported 
acts of harshness and rigor he presently added 
one of positive barbarity. The following 
story rests on satisfactoiy evidence. A plot 
for his deposition had been set on foot, origi- 
nating, as it would seem, with the King of 
Naples ; and a paper, which had been circu- 
lated with that object, was placed in the hands 
of some of his Cardinals — for Urban had im- 
mediately supplied the defection of his original 
court by a large and, for the most part, re- 
spectable creation. How far they counte- 
nanced the propositions contained in it does 
not certainly appear ;t but as by one of those 
the provisional government of the church 
was vested in the hands of the sacred college, 
it is not improbable that some may have as- 
sented to them. Urban discovered the con- 
spiracy ; he immediately seized six, the most 
suspected of the body, and after subjecting 
them to the utmost severity of torture, cast 
them into a narrow and noisome dungeon. 

* Never, says Maimbourg, was the unity of the 
See better preserved, than during this schism. 

t Respecting some of the particulars of this affair 
we have the directly opposite evidence of two con- 
temporaries, who had both excellent means of infor- 
mation. Gobellinus was attached to the house of 
Urban, and he relates, as the report which had 
reached him, that the Cardinals not only assented to 
the plan proposed to them, but actually suborned 
false witnesses to convict the Pope of heresy, and in- 
tended to burn him on the day of his condemnation, 
— and that this appeared from their own confessions. 
Theodoric of Niem, who was on the spot, and one 
of the judges appointed by the Pope to try tlie Car- 
dinals, attests that all of them constantly asserted 
their innocence, excepting one only, who confessed, 
in the agony of the torture, any thing that was asked 
him. Though neither autlior is free from the charge 
of partiality, we must here give our credence to the 
latter account, recollecting, that even that does not 
necessarily acquit the accused. Fleury (1. xcviii., 
s. XX., xxi., &c.), who relates the particulars of the 
torture from Theod. de Niem with painful minuteness, 
certainly believes the conspiracy. 



41S 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



This affair took place at Nocera, in the king- 
dom of Naples ; but some reverses presently 
obliged the Pope to take refuge at Genoa. 
He carried his prisoners along with him in 
chains, and afflicted with severe hardships ; 
and, during a year of sojourn in that civilized 
city, he could never be moved by the counsels 
of his friends, or the prayers of the republic 
which protected him, to release his captives. 
At length, when on the point of departure, as 
he feared the inconvenience or the scandal of 
dragging them after him through a second 
journey, and as he could not exalt his resolu- 
tion to the performance of an act of clemen- 
cy, if, indeed, it were not justice, he consigned 
five of them to sudden and secret * execution. 
The other, an Englishman named Adam Es- 
ton. Bishop of London, owed his preservation 
only to the frequent and pressing remonstran- 
ces of the English King. This affair took 
place in the December of 1386. 

Election and character of Boniface IX. — 
In the October of 1389, Urban died at Rome ; 
and as soon as the glad intelligence reached 
Avignon and Paris, great wishes were express- 
ed and some hopes entertained in both places, 
that the schism would thus terminate ; that 
the Cardinals of Rome, wearied by the labors, 
Ihe vicissitudes, and the dangers of the con- 
flict, would voluntarily unite themselves with 
the College at Avignon, and acknowledge 
dement for Pope, on the condition of his res- 
idence at Rome. In the university especially 
the public lectures were suspended, and no 
subject was discussed, except the probable 
determination of the Roman Cardinals. In 
the meantime, that body, on whose resolution 
fit that moment so much depended, appear 
not to have been embarrassed by any hesi- 
tation as to the course before them. The 
members immediately assembled, to the num- 
ber of fourteen ; they entered into conclave, 
and elected, within a fortnight from Urban's 
decease, another Neapolitan for his successor. 

^Vi.e Jubilee. — Pietro or Perrino Tomacelli, 
Cardinal of Naples, assumed, on the second 
of November, the name of Boniface IX., and 
was placed on the throne for which his igno- 
rance t alone was sufficient to disqualify him. 

* Most assert that he threw them into the sea in 
sacks; others affirm that ihey were strangled in pri- 
son, and their bodies consumed by quick-lime. It is 
certain that they disappeared. 

f Theodoric of Niem, lib. ii., cap. vi., ' scribendi 
atque canendi imperitus. . . Nemo prosperatur in 
illo quod ignorat; unde inscitia fere venalis facta 
fijit in ipsa Curia, tempore suo. Fuit tamen satis 
edoctus grammaticae ac disertus, sed non habuit in 
aliqua scientia pra?eminentiam sive gradum.' 



But the scandal of his ignorance was enhanc- 
ed by his avarice. On the year following his 
accession, a Jubilee* was held at Rome, and 
the devout were exhorted to present them- 
selves from every quarter. Unmoved by dis- 
tance and expense, and even by the personal 
dangers which awaited them from the parti- 
sans of Clement or the neutral bandits of the 
mountains, great multitudes undertook, and 
many accomplished, the pilgrimage. The 
altars of the Roman churches were again en- 
riched by the contributions of superstition ; 
and if some part of the offerings was expend- 
ed in the repair of the sacred edifices, by far 
the larger proportion flowed directly into the 
coffers of the Pope. But Boniface was not 
contented with that partial stream, which had 
found its way to his capital ; and being desir- 
ous, no doubt, that even those of his children, 
who had not listened to his call, should still 
participate in the spiritual consolation, he sent 
his emissaries among all the nations by whom 
he was acknowledged, with commissions to 
sell the plenary indulgence to all indiscrimi- 
nately, for the same sum which the journey 
to Rome would have cost them. This abso- 
lution extended to every sort of offence, and 
appears not to have been preceded even by 
the ordinary formalities of confession or pen- 
ance, — it was purely and undisguisedly venal. 
The necessary consequences of this measure 
were sufficiently demoralizing ; but the evil 
was multiplied by the impostures of certain 
mendicants and others, who traversed the 
country with forged indulgences, which they 
bartered for their private profit. 

Still dissatisfied, and determined to carry 
this lucrative mummery of the jubilee to its 
utmost depth, and, as it were, to fathom the 
superstition of his age, Boniface communicat- 
ed the privileges of the holy city to two towns 
of Germany — Cologne and Madgebourg ; and 
permitted them also to hold their year of Ju- 
bilee, after the fashion and example of Rome. 
By this rash act he disparaged the superemi- 
nent sanctity of the see of St. Peter, of the 
tombs of the apostles, and the relics of so many 
martyrs! He called in question the exclu- 



* The indication of this jubilee was the act of 
his predecessor. Urban VI., moved by the gradual 
abbreviation of human life, determined to reduce the 
intei-val (already reduced from 100 to 50) from 50 to 
33 years, — this last space being the probable duration 
of Christ's sojourn on earth. See Spondanus, ann. 
13S9, s. ii. and iii. The new institution was to be- 
gin afresh from the year 1390; but it was not intend- 
ed, as we shall presently observe, to supersede the 
secular celebration 



THE GRAND SCHISM. 



413 



siveness of that glory, which was thought to 
encircle the throne of the Vicars of Christ! 
He sacrificed — that which he least intended 
to sacrifice — even the temporal hiterests, 
even the pecuniary profits, which were ever 
closely connected with the peculiar holiness of 
the apostolical city. But his immediate gree- 
diness was gratified ; his collectors were pre- 
sent in both places to share the offerings of 
the faithful ; and when he perceived that their 
fatuity was not yet exhausted, he extended the 
license still further, and accorded it to several 
insignificant places. At length, says Fleury, 
that Pope became so prodigal of his indulgen- 
ces, that he refused them to no one, provided 
he was paid for them ; the effect of which was, 
that they grew into, contempt.* 

Projects of the University of Paris. — In the 
meantime, the necessity of restoring the union 
of the church became more evident, and the 
expressions of that opinion more loud and 
general. Boniface himself professed an ar- 
dent, though, as it proved, an insincere desire 
for the same consummation, and even address- 
ed a letter to Charles of France (in April, 
1393,) in which he exhorted him seriously to 
undertake the sacred office of conciliation.! 
The king consented ; the University of Paris 
eagerly caught at any hope of removing the 
scandal and the daily growing evils which 
attended it, and applied itself to discover the 
most efficient means. After mature delibera- 
tion, a public harangue was delivered before 
that body (in the June of 1394,) by a doc- 
tor J appointed to the office, and after receiv- 
ing their approbation, was presented to the 
king. It contained in substance, that there 
were three methods of healing the schism, any 
one of which might be adopted with reasona- 
ble hope of success: — the method of cession, 
—the method of compromise, — the method of 

* The indulgence-mongers of Boniface IX., when 
tliey arrived in any city, suspended at their windows 
a flag, with the arms of the Pope and the keys of the 
Church. Then they prepared tables in the cathedral 
church, by the side of the altar, covered with rich j 
cloths, like bankers', to receive the purchase-money. 
They then informed the people of the absolute power, 
with which the Pope had invested them, to deliver 
souls from purgatory, and give complete remission to 
all who bought their wares. If the German clergy 
exclaimed against this base traffic of spiritual favors, 
they were excommunicated. See Sismondi, Repub. 
ItaL, ch. Ixii. 

t It appeared, on subsequent explanation, that 
Boniface saw only one solution of the difficulty, — the 
expulsion of his rival, and the universal acknowledg- 
ment of himself. 

% Nicholas de Cleraangis, 



a General Council. By the first the voluntary 
resignation of both competitors was recom- 
mended, in the presence of both colleges; 
these were then to proceed in conjunction to 
another election. By the second, the opposite 
claims might be referred to certain arbitrators 
appointed by both parties, with the power of 
final decision. As, to the third, it was sug- 
gested, in case of its adoption, that the As- 
sembly should no longer consist of prelates 
only, many of whom were ignorant or pas- 
sionately partial, but also of several doctors 
in theology and law, members of the most 
celebrated universities. Of the above methods, 
the University pronounced its own decided 
opinion in favor of the first, — as being the 
most prompt and expedient, the most proper 
to prevent expense and other difficulties, the 
most agreeable to the consciences of the faith- 
ful in both obediences, the most respectful to 
the honor of the princes, who had declared for 
the opposite parties. Yet was there an objec- 
tion to this method, which, to many, as hu- 
man nature is constituted, might have seemed 
at once conclusive against it : — was it probable, 
that, for the attainment of a public good, two 
men, in the enjoyment of very great power, 
dignity, and wealth, could both be persuaded 
to make a vohmtary cession of those personal 
advantages, and to withdraw to a private, and 
perhaps insecure, retirement, from the loftiest 
eminence of ambition.^ Yet this difficulty 
does not appear to have been much considered 
in the outset, though it became manifest, eveo 
to the most sanguine, long before the termina- 
tion of the contest. 

In the same exposition, in which the reme- 
dies were thus pointed out, some of the mon- 
strous evils which then affiicted the church 
were exhibited with litde exaggeration ; while 
all were naturally ascribed to the prevalent 
disease of the moment — the schism. It was 
forgotten that the greater number were rooted 
in the system itself, and only flourished some- 
what iBore i-ankly on account of its accidental 
derangement. The church, it was declared, 
had fallen into servitude, poverty, and con- 
tempt. Unv/ortliy and corrupt men, without 
the sense of justice or honesty, the servants of 
their intemperate passions, were commonly 
exalted to the prelacy ; these i)lundered indif- 
ferently churches and monasteries, whatever 
was profane and whatever was sacred ; and 
oppressed the inferior ministers of religion 
with intolerable exactions. The dominion of 
simony was universal j benefices and cures 
were conferred only on those, who had means 
to buy them ; while the poor and learned can- 



414 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



didate was hated the more for that very learn- 
ing, which made him dangerous to corruption. 
And not only were the dignities of the church 
publicly bartered ; not only were relics and 
crosses and the sacred vessels commonly ex- 
posed to sale ; but the very sacraments them- 
selves, those especially of ordination and pen- 
ance, had their price in gold. 

A political circumstance occuired at this 
moment which was favorable to the hopes of 
union. A truce for four years was signed 
between the kings of England and France — 
the most zealous supporters of the opposite 
parties. At the same time, the University of 
Cologne, though it acknowledged Boniface, 
and had probably profited by his patronage, 
entered into correspondence with that of Paris 
for the extinction of the schism ; — and lastly, 
as if to place the result within the immediate 
reach of the pacificators, Clement VII. was so 
violently* affected by the proceedings at Paris, 
that he was struck with apoplexy, and died. 

As soon as this intelligence reached Paris, 
the deputation from the university instantly 
petitioned the king, that he would cause the 
cardinals to suspend the election, until some 
general measures should be taken to ensure 
the union; also, that he would assemble his 
prelates and nobles, and order processions and 
public prayers to the same end throughout 
his kingdom. Accordingly, a royal messen- 
ger was despatched to Avignon, to prevent the 
meeting of the College, and prepare it for a 
special embassy ; and on the success of this 
mission hung the hopes of Christendom. The 
envoy arrived at Avignon only ten days afler 
the decease of Clement ; but he found the 
cardinals already in conclave ! Still, as the 
election was not yet made, he transmitted to 
them the letter of the king ; but the College, 
suspecting its contents, and determined at any 
risk to have a pope of their own creation, de- 
ferred the opening of the letter, till their actual 
business should be completed. They then 
hastened to a decision ; and Peter of Luna, 
Cardinal of Arragon, was raised by their 
unanimous voice to the divided throne. 

Election of PeUr of Luna, Benedict XIII. — 
Howbeit, they previously took a precaution, 
which was certainly necessary for their own 



* When the earnest and reasonable exhortations 
of the University were pressed upon him — when lie 
was assured that the evil had gone so far, that some 
began almost to advocate a plurality of popes, and 
the appointment of one to every kingdom — the in- 
fatuated bigot only started from his seat in anger, 
and declared that ' the letters were poisoned, and 
tended to bring the Holy See into discredit.' 



credit, though there were few, probably, who 
expected any real advantage from it. Before 
the election they drew up an act, by which 
they solemnly engaged to labor for the ex- 
tinction of the schism, and to give every aid 
to the future pope for that purpose. It was 
moreover specified, that if any one among 
themselves should be raised to the pontificate, 
this act should be equally binding upon him; 
and that he should even be prepared to cede 
his dignity, if his cardinals should judge it 
expedient for the concord of the Church. 
They then took oaths on the altar to observe 
this engagement. 

Peter of Luna had long been distinguished 
for ability and address; he had discharged 
with vigor the offices intrusted to him ; but 
there was also -an opinion respecting him, 
which seems more than any other to have 
procured his elevation, and even at first to 
have reconciled all parties to it, — this was, 
that he ardently desired the union of the 
Church. This zeal he had been forward, 
while cardinal, to proclaim upon all occasions 
— even so far as to censure Clement for the 
want of it ; and many hoped that it would 
burn with equal fervor under the pontifical 
robes. The University addressed to him con- 
gratulations, which were seemingly sincere, 
and Benedict XIII. (the name assumed by 
him) repaid them with the strongest protesta- 
tions of good intention. 

A grand council was then held at Paris, in 
which the method of cession again received 
the approbation of the great majority ; and it 
was agi-eed, that an embassy should be sent 
to Avignon to treat with the Pope. The king 
added his authority, to give weight to this 
measin-e ; and the more certainly to secure 
its success, he sent his brother and both his 
uncles (the Dukes of Burgundy and Berri) to 
conduct the negotiation. Benedict received 
them with respect and deference ; but when 
they opened the subject of their mission, and 
pressed the necessity of the cession, as the 
only road to concord, he found many reasons 
to urge against that particular method, as in- 
deed against the other two, which had also 
occurred to the university. In the place of 
them, he proposed a conference with his rival, 
at which he affected to believe that matters 
might be accommodated. The ambassadors 
persevered in their proposal ; and even the 
cardinals, on their strong solicitation, de- 
clared, with one exception, * for the method 



* The Cardinal Bishop of Pampeluna, a Spaniard 
and compatriot of tlie Pope. 



THE GRAND SCHISM. 



415 



of cession. Nevertheless Benedict, during 
several weeks of repeated conferences and 
debates, inflexibly persisted in his refusal. 
At length the illustrious mission returned to 
Paris, without any other result than the dis- 
covery of Benedict's insincerity. 

Notwithstanding this failure, the king ad- 
dressed himself very warmly, to unite the dif- 
ferent courts and learned bodies of Europe in 
favor of the method, which still seemed to 
promise the greatest hopes. Messengers tra- 
versed the country in all directions, and every 
state and every city in Europe was agitated 
by the same momentous question. The spec- 
ulations of the learned and the projects of the 
powerful were equally engrossed by it ; and 
it seemed as if the fate of all governments, 
and the welfare of all subjects, depended on 
its solution. At this time the University of 
Paris, which took the foremost part in these 
discussions, and possessed much more in- 
fluence than any other learned bod}^, openly 
expressed dissatisfaction with Benedict, and 
even threw out some menaces of a general 
council, in case of his further contumacy. 

Benedict watched these proceedings with 
anxiety ; but the variety and discordance of 
the materials, which it was necessary to com- 
bine for his destruction, gave him the confi- 
dence to persist ; — upon which the Doctors 
of Paris advanced one degree towards more 
efficient measures. And as Luna had unre- 
servedly sworn to adopt the method of cession, 
in case his cardinals should hereafter recom- 
mend it, and as his cardinals had strongly re- 
commended it, and as he had then unequi- 
vocally rejected it, little sympathy could be 
expected from any quarter with a prelate, 
whose selfish opposition to the interests of 
religion was made more detestable by an act 
of deliberate perjuiy. The measure was, to 
draw up a strong exposition of Benedict's 
general delinquency, and of the particular 
grievances of the complainants, and to appeal 
from his censures, whether past or future, to 
the future pope : * a step which very tem- 
perately opened the path for more vigorous 
proceedings. 

Conduct of Boniface. — In the meantime, 
the courts which acknowledged the rival 
pope made great exertions to bring him to 
the arrangement — which to them seemed so 
reasonable, and to him so unjust and extrava- 
gant. From Sicily to the extremities of Ger- 

* On this occasion numbers of polemical tracts 
and pamphlets were published on both sides, con- 
taining, as Fleury has observed, many words but few 
reasons » 



many assemblies were held and resolutions 
adopted ; and the vows, and talents, and en- 
ergies of all men were directed to the same 
object ; consequently, deputations and em- 
bassies were sent to Rome from all quarters. 
Boniface at first was contented to reply, that 
he was the true and only Pope, and that uni- 
versal obedience was due to him ; but pre- 
sently, in the year 1398, when the emperor 
at length interfered more directly, and press- 
ed the method of cession, he found it expedi- 
ent to dissemble ; and, by the advice of his 
cardinals, he promised submission, provided 
(a very safe proviso) that the Antipope of 
Avignon should also resign his claims.* Yet, 
even so guarded a concession alarmed the 
avaricious fears of the citizens of Rome. 
They trembled lest their bishop and his pro- 
digal court, and the train of his dependents, 
and expectants, and sycophants, should again 
be seduced to some foreign residence. That 
event, too, at that moment, would have been 
peculiarly afflicting, since in two years (in 
1400) the second grand and general Jubilee 
was to take place ; and the inhabitants had 
already begun to make provision for the 
season of spoliation. Accordingly, a body 
of the notables of the city waited upon the 
Pope, and professed towards him the most 
sincere and unprecedented f affection : they 
declared that they would never desert bin , 
but sustain, with their very lives and proper- 
ty, his just and holy cause. ' My children,' 
replied Boniface, 'take courage I rest assured 
that I will continue to be pope ; and whatever 
I may say, or however I may play off the 
King of France and the Emperor against 
each other, I will never submit to their will.' 
Subtraction of obedience, — While such was 
the disposition of the Roman competitor, dur- 
ing the July of the same year the Court and 
University of Paris at length percervrng that 
a mere contest of acts and declarations would 
never weary the Pontiff of Avignon, proceed- 
ed to a measure of greater efficacy — one which 
no Catholic nation had hitherto, on any occa- 
sion, dared to adopt against any pope : — 'By 
the aid and advice of the princes and other 
nobles, and ol* the Church of our kingdom, 
as well clergy as people, we entirely withdraw 
our obedience from Pope Benedict XIIL, as 

* Spondanus, ann. 1398, s. ii. 

t Fleury, liv. xcix. s. 18. Boniface artfidly avail- 
ed himself of this unusual display of loyalty on die 
part of his subjects to secure an extent of temporal 
authority over them, such as no former pope is said 
to have possessed. See ^gidius Card. Viterb, apud 
Fa ri. Vit. Bonif. IX. s. xliii. 



416 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



well as from his adversary, whom indeed we 
have never acknowledged. And we ordain, 
that no one henceforward make any payment 
to Pope Benedict, his collectors, or agents, 
from the ecclesiastical revenues or emolu- 
ments. We also strictly prohibit all our sub- 
jects from offering to him any manner of 
obedience.' Such was the substance of tlie 
royal proclamation ; and aiTangements were 
at the same time made to deprive the pope 
of the presentation to all benefices, for as long 
a time as it should remain in force. This edict 
was received with such general respect and 
submission, that the very domestics and chap- 
lains of Benedict retired from their offices ; 
and what was still more important, the cardi- 
nals themselves withdrew in a body from his 
court. But he, nothing moved by that una- 
nimity, was the more forward on repeated 
occasions to assert, that he was the true and 
genuine pope ; that he would remain so, in 
despite of king, duke, or count — and that he 
was prepared to renounce his life, rather than 
his dignity. 

Recourse was then had to the only method 
which gave any just hope of success. A mil- 
itary force was sent against Avignon ; and as 
the inhabitants of that city also declared their 
adhesion to the king and the cardinals, noth- 
ing now remained in opposition to the roj^al 
will and the force of the nation, except the 
pontifical palace. But Benedict had secured 
some faithful mercenaries for its defence ; and 
an eflTective blockade was thought sufficient 
for the objects of his enemies. Thus for the 
space of four years he continued a close pris- 
oner in his own residence, without any strength 
to resist the means employed against him, or 
any disposition to yield to them. But at length, 
the vigor of that powerful confederacy was 
dissipated by the persevering intrigues of one 
feeble individual, and the variety of interests 
and principles in the mass opposed to Bene- 
dict led by slow degrees to a disunion, which 
preserved him. The first, who betrayed his 
party, was a Norman officer, Robinet de 
Braquemont, — who, through the confidence 
reposed in him, and his constant access to the 
palace, found easy means of liberating the 
pope. It was on March 12, 1403, that the 
successor of St. Peter concealed his apostoli- 
cal sanctity under the disguise of a menial ; 
and, having thus eluded the penetration of his 
guards, took refuge in a small town near 
Avignon. As a pope was never wont to tra- 
vel, unless preceded by the Holy Sacrament, 
Benedict earned out with him a little box, 



containing the consecrated element ; and even, 
for the literal observance of that custom, he 
placed the box upon his breast. 

As soon as he found himself in safety, he 
caused his beard, which he had nourished 
during the persecution of his captivity, to be 
shaved off; and recovering with his freedom 
the consciousness of his dignity, he resumed 
the habits and authority of a pope. No soon- 
er was the circumstance of his liberation made 
known, than several noble individuals render- 
ed to him the accustomed homage. Imme- 
diately the College of Cardinals passed over 
to him and sought a reconciliation. The cit- 
izens of Avignon eagerly tendered their oflfers 
of service. Benedict forgave the truancy, 
and accepted the repentance of all. At the 
same time, the party in France, which for 
some time had been opposed to the subtrac- 
tion * of obedience, and which had lately 
gained strength, now boldly declared its ad- 
hesion. The king was privately induced to 
join it ; and, notwithstanding the resistance 
of the more consistent promoters of ecclesi- 
astical concord, it prevailed. By an edict of 
May 30, an entire and unequivocal restitution 
of obedience was enjoined : thus after a par- 
tial interruption of about five years, the tide 
of papacy resumed for a season, even in 
France itself, its prescribed and customary f 
course. 

Government of Boniface. — The reason which 
was advanced by the king, to justify so com- 
plete a change in his policy, was, that the ex- 
ample of France had not been followed by 
other nations ; \ and that, while the pontiff of 



* It is the word used by ecclesiastical writers — 
Subtractio, soustraction. 

f The first proof of moderation and gratitude 
which Benedict gave after the Act of Restitution 
was, to appoint afresh to certain benefices, which 
had been filled up during the subtraction. The king 
then sent an ambassy to pray him to confirm such 
provisions, as had been then made. He returned a 
direct refusal. On this, Charles published his com- 
mands, that those who had been so appointed should, 
at any rate and without any fees to the Pope, remain 
in possession. This was conclusive. 

% In 1399, King Richard expressly consulted the 
University of Oxford on the grand question of the 
age. The answer of that body was very decided 
ag-ainst anj' refusal of obedience to Boniface, because 
he was indeed the true Pope. On the same ground, 
they objected to the method of cession, and insisted 
in preference on that of a General Council — to be 
convoked of course by their own genuine Pope. 
Thus they assumed at once the point at issue — if 
Boniface had power to convoke a council of universal 
authority, Boniface was truly Pope — and the schism 
was at an end. 



THE GRAND SCHISM. 



417 



Avignon was confined to his palace walls, the 
intruder at Rome was acquiring new strength 
and confidence. We shall, therefore, now 
recur very briefly to the system of govern- 
ment which Boniface had adopted. It ap- 
pears to have been directed by one principle 
only — to extract the largest possible sums 
from the superstition of the people and the 
ambition of the clergy, and the folly and 
credulity of both. During the first seven 
years of his pontificate, his proceedings were 
veiled by some show of decency, through a 
reluctant respect which he paid to the virtues 
of some of the ancient cardinals. But as 
these successively died, and were replaced by 
others of his own creation and character, he 
broke out into the undisguised practice of 
simony,* This was the most copious and 
constant source of his gains ; but when the 
simple and honest sale of benefices proved 
insufficient for his demands, he had recourse, 
besides, to direct acts of fraud and robbery. 
In the distribution of gi'aces and expectatives, 
the poorest candidates were invariably placed 
at the bottom of the list ; but this was not 
sufficient — even the promises, that had been 
made them, were frequendy cancelled in 
favor of some wealthier competitor, to whose 
more recent patent an earlier date was affixed, 
with a clause of preference. The fluctuating 
health and approaching decease of an opu- 
lent incmnbent were watched with impatient 
anxiety, and appointed couriers hurried to 
Rome with the welcome intelhgence. Im- 
mediately the benefice was in the market ; 
and it not uncommonly happened, that the 
same was sold as vacant to several rivals, 
even under the same date. The ravages of 
a frightful pestilence only contributed to fill 
the pontifical coffers: and a benefice was 
sometimes sold in the course of a few weeks 
to several successive candidates, of whom 
none survived to take possession. At length, 

* See Theodoric of Niem, De Schisniat., lib. ii., 
cap. vii., viii., ix., x., xi., xii., &c. This author, a 
native of Westphalia, was attached as Secretarj' to 
the Roman Court during the whole of the Schism ; 
and besides the History of this Event, in four books, 
(the last of which is entitled Nemus Unionis) he 
composed the Life of John XXHI. He exposed 
pontifical depravity with freedom, it may be with 
rancor. Spondanus (ann. 1404, s. xvi.) especially 
ascribes his account of the simony of Boniface to an 
ulcer osus stomachus, and of course other Roman 
Catholic writers are scandalized by his little reserve. 
But we doubt not, that his narrative is essentially 
true. Spondanus excuses the rapacity of Boniface 
by his necessities, and brings some authority for the 
assertion, that he died poor. 

53 



in the year 1401, the pontiff proceeded so far, 
as to cancel by a single act nearly all the 
graces, dispensations and expectatives which 
he had previously granted, and to declare 
them wholly void— that he might enter afresh 
and without any resti'aints upon the task, 
which seemed almost to be terminated, and 
reap froni the same exhausted soil a second 
harvest of shame and iniquity. By such 
methods * Boniface enriched liimself, and 
impoverished his clergy ; and hoAvever we 
may abominate his rapacity, we have little 
cause to feel any compassion for the suffer- 
ers ; who were possibly influenced by the 
same passion, and who were certainly in- 
volved in the same simoniacal scandal with 
himself 

The superstition of the laity was also taxed 
to the utmost point of endurance ; the exces- 
sive abuse of the Jubilee has been mentioned 
as the favorite resource of Boniface, and the 
circumstances of the time combined to sharp- 
en his appetite for that feast. The year 1400 
was that destined, according to the origmal 
institution of Boniface VIII., for the celebra- 
tion of the secular solemnity ; and it appears 
that, though the innovations of later popes 
had met with very general reverence, there 
v/ere still several rigid devotees who, holding 
them in inferior estimation, looked forward 
with pious impatience to the approach of the 
legitimate festival. Neither was this impres- 
sion confined to the nations in the obedience 
of the Roman competitor ; the followers of 
Benedict acknowledged by their respect for 
the apostolical city the authority of the See, 
though they rejected the usurper who occu- 
pied it ; and the French especially pressed in 
great multitudes to obtain the plenary indul- 
gence at Rome. Charles published an or- 
donnance to restrain the eraigi-ation of his 
subjects ; he saw with sorrow, not perhaps 
their slavish superstition, but the exportation 
of their wealth to a foreign and even hostile 
treasury. Still in many, . the rehgious zeal 



* The system of Annates, or the payment of a 
year's first fruits to the Apostolical Chamber, was 
brought to perfection by Boniface IX. It did not, 
however, originate with him; Clement V. having 
learnt that some bishops in England exacted stich 
claims from their diocesan clergy, felt justified in 
transferring the right to the See of Rome. This 
took place in 1306; thirteen years afterwards, John 
XXII., when he reserved for three years the first 
fruits of all vacant benefices, excepted the bishoprics 
and abbeys. Bonifice IX. extended the usurpation 
to the prelacies, and made if perpetual. Fleurj^, 1. 
cxix. s. xxvii. Spondanus, an-i. 1S39, s. ii. 



418 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



overpowered the sense of civil duty, and these 
proceeded on their pilgi-image. But several 
were intercepted and pillaged on their road 
by partisans at enmity with the Pope ; and 
those, who escaped this danger, were exposed, 
on the termination of their journey, to the 
pestilence which was laying waste the holy 
city. Some perished miserably ; and others, 
whose resources were exhausted through 
their devotion and theii- sufferings, when 
they applied for aid to the apostolical coffers, 
were dismissed with a cold and contemptuous 
refusal. 

Innocent VIL succeeds Boniface. — Four 
years afterwards Boniface died ; his cardinals 
immediately entered into conclave, and elect- 
ed a successor, nearly under the same con- 
ditions which had been accepted and violated 
by Benedict. He assumed the name of In- 
nocent VII. ; but the two years of his imbe- 
cile government produced no other change, 
than the secession of Genoa and Pisa to the 
obedience of his rival. Both parties expressed 
equal desire for the extinction of the schism ; 
both were equally insincere ; and the attention 
of the courts of Christendom and the feelings 
of the pious friends of the Church, were in- 
sulted by the verbose correspondence and re- 
criminations of two aged hypocrites. Inno- 
cent died in 1406 ; and the Roman cardinals 
then seriously deliberated on the expediency 
of deferring the new election, until some 
measures could be taken in concert with the 
college at Avignon. 

Election of Angela Corrario^ or Ch-egory 
XIL — But their fears of an interested popu- 
lace contended with their wisdom and their 
virtue ; they likewise dreaded the risks, which 
the temporal sovereignty of the See must in- 
cur during the inten'egnum — their indecision 
terminated in a half-measure. They bound 
themselves by oath, that whichsoever of them 
should be chosen, should hold himself in per- 
petual readiness to resign, in case the concord 
of the Church and the union of the two Col- 
leges should require it ; and that he should 
immediately make public, that such was the 
condition of his election. This act having 
been assented to with great solemnity, they 
threw their eyes upon a prelate, whose ad- 
vanced age, whose holy reputation, * whose 
habitual integrity, whose ardent love of the 



Church and regard for its best interests, placed 
him beyond all suspicion, almost beyond the 
possibility, of perfidy. Angelo Corrario, a 
Venetian, the titular patriarch of Constanti- 
nople, was the character which they sought. 
Seventy years of immaculate piety, by which 
he was endeared to the whole Church, were 
a pledge for the extinction of any selfish pas- 
sions, which at any time might have lurked 
in his bosom ; and the austerity of his devo- 
tion, which emulated the holiness of the an- 
cient pontiffs, guaranteed the strict obsen^ance 
of his engagement. A ccordingly, on the in- 
stant of his election, he eagerly ratified his 
covenant, * and proclaimed his intention to 
restore union to the Church by any risk or 
sacrifice. Should it be necessary to perform 
the journey on foot' with his staff in his hand, 
or to encounter the sea in the most wretched 
bark, he vowed that he would still present 
himself at the place of conference. His de- 
clarations were received with joy and confi- 



* They sought not (.says Aretinus) for a man of 
business or address, but for one of honor and integ- 
rity ; and at length they unanimously fixed their choice 
upon Angelo Corrario, " virum prisca severitate et 
eanctimonia reverendum." 



* The short account of Leonardos Aretinus, the 
attendant and faithful adherent of Angelo, should be 
cited. " Is conclavi egressus promissionem, votum, 
et juramentum, quae privatns fecerat, tunc in potes- 
tate constitutus iterato novavit. Atque ita loquebatur 
de Unione prime illo tempore, ut, si csetera deessent, 
pedibus et haculo se iturum ad eam conficiendara 
asseveraret. Statimque adversario scripsit benigne 
ilium ad pacem invitans et abdicationem mutuam 
offerens. Adversarius autem tantisdem ferme syl- 
labis ad eum rescripsit; eadem invitatio fuit, eadem- 
que cohortatio . . Locus deinde necessarius visus est 
in quo et Pontifices ipsi et collegia convenirent. Ad 
hoc Savona pari consensu recepta est. . . . Prosper^ 
hue usque et plane ex sententia. Deinde paulatim res 
labascere coepit et cuncta indies deteriora fieri. Vo- 
luntas autem ilia Pontificis recta nequaquam satis 
habere firmitatis reperta est ad pontificatum deponen- 
dum; cujus rei cidpam muiti in propinquos ejus re- 
fer ebant, &c. . . Erat in altero Pontifice non melior 
sane mens, sed occulebat callidius malara voluntatera, 
et quia noster ftigiebat, ipse obviam ire videbatur. . . . 
Sed cum de congressu eorum per internuntios agere- 
tur, noster tanquam terrestre animal ad littus accedere, 
ille tanquam aquaticum a mari discedere recusabat . . 
Cum per hunc modum desideria Christianorum qui 
pacem unitatemque optabant in longum ducerentur, 
non tulerunt Cardinales nostri, sed deserto Pontifice 
Pisas abiere," &c. Leonard Aretin. in Rer. Italicar. 
Historia. " Ego (the historian presently continues) 
Pontificem secutus sum polius familiaritatis gratia, 
quam quod ejus causarn probarem. Quanquam fuit 
in Gregorio permagna vitse morumqiie honestas et 
prisca quaedam, ut ita dixerim, bonitas, scriptura- 
rum quoque scientiaet indagatiosubtiliset recta" . . . 
Denique in cunctis ferme rebus mihi satisfaciebat, 
prppterquam in Unionis negotio . . . Id. loc. cit. 
Gibbon has referred to this passage in his 70th r;i)ap- 
ter. 



THE GRAND SCHISM. 



419 



dence, and it was thought that the flock of 
Christ had at length obtained a faithful shep- 
herd. 

After his restoration to liberty, the policy 
of Benedict had entirely changed— all his 
original desire for the extinction of the schism 
appeared to be revived ; he had made over- 
tures to that eflect both to Boniface and In- 
nocent ; and when the new Pope (Gregoiy 
XI I.) addressed him on the subject, he re- 
newed his usual protestations. But they were 
no longer able to deceive either the court or 
the doctors of Paris : it was found that, how- 
ever profuse in general professions, he inva- 
riably evaded the cession, whenever it was 
strongly recommended to him ; and he was 
not the better loved for the frequent exactions 
of tenths and annates, to which his necessi- 
ties even more than his avarice obliged him. 

At length it was arranged, at a meeting of 
certain deputies of both parties, that the long- 
promised conference should be brought about ; 
and the place selected for the purpose was 
Savona. Some hopes were entertained fi'om 
this project, and it was pressed with earnest- 
ness both at Rome and Avignon. The time 
was fixed for the Michaelmas of 1407 ; and 
when it arrived, Benedict was found at the 
appointed city, full of his customai^ declara- 
tions. But where Atas Angelo Corrario, the 
sworn advocate of concord, the model of an- 
cient holiness ? Every solicitation, to observe 
the direct obligation of his oath, had been 
urged upon him in vain. To the most over- 
powering arguments he opposed the most 
contemptible pretexts. He was secretly de- 
termined to evade the conference ; and he did 
finally absent himself Then followed anoth- 
er interchange of accusations and protesta- 
tions, which had no other eflfect than to per- 
suade men, that an understanding secretly 
subsisted between the two Pretenders, and 
that they had conspired to cajole the world 
and retain their offices by their common per- 
jury.* 

We shall not pursue the tedious details of 
their elaborate duplicity ; nor is it important 
to notice the multifarious correspondence 
which perplexed the dispute, nor even closely 
to trace the circumstances, which led to its 
conclusion.f It is enough to mention the 
leading facts. In the first place, in contempt 
of one important clause | of the oath taken 



* Spondanus, ann. 1408, s. v. 

t The celebrated embassy sent from France both 
to Rome and Avignon, just before the Council of Pisa, 
is described by Gibbon, chap. Ixx. 

X '•' That both parties shall promise to make no 



in conclave, Gregory created four new cardi 
nals ; on which the others, in just indignation, 
deserted his court and retired to Pisa, where 
they fixed their residence. Presently after- 
wards (in 1408) the King of France took 
measures to seize the person of Benedict; 
but that accomplished politician, havmg con- 
stantly retained a small fleet in his service on 
the plea of personal security, set sail on the 
rumor of this danger, and, after a short cruise 
on the coast of Italy, found a safer refuge at 
Perpignan in Spain, — for the Spaniards con- 
tinued to adliere to their countryman through 
all his vicissitudes, and through all his perfi- 
dy. At Perpignan he assembled his bishops, 
and held his councils, and awaited the termi- 
nation of the tempest. 

The Cardinals convoke the Council of Pisa. — • 
But his cardinals remained in France ; and 
now perceiving that they were abandoned by 
their master, they turned their attention more 
zealously than before to the extinction of the 
schism. To that end, they negotiated in per- 
fect sincerity with the rival college at Pisa ; 
and the consequence was an immediate co- 
alition. By this event, the first substantial 
ground towards the closing of the schism 
was gained. It was now clearly ascertained, 
that the voluntary cession of the pretenders, 
under any conceivable circumstances, was 
hopeless. The latest proof of that truth was 
the strongest ; since Angelo di Corrario, the 
most unblemished of mankind, had chosen 
to stain his gray hairs with deliberate perjuiy, 
rather than resign the possession — the very 
short possession — of a disturbed and disputed 
dignity. No resource henceforward remain- 
ed, except compulsion ; and the union of the 
colleges aflbrded the only prospect of that 
result. Some difficulties were still to be 
overcome, but the convocation of a General 
Council promised to remove them. Accord- 
ingly the Council was summoned to assemble 
at Pisa in the March of 1409. 

The Council of Pisa met under circum- 
stances wholly different from any other simi- 
lar assembly. In the division of churchmen 
it represented the unity of the Church. Dis- 
regarding the opposite pretensions to indi- 
vidual legitimacy, it asserted the undivided 

new cardinals during the treaty of union." Gregory 
probably considered this part of the obligation as 
conditional. And, as it is not likely that Benedict 
should have made any such promise, he might feel 

that the engagement was not binding upon himself. 

Had he been more scrupulous, when the obligation 
was direct and unequivocal, we might have given hica 
the benefit of this supposition. 



420 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



authority of the See ; and thus, since there 
might be many antipopes, but not possibly 
more than one pope, the object to which its 
proceedings necessarily tended, was to reject 
the two actual claimants, and substitute one 
true and catholic pontiff. It was summoned 
by the cardinals, twenty-four of whom were 
present, and it was attended by a great num- 
ber of prelates,* as well as by the generals 
of the Mendicant orders, and the deputies of 
several universities. Ambassadors from the 
courts of Germany, France, England^ and 
others, were likewise present; though the 
object of the first was rather to question the 
legitimacy, than to sanction the deliberations, 
of the council. The scruples of these en- 
voys gave rise to an important discussion, 
which was occasionally renewed afterwards ; 
and which, as far as the J3rinciples of the dis- 
putants were concerned, divided the High 
Papist party from the moderate Catholics. 
It was argued on the one side, from the lan- 
guage of the canons and the unvarying prac- 
tice of the Church, that a general Council 
could not legally assemble, unless by the au- 
thority and express summons of the Pope, 
whereas the meeting at Pisa had received the 
sanction of no pontiff. On the other hand, 
it was maintained, that no pope did then in 
fact exist ; that both pretenders, by their long- 
continued perfidy and contumacy, had in- 
volved themselves in the guilt of schism and 
heresy; f and that, under such circumstan- 
ces, if the necessities of the Church demand- 
ed it, the cardinals had full power to call a 
council.l Recollecting, as we do, the false 
foundation on which the claims of the pope 
really rested, we can scarcely pretend to doubt 
on which side the reason lay. But among 
the controversialists of that time, the spuri- 
ousness of the Decretals was still unknown, 
and almost unsuspected ; and pretensions 
directly derived from them were acknow- 
ledged with respectful acquiescence. 

Alexander V. — The Council then proceeded 
to fulfil its object. The first step was, to 



* Besides the three patriarchs, 180 archbishops 
and bishops, and about 300 abbots, were present in 
person or by representatives, and 282 doctors in the- 
ology. — Spondunus, ann. 1409, s. ii. 

t This last assertion does not appear, at first sight, 
so obvious — but the word heresy was now used in a 
much more comprehensive sense, than in the early 
church; — perseverance in schism was at this time 
sufficfent to constitute heresy. 

X That there were cases, in which they possessed 
that right, does not appear to have been disputed — 
that, for instance, of the insanity of a pope. 



summon the pretenders to appear in person 
or by deputy, and on their non-appearance, 
to pronounce them contumacious. The next, 
to trace the proofs of their insincerity and 
collusion, and to expose their perjury. The 
next, to command the Christian world to 
withdraw its obedience from the one and 
from the other. Then follov/ed the sentence 
of condemnation ; — and here we may pause 
to remark, that the prelate, who pronounced 
it, was the titidar Patriarch of Alexandria, 
supported on either hand by those of Anti- 
och and Jerusalem. The two schismatics, 
after a long enumeration of their crimes, 
were cut off from the Church ; and the Holy 
See was declared vacant. Then the cardi- 
nals, after binding themselves by oath to con- 
tinue the Council after the election, for the 
general purposes of church reform, entered 
into conclave. They remained six days in 
deliberation ; and their choice fell upon the 
Cardinal of Milan, Peter of Candia, who took 
the name of Alexander V. 

Peter, native of Candia, a Venetian subject, 
had risen from so low an origin, that he pro- 
fessed to retain no recollection of his parent- 
age — a circumstance (he boasted) which gave 
him a great advantage over his predecessors, 
since it exempted him from all temptation to 
nepotism. * One day, as he was begging 
alms, while yet extremely young, an Italian 
monk took compassion on him, and intro- 
duced him into his convent. From Candia, 
as he gave great promise of intellectual at- 
tainment, he was carried into Italy ; and 
thence, for the gradual completion of his 
studies, to the universities, first of Oxford, 
and afterwards of Paris. There he acquired 
great theological reputation, and retained 
along with it a mild, liberal, and convivial 
disposition. He was already advanced in 
age when raised to the pontificate. . . . 
After a few more sessions, in which a com- 
mission was appointed for the investigation 
of ecclesiastical abuses, and some unimpor- 
tant regulations enacted, the Council was ad- 
journed for an interval of three years, till the 
April of 1412. 

The authority of the Council of Pisa was 
recognised by all the national churches of 
Europe, excepting Arragon, Castille, Bavaria, 
and Scotland ; and Rome itself, by placing 
Alexander in the list of its genuine bishops, 
has offered it the same acknowledgment. Its 

* It was the boast of his friends, that, from being 
a rich archbishop, he had become a poor cardinal j 
and that the popedom had reduced him to beggary. 



THE GRAND SCHISM. 



421 



proceedings were conducted without any 
reproach of irregularity or dissension, and it 
dispersed under the auspices of a legitimate 
pope. It remams to inquire, what was the 
effect produced upon the antipopes by de- 
cisions so soleinnly delivered. On the de- 
termination of an assembly, which expressed 
the power and united the vows of almost 
every nation of Europe, what course did the 
repudiated schismatics adopt ? Did they en- 
deavor to conciliate the party, which they 
were too weak to resist, and too infamous 
longer to cajole ? Did they resign those 
claims, by which they might still indeed dis- 
turb the peace of Christendom, but which 
could scarcely promise any substantial dig- 
nity to themselves ? — No ; — they clung to the 
fragments of their fortunes with the same 
attachment, which had bound them to pros- 
perity ; and the more generally it was ad- 
mitted, that both were pretenders and anti- 
popes, the more violently each proclaimed 
himself to be the genuine pope. Benedict 
could still boast of the obedience of Spain ; 
but this was a narrow field to content the 
ambition of the successor of the Gregories 
and the Innocents. But the reverses of his 
rival were even more remarkable. He only 
escaped captivity by traversing the ambush 
of his enemies in the disguise of a merchant ; 
while his chamberlain, who resembled him 
in person, and had assumed liis robes, was 
taken in his place, and subjected to some se- 
verity of treatment. Having in such guise 
escaped to two galleys which awaited him, 
and which conveyed him to Gaieta, he then 
reclaimed his dignity, and imitated, with his 
scanty train of courtiers, the pomp of the 
imperial city. He was protected, indeed, by 
Ladislaus, and neither Germany nor Hungary 
had yet nominally withdrawn from his obedi- 
ence. But he was poor, and as he had no 
patronage, he had no resources ; and his few 
followers continued to adhere to him through 
fear of the King of Naples, rather than from 
any attachment either to his person, or his 
cause. 

Alexander V., the feebleness of whose cha- 
racter made him liable to the influence of 
any more vigorous spirit, fell almost entirely 
under tlie guidance of a Neapolitan, named 
Baltazar Cossa, Legate at Bologna. This ex- 
traordinary person, by birth a nobleman, by 
habit and inclination a soldier, by profession 
a churchman, and in rank a cardinal, was one 
of the boldest champions of the Council of 
Pisa. And when it appeared that the pos- 
session of Rome could only be recovered 



from Ladislaus by military measures, Baltazar 
undertook to conduct an expedition for that 
pui-pose. The Roman people acknowledged 
the authority of Alexander, and sent to him a 
deputation with the keys of the city. The 
Pope was then at Bologna. He received the 
envoys with magnificence ; he expressed his 
pleasure at their emancipation from the se- 
ductions of Angelo Corrario ; and in respect 
to the desire, which they testified, to have 
their Pope among them, and to receive the 
Jubilee, * (for these vows were united in 
their petition,) he appointed the year 1413 
for that solemnity. This cu'cumstance is 
worthy of thus much attention, as it shows 
how unblushingly the Romans at that time 
avowed the real motive of their attachment 
to the Vicar of Christ *, and also, how basely 
a Pope, who could not plead either weakness 
or poverty, pandered to their cupidity. But 
Alexander V. was not destined to witness the 
execution of his decree, nor even to receive 
the venal applauses of his people. He died 
at Bologna the year afler his election (May 
3d, 1410,) and the cardinals, after a very short 
deliberation, appomted Baltazar Cossa in his 
place. 

Elevation of John XXIII. to the See.— The 
world was surprised at this election ; for 
though he possessed good natural talents, 
and a rapid decision in matters of business 
and other temporal concerns, Baltazar was 
of a violent temper, and remarkable for the 
licentiousness of his morals ; his demeanor 
and manners corresponded with his repu- 
tation ; and the military air, which so little 
became the habit of the cardinal, seemed 
wholly to disqualify him for the chair of St. 
Peter. On the other hand, his fearless cha- 
racter gave promise of that vigor, which 
was now required for the restoration of the 
Church ; and it was hoped, that, if he did 
not awaken to the spiritual duties of his sta- 
tion, he would at least consent to observe its 
decencies. 

John XXIII. (Baltazar assumed that name) 
did not at first deceive either of those expec- 
tations ; his manners were softened on his 
elevation, and his morals ostensibly amended ; 
and he framed his political arrangements so 
well, that the king of Naples declared in his 
favor. Then Gregoiy, for the second time 
an exile, embarked his person and his suite in 
two trading vessels, and sought almost the 
only spot in Europe which continued to obey 
him. Charles Malatesta opened to him the 
gates of Rimini; and there, together with 



* Fieury, 1. c- sec. xliii. 



422 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



had space to deplore the passion or the weak- 
ness, through which he had exchanged a holy 
reputation and dignified independence for 
banishment, insecurity, and infamy. 

Elevation of Sigismond to the Empire. — 
The death of the emperor at this moment 
opened an occasion to the Pope to recom- 
mend Sigismond as successor ; and as Sigis- 
mond was actually chosen, a friendly inter- 
course was immediately established between 
the two parties. The still disturbed condition 
of the Church, and the abuses which univer- 
sally prevailed, demanded mdeed their cordial 
and honest co-operation ; and in this at least 
they agreed, that a General Council was the 
only remaining remedy, and that no time 
should be lost in convoking it. On the dis- 
solution of that of Pisa, it had been arranged 
that another should be called after three years. 
Accordingly, John had summoned the pre- 
lates to Rome at the appointed time ; but so 
few presented themselves, that it was not 
judged expedient to proceed to any important 
enactments. 

Convocation of the Council of Constance. — 
The place, which was now selected for a 
more efficient meeting, was the city of Con- 
stance, in Switzerland. Much depended on 
that selection. Much depended on the local 
influence which might probably be exercised, 
and which would certainly affect the deliber- 
ations of the body. Constance was under the 
du-ect control of Sigismond ; and it is well 
known * that the Pope foresaw some of the 

* Leonardus Aretinus relates a curious anecdote 
on this subject, which throws light on the still dis- 
puted character of John. " The pontiff privately 
communicated to me his design. The whole matter 
(said he) depends on the place of the council, and I 
will not have it where the emperor is the stronger. 
I shall therefore give to the legates, whom I send to 
decide this matter, credentials of full power and dis- 
cretion for public appearance's sake, but I shall pri- 
vately restrict them to certain specified places — and 
then he mentioned those places. Afterwards, when 
the legates came to take leave, having dismissed all 
excepting myself, he secretly addressed tliem and 
showed of what weight the matter was, on which 
ihey were sent. Then, speaking kindly to them, he 
praised their prudence and fidelity, and said that they 
knew what ought to be done better than himself. 
While he was thus talking and repeating those civil 
things to them, he was himself overpowered by a 
feeling of kindness, and in an instant changed the 
design so long determined by him. I had meant, he 
said, to give you a list of certain places, from which 
list you should on no account depart; but at this very 
instant I change my mind, and commit every thing to 



consequences of that arrangement, and con- 
sented to it with extreme- reluctance. It is 
known too, that he felt a much stronger incli- 
nation to march in arms for the recovery of 
his capital, which the death of Ladislaiis had 
again opened to him, than to conduct the 
peaceful procession of his cardinals towards 
the appointed city. Nevertheless, his out- 
ward conduct betrayed no disposition to re- 
cede, whatever may have been his private 
wishes or his secret intrigues ; and having 
fixed the first of November, 1414, for the 
opening of the Council, he was present for 
the performance of his duties on that day. 

The situation of Constance in many par- 
ticulars justified the preference, which the 
emperor had obtained for it. Its pleasant and 
healthful situation on the shores of an exten- 
sive lake ; its central position with respect to 
France, Germany and Italy ; and not least, 
the circumstance, that it was at that time the 
grand depot of all commercial intercourse 
between the two last countries, made it fav- 
orable for the access and accommodation of 
a numerous and opulent assembly. As the 
council lasted for nearly four years, the num- 
ber of its members and their attendants must 
have greatly fluctuated ; but if it be true, that 
at certain times not less than thirty thousand 
horses * were maintained for its use, we may 
conceive the splendor as well as the multitude 
of the assemblage. It was divided into four 
sections, following the grand national division 
of Europe ; and all the members were ar- 
ranged under the banners of Italy, of France, 
of Germany, or of England. Most of the 
leading ecclesiasticsf of Europe were present; 
but the greater proportion of eminent laymen, 
who thronged to Constance, distinguished that 

your prudence. It is for you to think, what may be 
safe and what dangerous for me. And thus he tore 
in pieces the paper, on which he had written the 
names of the places. The legates therefore going to 
Sigismond chose Constance — a transalpine city and 
subject to the emperor. When John heard this, he 
was incredibly afflicted, and lamented his evil stars, 
that he had so lightly deviated from his former mind 
and counsel," Leonard. Aretin., In Rerum Italic. 
Historia. 

* Apprehensions being entertained about the means 
of providing for so many quadrupeds, it was ordered, 
that the Pope should be limited to tvi-enty hoi-ses, the 
cardinals and princes to ten each, the bishops to five, 
and the abbots to four only. Raynald. ann. 1414, s. 
xiii. 

t Nine and twenty cardinals and three hundred 
bishops and archbishops were present at the second 
session, on March 2, when the Pope made his abdj' 
cation. 



THE GRAND SCHISM. 



423 



council, more than any other circumstance, 
from all that had preceded it. 

Its professed objects were the extinction 
of the schism and the Reformation of the 
Church. The persecutions of John Huss 
and Jerome of Prague, which formed a part 
of its labors, will be described and traced to 
their true motives in a following chapter. 
Even the subject of the Reformation must 
for the moment be deferred ; since we must 
confine our present attention to the thread 
which we have pursued through so many 
windings, and trace the history of the Schism 
to its conclusion. And to some indeed it 
might appear, and not without specious rea- 
son, that the schism was virtually extinct 
already ; and that the feeble anti-popes of 
Perpignan and of Rimini might have been 
safely left to waste their complaints and ana- 
themas unnoticed. And so it might possibly 
have proved. But, on the other hand, the 
politics of Europe were at that time so fluc- 
tuating and faithless, that the slightest cir- 
cumstance of national mterest, or even of 
personal caprice or jealousy, might at any 
moment have ti-ansferred the obedience of a 
kingdom, and restored to Gregory or to Be- 
nedict the adhesion of a powerful party. So 
that there seemed no positive security for the 
concord of the Church, until the two schis- 
matics should be deprived of the faintest 
shadow of authority. Hence it was, that all 
parties were chiefly anxious to attend to this 
subject, and to complete the work which had 
been so far advanced at Pisa. * 

But here, at the very outset, a difference 
arose of the most essential importance, as to 
the manner of attaining that end. It will be 
observed, that the present assembly approach- 
ed that question under circumstances dissimi- 
lai- from those which guided the former. At 
Pisa, the impossibility of deciding between 
the two claimants having been admitted, nei- 
ther of them was recognised by the council. 
The fathers were indeed personally divided 
in their obedience ; but as a single legislative 



* The bare circumstance, that there were three 
competitors for the chair after the council of Pisa, 
and only two before it, has led many historians to 
consider that assembly as having increased the schism. 
But to us it seems otherwise. It reduced the anti- 
popes to an insignificance, from which they never 
recovered, and it united the great body of Christen- 
dom in the same views, and with a common principle. 
If it was not immediately successful, neither was the 
council of Constance perfectly so. But the proceed- 
ings of Pisa were the foundation of the re-union, and 
it was by building on them, that the work was finally 
completed. 



body they acknowledged neither Peter of 
Luna nor Angelo Corrario. Thus their course 
was obvious — to declare the See vacant, and 
to proceed to a canonical election. But the 
council of Constance, being held in continu- 
ation of that of Pisa, being bound by its de- 
cisions and resting on its validity, admitted 
of necessity the rights of John XXIII. And 
thus, whatsoever course its deliberations might 
take, it had to deal with a Pope of undisput- 
ed legitimacy. For though some feeble mur- 
murs would be raised at Rimini and Perpig- 
nan, Constance at least was not the place 
where they could find an echo. 

Under these circumstances the council met 
together, and soon afterwards John caused 
his own proposition to be laid before it. It 
was simply this — that the fathers should first 
of all things confirm all the acts of the coun- 
cil of Pisa ; that they should next deliberate 
on the best means of cariying them into ef- 
fect ; and lastly enter upon their labors for 
the Reformation of the Church. In this pa- 
per the pope merely called upon the fathers 
publicly to declare, what they never for a mo- 
ment disputed, the legality of that council, 
from which he derived his authority; and if 
that declaration were once made, he felt as- 
sured, that there could be no other method 
of proceeding against two denounced anti- 
popes, than by arming the real pope with ad- 
ditional authority to crush them. It was very 
natural, that John should take this view of the 
subject ; mdeed, as far as the strict justice of 
the question v/as concerned, it was the cor- 
rect view ; and assuredly the distinction be- 
tween a pope and a schismatic was sufficient- 
ly broad, to be made ground for decided ac- 
tion with an assembly of Roman Catholic 
ecclesiastics. 

Nevertheless there were many, and some 
of the most celebrated doctors of the age 
were among them, who considered the sub- 
ject in a widely different light. These loud- 
ly maintained, that as the council of Constance 
was a continuation of that of Pisa, it was 
bound steadily to pursue the same object; 
that this object had been the extinction of the 
schism, and that it was still so ; and that a 
solemn obligation rested on all the prelates 
present, even on the pope himself, to adopt 
whatsoever means should appear most effica- 
cious for that purpose. It was immediately 
obvious to what end this opinion tended — that 
the method of cession, which had been at- 
tempted with such imperfect success at Pisa, 
would be again brought forward as the only 
healing measm-e ; and that the true and re- 



424 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



cognised Pope would be called upon for the 
same humiliation, and probably subjected to 
the same compulsion, with two anathematiz- 
ed pretenders. 

The subject was warmly debated ; but with- 
out any approach to a decision, because the 
emperor was not yet anived ; and as much 
certainly depended on his views, so the atten- 
tion and even the hopes of both parties were 
earnestly fixed upon him. Sigismond pos- 
sessed considerable talents and accomplish- 
ments ; he spoke several languages with flu- 
ency and even eloquence, and was the patron 
of learning, in an age when it still needed 
powerful protection. The dignity of his per- 
sonal appearance has attracted the commen- 
dations of history ; * and if his moral char- 
acter was not free from stain, and if his mil- 
itary enterprises generally ended in disgrace, 
he has been abundantly honored for his zeal 
in the service of the Church, and his exer- 
tions against heresy and schism. 

His previous intercourse with John, and 
the obligations which he certainly owed to 
him, led many to believe, that he would throw 
his weight into the pontifical scale — nor was 
reason wanting to incline him to that side. 
But it proved otherwise. He probably re- 
flected, that, should he determine unequivo- 
cally to support and enforce the rights of John, 
no other method remained to reduce the an- 
tipopes, except violence — the princes of Ar- 
ragon and Rimini would not otherwise re- 
nounce their obedience. The disposition of 
Sigismond was known ; but matters had not 
yet proceeded to any determination, when 
legates presented themselves both from Greg- 
ory and Benedict. The latter, indeed, merely 
insulted the council by the usual vague and 
faithless offers of conference and compro- 
mise. But the former declared their autlior- 
ity to make a formal cession on behalf of ^heir 
master, in case that both his rivals should ab- 
dicate also. From that moment the exertions 
of the great majority of the fathers were di- 
rected to one object — to accomplish by some 
means or other the abdication of John. 

Now, as they never affected on any occa- 
sion to throw the slightest doubts on his le- 
gitimacy, it became them to take their mea- 
sures with deference and caution ; and when 

* Leonardus Aretinus (Rer. Italicar. Historia) 
speaks of him thus: — " Fuit proculdubio vir inclytus, 
praeclara facie, corpore turn specioso,. turn robusto; 
magnitudine animi sive pace sive bello eximia; lib- 
eralitate vero tanta, ut hoc uninn illi vitio daretur, 
quod largieudo et erogando sibi ipsi facultates detra- 
heret ad negotia bcUaque obeuncla." 



they pressed upon him the general obligations 
of his office, and argued, that he was bound, 
as chief of the Church of Christ, willingly 
to lay down, not his dignity only, but life it- 
self, if the interests of that Church required 
it, we shall not wonder, that the Pope was 
unmoved by so indeterminate an appeal. But 
the council felt its strength; and tlie above 
appeal was accompanied by the new and bold 
proposition, that a General Council possessed 
the power, in a peculiar exigency, to compel 
the Pope to abdication. This assertion gave 
rise to long and warm discussions ; the Italian 
prelates maintained the papal cause, but with 
less vigor and ability, than the circumstances 
required, and even than the merits of the 
question admitted. The superiority of learn- 
ing and genius was on the side of the French ; 
and the powerful harangues of Pierre d'Ailly 
and the celebrated Gerson, Chancellor of the 
Univei-sity, added weight to a doubtful cause. 
It seemed clear that the party of John must 
yield. 

The Council declares for the cession. — In the 
meantime, the Archbishop of Mayence, the 
Primate of the German Church and Elector 
of the empire, arrived with great pomp at 
Constance, and immediately declared his ad- 
herence to the cause of the Pope. Frederic 
of Austria and the Duke of Burgundy were 
likewise enlisted on the same side. But Si- 
gismond had now decidedly espoused the op- 
posite principles ; and thus the French and 
Italian, which first divided the Council, now 
really became the imperial and papal parties. 
This was the crisis of the contest; and the 
great majority of three of the nations was 
manifestly on the side of the Emperor. Still, 
before they proceeded to the question, it was 
feared that, as the Italian prelates were the 
most numerous and under the most direct in- 
fluence, and would, probably, be unanimous 
for the Pope, they might be able to outvote 
the majorities of the other nations. It was, 
therefore, advanced as a fair proposal, and 
finally arranged, that each nation should sep- 
arately ascertain its own sense, and that then, 
on the general meeting, the majority of na- 
tions, not the numerical majority of votes, 
should prevail. On the day appointed, they 
met together, and it then appeared that the 
decision in favor of the method of cession 
was unanimous — to the astonishment of the 
whole council, the greater portion even of the 
Italians themselves had adopted that opinion. 

The Pope abdicates. — During the progress 
of these delibera:ioi:s, there were some who 
judged, from the customary tenacity of other 



THE GRxiND SCillSM. 



425 



Popes, that still further measures might after- 
wards be called for. And in that apprehen- 
sion, a long list of personal charges against 
John XXIIL, some of which involved the 
most abominable offences, was handed about 
among the fathers ; and a copy came under 
the inspection of the Pope himself. John 
then saw the real nature of the temnest that 
was hanging over him, and immediately de- 
termined to avert it by timely submission. 
He expressed that Intention amidst the ac- 
clamations of the whole assembly ; and after 
some unimportant disputes respecting the 
formula of cession, he publicly pronounced 
(on the 2d of March) his solemn and volun- 
tary abdication.* 

Flight of John XXIIL — The cession of 
John was, of course, conditional on that of 
the antipopes ; and as no difiiculties were 
any longer offered by Gregory, the accom- 
plisliment of the union rested wholly with 
Peter of Luna. To this end a conference 
was proposed at Nice, between Sigismond 
and the King of Arragon ; and as it seemed 
that Benedict was to be one of the parties, 
John claimed his right to be also present on 
the occasion. This demand excited some 
suspicions of his sincerity-; and these were 
confirmed by a proposal, which he soon 
afterwards made, to transfer the Council from 
Constance to Nice. It was difficult, after 
the instances of pontifical duplicity which 
had disgraced the last forty years, to put trust 
in the honesty of any Pope ; and the charac- 
ter of John was not such as to command 
any peculiar confidence. Consequently, the 
Council required of him a formal deed or 
procuration of cession ; and he, without hesi- 
tation, refused it. Guards were then placed 
about the gates of the city ; but, on the urgent 
remonstrance of the Pope, removed. How- 
beit, whether he had previously meditated an 
escape from the power of the Council, as 

* The formula finally agreed on was to the follow- 
ing effect: " We, John XXIII.,for the repose of the 
people of Christ, profess, promise, vow, and swear, 
before God, the Church, and this sacred Council, freely 
and with our entire good will, to give peace to the 
Church by the method of a simple and pure cession 
to be made by us the Sovereign Pontificate, and to 
accomplish it effectually through the wisdom of the 
present Council, — whensoever Peter of Luna and 
Angelo Corrario shall sijiiilarly renounce, in person 
or by their delegates, the Popedom to which they 
pretend. And we also promise to do the same thing, 
howsoever that may occur, whether by cession or by 
death, or by any other way, so that it shall become 
possible to unite the Church of God through our ces- 
sion, and thus to extirpate the present schism." 
54 



soon as it proved too great for him, or whether 
he was driven to that resolution (as may also 
have been) by the distrust and even harsh- 
ness with which he was treated ; it is certain 
that, on the morning of March 21, the Em- 
peror and the Fathers learnt with dismay and 
astonishment, that the Pope was no longer at 
Constance. He had quitted the city, in the 
night, in a military disguise ; and, having in- 
stantly embarked, had descended the Rhine 
as far as Schaffhausen, a city of his pro- 
tector, Frederic. 

The consternation of the Council was 
somewhat abated by a communication re- 
ceived from John on the following day, in 
which he renewed his assurances of sin- 
cerity, and justified his retreat from Con- 
stance by the argument, that his personal 
security was necessary to give obligation to 
the promise of cession ; and hereupon he 
was joined by several Cardinals and other 
prelates. But the great majority remained 
behind, in close co-operation with the Em- 
peror ; and both they and he immediately 
engaged in the most vigorous measures. For, 
on the one hand, Sigismond put in motion, 
the temporal forces of the Assembly, and di- 
rected a powerful army against the States of 
Frederic ; and on the other, the Fathers of 
the Council and the doctors of Paris, with 
Gerson at their head, advanced in mighty 
spiritual array against the pontifical deserter. 
And while the imperial soldiers approached 
the walls of Schaffhausen, the bulwarks of 
Popery were assaulted from the pulpits of 
Constance. 

The momentous question was now public- 
ly argued, whether a Council General of the 
Church did not possess an authority superior 
to the Pope. The rights of the Council 
were advocated by the eloquence of Gerson,* 
and asserted by the general consent of the 
Fathers of Constance. The opposite opinion 
was maintained by the seceders at Schaff- 
hausen ; and these even ventured to assert, 
that the Council itself was virtually dissolved 
by the absence of the Pope. It has generally 
been the error of high churchmen to advance 
the loftiest pretensions at the most unseason- 
able moments ; and instead of receding at a 
crisis of violence and danger, to rush with a 
sort of effeminate rashness into perils, which 
would not otherwise have reached them. A 
decided breach now took place between the 
two parties ; but after some vain replications 
and negotiations, it became perfectly clear on 



De Auferibilitate Papse ab Ecciesia. 



426 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



which side the real strength lay. The Court 
of SchafFhausen daily diminished, and the 
Council proceeded by vigorous acts to give 
efficacy to the principle of its own superi- 
ority. Nevertheless, the Pope would not ac- 
knowledge his defeat, but rather determined 
to risk the experiment by a second flight ; 
intending, as it would seem, to throw himself 
on the protection of the Duke of Burgundy, 
and establish his residence at Avignon. He 
halted at Brisac, and a deputation from the 
Council found him there ; he fixed the fol- 
lowing morning to give them audience, but 
on the following morning John XXIII. was 
no longer at Brisac. We shall not trace the 
fruitless negotiations which followed: it is 
sufficient to add, that during their progress 
the Duke of Austria prevailed upon the Pope 
to take refuge at Fribourg, under his own 
sacred protection — for the Duke, being se- 
verely pressed in his contest with the Em- 
peror, and foreseeing his entire discomfiture, 
was desirous to possess the means of recon- 
ciliation. Having succeeded in this desire, 
he hastened to violate his vows, and to sacri- 
fice his virtue and reputation, by surrendering 
the person of his guest. And thus, says 
Maimbourg, the unfortunate Pope, who, dis- 
orderly and licentious as he was, failed not 
to be an object of great compassion through 
the treachery practised against him by his 
protector, was betrayed ; and found himself 
a prisoner in the Castle of Fribourg, the 
very place where he had thought to find an 
asylum. 

The Council then turned to the affiiir of his 
deposition, observing in this matter the same 
forms which had been followed at Pisa in the 
process against Gregory and Benedict. The 
list of accusations presented against John 
XXIII. consisted of fifty articles ; but the 
whole weight of his offences might be com- 
prised under five or six heads. He was 
charged with all the various modifications of 
simony ; with squandering and alienating the 
property of the Church ; and with oppres- 
sing the people by unjust acts and exorbitant 
imposts. His escape from Constance, and his 
subsequent endeavors to elude the demands 
of the Council, w^ere urged against him with 
the greater minuteness, as they were the most 
recent and the least pardonable of his offen- 
ces. Another class of charges related to his 
official, another to his private delinquencies. 
It was asserted that, as Pope, he had disre- 
garded the divine offices, neglected to repeat 
his breviary, and rarely assisted at the cele- 
bration of mass ; and that, even when he did 



so, he recited the service rapidly and careless- 
ly, like a sportsman or' a soldier.* It was 
added, that he had wholly disregarded the 
fasts and abstinences of the Church. As to 
the scandals of his private life, they were 
traced with minute diligence, even from his 
childhood to his flight from Constance. In 
his earliest youth the intemperanceof his dis- 
position betrayed itself: his most innocent 
years were charged with falsehood, impu- 
dence, disobedience to his parents, a tenden- 
cy to every vice. His progress in life was a 
progress in iniquity. Murder by violence 
and by poison, adultery, incest, the most 
abominable impurities were imputed to him, 
as unquestioned and notorious. Such is the 
substance of the allegations recorded by Ro- 
man Catholic writers against their sph'itual 
Father ; but it must not be forgotten, that, in 
the list formally presented to the Council and 
to the Pope, these last charges were suppress- 
ed. This might be with a view to spare the 
Catholic Church so monstrous a scandal ; or 
through consideration to the conscience and 
character of the Cardinals, who had so lately 
elected such a Pope ; but it might also be, 
because they rested on slight foundations, and 
proceeded from that popular license, which 
so eagerly calumniates *the fallen fortunes of 
the great. 

John XXIIL accused and deposed.— It is not 
disputed, that the paper, which received the 
approbation of the Council, contained many 
heinous charges, expressed in very unequiv- 
ocal language, and confirmed by numerous 
testimonies. But the Pope, when it was pre- 
sented to him for inspection and refutation, 
calmly replied, with the most submissive re- 
spect for the Council, that he had little curi- 
osity to read either the charges or the deposi- 
tions ; but that of this the Fathers might rest 
assured, that he should receive their decision, 
whatever it might be, with perfect deference ; 
in the meantime, that his best defence was in 
their justice. This was politic, for from the 
moment in which the Council determined 
upon the method of cession, John very clear- 
ly perceived that the Pontificate had passed 
from his hands. For a time, indeed, he pro- 
bably hoped, through the support of the 
Dukes of Austria and Burgundy, to retain a 
partial obedience and wear a divided mitre ; 
but no sooner did he become the prisoner of 
the Council, than even that hope abandoned 
him ; and his only remainmg object was to 
secure, in a private station, his personal fi-ee- 



* Et si aliquoties celebravit, hoc fuit currenter, 
more venatorum et armigerorum. Act. Concil. Const. 



THE GRAND SCHISM. 



427 



dom and security. Accordingly, he addres- 
sed a respectful and even pathetic letter to 
Sigismoud, in which he reminded him of ser- 
vices formerly conferred, and supplicated in 
return his fi-iendship, or at least his clemency. 
This appeal was written in a tone of deep 
humiliation, and with an affectation of attach- 
ment, which could scarcely be sincere. But 
neither Emperor nor Council was softened 
by this tardy display of obsequiousness. At 
a foil Session, held on the 29th of May, John 
XXIII. was solemnly deposed from the Pon- 
tificate. By the same sentence he was con- 
demned to imprisonment during the pleasure 
of the Council, which reserved to itself the 
power of imposing such other penalties as 
should, in due season, be declared. 

This sentence was communicated to John 
in his confinement at Cell ; he perused it 
without any emotion, and requested a short 
interval of solitude. After two hours, he or- 
dered the deputies again into his presence ; 
and then, after reading all the articles in suc- 
cession, with a firm voice and unruffled man- 
ner, he declared to them that there was no 
particular, which did not receive his complete 
approbation ; and that, as far as in him lay, 
he cordially confirmed and ratified the sen- 
tence. To this assurance he added a volun- 
tary vow, that he would never at any time 
protest against that sentence, nor make any 
attempt to recover the Pontificate — that, on 
the contrary, he renounced purely and sim- 
ply, and from the bottom of his heart, any 
right which he ever had, or might still have, 
to that dignity ; that, in proof of this, he had 
already removed from his chamber the pon- 
tifical cross, and would throw off the pontifi- 
cal garments as willingly, if he had any oth- 
ers to put on in their place ; that he wished 
with all his soul, that he had never been Pope 
at all, since he had not enjoyed one single 
happy day since his exaltation ; and so far 
was he from wishing to be restored to that 
dignity, that should any desire his re-election, 
he would never at any time consent to it. He 
then threw himself, with his former humility, 
on the mercy of the Council and the Emper- 
or — not, however, without reminding them, 
that he possessed legitimate means of defence, 
of which he had not yet availed himself, but 
to which he should certainly appeal, should 
they drive him, by more rigorous measures, 
to further extremities. 

This conduct, which was not only politic, 
but generous, succeeded not in obtaining for 
him any mitigation of his sentence. He was 
led away in close confinement, first to Heidel- 



berg, and aflerwards to Manheim, where he 
was im.prisoned for three years. Neither did 
it avail him any thing to have once possessed 
the friendship of Sigismond. Nay, so far 
was the severity of the sentence enforced, 
that he was deprived of the services of his 
Italian attendants, and surrounded by Ger- 
mans, with whom his ignorance of the lan- 
guage permitted no other intercourse, than 
by signs.* Such rigor, exercised against a 
fallen Pope, awakened sympathy and swelled 
the ranks of his advocates ; and there were 
many who maintained, both then and afler- 
wards, that his deposition was illegal and 
compulsory, since the charge of heresy, on 
which alone a Pope could be canouically de- 
posed, was not that, which occasioned the 
degradation of John XXIII. The Court of 
France openly professed this opinion ; and 
the offence, which Charles VI. on that occa- 
sion took at the exceeding zeal of the Uni- 
versity, repressed the ardor and diminished 
the credit of that illustrious body. 

In the meantime, the Council advanced 
onwards in the course which it had chosen. 
It had now assumed the despotic f control of 
the Church ; and in its first exercise of that 
power, it published a declaration that the 
Cardinals could not proceed to a new elec- 
tion without its consent. By its next deci- 
sion the formalities attending the cession of 
Gregory were duly completed, and the old 
man was permitted to resign that which no 
one acknowledged that he possessed. The 
attention of the Council and the whole Cath- 
olic world was then turned entirely towards 
the determination of Peter of Luna. 

Conduct of Benedict. — His determination 



* Platina and Nauclerus assert the severity with 
which John was treated. Theodoric of Niem gives 
a different account, on the authority, as he says, of 
well-informed persons. There are differences, too, 
on some other particulars, which we have not thought 
it necessary to specify. The historians who have 
been principally consulted for the contents of this 
chapter (besides the original authorities) ai-e Maim- 
bourg, the Continuator of FleuryJ Lenfant (Hist, du 
Cone, de Constance,) Pagi (Breviar. Gest. Pontif. 
Roman.,) and Spondanus. 

f Hence it proceeded, papaliter, to interfere with 
the State also. Pi'eviously to Sigismond's departure 
for Perpignan, through France, it published an edict 
— " Quicunque, cujuscuuque status aut conditionis 
existat, etiamsi regalis . . . euntes aut redeuntes 
impediverit, perturbaverit — sententia excommunica- 
tionis percellitur — et ulterius omni honore et dignitate 
ipso facto est privatus." Act. Concil. Constan., 
Sess. xvii. This sudden assumption of the power 
of deposition astonished all sovereigns, but especially 
insulted the King of France, 



428 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



was simply this, — to cling to the ruins of his 
fortunes — to clasp the name and shadow of 
the Pontificate — to persevere in his preten- 
sions and his perjury to the end of his life. 
Nevertheless, it was necessary to treat him 
with temper and deference, as long as he 
was supported even by a single Prince. The 
method of conference was that which he still 
proposed, and the Council now assented to 
it ; and as the King of Arragon was prevent- 
ed by sickness from travelling to Nice, Sigis- 
mond professed his willingness to undertake 
in person the journey to Perpignan. It was 
in vain, that Benedict exhausted the resources 
of his ingenuity to retard, at least, if he could 
not impede, the advance of the Emperor: his 
artifices were foiled by the firmness of a can- 
did mind resolutely bent on a noble object; 
and on the 18th of September Sigismond ar- 
rived, with a small number of attendants, at 
the place of conference. 

An extraordinary scene was then enacted. 
Ferdinand of Arragon sincerely desu'ed the 
extinction of the schism ; ambassadors from 
the courts of Castille and Navarre, and others \ 
who were present, united their vows for the 
same object. The Emperor pressed it with 
all his talents and all his power — Benedict 
alone opposed himself to the unanimity of 
Christendom. Whatever was most convin- 
cing in argument or persuasive in rhetoric 
was repeatedly urged upon him by the Princes 
and their deputies. If any pretext for his re- 
sistance had hitherto been furnished by the 
pertinacity of his competitors, this, they main- 
tained, was now removed by the cession and 
deposition of Gregory and John. The con- 
dition, on which he had sworn to abdicate, 
was at length accomplished beyond dispute ; 
and his honor, his conscience, his promises, 
his oaths unequivocally obliged him to fulfil 
his part. Henceforward the concord of Chris- 
tendom depended wholly upon him. After 
eight-and-thirty years of schism, disorder, 
and desolation, Benedict was the only re- 
maining obstacle to the union, repose, and 
welfare of the Christian world. The Church 
herself, if she was indeed intrusted by the 
Almighty to his care and guidance, now 
stretched forth her arms to him, from the 
abyss of misery in which she was sunk, and 
sadly supplicated, that he would raise her 
from her degradation ; that he would volun- 
tarily sacrifice that dignity, which he could 
not possibly retain much longer ; and that he 
would invest his few remaining years with 
the gratitude and blessings of mankind, rather 
tliau adhere, amid universal detestation, to a 



mere name, which an early death, followed 
by eternal infamy, was now at hand to tear 
away from him. 

These arguments, urged by the highest 
secular powers, were confirmed by other au- 
thority, vs^hich may have given them addi- 
tional value in the eyes of a churchman 
and a Pope. There were two holy brothers 
named Vincent and Boniface Ferrier,* who 
had hitherto faithfully adhered to the cause 
of Benedict, and whose acknowledged piety 
and supposed inspiration seemed to lend it 
some sort of sanctity. These venerable per- 
sons now joined their friendly eloquence to 
turn the heart of Benedict ; and they fortified 
their appeal by declaring, that, as the reproach 
of schism must henceforward rest on his 
party, they should be compelled, in case of 
his further opposition, to desert him.f 

Benedict was not moved by any of these 
considerations. Whether it was, that in the 
conscientious belief that he was the true Pope, 
he considered it a religious, or (what might 
be equally sacred in his mind) an ecclesiasti- 
cal duty, to preserve his office to the end of 
his life ; or whether (as is more probable,) 
the love of power grew with the progi-ess of 
his years, and the decay of his vigor, so as 
finally to close his heart against any repre- 
sentations of reason or decency, — he main- 
tained his constant resolution inflexibly. As 
he had always been the legitimate, so was he 
now, forsooth, the only, Pontiff: the depo- 
sition of both his adversaries confirmed him, 
without competition, in the possession of the 
See. So that, if the schism were still per- 
mitted to subsist (he continued,) the scandal 
must rest with the Council of Constance, not 
with him. For his own part, he was deter- 
mined never to abandon the bark of St. Peter, 
of which the helm had been confided to him 
by God ; and the older he became, and the 
nearer he approached to death and the judg- 



* This same Vincent Ferrier is addressed by Ger- 
son from Constance, as a patron of the sect of the 
Flagellants, whom the chancellor earnestly exhorts 
him to abandon. Nevertheless he is designated as 
" Theologus et Orator toto orbe inclytus." The 
documents are given by Von der Hardt, torn, iii., 
pai-s vii. 

t Theodoric of Niem mentions that Vincent Ferrier 
did then, in fact, take so decided a part against his 
former master, as to declare it a merit to persecute 
or kill him. " Quod sit vir pravus et fallax et fictus, 
decipiendo populum Dei, quodque juste persequendus 
sit usque ad mortem ab omnibus Christianis, &c." . . 
Vit. Johann. XXHI. p. 63. This holy zealot had 
as little charity in his enmity, as discretion in his 
friendship. 



THE GRAND SCHISM. 



429 



ment, the stronger was his obligation to resist 
the tempest, and avert the anger of Heaven 
by persevering in the cotirse assigned to him. 
In conclusion, he enforced the necessity of at 
once uniting all the faithful in universal obe- 
dience to himself. Benedict was now in his 
seventy-eighth year ; nevertheless, he argued 
his own cause before a public assembly for 
seven entire hours, with such courage, fer- 
vor, and impetuosity, as to leave it uncertain 
whether his extraordinary energy was de- 
rived from ambition, or from fanaticism, or 
from a strange combination of both. 

The result of this singular contest was not 
yet perfectly manifest. On the one side was 
the secular and spiritual power of Europe, j 
the authority of kings, the prayers of the • 
people, the consent of the Catholic Church — i 
reason, and justice, and every wise, and evei-y 
good principle, arrayed against the infatuated 
obstinacy of one crafty, faithless, old man. 
Yet the thoughtful were still in some sus- 
pense, and many had greater fears from the 
inveterate subtilty of Benedict, than hopes 
from the nnion of so many Princes. . . . 
But it proved otherwise ; the parties engaged 
in the Conference had no personal interest in 
favor of that pretender ; and his perversity 
was so remote from reason, that it served 
rather to cement the confederacy against him. 
It was resolved, however, to make one final 
attempt at persuasion. But here Benedict, 
perceiving the firmness of his adversaries, 
and fearing their ultimate design, withdrew 
his person from their power, and quitted 
Perpignan. He retired, after some hesitation, 
to a place called Paniscola, — a fortress situ- 
ated near Tortosa and the mouth of the Ebro, 
an ancient possession of the House of Luna. 
Four cardinals, and a small body of soldiers, 
followed him. 

Benedict deposed. — Any hopes which he 
may have derived from this proceeding, be- 
yond that of mere })ersonal security, were 
disappomted. The Assembly at Perpignan, 
being now relieved from the constraint which 
his presence still occasioned to those, who 
still acknowledged him, immediately, and by 
a formal act, renounced its obedience. Not 
long afterwards, Scotland, which had taken 
no part in these measures, but continued to 
adhere without scruple to its first decision, 
being now persuaded that Benedict was the 
only remaining obstacle to the general con- 
cord, followed the example of the Conference. 
And then, at length, * the Council of Con- 
stance felt itself empowered to inflict the final 



* On July 26tli, 1417. 



blow. The sentence of deposition was pro- 
nounced against Peter of Luna, according to 
the prescribed forms ; and the bolt, which 
had fallen almost harmless from the Assem- 
bly of Pisa, descended on this occasion with 
greater efficacy, because its object was already 
virtually deposed, through the secession of his 

royal adherents In the meantime, the 

aged Ecclesiastic, against whom the storm 
which himself had raised was now in justice 
directed, was not moved to any act of con- 
cession, or any show of humiliation. Twice 
deposed by two General Councils — twice 
anathematized by the great and almost unani- 
mous consent of the Catholic Church — 
deserted by the secular powers, who had so 
long countenanced his perfidy and protected 
his adversity — abandoned by the most vener- 
able, even among his spiritual followers — and 
confined to a narrow and solitary residence 
— the Pope of Paniscola still presei-ved the 
mockery of a court, and presided in his empty 
council-hall. And thence, in the magnanim- 
ity of disappointment and despair, he launch- 
ed his daily anathema against Ferdinand of 
Arragon, and retorted, with ludicrous earnest- 
ness, the excommunications of the Christian 
world. 

Election of Martin V. hy the Council, and 
termination of the schism. — The Council of 
Constance, having thus at length, through 
the perseverance of its Imperial Director, re- 
moved the three competitors whose disputes 
had rent the Church, proceeded to provide 
for its future integrity ; and, that no pretext 
might possibly be left for subsequent dissen- 
sion, it was determined, for this occasion only, 
to make an addition to the Elective Assem- 
bly. The entire College of the united Car- 
dinals consisted, at that time, of thirty mem- 
bers; and to this body a second, consisting 
of six ecclesiastics from each of the fvc * 
nations, was associated. It was further regu- 
lated, that the consent of two-thirds both of 
the sacred college and of the deputies of each 
nation should be required for the validity of 
the election, — so many were the interests 
which it was necessary to reconcile, so severe 
were the precautions required, to secure for 
the future Pontiflfthe undivided obedience of 
Europe. Accordingly, on the 8th of Novem- 
ber, 1417, the electors entered into conclave, 
and after a deliberation of three days, they 
agreed in the choice of Otho Colonna (Martin 
V.,) a noble and virtuous Roman. 

* As soon as the fate of Benedict was decided, the 
Spanish nation was added to the fom-, which had 
hitherto constituted the Assembly. 



430 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



The character of Martin pointed him out 
as the man destined to repair the ruins of the 
Church. The announcement was received 
with enthusiastic expressions of dehght ; the 
Emperor was the first to prostrate himself at 
the holy Prelate's feet, in a transport of rap- 
ture, which was shared, or affected, by the 
vast assembly present. And it was not with- 
out reasonable ground of confidence — it was 
not without many motives for self-satisfaction, 
and many just claims on the gratitude of that 
age and that Church, that Sigismond and the 
Council at length approached the termination 
of their labors. To us, indeed, looking back 
from our brighter elevation upon the means 
of the disputants and the subject of the strife, 
it will, perhaps, appear, that so powerful a 
combination of temporal and spiritual au- 
thority might have accomphshed in a much 
shorter space the destruction of a profligate 
Pope and two denounced pretenders — that 
the force employed was disproportionate to 
the end — that the methods were indirect and 
dilatoiy, marked by too much ceremony and 
too little vigor. But we should thus determine 
inconsiderately, and without due regard to the 
maxims and prejudices of those days. When 
we reflect, that a century had scarcely yet 
elapsed since Boniface VIII. was exulting in 
the plenitude of spiritual despotism ; that, 
even to the end of the Avignon succession, 
the lofty attributes of Papacy remained, as 
heretofore, unviolated and almost unquestion- 
ed; when we recollect, too, how slow and 
difficult are the triumphs of reason over pre- 
scriptive absurdities, we shall rather admire 
the firmness exhibited at Constance, and the 
courage with which some Papal principles 
were overthrown, than censure that assembly 
for not having more hastily accomplished, 
what it did at length accomplish effectually. 

Fate of the Pretenders. — The Council con- 
tinued its sessions * for a few months after the 
election of Martin, and was then dismissed, 
or rather adjourned, for the space of five 
years. Pavia was the place appointed for 
the next meeting; and the Pope proceeded 
towards Rome, to occupy and refit his shat- 
tered vessel. Nevertheless, with whatever 
security he may have approached his See, he 
must sometimes have reflected, that there still 
lived three men, who had enjoyed in their 
turns the dignity which he now held, and 
who had clung to it with extreme pertinacity. 

* These were forty-five in number; lasting, at va- 
rious intervals, from November 16lhj 1414, to August 
Pth, 1418. 



I It Was fair to presume that their ambition 
would not depart from- them, except with 
life ; and that any casual circumstance, which 
might offer to any one of them the means of 
recovering any portion of his power, would 
find him eager to embrace it. So long as 
they breathed, the concord of the Church 
could scarcely be deemed secure ; let us then 
follow their history to its termination. Gre- 
gory did not long survive the act of his ces- 
sion ; he lived long enough to emerge from 
the condition of dishonor and guilt, into 
which his weakness had thrown him, and 
little longer ; and if his last act had been less 
obviously the effect of compulsion, we .might 
have admitted it as some atonement for his 
previous delmquency. 

Peter of Luna continued for about six years 
to proclaim his legitimacy, and exult in his 
martyrdom. Every day the walls of Panis- 
cola were astonished by the repetition of his 
anathemas ; but the bolts were innocuous : 
but for the temporary depaiture of Alfonso 
of Arragon from the principles of his prede- 
cessor, they would scarcely have been heard 
beyond the fortress gates ; nor did they dis- 
turb, in any degree, the repose of Christen- 
dom. He died suddenly, in the year 1424, * 
in extreme old age ; but his vigor, which was 
still fresh and unabated, gave some color to 
the suspicion of poison, which attends his 
death. It is at least certain, that, as soon as 
he perceived his final hour approaching, he 
commanded the attendance of his two Car- 
dinals, the faithful remnant of his court, and 
addressed them with his wonted intrepidity. 
And then, even at this last crisis, when am- 
bition and interest could not possibly sway 
him longer, he asserted with his parting 
breath, that he was the true and only Pope, 
and that it was absolutely essential for the 
purity of the Church to continue the succes- 
sion. On this he adjured his two hearers, 
on pain of his pontifical malediction, to elect 
a st-iccessor. Having secured their obedience, 
he died ; and it is related in ecclesiastical re- 
cords, that six years after wai'ds his body was 
found entii'e, and without symptom of decay ; 

* The year is disputed. We follow Spondanns, 
ann. 1424, s. iii. The circumstance that he held, at 
least, the name of Pope for thirty years — a space 
longer than any predecessor — has been seriously urged 
as an argument against his legitimacy. ' Noa vide- 
bis dies Petri,' the prophetic address to the succes- 
sors of the apostle, had not been accomplished in the 
case of Luna, therefore he could not be a genuine 
successor. 



THE GRAND SCHISM. 



431 



and that, being then transported to Igluera, a 
town of Arragon, the property of his family, 
it long continued, and perchance may still 
continue, to resist the visitation of corruption. 

His character has not escaped equally 
inviolate ; and the censures by which it is 
perpetually assailed, cannot injustice be sup- 
pressed or softened. His talents were un- 
questionably vivid and active ; but they were 
of a mean description, — the mere machines 
of intrigue and subtilty, — the energies of a 
contemptible and contracted soul. He was 
eminent in sanctity, and the integrity of pri- 
vate life. But what manner of integrity or 
sanctity is that, which is found consistent 
with ambition, and selfishness, and perjury ; 
which can wrap itself in duplicity at any call 
of interest, and pursue a seeming expediency 
through fraud, and faithlessness, and false- 
hood ? But at least (it is said) Benedict was 
sincere in believing, that he was the true Pope, 
and that through his perseverance alone the 
succession could be preserved uninterrupted. 
. . . Was he so sincere ? When he advo- 
cated so warmly the necessity of mutual con- 
cession, during the reign of his predecessor, 
then, at least, he was not persuaded, that the 
purity of the Catholic Church was identical 
with obedience to the pretenders of Avignon. 
Had he been so persuaded, he could not him- 
self have accepted the pontificate as a con- 
ditional boon ; nor bound himself by oath to 
cede, on specific terms, that trust, which af- 
terwards he proclaimed it his religious duty 
to maintain, under every circumstance. As- 
suredly, if his sincerity in this respect must 
be admitted, we must, at the same time, ac- 
knowledge, that he was not impressed with 
it till after his elevation ; and that it was then 
so closely connected with his ambition, as to 
make it hnpossible for the historian, as it 
might be diffictdt even for himself, to dis- 
tinguish between them. 

The two Cardinals obeyed the parting in- 
junction of their master, and chose for his 
successor one Gilles Mugnos, who called him- 
self Clement VIII. But, not long afterwards, 
Alphonso finally withdrew his protection fi-om 
his creature ; Mugnos retired, without a strug- 
gle, to his former obscurity ; and the succes- 
sion of pretenders, which had been imposed 
upon the Church by the Conclave at Anagni, 
was at length at an end. 

One other object of oui* curiosity still re- 
mains, Baltazar Cossa, the President, the ad- 
versary, and the victim of the Council of 
Constance. Very soon after the dissolution 
of that assembly, the Republic of Florence, 



which had been unceasingly attached to the 
cause, or at least to the person and sufiTer- 
ings, of the captive, earnestly solicited his 
liberation from Martin V. ; and it appears 
that, presently afterwards, whether through 
the imprudence,* the policy, or the gene- 
rosity of that Pope, Baltazar was restored to 
liberty. He returned to Italy, and presented 
himself as a simple ecclesiastic among his 
former associates and dependants. His pop- 
ular qualities had secured him many ad- 
herents, and their affection was not shaken 
by his adversity. In some places he was 
welcomed with cordial salutations, but Parma 
was the principal scene of his triumph and 
temptation ; for there he found a powerful 
party prepai*ed to revive and support his ab- 
rogated claims to the chau*. These warmly 
pressed him to resume his dignity, and their 
solicitations were seconded by several indi- 
viduals who had tasted his former bounty, 
or had hopes from his future gratitude ; all 
joined in protesting against the violence which 
he had suffered at Constance, and conjured 
him once more to array himself in the pon- 
tifical vestments, which were rightfully his 
own. This was not all : even in the calcu- 
lations of success there seemed some ground 
for hope. The independent states of Italy 



* The account of Leonardus Aretinus (in Reram 
Ilalic. Historia,) who had the means of knowing the 
truth, is not so favorable to the motives of either 
party, as that which we would more willingly adopt. 
"John, after his captivity and abdication, was im- 
prisoned in Bavaria. But many had a scruple, 
whether his deposition and abdication, being forcible, 
was legitimate. And if that was doubtful, the legiti- 
macy of Martin also came into dispute. With this 
apprehension, and, at the same time, lest the Princes 
of Germany, possessing this image (idokim) of a 
Pope, should some day take some advantage of it, 
Martin engaged in measures for his redemption and 
restoration to Italy. Therefore, when on his libera- 
tion he arrived in France, and then learnt the counsel 
of Martin (which was to confine him for life at 
Mantua,) before he arrived at Mantua, he turned 
off towards Genoa; and there being free, and his 
own master, M'liether induced by conscience, or by 
despair of success in any hostile enterprise, he volun- 
tarily came to Florence, and throwing himself at the 
feet of Martin, recognised him as the true and only 
Pontiff. In adventu ejus tota civitas obviam profusa 
multis lacrimis et incredibili commiseratione respexit 
hominem de tantae dignitatis fastigio in tantas calami- 
tates prolapsum. Ipse quoque miserabili prope habitu 
incedebat, &c." . . . The Florentines, on the other 
hand, were not very fond of Pope Martin; and he is 
related, by the same historian, to have been almost 
childishly affected by a song then popular among the 
rabble, of which the burden was — 

Papa Martino non val un quattrino. 



432 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



would probably declare in !iis favor, and the 
numerous petty tyrants, who had usui-ped 
the patrimony of the Church, would assur- 
edly unite against the acknowledged Pope. 
These circumstances were represented to 
Baltazar, and he fully comprehended their 
importance. Some wrongs, too, some un- 
necessary hardships, he had unquestionably 
endured at the hands of the emperor and 
council. Baltazar patiently listened to the 
seductions of his friends ; and then, without 
returning them any answer, he suddenly took 
his resolution. He departed from the city 
hastily, and without any attendants ; and pro- 
ceeded to Florence, where the Pope then 
resided, in the garb of a fugitive and a sup- 
pliant. Immediately, without requiring any 
formal security for his person, he sought for 
Martin, and in the presence of a full assembly 
cast himself humbly at his feet ; and while 
he recognised him with due reverence as the 
legitimate Vicar of Christ, he repeated his 
solemn ratification of the acts of the Council, 
and of his own deposition. 

Most of those, who witnessed this spectacle, 
were aflfected to tears ; for they beheld the 
man, in whose presence all had once been 
prostrate, now voluntarily humbling himself 
before the throne, which he had so lately oc- 
cupied, and before an individual, who had 
honored him, for nearly five years, as his lord 
and pontiff. Martin V. shared the general 
emotion ; and the reciprocal conduct of these 
two prelates furnishes an instance of mag- 
nanimous generosity, which too rarely illus- 
trates the annals of the Church. The Pope 
resolved to exalt his predecessor as near to 
his former dignity, as was consistent with his 
own supremacy. Baltazar Cossa was ap- 
pointed cardinal and dean of the Sacred Col- 
lege ; in all public ceremonies, whether of 
chapels, consistories, or other assemblies, Bal- 
tazar was placed by the side of the Pontiff, 
on a loftier seat than any other ecclesiastic ; 
he was honored by the confidence of his 
master, and he repaid it by undeviating 
fidelity. 

That fidelity may, indeed, have cost him 
no struggle ; and if we should believe his 
former declaration, that from the moment of 
his elevation to the chair he had never enjoy- 
ed one day of happiness, the most enviable 
portion of his life may really have been that, 
in which he w^as followed by general com- 
miseration. But whether he passed his re- 
maining days in successful conflict with a 
bad and powerful passion, or whether (as 
seems to ua more probable) he surveyed with 



philosophical disdain the dignity of which he 
had felt the cares, and had not valued the 
vanities, — ^in either case, he exhibited a vigor 
and expanse of mind, which is rarely found 
in man. . . . It is true, that the usual 
portraits of John XXIII. would not prepare 
us to expect such virtue in him. But that 
Pope has been, in truth, too hardly treated 
by historians. His enemies, in all ages, have 
been the powerful party ; and the monstrous 
imputations, which originated at Constance, 
have been too eagerly repeated both by Pro- 
testant and other writers. Baltazar Cossa 
was a mere soldier,* — deeply stained, no 
doubt, with the loose immorality which then 
commonly attached to that profession, but 
not destitute of candid and manly resolution, 
nor of those worldly principles, which make 
men honorable. It is entirely unquestion- 
able, that he was never actuated, even in ap- 
pearance, by any sense of religion ; that he 
was wholly disquahfied even for the lowest 
ministry in God's Church ; but he lived in 
an age in which the ecclesiastical and mili- 
tary characters were still deemed consistent, 
and in a Church, which had long permitted 
the most dissolute demeanor to its directors. 
As grand master of a military order, Baltazar 
Cossa might have descended to posterity with 
untarnished celebrity ; and even the apostoli- 
cal chair, had he possessed it some fifty years 
later, would have pardoned, under the pro- 
tection of his warlike enterprise, the pollution 
and scandal of his vices. 



NOTE ON THE WHITE PENITENTS AND OTHER 
ENTHUSIASTS. 

(I.) Giovanni Villani (lib. xi. cap. xxiii.) 
relates, that in 1334 one Venturius of Ber- 
gamo, a mendicant preacher, a man of no 



* He is said to have exercised in his youth tba 
trade of a pirate. ..." Dum simplex Clericus ac 
in adolesceinia constitutus existeret, cum quibiisdam 
fratribus suis piraticam in mari Neapolitano, ut fer- 
tur, exercuit, &c." ... To the habits thus acquired, 
is attributed a peculiarity which followed him even to 
the Popedom, of devoting the night to business, and 
the day to sleep. Theod. of Niem, Vit. Johann. 
XXni. His character is fairly discussed by Sis- 
mondi (Rep. Ital. chap. Ixii.,) who truly remarks, 
that, had he been as abandoned as he is sometimes 
desci-ibed, he would scarcely have been twice raised 
to the pontificate (for he was really chosen when 
Alexander V, was made Pope,) nor retained so many 
valuable i\ iends to the end of his life. Leonardus 
Aretinus describes him to have been " Vir in tempo- 
ralibus quidera magnus; in spiritualibus vero nullus 
omnino et ineptus." . . Rer. Italic, Historia, 



THE WHITE PENITENTS AND OTHER ENTHUSIASTS. 



433 



eminence or family distinction, created a 
strong, though temporary, sensation in Lom- 
bardy and Tuscany. The object of his preach- 
ing was to bring sinners to repentance ; and 
so great was the success, and so visible were 
the fruits of his eloquence, that more than 
ten thousand Lombards, of whom many were 
of the higher ranks, set out to pass the season 
of Lent at Rome. They were clad in the 
hal-it of St. Dominic ; they travelled in troops 
of twenty-five or thirty, preceded by a cross ; 
and their incessant cry was ' Peace and mercy.' 
During fifteen successive days, the time of 
their passage through Florence, they were 
entertained by that enlightened people with 
respect and charity ; and so great became the 
renown and influence of the preacher, that 
they came to th^ knowledge of the court of 
Avignon, and awakened the jealousy of Pope 
Benedict. Venturius was arrested, and sum- 
moned before the Inquisition on the charge 
of heresy ; and though acquitted by that tri- 
bunal, he was still retained in confinement 
by papal authority. ' Such,' says Villani, 
' are the rewards which holy persons receive 
from the prelates of the Church — unless, in- 
deed, the above was inflicted as a just chas- 
tisement upon the overbearing ambition of 
that friar, though doubtless his intentions 
were excellent.' 

(IL) We read in Spondanus, that in the 
year 1374 there arose in Belgium a sect of 
Dancers, who paraded the streets, entered 
houses and churches half naked, crowned 
with garlands, dancing and singing, uttering 
unknown names, falling senseless on the 
ground, and exhibiting other marks of de- 
moniacal agitation. Many were found to 
imitate them ; and thus much (says the his- 
torian) appears certain, that this effect was 
produced thiough the visitation of an evil 
spirit ; for they were healed by the charms 
of the exorcists, and by the reading of St. 
John's gospel, or of the expressions by which 
Christ is recorded to have cast out devils, as 
also of the Apostle's Creed. The same writer 
proceeds more reasonably to attribute their 
disease to the want of religious instruction. 
But it was needless to seek particular causes 
for the appearance of one of those distempers, 
which have disfigured the best ages of the 
Church, at a time when the disorders of the 
ecclesiastical government were so generally 
felt and confessed ; when the people were 
beginning to exercise in so many quarters a 
freedom of opinion, yet feebly moderated by 
reason or knowledge; and when religion 
was the subject, to which the greater portion 
55 



of this irregular independence was direct- 
ed. 

(IIL) We shall, therefore, content ourselves 
with mentioning one other eruption of en- 
thusiasm, which was more violent, indeed, 
and more celebrated, than the last, but ap- 
parently even more transient. In the year 
1399, when the Christian world was astound- 
ed by the triumphs of the Turks and the 
Tartars from without, and shocked by the 
schism and the vices which it exposed and 
occasioned within, a body of devotees de- 
scended the Alps into Italy, and began to 
preach Peace and Repentance. They were 
entirely clothed in white, and carried crosses 
or crucifixes, whence blood appeared to ex- 
ude like sweat. They were headed by a 
priest, a foreigner, whom some affirm to 
have been a Spaniard, others a Provencal, 
others a Scotsman, and who affirmed himself 
to be Elias the Prophet, recently returned 
from Paradise. The awful announcement, 
which he was commissioned to make, was 
the immediate destruction of the world by an 
earthquake ; and his tale and his prophecy 
were eagerly received by a generation, edu- 
cated in habits of religious credulity. Lom- 
bardy was the scene of his first exhortations ; 
he traversed its cities and villages, followed 
by multitudes, w^ho assumed at his bidding 
the cross, the raiment, and at least the show 
of repentance. From Lombardy he proceed- 
ed to the Ligurian Alps, and entered Genoa 
at the head of five thousand enthusiasts, na- 
tives of an adjacent tov/n. They sang various 
new hymns in the form of litanies, and amoug 
them the celebrated Stahat Mater Dolorosa, 
the reputed composition of St. Gregory ; they 
passed several days in that city preaching 
peace, and then returned to their homes. 
The Genoese caught the contagion, and trans- 
mitted it onwards to Lucca and Pisa. Those 
of Lucca immediately proceeded, four thou- 
sand in number, to Florence, and, after being 
entertained by the public hospitality, depart- 
ed. Then the Florentines adopted that new 
rehgion (as ecclesiastical writers designate it) 
with equal fervor ; and thus was it propa- 
gated from one end of Italy to the other, till 
its course was at length arrested by the sea. 

This pious frenzy was not confined to the 
lower classes, nor to the laity, nor even to the 
inferior orders of the clergy. Prelates and 
even cardinals are recorded to have followed, 
if they did not guide, the current ; and the 
numerous procession from Florence was con- 
ducted by the Archbishop. And if, indeed, 
we are to believa the wonderful effects which 



434 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



are ascribed to the preaching of these fana- 
tics, we shall scarcely censure the compliance 
which countenanced, or at least which toler- 
ated them. All who joined in those pilgrim- 
ages made confession and testified sincere 
repentance. Every one pardoned his neigh- 
bor, and dismissed the recollection of past 
offences ; so that the work of charity was 
multiplied with zeal and emulation, and en- 
mities, which no ordinary means could have 
reconciled, were put asleep. It was a festiv- 
ity of general reconciliation. Ambuscades, 
assassinations, and all other crimes were for 
the season suspended ; nor was any violence 
committed nor any treason meditated, so long 
as the " religion " of the White Penitents 
continued in honor. But this was not long ; 
the imposture of the prophet was presently 
discovered and exposed, and within a very 
few months from the time of its appearance, 
the order fell into disregard, and wholly dis- 
appeared.* 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

t^ttempts of the Church at Self-Reformation. 

General clamor for Reformation — with different objects — 
first appearance of a Reform party in the Church— ex- 
posure of Church abuses by individual Ecclesiastics- 
Pierre d'Ailli — Nicholas Clemangis — John Gerson — 
German and English Reformers — Zabarella — the real 
views and objects of those Ecclesiastics — how limited 
— position, exertions, and disappointment of the Coun- 
cil of Pisa — good really effected by it — Coimcil of Con- 
stance — language of Gerson — The Committee of Reform 
-^its labors^ the question as to the priority of the Re- 
formation or of the election of the new Pope — division 
of the Council — arguments on both sides— calumnies 
against the Germans — death of the Bishop of Salisbury 
— Address to the Emperor — defection of two Cardinals 
and of the English — final effort of the Germans — tri- 
umph of the Papal party — and election of Martin V. — 
necessary result of this — the principles and motives of 
the Italian clergy — The fortieth Session— object of the 
Reformers — the Eighteen Articles — remarks — other 
projects of the Committee — respecting the Court of 
Rome — their general character — respecting the secular 
Clergy — ecclesiastical jurisdiction — the monastic es- 
tablishments — the real difference in principle between 
the two parties — first proceedings of Martin V. — fresh 
remonstrances of the nations — Sigismond's reply to the 
French — the Pope negotiates with the nations separate- 
ly—publishes in the 43d Session his Articles of Re- 
formation — and soon afterwards dissolves the Council 
— the Concordats — character of the Pope's Articles — 
Annates— exertions of the French— the principle of the 
superiority of a General Council to the Pope established 
at Constance — decree for the periodical convocation of 
General Councils— assemblies of Pavia and Sienna— 



* The authors who have mentioned these enthusi- 
asts, are Theodoric of Niein, an eye-witness, Poggio, 
in his History of Florence, Sigonius, Platina, Mura- 
tori. 



meeting of the Council of Basle — death of Martin V 

crisis of the Church — Accession of Eugenius IV.-^his 
character — determines on opposition to the Council of 
Basle — the objects of that assembly — Cardinal Julian 
Cesarini — Contest between the Council and the Pope 
— two epistles of Cardinal Julian to the Pope — citations 
from them, on the corruption of the German clergy, on 
the popular discontent, on the transfer or prorogation 
of the Council, on the danger to the temporalities of 
the Church, on Eugenius' efforts to destroy the Council 
— political circumstances interrupt the dispute — the 
Pope sanctions the Council, and they proceed to the 
reformation of the Church — Substance of the chief en- 
actments on- tliat subject — against concubinage, fees 
paid at Rome — on papal election, &c. — some subsequent 
canons — Industry of the Pope's party in the Council — 
his successful negotiations at Constantinople — the quar- 
rel renewed— the Pope assembles the Council of Ferra- 
ra — Secession of Cardinal Julian — his example not 
imitated — Differences about the legitimacy of the Coun- 
cil of Basle— the Cardinal of Aries— the eight proposi- 
tions against Eugenius — strong opposition in favor of 
the Pope — he is deposed — Amadeus, Duke of Savoy, 
(Felix V.) appointed successor — dissolution of the 
Council — Nicholas V. succeeds Eugenius, and Felix 
abdicates — Diet of Mayence — The Council of Bourges 
— Pragmatic Sanction— its two fundamental principles 
— character of its leading provisions — its real perma- 
nence — The intended periodical meeting of General 
Councils — its probable effects on the condition of the 
Church — Ecclesiastical principles of the Councils of 
Constance and Basle — treatment of Huss and Jerome 
of Prague — Spiritual legislation of the Council of Basle 
— intolerance of those assemblies — Discovery of the art 
of printing. 

Though Churchmen are usually slow to per- 
ceive the corruptions of their own system, 
and unwisely dilatory and apprehensive in 
correcting them, still the abuses of the Ro- 
man Catholic Church were now become so 
flagrant — they had so commonly thrown off 
decency and shame — they were so wholly 
indefensible by reason or even by sophistry 
— and at the same time so oppressive and so 
unpopular, that a cry for Reformation began 
to be raised by the acknowledged friends, the 
ministers, and even the dignitaries of the 
communion. We intend no reference at this 
moment to the murmurs of those discontented 
spirits, who saw deeper into the iniquities of 
the system, and aimed their yet ineffectual 
resistance at its root — those faithful messen- 
gers of the Gospel, who prepared the way 
for Luther and Cranmer, but whose warn- 
ings were lost upon a selfish and short-sighted 
hierarchy. The exertions of Wickliffe and 
Huss, the real reformers of the Church, will 
be noticed hereafter : at present, we shall 
confine our attention to the endeavors, by 
which the wiser and more virtuous among 
her obedient children strove, through a con- 
siderable period, to remove her most repulsive 
deformities, and restore at least the semblance 
of health and dignity. We shall observe 
with curiosity and advantage the particular 
evils, to v.'hich the zeal of those reformers 



ATTEMPTS AT SELF-REFORMATION. 



435 



was directed, and the perverse and narrow 
and fatal policy which thwarted it. It is not 
that any effectual remedies could have been 
applied by those hands — nor any perfect ren- 
ovation of then- Communion accomplished 
by men, who were ignorant of the actual seat 
and character of the disease. The restoration 
of an Evangelical Church was not the object, 
nor could it have been the result, of their ef- 
forts 5 but the permanence of their own sys- 
tem was the matter really at stake — for it is 
very clear that the dominion of Rome would 
have been greatly strengthened by seasonable 
self-correction ; and that an authority, so deep- 
ly fixed in the firmest prejudices of mankind, 
might have been preserved somewhat longer, 
had it been exercised with more discretion, 
and modified according to the changing prin- 
ciples of the times. 

In our progress through the earlier annals 
of the Church, the shadow of reformation is 
continually before our eyes, and its name pre- 
sents itself in ever}^ page — not only in the re- 
cords of the monastic establishments, which 
could not otherwise have been perpetuated, 
than by an unceasing process of regeneration, 
but also in the general regulations of Popes 
and of Councils. The necessity of new enact- 
ments, the pressure of existing abuses, the 
excellence of the ancient disciphne were ad- 
mitted in all ages, and the admission was 
sometimes followed by salutary legislation. 
Indeed, it is unquestionable, that those among 
the chiefs of the Church, who have best se- 
cured the gratitude of their own communion, 
as well as the commemoration of history, 
have deserved that distinction, not by a timid 
acquiescence in the defects of the existing 
institutions, but by a generous endeavor to 
correct them : so that the word at least was 
familiar and respectable in the eyes of Pre- 
lates and of Popes, and the principle might 
be avowed, under certain restrictions, with- 
out any suspicion, or even insinuation, of 
heresy. 

General Complaints against the abuses of the 
Church. — The first occasion, however, on 
which the advocates of reform can be said 
to have appeared as a party in the Church, 
was the firet assembly for the extinction of 
the schism. Among the Fathers of Pisa a 
powerful spirit of independence prevailed, 
and the circumstances of the preceding cen- 
tury had given it a direction and an object. 
There are, indeed, many earlier instances of 
the boldness of ecclesiastics in individually 
denouncing the imperfections of the Church, 
and in synodically legislating for their remo- 



] val ; but it was not till the secession to Avig-^ 
non had lowered the majesty of Rome and. 
impaired the resources of her PontiflTs ; it 
was not till the division which followed had 
filled the world with proofs of their weakness 
and baseness, of their necessities, their vices, 
and their extortions -— that a principle very 
hostile to papal despotism established itself, 
not only among princes and enhghtened lay- 
men, but even among the Prelates of the 
Catholic Church. Indeed, when we observe 
the language in which certain eminent eccle- 
siastical writers, during the conclusion of the 
14th and the beginning of the following cen- 
tury, have exposed and stigmatized ecclesi- 
astical disorders, our wonder will rather be, 
that the system, which they so boldly de- 
nounced, did not sink beneath the burden of 
its own sinfuluess|^than that pei*sons, who 
were interested in its preservation should 
have combined to amend and restore it. 
Among these were men of the noblest char- 
acter and most extended learning ; men of all 
nations, and, during the schism, of all obe- 
diences ; at the same time, they were persons 
attached to Popery and patronized by Popes. ^ 
Among the French, Pierre d'Ailli, Cardinal 
of Cambrai, was a moderate, but earnest, ad- 
vocate for reform ; in his treatise * on that 
subject, written about 1410, he censured with 
great severity the luxurious insolence of his 

j own order ; and it was he who has retailed 
a proverb current in those days, ' that the 

i Church had arrived at such a condition, as to 

j deserve to be governed only by the repro- 
bate.' j0 Nicholas of Clemangls, a native of 
Champagne, who had been secretary to Ben- 
edict XIII., in an address to the Council of 
Constance, ascribed the schism and desolation 
of the Church to the frightful ungodliness of 
its pastors. ' The earliest ministei-s of the 
Gospel were devout, humble, charitable, lib- 
eral, disinterested, and they despised the good 
things of this world. But as riches increas- 
ed, piety diminished ; luxury, ambition, and 



* * De difficultate Reformationis in Concilio Uni- 
versali.' It was addressed to Gerson, in reply to 
the Treatise of the latter on the same subject. His 
more celebrated work Avas that ' De Ecclesiastica 
Potestate,' in which he gave his views of the origin 
of ecclesiastical, as well as of papal power, and of 
their relation to each oilier. It may be found in the 
6ih volume of Von der Hardt. He was born in 
Picardy in 1350, and both Gerson and Clemangi's 
were his pupils. Bayle, Vie de Pierre d'Ailly. 

f ' Adeo ut jam horrendum quonindam proverblum 
sit, ad hunc statum venisse Ecclesiam, ut non sit 
digna regi nisi per reprobos." The passage is cited 
by Leufant, Hist. Cone. Const. j^ 1. vii. s, 1. 



436 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



insolence took the place of religion, humility, 
and charity : poverty became a disgrace, and 
economy a vice ; avarice came to the aid and 
support of ambition ; and the property of ec- 
clesiastics being no longer sufficient for their 
desires, it grew into practice to seize that of 
others, to pillage, assault, and oppress the in- 
feriors, and to plunder every one under every 
pretext.' Such being the substance of his 
general * censures, he did not hesitate more 
particularly to ascribe the first rank in vice 
and scandal to the Popes. ' When they saw, 
that the revenues of Rome and the patrimo- 
ny of St. Peter were inadequate to their de- 
signs of aggrandizement, it became necessary 
to discover new resources for the support of 
that project of universal monarchy. And 
nothing could be conceived more lucrative, 
than to deprive metropolitans, bishops, and 
other ordinaries, of the right of election to 
benefices, and to reserve the nomination and 
collation to themselves : and these they never 
conferred, except for large sums of money ; 
which they often obtained in advance, by 
granting expectative gi'aces to all sorts of per- 
4 sons indiscriminately, or at least without any 
distinction in regard to capacity or morals.' 
Such was, in truth, the origin of the Apostol- 
ic Chamher ; and the mysteries of that fiscal 
inquisition had, no doubt, been intimately 
revealed to the secretary of Benedict XIII. 
The last whom we shall mention, and the 



* Not that his censures were confined to the ava- 
rice and rapacity of the clergy; a considerable share 
of them is directed to their incontinence — fo^nstance, 
"Quid illud, obsecro, quale estl quod plensquc in 
Diocesibus rectores parochiarum ex c^rio etcondncto 
cum sitis PrcBlatis pretio passim et publice Concu- 
binas tenent'? Quod subditorum excessus et vitia, 
omniaque officia, quee judiciis prseesse sunt solita, 
publice venundantl Sed adhuc levia-haec sunt." 
Nor was he more merciful to the canons and monks ; 
he was even particularly severe on the insolence and 
vanity of the latter, whom he considered as the Pha- 
risees of their age. Respecting the abominations com- 
mitted in the nunneries, his expressions are strong 
and exaggerated. ' Nam quid, obsecro, aliud sunt hoc 
tempore puellarum monasteria, nisi qufedam, non dico 
Dei sanctuaria, sed Veneris execranda prnstibula. 
Bed lascivorum et impudicorum .Tuvenum ad libidines 
explendas receptacula. Ut idem hodie sit puellam 
velare, quod ad publice scortandum exporter e.^ 
(Nicol. de Clemangiis, de Ruina Ecclesite. cap. 
xxxvi. Apud Von der Hardt, torn. i. Cone. Con- 
Etan.) Gerson, also, in his sermon at Rheims, used 
these words: ' Et utinam nulla sint Monasteria mulie- 
rum, quae facta sunt proslibula meretricum, et prohi- 
beat adhuc deteriora Deus.' Ser. factus in Concil. 
Remonsi. Op. Gers., vol. ii., p. 625. Edit. Paris. 
See Lenfant, Cone. Const,, 1. vii., c. 13. 



greatest among the reformers of France, was 
the Chancellor of the University of Paris, 
John Gerson. In a sermon delivered before 
the Council of Rheims in 1408, that eloquent 
Doctor exposed the vices of the clergy, with 
the same freedom which he afterwards * em- 
ployed at Constance in defining the legitimate 
hmits of Papal authority. From the expo- 
sure of the evil he proceeded to investigate 
its origin ; and as the general degeneracy of 
eveiy rank in the priesthood was commonly 
traced by the writers of that age to the licen- 
tiousness of the Roman Court, so any effort 
to purify the descending stream was reason- 
ably directed to its supposed source. 

If the most distinguished among the re- 
forming party were natives of France, the 
Germans engaged in greater numbers, and 
with greater consistency, in the same project. 
They appear, moreover, to have been the 
earliest in the field; for we observe, that 
Henry de Langenstein, of Hesse, a German, 
published in 1381 a vigorous treatise on ' the 
Union and Reformation of the Church.' f 
The five last chapters of his work were em- 
ployed in depicting the universal profligacy 
of the clergy. After denouncing the simo- 
nies and other iniquities of the Popes, the 
Cardinals, and Prelates, he descended to ex- 
pose the concubinage of the priests and the 
debaucheries of the monks ; he represented 
^the cathedrals as no better than dens of rob- 
bers, and the monasteries as taverns and 
brothels.l From England the voice of re- 
monstrance proceeded with not less energy. 
' The Golden Mirror of the Pope, his Court, 
the Prelates, and the rest of the Clergy,'§ 
was composed during the pontificate of Bo- 
niface IX., the most triumphant era of schism 

* In 1410 he addressed to Pierre d'Ailly his treat- 
ise ' De Modis Uniendi et Reform.andi Ecclesiam in 
Concilio Universal!.' His more celebrated work, 
' De Simonia abolenda Constantiensis Concilii Ope,' 
was written during the Council. Both may be found 
in Von der Hardt, torn. i. 

f ' Consilium Pacis de Unione ac Reformatione 
Ecclesije in Concilio Universal! quserenda.' It oc- 
cupies sixty columns in the beginning of Von der 
Hardt's second volume. 

% This reformer seems also to have looked some- 
what more deeply into the question ; for he beheld 
with dissatisfaction the great multitude of images, 
which he held to be so many incentives to idolatry; 
and he was offended by the multiplication of festivals, 
and the frivolous nature of the controversies which 
divided the Church. 

§ ' Aureum Speculum Papge, ejus Curiae, Praelato- 
rura, aliorumque Spiritualium.' l^he work gained 
great celebrity on the Continent. 



ATTEMPTS AT SELF-REFORMATION. 



437 



and simony ; and the Treatise of Richard 
Ullerston, an Oxford Doctor, is said to have 
guided the views of the Bishop of Sahsbury, 
who effectually served the cause by his per- 
sonal zeal, both at Pisa and Constance. The 
Italians, as they were the only people who 
profited by pontifical corruption, so were they 
more commonly found to defend and uphold 
it. But even among them were a few splen- 
did exceptions ; Pileus,* Archbishop of Ge- 
noa, and Zabarella,f Cardinal of Florence, 
acknowledged and deplored the general un- 
worthiness of the order to which they be- 
longed. Lastly, even the Spaniards them- 
selves, the perverse adherents of Benedict 
XIII., vented at Constance, in some satirical 
compositions, the indignation, which it was 
Hot yet politic to express openly. 

We have thus seen how generally \ it was 
admitted at that period, even by the friends 
and ministers of the Church, that great abuses 
existed therein, that they demanded imme- 
diate and effectual correction, and that such 
could only be administered by removing the 
cause of the evil. Let us examine then, 
for one moment, the view which they took 



* See his Ingenua Pareane.sis ad Sigismuad. 
Imper. De Reformatione Ecclesiez in Cone. Const, 
prosequenda, apud Von der Hardt, torn, i., part 15. 

t There still^exists a long and elaborate Treatise, 
published by Zabarella, ' De Schisraate Iiinocenlii 
et Benedicti Pontificis,' either before the meeting of 
the Council of Pisa, or during its earliest delibera- 
tions. 

X In the ' History of the Council of Constance,' 
by Theodoric Vrie, written at the time and dedicated 
to Sigismond, the Church herself is made to speak 
the following lines, more remarkable for the bold 
truths which they contain, than for delicacy of ex- 
pression, or metrical correctness. (Lib. i. Metrum 
Secundum.) 

Heu Simon regnat; per munera quteque reguntur, 

Judiciumque pium gaza nefanda vetat. 
Curia Papalis fovet omnia scandala mimdi, 

Delubra sacra facit perfiditate forum. 
Ordo sacer, baptisma sacrum cum Chrismate Sancto 

Venduntur, turpi conditione foro. 
Dives honoratur, pauper conteranitur, atque 

Qui dare plura valet munera gratus erat. 
Aurea quae quondam fuit, hinc argentea Papse 

Curia procedit deteriore modo. 
Ferrea dehinc facta, dura cervice quievit 

Tempore non modico ; sed modo facta lutum. 
Postque lutum quid deterius solet essel Recordor — 

Stercus. Et in tali Curia tota sedet. 
Semler,in Cap. ii. Secul. xv., ' De Publico Ecclesite 
Statu,' enumerates a great multitude of compositions 
produced by the discontented spirits of the 14th and 
15th centuries. Several are given at length by Her- 
man Von der Hai'dt, Hist. Concil. Constant. 



of their own imperfections. . . . We 
may observe that the lamentations and cen- 
sures, so abundantly poured forth by those 
writers, were confined almost wholly to one 
subject — the degeneracy and corruption of 
the clergy. This, indeed, was acknowledged 
to extend to the lowest rank from the very 
highest — this was admitted to comprise every 
form of sin and degradation — but this, accord- 
ing to their notions, was tlie limit of the evil. 
Under this one head was comprehended (or 
very nearly so) the sum and substance of the 
ecclesiastical derangement. The purity of 
the 57/5f em was seldom or never questioned; 
the perfect integrity and infallible wisdom of 
the Church, and the divine obligation to be- 
lieve and obey, without thought or question, 
all that it had enjoined or should enjoin, in 
practice, or precep|, or ceremony, or disci- 
pline, was as strongly inculcated by tlse most 
eminent reformers, as by the most pei'verse 
upholders of the avowed abuses ; only, it was 
mainlined by the former, that the men, who 
administered this heaven-descended system, 
were sunk in a depravity from which it was 
necessary to r»ise them, and that no measures < 
could effect this benefit, which did not first 
provide for the re-organization of the highest 
ranks. After all, it was but the surface of 
the subject which they surveyed ; and thus 
the remedies proposed could not be other 
than ineffectual. 

At the same time it must be admitted, that 
those remedies were properly adapted to the 
end which they were intended to attain. The 
demoralization of the inferior clergy was un- 
doubtedly occasioned, in a very great mea- 
sure, by the non-residence, the avarice, and 
the venality of their more elevated brethren ; 
and these views were communicated almost 
necessarily by the contagion of the Court of 
Rome. And since it was become the prac- 
tice of that Court to attract all aspiring eccle- 
siastics by the undisguised sale of the most 
honorable dignities, its malignant influence 
spread like a pestilence through the Church. 
Those, therefore, who maintained that no 
reform could have any effect unless it com- 
menced at the head, and whose first endeavors 
were turned to extirpate the scandals of the 
Vatican, pursued their own views with bold- 
ness and sagacity, and aimed well to uproot 
the evil which they saw — only, their views 
were too narrow, and the evil lay deeper than 
they were able to discover, or than they dared 
to avow. 

The Council of Pisa. — One professed ob- 
ject of the Coimcil of Pisa was ' to reform 



438 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



the Cliuroh in its head and in its memhers ;' 
and man}^ of the fathers there assemhled were 
earnest in that intention. We have seen, in- 
deed, to what insufficient hmits theii* project 
was eonfmed : siill was it no inconsiderable 
design in that age, nor unworthy of a bold 
and generous character, especially in minis- 
ters and prelates of the Roman Church, to 
repress the licentiousness, and to moderate 
the power, of the successor of St. Peter. The 
boldness of the enterprise may be measured 
by its difficulty ; for, if it was little that the 
reformers attempted, it was much more than 
they had the means of accomplishing. The 
moment, however, was exceedingly favora- 
ble ; and when, after the deposition of the 
two pretenders, the See was vacant, and the 
election about to be made under the very 
eyes of the Council, an oath was imposed 
upon the Cardinals, that he among them who 
should be raised to the Pontificate, should not 
dissolve the Council, until after the reforma- 
tion of the Church had been completed.^ The 
choice of the College, directed by the coun- 
sels of Baltazar Cossa, fell upon Alexander V. 
Gerson presently preached before him, and 
did not omit to press the paramount duty of 
correcting many abuses. A great number of 
the fathers held the same expectation. But 
Alexander, v/ho was a Greek and a Pope, 
had no design to diminish his own profitable 
privileges, nor any scruple in evading his 
solemn obligation. In the 22d and 23d 
Sessions he published certain declarations, 
that out of regard for the necessities of the 
Churches, he remitted all arrears due' to the 
Apostolical Chamber ; that he resigned hence- 
forward his claim on the property of deceased 
Prelates, and the revenues of vacant bish- 
oprics ; that he would make no more trans- 
fers of benefices, without previously hearing 
the parties concerned ; and that provincial 
councils should be more frequently assembled 
for the salutary regulation of the Church. 
The consideration of any extensive plan of 
reform he thought expedient to defer, until 
the next general Council ; but this was to be 
assembled in three years. 

With these unsubstantial concessions — and 
even from these there was one dissentient 
Cardinal, — the Prelates of Pisa were dismiss- 
ed ; and if they returned to their several Sees 
with the consciousness, that they had not 
fully accomplished any one of the objects for 
which they were convoked, yet were they 
not without consolation, nor were their labors 
without fruit. They had not, indeed, healed 
the divisions of the Church ; they had not 



restrained the abuses of papal power ; they 
had not checked the proflFgacy of the Cardi- 
nals ; they had not imposed any limit on the 
spreading domination of simony. Neverthe- 
less, they had fulfilled an important destiny 
in the declining history of their Church ; they 
had proclaimed the supremacy of a general 
Council, and deposed the tw^o disputants who 
divided the papacy ; they had freely censured 
the vices of the Apostolical See, and had de- 
manded its reformation ; they had secured the 
early convocation of another Council for the 
remedy of their grievances ; and lastly, and 
most especially, they had opposed to pontifi- 
cal despotism that independent constitutional 
spirit, which was the safeguard of the ancient 
Church ; and which spreading from Pisa to 
Constance, from Constance to Basle, and 
striking deeply, though latently, during the 
times of iniquity which succeeded, at length 
achieved, under happier auspices and in a 
bolder spirit, its great and effectual triumph. 

The Council of Constance. — A much more 
numerous congregation of prelates and ec- 
clesiastics of eveiy rank, of ambassadors, of 
doctors of law, and other distinguished lay- 
men, constituted the august assembly of Con- 
stance. The place was favorable to the hopes 
of reform ; for the German soil was more 
auspicious to that cause than the irreligious 
and interested cities of Italy. •Accordingly, 
we observe that its necessity was more loudly 
proclaimed, and its principles defined widi 
greater boldness and exactitude.* Gerson once 
more led the assault against papal delinquen- 
cy. He attacked the Decretals, the Clemen- 
tines, and most of the constitutions of the 
Popes ; he overthrew many of the preten- 
sions thence derived, and he exposed, in a 
strain now familiar to his audience, their si- 
mony, their avarice, and anti-Christian usur- 
pations.* ' All the bulls of John begin with 
a falsehood ; for, if he was truly the servant 
of the servants of God, he would employ 
himself in rendering service to the faithful, 
and assisting the poor, who are the members 

* ' Non Christi, sed mores gerunt Antichrist!;' 
and again, ' Non Jegimus Christum illi contiilisse 
potestatcm beneficia, dignitjites, episcopatus, villas, 
terras dispensandi ant distri]buendi, spd uec unquam 
legimus Petrum ha^c fecisse. Sed solum banc potes- 
tatcm ci tribuit specialem, scriptam Matt, ccvi., 
(juam etiam miuimomundi episcopo concessit.' Such 
expressions might be flattering to the dignity of the 
surrounding prelates. But he was an injudicious 
friend to the Roman Catholic Church, who appealed 
to the Bible as the test of its purity. John Hus9, had 
he been present at this discourse, might have pressed 
that ar^unient souiewhat farther. 



ATTEMPTS AT SELF-REFORMATION. 



439 



of Christ Jesus. But so far is he from call- 
ing the poor about him, or persons distin- 
guished for their learning or their virtue, that 
he surrounds himself with lords, and tyrants, 
and soldiers. Let him, then, rather assume 
the title of Lord of Lords ; since he dares to 
boast, that he possesses the same power which 
Christ possessed in his divine and hum.an 
nature.* It was well, indeed, for Gregory 
the Great to call himself the Servant of the 
Servants of God. He nourished the poor, 
and was poor himself; he conferred benefices 
only on men of virtue and capacity ; he 
preached the Gospel himself to his clergy 
and his people ; he composed works to con- 
firm believers in their faith ; he held a rein 
over the luxury , of the Roman people, and 
rescued them by his prayer to God fi-om a 
pernicious pestilence.' . . . Accustomed 
to the bitterness of such taunts, the Pope and 
his luxurious court may have been insensible 
to their shamefulness, or even questioned 
their justice ; but, among the mitred multi- 

* ' Quia prcesumit dicere esse tantam snam potes- 
tatem, quantam Chrislus habuit, secundum quod Deus 
et secundum quod homo.' Opera Gersoni, Apud 
Lenfant, Hist. Cone. Const. 1. vii. s. xiv. The same 
doctor, in his sermon, ' De Signis Ruinae Ecclesise,' 
mentions eight such indications: (1.) Rebellio et 
inobedientia; (2.) Inverecundia; (3.) Immodeiata 
inaequalltas, qua alius et ssepe dignior esurit; alius 
et frequenter indignior prae multitudine et magnitu- 
dine beneficiorum ebrius est; (4.) Fastus et superbia 
prselatorum et aliorum ecclesiasticorum — tantus fastus 
in Dei Ecclesia, proecipue in temporibus Lstis, non 
tam multos movet ad reverentiam quam multos ad 
indignationem ; et plures invitat ad pi-aedam, qui sc 
reputarent fortasse Deo sacrificiura ofifcrre, si possent 
quosdara divites ecclesiasticos spoliare; (5.) Siguum 
sumitur ex tyrannide prsesidentiura — tales sunt pasto- 
res qui non pascunt gregem Domini sed semetipsos ; 
(6.) Conturbatio principum et commotio populorum; 
(7.) Recusatio correctionis in principibus ecclesiae; 
(8.) Novitas opinionum. Moderno quidem tempore 
unusquisque interpretari et tralvsre non veretur sacram 
scripturam, jura, sarictorumque patrum instituta ad 
libitum su£e voluntatis, prout amor, odium, invidia, 

spes promotionis, aut vindicta eum inclinat 

Prseter hsec sunt alia signa, videlicet recessus justilise, 
distinctio studiorum, praelatio puerorum, et ignoran- 
tium et pravorum, et hcec erit destvuctio Latinorum. 
Plura alia sunt descripta in Prophetis de dejectione 
sacerdotalis honoris, ex quibus et prsedictis, sapiens 
potest concludere ruinam temporalium de propinquo 
imminere. A multis annis non fuerunt tot malevoli, 
tanti corde rebelles et animoaccensi contra ecclesiam 
eicut his diebus. Quos in longum compescere nequa- 
quam valebimus, nisi signis virtutum manifestis ad 
benevolenliam eos inclinaverimus.' Gersoni Opera, 
vol. i. p. 199, Ed. Paris, 1606. This sermon was 
preached before the Council of Constance. 



tudes who were present, some were doubtless 
awakened by the eloquence of Gerson to a 
better sense of their faith, their duties, and 
their obedience. 

The College of Reform. — The Council had 
not been many months in existence before it 
entered seriously into this department of its 
duties; and a Committee of Reform {College 
Reformatoire) was appointed to examine into 
particular abuses, and prepare a general pro- 
ject for the approbation of the whole assem- 
bly. This College, named on the 15th of 
June, 1415, was composed of nineteen per- 
sons, viz. four deputies from each of the four 
nations, and three Cardinals. The deputies 
were chosen indifferently from bishops, doc- 
tors in theology, and doctors in law. There 
had been some previous contest, whether or 
not the Cardinals should be at all admitted 
as members of this body ; since it was now 
well understood by all parties, that the ques- 
tion of a general reform practically resolved 
itself into a reform of the Court of Rome: 
not only because any other measures would 
have been wholly useless, unless attended by 
that, but also because the whole opposition 
to the removal of abuses proceeded from that 
quarter. Of the three interested parties who 
were at length admitted into the committee, 
Pierre d'Ailli, the Cardinal of Cambrai, was 
one. 

The College appears to have held its first 
deliberations on the 20th of August; and the 
subject to which they were directed was the 
translation of bishops. Other important mat- 
ters were discussed by it during the autumn 
following ; but whether it was paralyzed by 
the pontifical intrigues, or whether some of 
its members were deficient in zeal, its exer- 
tions did not keep pace with the eagerness of 
the reformers without. The German ' Nation ' 
published, about the end of the year, a re- 
monstrance against the tediousness of its pro- 
ceedings ; the pulpits of Constance resounded 
with expressions of exhortation and reproof; 
and elegies, and squibs, and satires were cir- 
culated to the same effect in the social, and 
even in the public, meetings of the fathei'S. 

Divisions, ending in the election of Martin 
V. — The labors of the committee were con- 
tinued through the whole of 1416 till late in 
the succeeding year ; and by that time, as we 
shall see presently, they had produced many 
wise and salutary resolutions. But in the 
course of 1417 a new subject of controversy 
arose, which deeply affected the success of 
those measures. As soon as the See, through 
the cession or deposition of its three claimants. 



440 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



was declared vacant, a very important ques- 
tion was moved — whether it were not wise 
to defer the new election, until after the work 
of reformation should have been accomplish- 
ed. Whatever was honest and intelligent and 
dispassionate in the party of the reformers 
maintained the necessity of that expedient. 
They knev*^ the ambitious and selfish spirit of 
papacy ; they knew how the elevation to the 
apostolical chair could blight the best prin- 
ciples, and contract the noblest heart; they 
knew that disinterested integrity in that situ- 
ation was beyond the magnanimity of man. 
They determined not to create with their 
own hands a destroyer of their own works. 
The nations, which took this side in the dis- 
pute, were the Germans and the English, and 
they were supported with the utmost sincerity 
and firmness by the Emperor. The Car- 
dinals conducted the opposite party with 
equal constancy and greater craft : they were 
warmly supported by the Italians ; the Span- 
iards, who on the deposition of Luna had 
been admitted to the deliberations, were on 
the same side ; and even the French, hitherto 
the most enlightened advocates of reform, * 
for the most part, threw themselves into the 
ranks of its opponents. The contest con- 
tinued during the whole summer — numerous 
harangues were delivered, and much violence 
and much sophistry was wasted on both sides. 
On the one hand, the universal deformity and 
prostitution of the Church v/ere exhibited and 
exaggerated in the most furious invectives ; 
on the other, it was argued that the Church 
without the Pope was a headless trunk, v/hich 
was indeed the most frightful of all deformi- 
ties ; and that it became, in consequence, the 
first duty of every reformer to supply that 
deficiency (such was the nonsense seriously 
propounded by the friends of coiTuption) and 
thus restore the spiritual body to its integrity. 
This was indeed the last ground of hope 
which remained to the cardinals ; and it was 
really firm and tenable, because the majority 
of the nations had declared in their favor. 
They contested it with every weapon, and 
with the uncompromising, unscrupulous ac- 
tivity of men, whose personal interests were 
concerned in the result. On one occasion 
they presented a memorial to Sigismond, in 
which they urged, on the plea of their ma- 
jority, their right to proceed to immediate 
election : at the same time they affected to 
repel, with some loftiness, the imperial inter- 



* This sudden change is ascribed to their national 
jealousy of the English, the victors of Agincourt, 



ference in matters strictly ecclesiastical. On 
another, they published an offensive libel up- 
on the Germans, in which they accused that 
nation of a disposition to favor the opinions 
of the Hussites — to defer the election of a 
Pope, in order to reform, without his co- 
operation, his office and his court, savored 
strongly (so the cardinals argued) of the anti- 
papal perversion of those heretics ! The 
stigma of heresy — a weapon which the de- 
fenders of ecclesiastical abuses have managed 
with great address in every age of the Church 
— -exasperated those honest and orthodox 
Christians, and they repelled it with great, 
and (as they thought) virtuous indignation. 
About the same time Robert Hallam, Bishop 
of Salisbury, died. ,^ He was among the stout- 
est of the Reformers of Constance, and had 
exercised very considerable influence, not 
only over the councils of his compatriots, but 
over the mind of the Emperor himself. * 

On the 9th of September, five days after 
his decease, an assembly was held on the 
same subject ; and the result was a remon- 
strance, in the name of the cardinals, to Sigis- 
mond, on the extreme danger impending over 
the Church from any delay in the election of 
a Pope. It is remarkable, that the language 
of this document expressed a sense of the 
necessity of reform, and great readiness to 
undertake it ; but it was urged, that the ques- 
tion ought to be deferred, until a head had 
been given to the Church. But the En:iperor 
rose ere the Address was finished, and indig- 
nantly quitted the Assembly. Howbeit, the 
cardinals pei*sisted, without any fear or com- 
promise ; two days afterwards, a second f 
memorial, more explicit and decided than 
the former, was presented and read ; and so 
firm was the attitude of that party, that tlie 
only two members of the sacred college, who 
had hitherto supported the opposite opinions, 
now joined their colleagues. A still more 
important defection immediately followed 
this; the English also passed over to the 
papal party. 

From the moment that the decision of the 
majority of the Council was contravened by 
Sigismond, it was very easy to persuade even 
the most honest reformers, that the dignity 
and authority of the whole assembly was at 
stake, and that it was the duty of all parties 
to combine, in order to repel the presumptu- 

* Von der Hardt calls him C'jssar'sfidus Achates. 

f They may both be found in the first volume of 
Von der Hardt's Hist. Cons. Constat. Prsefat. in part. 
XX, p, 916 et seq, 



ATTEMPTS AT SELF-REFORMATION. 



441 



ous interference of the Emperor — and many- 
were probably influenced in their change by 
that motive. But the Germans still maintain- 
ed then' former resolution ; and though many 
of them also may have been guided by con- 
siderations (of nationality, or loyalty) foreign 
to the original question of refoi'm, a fresh 
memorial, which they immediately presented 
to the Council, pressed very forcibly the real 
argument on which the contest now turned. 
In this paper they maintained, with great 
boldness and reason, ' that the General Coun- 
cil stood in the place of the Church and com- 
pletely represented it ; that the schism had 
arisen from the general corruption of that 
body, and that such eoiTuption could only be 
remedied during the vacancy of the See ; that 
if a Pope were once elected — however virtu- 
ous and upright the individual exalted might 
be, however proved and old in integrity and 
piety — he would speedily be stained by the 
vices which infected the Chair, and debased 
the ecclesiastics surrounding it ; that he 
would grope in the darkness and solitude of 
his own honesty, till his private excellence 
v.ould give way before the overwhelming 
depravities of a system, which no man could 
possibly administer, and be virtuous, — while, 
on the other hand, a substantial reform, pre- 
viously effected, would shelter him from the 
pressure of unjust and wicked solicitations.' 
The wisdom and truth contained in these 
positions inflamed still further the perversity 
of the cardinals ; and what they could not 
hope to effect by reason, or even by menace, 
they prepared to accomplish by more certain 
means. Among the German prelates there 
were two, who possessed, more completelj^ 
than their brethren, the confidence both of 
the Emperor and the 'Nation' — the Arch- 
bishop of Riga and the Bishop of Coire. 
Each of these respectable persons had private 
reasons (which were not concealed from the 
cardinals) for being discontented with his 
own See. A negotiation was opened. To 
the former they promised the bishopric of 
Liege, which he coveted; to the latter, the 
archbishopric of Riga — both were converted. 
Their compatriots followed them ; and the 
tumults, which Had shaken the Council for 
so many months, were appeased by the trans- 
lation of two venal prelates. * 

The Emperor, thus deserted by the entu'e 
Church, still offered an ineffectual show of 
resistance ; and at length, to throw at least 
some dignity over his defeat, he stipulated as 



^ Von der Hardt, torn. iv. p. 1426. 

56 



the conditions of his consent, that the Pope 
should enter, without any delay, even before 
his coronation, upon the work of refomi ; 
that he should conduct it in concert with the 
Council ; and that he should not depart from 
Constance, until his task was accomplished. 
The cardinals, with their coadjutors,* soon 
afterwards assembled in conclave, and on the 
11th of November following, Martin V., an 
Italian and a Roman, was raised to the pon- 
tifical throne. 

The historian cannot fail to perceive, what 
was indeed obvious at the time to the most 
intelligent men of both parties, that the battle 
of reform had in fact been fought on other 
ground, and that the field, for which so many 
efforts had been made, and were still to be 
made, was already lost. Some nominal im- 
provements might yet, perhaps, be extorted 
from the reluctant pontiff— some trifling abu- 
ses he might be brought to sacrifice, in order 
to save and perpetuate the rest — with some 
unmeaning shadow he might consent to amuse 
and delude the w^orld— but the hope of any 
substantial measure of renovation was gone. 
Notwithstanding the strong sense of the 
Church's degradation and danger, Avith which 
so many of the fathers were deeply penetrat- 
ed — notwithstanding the security and even 
applause, with which their complaints and 
invectives were uttered and heard — notwith- 
standing the learning, the virtue, and the 
powerful talents which were united in the 
same cause, — it was no difificult matter for a 
small body of very crafty ecclesiastical poli- 
ticians, closely bound together by common 
and personal interests, and wholly unscrupu- 
lous as to means, to neutralize the exertions 
of a much more numerous party, which, 
though earnestly bent on one general purpose, 
might be divided as to a thousand particulars. 
For a space of nearly three years numberless 
causes of discord, personal, professional, na- 
tional, might spring up, while the watchful 
cardinals were ever at hand to encourage and 
mature them. Every change of circumstance 
presented a new field of action ; and in so 
harassing and protracted a contest, superior 
discipline, and a keener sense of interest, 
might finally supplant or wear away the ad- 
verse majority. 

The Italian Clergy. — Moreover, the College 
could always count, with perfect confidence, 
on the zeal and fidelity of its Italian allies. 
The whole multitude of the Transalpine 
clergy conspired, with scarcely an individual 



* See the preceding chapter, page 4?7 



442 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



exception, in opposition to reform. Yet this 
combination did not, probably, arise, either 
because they were very rich, or very power- 
ful, or very generally demoralized. Inriches, 
the bishops and abbots of Italy could bear no 
comparison with the lordly hierarchy of Ger- 
many or England ; partly, because their dis- 
proportionate numbers diminished the share 
of each in the common fund, and partly, be- 
cause the private devotion of ancient days 
had there been less munificent than among 
the younger and ruder proselytes of the north. 
In power, and popular influence, they were 
precluded from any extravagant progress by 
the wider diffusion of intelligence, and the 
free and daring spirit of the prevalent repub- 
licanism. In truth, among the Italian people, 
the last sparks of religious fervor were at this 
time nearly extinct ; and whatever attachment 
they still retained for their Church was with- 
out enthusiasm, and not uncommonly without 
faith. The venerable family of Saints, once 
so fruitful in every province, was now rarely 
and languidly propagated. The din of po- 
lemical controversy, the surest indication of 
theological zeal, was seldom heard ; and even 
heresy itself, which was building its inde- 
stmctible temples in the north and west of 
Europe, gave little occupation or solicitude to 
the Churchmen of Italy. Many of the causes 
which tend generally to swell sacerdotal au- 
thority (we are not now speaking of the pe- 
culiar dominion of the Pope) had ceased to 
operate in that country. In morality, the Ital- 
ian clergy were upon the whole less dissolute 
than those to the North of the Alps ; and for 
that reason they were less deeply impressed 
with the necessity of reform. To this praise 
the Court of Rome did, indeed, present an 
infamous exception. But the pontifical pal- 
ace may seem to have attracted to its own 
precincts most of the noxious vapors, which 
else would have spread more general infec- 
tion -, and the prelates of Italy found their 
profit in the very vices of Rome. Besides, 
they had been so long habituated to consider 
the authority of that See as national property, 
and shared with such selfish exultation the 
gloi*y of its foreign triumphs and the sense 
of its imposing majesty, that they rallied round 
it with ardor, on the first rumor of hostility. 
They saw that some of its dearest prerogatives 
were threatened — they saw that some of its 
most profitable usurpations were assailed: 
but they did not see the friendliness of the 
design — ^they did not perceive that an increase 
of vigor and stability would assuredly follow 



the immediate sacrifice: — they snatched at 
the short-sighted policyof the moment, and, 
by defending the abuses of their Church, en- 
sured its downfal. 

Scheme of Reformation. — On the 30th of 
October, in the interval between the triumph 
of the cardinals and the election of the Pope, 
the fortieth, one of the most important ses- 
sions of the Council, took place. Then was 
made a veiy seasonable effort, on the part of 
the reformers, to impose some specific obli- 
gation upon the future Pope ; and on this oc- 
casion the scheme, which the Committee of 
Reform had been so long engaged in prepar- 
ing, was formally approved, and recommend- 
ed to the immediate adoption of the pontifi' 
and Council — for the majority were still sin- 
cere in their intentions, though they had blind- 
ly cast away the means of effecting them. 
To do justice to this subject, we must shordy 
mention the heads of this project; since it 
may be considered as embracing the utmost 
extent of change which it was thought expe- 
dient, or found possible, under any circum- 
stances to introduce. The Articles, to which 
the future reformation was to be directed, 
were eighteen : — (1) The number, the quali- 
ty, and the nation of the cardinals ; (2) The 
Reservations of the Holy See ; (3) Annates ; 
(4) Collations of benefices and expectative 
graces ; (5) What causes ought to be treated 
in the Court of Rome ; (6) Appeals to the 
same Court; (7) The offices of the Chancery 
and Penitentiary; (8) Exemptions granted, 
and unions made, during the schism ; (9) 
Commendams ; (10) The confirmation of elec- 
tions ; (11) Intermediates, t. e. revenues dur- 
ing vacancy ; (12) Alienation of the property 
of the Roman and other Churches ; (13) In 
what cases a Pope may be corrected and de- 
posed, and by what means ; (14) The exlir 
pation of Simony ; (15) Dispensations ; (16) 
Provision for the Pope and the Cardinals ; 
(17) Indulgences; (18) Tenths. To these it 
should be added, that, in the session preced- 
ing, a Decree had passed to regulate, and se- 
cure, as far as possible, the periodical meeting 
of General Councils. 

In the resolutions, which the Committee 
published respecting the above Articles, a sort 
of principle is discernible, of throwing aside 
the new canon law, and reviving in its place 
the more discreet and venerable institutions 
of more ancient days. Thus they resolved, 
that the Popes should judge no important 
cause without the counsel of his Cardinals — 
and even, in some instances, without the ap 



ATTEMPTS AT SELF-REFORMATION. 



443 



probation of a General Council. And again, 
that there were certain cases in which a Pope 
rnight be judged and deposed — decisions 
wholly at variance with the canons of the 
Vatican, which committed to the Pope alone 
all judgment of major causes, and gave au- 
thority to Bulls, originating with himself; 
and which also laid it down, that a Pope 
could not be judged or deposed on any other 
charge, than that of heresy. 

Regarding the Pope. — The Committee of 
Reform also prohibited the Popes from reserv- 
ing * the spoils of the bishops, the revenues 
of vacant benefices, and the procurations^ or 
provisions made for bishops during their visi- 
tations. It imposed some restraint on plu- 
i-alities and dispensations. The Pope was 
forbidden to permit the same person to hold 
more tiiaii one bishopric or abbey at the same 
time, unless with the consent of the sacred 
college, and for important reasons — though 
even this restriction appears to have been 
liable to exceptions, in countries especially 
where the benefices were poor.f Another 
resolution enforced the residence of the high- 
er clergy, on pain of deprivation in case of 
six months of absence, unless with special 
permission from the Pope. Another forbade 
the Pope to impose tenths on his clergy, 
without the consent of a General Council. 
Another revoked, with some trifling excep- 
tions, all the exemptions which had been 
granted during the schism. The abuse of 
exemptions had, indeed, proceeded so far as 
to awaken the conscience even of the Pope 
himself, who subsequently ratified this Ar- 
ticle. 

The popes had usurped the power of trans- 



* On the subject of reservations, Lenfant remarks, 
that Mental Reservations of benefices were not yet 
introduced. These differed from others in that they 
were not published. If a benefice was vacant, and 
either the ordinary had conferred it, or any one went 
to Rome to obtain it, the datary would answer, that 
the Pope had made a mental reservation to present it 
to whom he thought proper. 

t In Apulia, for example, and in some parts of 
Spain, the reformers allowed the Pope to give dis- 
pensation for four benefices. In England, on the 
other hand, they would not permit it, on any account, 
to be granted for more than two. Clemangis asserts 
(De Corrupto Ecclesiae Statu, cap. xi.) ' that there 
were at that time ecclesiastics who held as many as 
five hundred ample benefices.' And the same writer 
further aflirms, ' that the monks of his day were at the 
same time monks, canons, regular, secular ; that, un- 
der the same habit, they possessed the rights, offices, 
and benefices of ail orders and of all professions.' 
Lenf. Hist. Couc, Const., 1. vii. s. xxxii. 



lating from see to see, without consulting 
the inclination of the prelates affected by the 
change. These forcible translations were pro- 
hibited by the committee ; but it does not ap- 
pear that Martin V. consented even to so slight 
an encroachment upon his despotism. It had 
also been a custom, probably established by 
Innocent III., for the Popes to reserve to the 
Holy See the power of giving absolution for 
certain offences (called reserved cases,) which 
were thought to be placed above episcopal 
cognizance. The pretext for this innovation 
was, to invest those crimes with additional 
terrors, and to repel men from their commis- 
sion by the difficnlty of obtaining absolution. 
The common effect was this; that many, 
unable or indisposed to undertake so long a 
pilgrimage, disregarded entirely both confes- 
sion and penance ; while others, whose easiei 
circumstances permitted the journey, poured 
forth their penitential gold with great profu- 
sion into the apostolical coffers. This subject 
was for some time debated in the committee ; 
but it was at length unanimously decided, 
that the established usage should remain. 

The Court of Rome. — As those, here men- 
tioned, composed the most important restric- 
tions, which it was designed to impose upon 
the Pope's authority, so the meditated reform 
of his cardinals and his court would have in- 
troduced changes still less considerable. Four 
resolutions were passed resi)ecting the num- 
ber of the sacred college, and the qualifica- 
tions necessary for admission ; as also, that 
every new nomination should receive the 
approbation of the majority of the college- 
Others were enacted for the better administra- 
tion of the apostolical chancery and chamber, 
respecting proton otaries and participants ; the 
auditors, or judges della rota (the parliament 
of the Pope ;) scriptors of the penitentiary ; 
abbreviators of Bulls ; clerks of the chamber; 
correctors of the apostolical letters ; auditores 
contradictariorum, and auditors of the cham- 
ber ; acoluthes, subdeacons, chaplains, refer- 
endaries, penitentiaries, and registrars — not 
for the abolition of any of those offices,* or 
of others which might have been added to 
the list, but only for their more judicious re- 
gulation. Thus we observe, that it did not 
then enter into the views of any party to di- 
minish the state and dignity of the see, nor to 
curtail any of the consequence which it might 



* The only office, as far as we can observe, which 
the reformers abolished, was the ' Auditorship of the 
Chamber of Avignon,' which, since the return of the 
Popes to Rome, had become au obvious sinecure, 



444 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



derive from those circumstances; but that 
the Reformers of those days v/ould have been 
well satisfied in that matter, had the Pope 
consented to part with the most obvious and 
superficial abuses. 

The Secular Clergy. — The resolutions of 
the committee respecting the secular clergy, 
while they proclaimed the general corruption, 
were more especially levelled against two 
crimes, the same which, from the days of 
Gregory VII., had been the constant mark 
for the shafl;s of Reform — simony and concu- 
binage. The enactments which were made, 
particularly against the former of these oflTen- 
ces, were reasonable and salutary. But there 
could be little prospect of their execution, so 
long as the court of Rome was left in posses- 
sion of so much pomp and splendor, without 
any fixed and sufficient funds for its support. 
Even had it been possible by a single act of 
the council, at once to extirpate simony from 
the Church, Rome was the hot-bed where it | 
would of necessity have sprung up again, and 
thence spread its pestiferous branches over 
the whole surface of Christendom. Other 
ecclesiastical abuses were likewise assailed. 
It had frequently happened,* to the great 
scandal of the people, that bishops held 
sees, and incumbents parisiies, without hav- 
ing taken priest's orders. The College of 
Reform had already regulated, that the pope 
should grant no dispensation to bishops, on 
this point, for longer than one year : it ex- 
tended the same limit to the inferior clergy. 
Another, and very important task it also un- 
dertook, — to draw the limits which were 
hereafter to divide civil from ecclesiastical 
jurisdiction, and to specify the causes which 
appertained to either. The want of some 
definite arrangement on this subject had, for 
some time, disturbed the course of justice, 
and led to perpetual broils between the clergy 
and the laity. Nevertheless, as it was through 
that very indistinctness, that the former had 
been enabled to push their claims so far, it 
might be uncertain whether its removal, 
though finally advantageous to both parties, 
would be very popular among them. Several 
useful regulations were likewise devised for 
the purification of the various religious bodies, 
and especially of the Mendicants. It seems, 
indeed, to have been generally admitted by 
the leading reformers, that in the universal 
degeneracy of the Church, the most conspicu- 
ous instances of profligacy and profaneness 
were exhibited by the monastic establish- 

nients. 

* Lenfant, Hist. Cone Const., liv. vii., s. 46. 



Such are the outlines of the project ^ by 
which the reformers of Constance proposed 
to restrain the abuses of papacy, and to re- 
store, correct, and consolidate the Catholic 
Church. And here we should again remark, 
that the authors of that project were them- 
selves zealous, and even bigoted churchmen. 
Respecting the divine authority, the power, 
the infallibility f of the Church, they profess- 
ed opinions as lofty, as the loftiest notions of 
their adversaries. Still the space which di- 
vided the two parties was broad and clear, 
and it was included in one question — In what 
does this infallible Church consist ? In what 
is it fully and faithfully represented ? Does a 
council-general, without the Pope, possess 
the mighty attributes in question? Or a 
council-general with the Pope ? or the Pope 
without a council-general ? The last opinion, 
the extreme of high papacy, had not perhaps 
very many advocates; at least the second 
was that on which the Italians took their 
stand, as being the more tenable ; the first 
was the rallying principle of the reformers, 
who may be designated the low papists. It 
cannot be too carefully impressed, that the 
mighty struggles at Constance respected, in 
as far as principles were concerned, not the 
character of the Church, on which all were 
agi-eed, but the extent to which the Pope 
possessed the attributes of the Church. And 
this distinction being rightly understood, we 
shall find no difficulty in accounting — when 
we shall arrive at that subject — for the seem- 
ing inconsistency, with which the council of 
Constance deposed a legitimate Pope with one 
hand, while it consigned the heretics, Huss and 
Jerome, to barbarous execution with the other. 
The Reformation eluded by Martin V. — We 
have observed, that at the Fortieth Session 
eighteen articles, which were the heads of 
the resolutions of the committee, were sub- 
mitted, by the approbation of the council, to 
the future Pope, and that Martin V. was 
elected a few days afterwards. Again, on the 
very day following his coronation, the na- 
tions assembled and pressed the observance 



* The above account is founded on four authentic 
documents published by M. Von der Hardt, from the 
MSS. of the library of Vienna, and recognised by 
Lenfant as " containing all the resolutions of the 
committee of reform." — Hist. Cone. Constan., liv. 
vii., s. xxvii. See Von der Hardt, torn, i., partes 
X. xi. xii. Collegii Reformatorum Constant, 
statuta, sive Geminum Reforraatorii Constant. Pro- 
tocollum, &c. &c. 

f It is only necessary to refer to the writings of 
leading reformers, Gerson, Pierre d'Ailli, &c., and 
the acts of the councils both of Constaace and Basle 



ATTEMPTS AT SELF-REFORMATION. 



445 



of his obligation. The Pope appears to have 
promised with great facility ; but at the same 
time he appointed six cardinals to co-operate 
with the deputies of the nations in revis- 
ing their former labors. Divisions presently 
arose ; the cardinals vi^ere indefatigable in 
creating difficulties ; so that the patience of 
the Germans being once more wearied, they 
addressed (about the end of 1417) a fresh 
memorial to the new committee. The sub- 
jects urged on this occasion principally re- 
garded resei-vatioDS, appointment to bene- 
fices, expectative graces, and other papal 
usurpations, and abuses of the Church pa- 
tronage. Very soon afterwards, the French 
remonstrated with equal warmth against the 
procrastinations of the committee, and even 
p;-esented a petition to Sigismond, in which 
they exhorted him to employ his powerful 
influence with the Pope. But Sigismond 
had not forgotten their late opposition, nor 
was he unmindful of the fatal wound, which 
they had inflicted on the cause. He dismissed 
their deputies without honor ; and while he 
bade them reflect, how steadily they had 
thwarted his wish to accomplish the reforma- 
tion before the Pope should be elected, he 
recommended them, now that they had ob- 
tained their Pope, to apply to Mm for their 
reform. At the same time, the Spaniards 
raised a clamor against simony and other 
abuses, and went so far as to throw out some 
menaces against the Pontiff" himself; indeed 
some of them were suspected of still harbor- 
ing a secret attachment towards their per- 
verse compatriot, the Pope of Paniscola. 
Martin was somewhat moved by this show 
of unanimity ; and thinking to gain better 
terms by dividing his adversaries, he con- 
trived to open a separate negotiation with 
each nation, on the plea that he could thus 
more intimately consult their several interests. 
The scheme succeeded ; and as all parties 
were wearied alike with dispute and delay, 
matters were now hurried to a conclusion. 
On the 21st of March, 1418, the Pope, no 
longer disguising his eagerness to dissolve 
the council, held the 43d session, and publish- 
ed his own articles of reformation ; and they 
should be recorded for their very insignifi- 
cance. The first revoked ( with a large field 
for exceptions ) such exemptions as had been 
granted during the schism ; the second com- 
manded a fresh examination of such unions 
of benefices as had taken place during the 
same period. The third prohibited the ap- 
propriation of the revenues of vacant benefi- 
ces tq the apostolical chamber. The fourth 



was a general edict against simony. The 
fifth respected papal dispensations to hold 
benefices without being in orders. The 
sixth forbade the imposition of tenths and 
other taxes on ecclesiastics, unless for some 
gi'eat advantage to the Church, and with the 
consent of the cardinals and local prelates. 
The seventh regulated the dress of ecclesias- 
tics, according to the modesty of the ancient 
laws ; and the last, and the most shameless 
of all, declared that, by the above articles, 
and by the concordats granted to the nations, 
the Pope had satisfied the demands of the 
Committee of reform, as expressed in the 
fortieth session of the council, and discharg- 
ed his own obligations. 

Dissolution of the Council. — The Concor- 
dats were as delusive as the articles;* and 
Maitin, conscious of this, had not yet made 
them public ; but continued to pre^s the 
immediate dissolution of the council. It 
was in vain objected, that many matters of 
great importance still remained unsettled : it 
was replied, that the patrimony of the Holy 
See was in the hands of depredators ; that 
Rome itself was exposed to the scourges of 
famine and pestilence, of foreign and intestine 
war ; that it was the paramount duty of him, 
whom the whole world now acknowledged 
as the successor of St. Peter, to place himself 
on the throne of the apostle. Accordingly, 
on the 22d of April, the council assembled 
for the forty-fifth and last session ; and the 
Bull which released the fathers from their 
unsuccessful labors, showered upon them 
and their domestics a profusion of indulgen- 
ces, as if to complete, by an additional mock- 
ery, the insult with which their hopes had 
been destroyed.f On the 2d of May the 



* That granted to the Germans conlaiiied twelve 
articles, which are enumerated by Semler, Secul. xv., 
cap. ii., p. 38. Since they did not go to the effectual 
removal of any grand abuse, it is unnecessary to cite 
them here. 

f As this memorable Bull happens to be short, it 
will be well to record it. ' We Martin, Bishop, ser- 
vant of the servants of God, ad perpetuam rei memo.- 
riam, by the requisition of the holy council, do hereby 
dismiss and declare it terminated, giving to every one 
liberty to rieturn home. Besides, by the authority of 
God the omnipotent, and of his blessed apostles, St. 
Peter and St. Paul, and by our own, we accord to 
all the members of the council plenary absolution 
from all their sins, "semel in vita; " so that each 
among them may obtain this absolution in form, with- 
in two months after the gift shall be made known to 
him. We also give them the same privilege in arti- 
culo mortis; and we extend it to servants as well aa 
their masters, on condition that, after the day of no- 
tification, both the one and the other shall fast every 



446 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



concordats were published ; and that which 
was granted to the French was immediately 
rejected by them, as contrary to the liberties 
of the Galilean Church. But the object of 
Martin was already accomplished ; the Coun- 
cil of Constance had ceased to exist; and in 
defiance of the urgent remonstrances of the 
emperor, the pontiff turned his footsteps 
towards Italy. He turned towards the soil, 
where papacy was national and indigenous, 
and where, amidst all the turbulence of con- 
tending cities and factions, the spiritual des- 
potism of the Vicar of Christ had never yet 
been contested. 

Disputes on Annates. — ^We should here 
observe that, while very lofty language was 
employed at Constance on both sides respect- 
ing the principle on which the government 
of the Church rested; while some maintained 
that it was a pure monarchy, others that it 
was a monarchy tempered by a mixture of 
the aristocratical and even republican char- 
acter; other disputes were less publicly, 
though not less passionately, agitated between 
those parties, respecting much more vulgar 
considerations. The reader cannot fail to 
have remarked, that of the concessions made 
by Martin, those which were not absolutely 
nugatory regarded the temporalities of the 
Church, and the power of the Pope to levy 
contributions upon the clergy. The reform- 
ing prelates had pressed these from the 
beginning among other grievances; but it 
proved at last, that the subject, on which 
those pecuniary discussions had chiefly turn- 
ed, was entirely unnoticed in the Pope's 
decree. The exaction of Annates, or the 
first year's income of vacant benefices, seems 
to have been that, among all the resoiu'ces 
of tlie apostolical chancery, which was most 
profitable to the receivers, and most unpop- 
ular among all other ecclesiastics. The claim 
was of a very modern date ; it could not 
be traced higher than Clement V. ; and it 



Friday during one year, for the absolution for life, 
and another yearfor the absolution in articulo mortis; 
unless there be some legitimate hinderance, in which 
case they shall perform other pious works. And after 
the second year, they shall be held to fast every Fri- 
day during life, or to do other works of piety, on 
pain of incurring the indignation of the omnipotent 
God, and of his blessed apostles St. Peter and St. 
Paul.' Such were the consolations which were offer- 
ed to the most enlightened bt)dy which had ever yet 
assembled in the name of the Church, in return for 
their disappointed expectations, by the very man 
whom they had raised to power, and whose first use 
of it was to betray them.. They demanded a substan- 
tial reform, and he paid the debt in indulgences. 



scarcely assumed the shape of a right till tne 
pontificate of Boniface IX. The French 
'nation' urged the abolition of this tax with 
especial zeal from the very opening of the 
council ; and the ambassador of Charles VI. 
was instructed at all events to carry this 
measure. The fathers, in a general assem- 
bly, even passed a resolution to that effect ; 
but the cardinals still exclaimed and remon- 
strated, and protested ; and, as their last 
resource, they ventured to appeal from the 
council to the future Pope. The French 
replied to this appeal with much spirit and 
reason ;* and had the reformation preceded 
the election, there can be no doubt that the 
imposition would have been removed. But 
the cardinals finally prevailed, and the odious 
exaction, under some slight and indefinite 
restrictions, was re-established/ 

But though the reforming party, which 
really constituted the great majority of the 
Council, was finally defrauded of all the 
substance of its project, and dismissed with 
a very thin veil to cover its defeat, yet the 
recollection of one great triumph might 
supply substantial ground of consolation. 
The superiority of a General Council to the 
Pope was unequivocally decreed at Constance. 
The prelates of Pisa had done little more 
than overthrow two claimants to the See, 
neither of whom was universally acknow- 
ledged, or rightfully established. But the 
legitimacy of John XXIII. was never ques- 
tioned even by his bitterest enemies ; and 
Martin, whose succession to the dignity was 
only legal through the legality of the previous 
deposition and of the power exercised by the 
deposing Council, was the least qualified of 
all men to discredit either the act or the 
authority ; so that, whatsoever struggles and 
protestations may afterwards have been made 
by individual Popes, the general principle 
was immutably established in the Chiu'ch.f 

Decree for the decennial meeting of General 
Councils. — The fathers of Constance also 
carried home with them another source of 



* The substance of the paper is given by the Con- 
tinuator of Fleury, 1. civ., s. Ixxiv. Some curious 
particulars of the dispute between the French and 
the Cardinals on the subject of Annates may be found 
in Von der Hardt, torn, i., pars xiii. 

t It is well known that Transalpine divines dispute 
.the principle even to this moment; but they have no 
ground to stand upon. If they admit the legitimacy 
of the Council of Constance, they must receive that 
decision ; if not, they impugn the succession of their 
Popes ever since that Council — for they all flow un- 
interruptedly from Martin V. No sophistry can lib- 
erate them from this dilemma. 



ATTEMPTS AT SELF-REFORMATION. 



447 



comfort and hope. In the thirty-ninth ses- 
sion, held on the 9th of October, 1417, it 
was enacted, as a perpetual law of the 
Church, that general councils should be held 
on every tenth year from the termination of 
the preceding; in such places as the Pope, 
with the consent of the Council sitting, 
should appoint. But in the first instance, as 
the actual exigencies of the Church did not 
seem to allow even that short interval, 
another Council was to be assembled in five 
years from the dissolution of that of Con- 
stance, and a third in seven years afl:er the 
second. In obedience to this constitution, 
Martin V". twice attempted to collect an 
obsequious assembly in Italy ; but his sum- 
mons were disregarded by the foreign pre- 
lates, to whom neither Pavia nor Sienna 
oflTered any prospect of independence. The 
scanty synods were hastily dissolved, and 
the only act which is recorded of the latter 
was to grant as ample indulgences to those, 
who should contribute gold for the extinction 
of the Bohemian heretics, as to those, who 
should serve the crusade in person. Basle, 
at length, was appointed for the meeting 
of the real representatives of the Church, 
and they crowded thither in great multitudes 
during the spring and summer of 1431. 

Council of Basle. — In the meantime, on 
the 19th of the preceding February, Mai*- 
tin V. died. His long pontificate had been 
principally devoted to two objects, the re- 
covery of the States of the Church and the 
amassing of wealth ; and he had succeeded 
in both. As to the former, he had restored 
the interests of the See nearly to the condition 
in which they stood before the schism. As 
to the latter, he destined the treasures, which 
he collected, rather for the aggrandizement 
of his own family, than for the benefit of the 
Catholic Church, or even of the Pontifical 
Government. At the same time, it is admitted 
that he possessed considerable talents, and a 
vigorous and consistent character ; and he has 
escaped the imputation of any great vice, ex- 
cepting avarice. At this crisis, the character 
of the successor to the chair was of conse- 
quence almost incalculable to the Church. 
The Council of Basle was irrevocably sum- 
moned ; and its principles, its policy, and its 
power could easily be foreseen from the ex- 
perience of Constance. What policy, then, 
was the new Pope to pursue ? Was he 
openly to oppose, or craftily to elude, or 
generously to co-operate, in the work of 
reformation ? The durability of the Roman 
Catholic Church depended on the answer. 



Election and Character of Eugenius IV. — 
The Cardinals were not, indeed, disturbed by 
such distant considerations; and the views, 
with which most of them entered the con- 
clave, extended not beyond their private in- 
trigues or immediate interests. Being unable 
at once to agree, they proceeded to the scru- 
tiny ; and their secret arrangements being not 
yet satisfactorily concluded, they continued to 
throw away their votes upon the names which 
held the lowest consideration, and were the 
last in the chance of success. And thus it 
happened, that, at the conclusion of one of 
these scrutinies, to the astonishment and dis- 
may of the whole college, one Gabriel Con- 
dolmieri, the least and most insignificant 
member of the sacred body, was found in 
possession of two-thirds of the suffrages.* 
There was no space to repent or retract ; 
the election was already valid, and the bark 
of St. Peter was thus consigned, in the most 
anxious moment of its destiny, to the hand of 
Eugenius IV. 

Had that PontiflT been as deeply impressed 
with his own incapacity as the rest of the 
Christian world, he might occasionally have 
followed the counsel of wiser men ; but, on 
the contrary, he was the most presumptuous, 
as he was the most ignorant, of mankind.f 
The rigorous habits of a monastic life had 
equally contracted his principles, and blinded 
his judgment ; so that he perpetually mistook 
precipitation for decision, and then thought 
to redeem his rashness by his obstinacy. 
Without talents or any steady policy, through 
the very restlessness of his character, he ex- 
ercised an influence which was everywhere 
felt, and everywhere felt for evi].| And if it 

* It is thus that Sismondi describes the elevation 
of Eugenius, without any question as to the credi- 
bility of his authorities. But we are bound to add, 
that several Ecclesiastical Historians, of various 
ages, whom we have consulted on this subject, are 
silent as to the circumstance mentioned in the text. 
Sismondi (chap. 66.) cites Andreae Billii Histor. 
Mediolan. 1. ix. p. 143. 

f He was remarkable for a downcast look. ' Vultn 
alioqui decoro et venerabili, nunqnam oculos in pub- 
lico attollebat, ut a parente meo, qui eum sequebatur, 
accepi.' — Volaterra, lib. xxii., p. 815, ap. Bayle. 

X Contemporary Italian historians exert all (he 
talents of partisanship in his favor. But Sismondi, 
who has estimated with less prejudice his political, as 
well as his ecclesiastical character, speaks of him 
very differently. ' Dans les revolutions violentes ou 
on le voit sans cesse engage, en guerre avec son clerge, 
avec ses sujets, avec ses bienfaitcurs, il manque pres- 
que toujours en meme temps et de la bonne foi, et de 
la politique. II y a peu de tyrans a qui on peut re- 
procher plus d'actes de perfidie et de cruaute; il y a 



448 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



were just to select from the long list of pon- 
tifical delinquents one name, to which the 
downfal of the Church should more partic- 
ularly be ascribed, we should not greatly err 
in attaching that stigma to Eugenius. 

The unexpected accident of his elevation 
inflated still further an inconstant mind. 
Some success which he gained in a struggle 
with the Colonna family for the treasures of 
his predecessors, filled him with unbounded 
confidence ; and it was in such a mood that 
he plunged into hostilities with the Council 
of Basle. His first endeavors were directed 
to crush it, ere it came into operation or even 
existence ; but finding that hopeless, and con- 
vinced that an assembly so solemnly convok- 
ed, and so earnestly desired, must meet or 
seem to meet, he determined to neutralize 
its character by changing its place. Accord- 
ingly, he notified to the President, towards 
the end of the year, that 'by his own full 
power' he had transferred it to Bologna, in 
Italy. 

Julian Cesarini, Cardinal of St. Angela. — 
The President was the Cardinal Julian Cesa- 
rini, a man whose eminent talents qualified 
him for that oflSce, in which he was placed 
by Martin, and confirmed by Eugenius, and 
who may have deserved the reputation which 
he has received from Bossuet, of being ' the 
greatest character of his age.' At any rate, 
he was, on this occasion, more mindful of his 
duties to the Church, than of his obligations 
to his master, and respectfully refused obedi- 
ence to the pontifical mandate. 

Three purposes were specified, for which 
llie Council of Basle was convoked:* (1.) 
The reunion of the Latin and Greek church- 
es ; (2.) The reform of the Church in its head 
and members ; (3.) The reconciliation of the 
Hussites. We shall confine our account, for 
the present, to the second of these, and re- 
sume the thread wliich was broken at Con- 
stance: in so doing, it will be our misfortune 
again to observe the one party furiously con- 
tending against its own lasting interests, and 
repelling the friendly hand which would have 
purified and saved a foul and falling system ; 
and the other party, thwarted by perpetual 



peu de monarques iinbecilles, qui aient donne plus de 
preuves d'incapacite el d'inconsequeuce.' Republ. 
Ital., cap. Ixx. 

* ' Concilium hoc congregatum est propter extir- 
pandas liaereses, faciendum pacera, reformandum mo- 
res.' Epist. (2) J-uliani Card, ad Eugen. IV. Julian 
places first that which seems to have been in his mind 
the most important object: the third, the reformation, 
he regarded rather as the means of restoring the unity 
of the Church. 



impediments, insults, artifices, so as to con- 
fine its exertions to unworthy objects, and not 
eflfectually to accomplish even those. The 
former, consisting for the most part of Italians, 
were the myrmidons of absolute papacy; 
while the latter comprehended almost all that 
was enlightened and generous and virtuous 
among the clergy of the rest of Europe. 

Contention hetweenthe Council and the Pope. 
— Though many of the prelates had been 
long assembled, the first public session * was 
not held until the 14th of December, 1431 j 
and from that time forwards, for the space of 
two entire years, the energies and patience of 
the fathers were wearied, and their passions 
excited, and their attention wholly diverted 
from the great .object of their meeting, by 
uninterrupted contentions with Eugenius. 
They had come together from all. parts of 
Europe, and their numbers were swelled by 
the addition of many of the inferior clergy ; 
they aiTived, deploring the debasement, and 
eager for the regeneration, of their Church ; 
they were confident, too, in their power, and 
it was to this power that they chiefly trusted 
to repress the excesses of papacy ; yet, when 
they would have advanced with ardor to 
realize these hopes, they found themselves 
engaged in a tedious and irritating contest 
for their own independence. In the course 
of this contest they pubhshed and republished 
those decrees of Constance, which proclaim- 
ed the superior prerogatives of the Council. 
They reiterated the authorized assertions, 
that a Council General represents the Cliurch, 
and is the Church ; that, as such, it derives 
its attributes immediately from Jesus Christ ; 
that, as such, it is impeccable ; that it is thus 
possessed of infallibility — a boon which had 
been denied, not only to Popes who had 
erred in matters of faith, but to the angels f 
themselves, for they had sinned ; that on these 
accounts the Pope was subject to the Council 
in all things regarding (1) faith, (2) the extir- 
pation of schism, and (3) the reformation of 
the Church ; that he was only the ministerial I 
head of the Church, inferior in eminence to 



* The method in which that very large body pro- 
ceeded through its deliberations was both generally 
judicious, and particularly calculated to neutralize the 
majority of Italian deputies. It is given at length by 
the Contin. of Fleury, liv. cvi., § 6. 

f The ' synodal response of the Council may be 
found in substance in the Continuator of Fleury, lib. 
cvi., § 14. The original is in Labbe's Hist. Concil. 

X This is urged by ^Eneas Sylvius, Comment, de 
Gestis Basil. Concil., lib. i., p. 16. The same writer 
also argues that the Pope is more propei'ly the Vicar 
of the Church than the Vicar of Christ. 



ATTEMPTS AT SELF-REFORMATION. 



449 



that mystical body;* and consequently (for 
this was the point to which the whole tend- 
ed,) that he possessed no power over the 
Council, either to dissolve or transfer it. But 
all these, and all similar assertions, fell with- 
out any effect upon the mind of a pontiff, 
who was in real monastic sincerity persuaded, 
that there existed in the Church no other 
legitimate authority whatsoever, excepting 
his own. It was in vain to appeal to ancient 
canons against modern usurpations, where 
ignorance had conspired with interest to over- 
throw reason and justice. It was in vain, that 
all the learning and genius and eloquence of 
the Church were arrayed on the same side — 
their weapons were unfelt or unheeded by a 
stupid and selfish bigotry. 

Cardinal Jiilian Cesarini. — During this 
controversy (if such it may be called) Cardi- 
nal Julian boldly maintained the principles 
of the Council and the cause of the Catholic 
Church. His mind was naturally capacious : 
deep and assiduous study, which so com- 
monly contracts a feeble understanding, had 
enlarged and enlightened his ; and a mission, 
which he had personally undertaken for the 
conciliation of the Bohemians, had brought 
before his eyes the causes, the obstinacy and 
the contagiousness of spii-itual rebellion. He 
was one of the few Italians, who had pene- 
trated the truth, so long manifest to the nor- 
thern prelates, that a thorough reformation in 
discipline was necessary for the presei-vation 
of the Church. We cannot so well illustrate 
the condition of affairs at that period, as by 
citing some passages from the two celebrated 
epistles which he addressed from Basle to 
Eugenius. f ' One great motive with me to 



* This last position, together with some of the 
others, was proved by arguments derived (1) from 
reason, (2) from experience, (3) from authority, in 
the synodal response addi-essed to Eugenius, at the 
second session. The argument from authority chiefly 
rested on the text from the 18th chapter of St. Mat- 
thew — ' If thy brother shall trespass against thee, and 
will not hear thee, and shall neglect to hear the wit- 
nesses, tell it unto the Church ; but if he neglect to 
hear the Church, let him be unto thee as a heathen 
man and a publican. Verily I say unto you, whatso- 
ever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, 
and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed 
in heaven.' . . Still the question remained, what 
constituted the Church'? 

t The first Epistle begins in these words — ' Multa 
me cogunt libere et intrepide loqui ad Sanctitatem 
vestram; periculum videlicet eversionis fidei ac status 
ecclesiastici, et subtractionis obedientige a Sede Apos- 
tolica in iis partibus; denigratio quoque famas ejus- 
dem Sanctitatis. Cogit et me charitas qua erga V. 
S. aflicior et qua niihi affici scio. Ita enim opus est 
57 



join this Council was the deformity and dis- 
soluteness of the German clergy, on account 
of which the laity are immoderately irritated 
against the ecclesiastical state: so much so, 
as to make it matter of serious apprehension 
whether, if they be not reformed, the people 
will not rush, after the example of the Hus- 
sites, upon the whole clergy, as they publicly 
menace to do. Pyloreover, this deformity 
gives great audacity to the Bohemians, and 
great colormg to the eiTors of those, who are 
loudest in their invectives against the base- 
ness of the clergy: on which account, had 
a general Council not been convoked at this 
place, it had been necessary to collect a 
provincial synod for the reform of the Ger- 
man clergy ; since, in truth, if that clergy be 
not corrected, even though the heresy of Bo- 
hemia should be extinguished, others would 
rise up in its place.' ... 'If you should 
dissolve this Council, what will the whole 
world say, when it shall learn the act ? Will 
it not decide, that the clergy is incorrigible, 
and desirous for ever to grovel in the filth of 
its own deformity .5 Many councils liave 
been celebrated in our days, from which no 
reform has proceeded ; the nations are expect- 
ing that some fruit should come from this. 
But if it is dissolved, all will exclaim that v/e 
laugh at God and man. As no hope of our 
correction will any longer be left, the laity 
will rush, like Hussites, upon us. This design 
is already publicly rumored. The mmds of 
men are pregnant ; they are already beginnmg 
to vomit the poison intended for our destruc- 
tion. They will suppose that they are offer- 
ing a sacrifice to God, when they shall mur- 



ut, intellecto discrimine, cautius rebus agendis postea 
consulatur.' The following sentiment is worthy of 
the best ages of Christianity: ' Et si dicat S. V. 
Habuimus guerram (bellum); ego respondebo, quod 
etiam si guerrte adhuc durarent, etiam si essetis certi 
perdere Romam, et totum patrimoniura ecclesia?, po- 
tius subveniendum est fidei et animabus, pro quibus 
Dominus noster Jesus Christus mortuus est, quam 
arcibus et moeniis civitatum. Carior est Christo 
una anima quam non solum temporale ecclesiee patri- 
monium, sed etiam coelum et terra.' . . Again, 
' Pro Deo, non permittat sibi V. S. talia persuaderi, 
quia timeo dissidium in ecclesia Dei. Vereor ne 
advenerit tempus, de quo dicit Apostolus, quod oportet 
primum ut fiat discessio.' The fears of the Cardinal 
v/ere obviously directed not to a second schismj a 
mere orthodox division of the Church, but to the ab- 
solute revolt of its children. But its destiny was not 
yet accomplished; one more century of turbulent, 
contested, and flagitious domination was yet required 
to fill the cup. But if the overflow did not take place 
at the time, it at least proceeded from the country, 
indicated by Julian. 



450 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



der or despoil the clergy. Sunk in general 
estimation into the depth of evil, these last 
will become odious to God and the world ; 
and the very moderate respect wliich is now 
felt for them will entirely perish. This Coun- 
cil is still some little restraint upon secular 
men ; but as soon as they shall find their last 
hope fail them, they will let loose the reins of 
public persecution.' . . . ' Should the Coun- 
cil be dissolved, the people of Germany, see- 
ing themselves not only deserted but deluded 
by the Church, will join with the heretics, 
and hate us even more than they. Alas ! how 
frightful will be the confusion ! how certain 
the termination I . . Already I behold the 
axe laid at the root. The tree is bending to 
its fall, and can resist no longer. And cer- 
tainly, though it could stand of itself, we our- 
selves should precipitate it to earth.'' . . ' Again, 
should a prorogation be proposed and a trans- 
fer of place, to the end that in the presence 
of your holiness gi*eater blessings may be 
accomplished, no man living will believe it.' 
'We have been deluded (they say) in the 
Council of Sienna; so it is again in this; 
legates have been sent out, bulls have been 
issued ; nevertheless, a change in the place is 
now sought, and a delay in the time. What 
better hope will there be then ? ' ' Most bless- 
ed Father, believe me, the scandals which I 
have mentioned will not be removed by this 
delay. Let us ask the heretics, whether they 
will delay for a year and a half the dissem- 
ination of their virulence ? Let us ask those, 
who are scandalized at the deformity of the 
clergy, if they will for so long delay their 
indignation ? Not a day passes in which 
some heresy does not sprout forth ; not a day 
in which they do not seduce or oppress some 
Catholics ; they do not lose the smallest mo- 
ment of time. There is not a day, in which 
new scandals do not arise from the depravity 
of the Clergy ; yet all measures for their 
remedy are procrastinated ! Let us do what 
can be done now. Let the rest be reserved 
for this year and a half For I have great 
fears that, before the end of the year and a 
half, unless means be taken to prevent it, the 
greater part of the clergy of Germany will be 
in desolation. It is certain, that, if the word 
should be once spread through Germany that 
the council is dissolved, the whole body of 
the clergy would be consigned to plunder.' 
' But I hear that some are apprehensive lest 
the temporalities should be taken away from 
the Church by this council. A strange no- 
tion! Though, if this council did not consist 
of ecclesiastics, there tnight be some question 



on the subject. But where shall we find the 
ecclesiastic, who would consent to such a 
project ? not only from its injustice, but fi-ora 
the loss the body would sustain from k. And 
where the layman ? there are none, or next 
to none ? And if some princes should hap- 
ly send their ambassadors, they will send, 
for the most part, ecclesiastics, who would 
in nowise consent. Even the few laymen, 
who will be present, will not be admitted to 
vote on matters strictly ecclesiastical ; and I 
scarcely think that there will be, upon the 
whole, ten secular lords present, and perhaps 
not half so many. But if we dismiss the 
council, the laity will then come and take 
our temporalities indeed. When God wish- 
es to inflict any misfortune upon any people, 
he first so disposes, that their dangers shall 
not be perceived nor understood. And such 
is now the condition of ecclesiastics ; they are 
not blind, but worse than blind ; they see the 
flame before them, and rush headlong into it.' 
'Within these few last days I have received 
intelligence, which should tend still further 
to divert you from dissolving the council. 
The prelates of France have assembled at 
Bourges, and, after long and scrupulous in- 
vestigation, have decided that this council is 
not only legitimate, but must also of necessi- 
ty be celebrated both in this place and at this 
time; and so the French clergy is about to 
join it. The reasons which have moved 
them to this were sent at the same time, and 
have been forwarded to your holiness. Why 
then do you longer delay ? You have striven 
with all your power, by messages, letters, and 
various other expedients, to keep the clergy 
away ; you have struggled with your whole 
force utterly to destroy this council. Never- 
theless, as you see, it swells and increases 
day by day, and the more severe the prohibi- 
tion, the more ardent is the opposite impulse. 
Tell me now — is not this to resist the will of 
God ? Why do you provoke the Church to 
indignation ? Why do you irritate the Chris- 
tian people? Condescend, I implore you, so 
to act, as to secure for yourself the love and 
good will, and not the hatred, of mankind.' 

The eloquent expressions of reason and 
truth were wasted upon the sordid soul of 
Eugenius. He persisted in measures of op- 
position ; they were met by a process of cita- 
tion on the part of the council ; and this was 
retorted by a Bull of dissolution ; both were 
equally ineffectual. At length, on the 12th 
of July, 1433, the fathers proceeded one step 
farther ; they suspended the pontiff" from his 
dignity, and prohibited all Christians from 



ATTEMPTS AT SELF-REFORMATION. 



451 



paying him obedience. Eugenius, in the 
plenitude of his own power, annulled their 
decree ; and this noisy but innocuous alter- 
cation might have continued for some time 
longer, without any advantage or any honor 
to either party, had not some accidental cir- 
cumstances inteiTupted it. The political 
enterprises of the Pope had not been more 
happily conducted, than his ecclesiastical 
measures. During the winter of 1433 he was 
threatened by a complication of disasters. 
The Colonna attacked him at home ; the Duke 
of Milan assailed him from abroad ; his sub- 
jects were universally discontented, and their 
menaces resounded in his capital ; while Sig- 
ismond had declared loudly in favor of the 
council, and had even countenanced it by his 
presence. Under these circumstances, Eu- 
genius suddenly lowered his pretensions, and 
withdrew his opposition. The offensive Bulls 
were revoked ; and under the plea of co-ope- 
rating with the council, and with the design 
of embarrassing it, he sent two legates to Basle 
to represent his authority. 

This hollow reconciliation took place early 
in 1434 ; and as the difficulties of the Pope 
mcreased during the following spring, so fai- 
as to oblige him to fly from his capital and 
take refuge at Florence, the fathers were at 
length enabled to turn with some reviving 
hopes to the subject of reformation. 

Articles of Reformation. — Nineteen * ses- 
sions, during four invaluable years, had 
already been consumed without any benefit 
either to the Pope, the council, or the Church. 
In the twentieth, which did not meet until 
January 23, 1435, some edicts were at length 
published for the repression of ecclesiastical 
abuses; and during the fourteen months 
which followed, other canons were enacted 
to the same end. Their substance may be 
expressed in very few lines. (1.) Severe pen- 
alties were proclaimed against concubinary 
clergy, including all who, having suspicious 
women in their service, had disregarded the 
command of the Superior to dismiss them. 

* We should, perhaps, mention that, in the nine- 
teenth session, the council renewed the ancient de- 
crees about the conversion and excommunication of 
Jews, and the necessary distinction in their dress and 
residence ; and also on the establishment of oriental 
professorships in the various Universities — the last, 
in confirmation of a lifeless canon of the council of 
Vienne. Previously, too — in the twelfth session — a 
general decree had been promulgated, with a view to 
restore episcopal elections to their original form, and 
to deprive the Pope of reservations ; but it was so 
general, that little practical effect could be expected 
from it. 



(2.) It was prohibited (in the name of the 
Holy Spirit) to pay any fees in the court of 
Rome, or elsewhere, for confirmation of elec- 
tions, for admissions, postulations, or presen- 
tations ; for provision, collation, disposition, 
&c. &c. by laymen ; for institution, installa- 
tion, or investiture, in cathedral or metropo- 
litan churches or monasteries, in dignities,- 
benefices, or other ecclesiastical offices; for 
holy orders, for benedictions, or concessions 
of the pallium ; for Bulls, for the seal, for 
common annates, servitia minuta, first-fruits, 
deports;* or on any other color or pretext. 
The exaction, payment or promise, of such fees 
vt^ere forbidden under the penalties of simony. 
' And even (it was enacted,) even, which may 
God prohibit, if the Roman pontiff himselfj 
who is bound more than any other to observe 
the holy canons, should throw scandal on the 
Church by violating, in any way, this decree, 
he shall be brought to trial before a general 
council.' This passed in the twenty-first ses- 
sion (June 9, 1435 ;) and it is curious to ob- 
serve the desperate exertions, with which the 
Pope and his legates and inferior myrmidons 
put every resource of craft and intrigue into 
action, in order to prevent, to annul, or to 
neutralize this measure. But they were de- 

* (1.) The deport was the }^ar's income of vacant 
cures paid to the Pope or bishop. It was a tax in- 
stituted by the Popes of Avignon, under the pretext 
of holy wars. (2.) The grace expectative was the 
Pope's assurance of presentation to a particular bene- 
fice, when it should become vacant. This right ori- 
ginated in simple recommendation ; afterwards it 
changed into command. To the first letters, called 
monitory, letters preceptory were added; and when 
it was necessary, letters executory were also addressed 
to some papal commissioners, whose duty it became 
to compel the ordinary to present, on pain of excom- 
munication. This procedure gradually gained ground 
from the twelfth age. (3.) The reservation was a 
declaration, by which the Pope pretended to appoint 
to a benefice, when it should become vacant, with 
prohibition to the chapter to elect, or the ordinary to 
collate. From special, the Popes proceeded to gene^ 
ral, reservations ; from general to universal ; at least 
John XXII. resei'ved, by a single edict, all the cathe- 
drals in Christendom. This usurpation was attacked 
with success both at Pisa, Constance, and Basle; 
and the rights, which the French Church acquired in 
that matter at Basle, passed into the Pragmatic Sanc- 
tion, and thence, with some modification, into the 
Concordat. The council of Trent abolished reserva- 
tions entirely. The practice is traced as high as 
Innocent III. . . . Both the second and third of these 
were contrary to the canons of the third Lateran 
council, held by Alexander III. in 1179, which pub- 
lished a general prohibition against all dispositions 
of benefices previous to vacancy. — Fleury, Institut 
an Droit Eccles., p. ii., ch. xv. 



452 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



feated by the firmness of the majority of the 
council in a good cause: and if many more such 
triumphs had been obtained by the same party; 
if many more such restrictions on the worst ex- 
cesses of Rome had been imposed and enforc- 
ed, her supremacy over the Calhohc Church 
had not so speedily passed away from her. 

(3.) The twenty-third session (March 25, 
1436) regulated the election of the Pope, and 
confirmed the decree of the thirty-ninth ses- 
sion of Constance, which had prescribed a 
formula of faith, to be approved on oath, on 
the day of election. The oath was to be re- 
newed every year on the anniversary of the 
election. It proceeded to moderate the nepo- 
tism of the pontiffs, — so far, at least, as to 
confine their secular favors, — the dukedoms, 
marquisates, captaincies, governorships, and 
other offices which were at their disposal as 
temporal monarchs — to the second degree 
of relationship. New laws were also publish- 
ed for the better constitution of the Sacred 
College, which differed in very trifling, if in 
any, respects, from the enactments of Con- 
stance on the same subject. The legislation 
of Basle also descended to some less impor- 
tant subjects : it consulted the delicacy of 
'timorous consciences' by specifying the 
degree of obedience due to general sentences 
of excommunication ; it restrained the pun- 
ishment of interdicts to the offences of the 
city or its government: any sins of an indi- 
vidual citizen were held insufiicient to pro- 
voke that indiscriminate chastisement. It 
prohibited appeals, while the causes were yet 
pending ; it condemned the spectacles, which 
took place in the churches on particular fes- 
tivals ; it promulgated decrees for the greater 
solemnity of the divine ofiices, and for the 
more decorous dress and deportment of the 
officiating ministers. 

Such is the substance of the enactments of 
the council of Basle for the reform of the 
Church. It is true that, at a much later pe- 
riod of its continuance, it published, in the 
thirty-first session (January 24, 1438,) two 
decrees ; the one for the limitation of appeals 
to Rome, the other to revoke and prohibit 
expectative graces, and subject the provisions 
of the Pope to certain specified restrictions ; 
but these, even had they been very funda- 
mental improvements, were passed at a period 
when the legitimacy of the council itself was 
much disputed ; and probably they never ac- 
quired general authority. Those which we 
have above enumerated may be considered 
as comprising all that the assembled fathers 
really accomplished, din-ing deliberations 



which continued, at least nominally, through 
the space of nearly twelve years. 

Conduct of the Pope's Legates. — The two 
legates, to whom the pontifical interests had 
been intrusted by Eugenius, followed with 
abundant zeal and capacity their private in- 
structions. No device, which seemed calcu- 
lated to thwart the progress of reform, had 
been neglected by them. Every objection 
had been magnified into a difficulty, every 
difficulty had been swelled into an insur- 
mountable impediment. The meanest soph- 
istry had been confronted with the boldest 
reason ; artifice, fraud, seduction had been 
arrayed against upright purposes and gener- 
ous principles;* delays had been created, 
falsehoods propagated, subterfuges invented, 
and all that minute machinery set in motion, 
which is at all times employed in the defence 
of corrupt systems, by those who find their 
profit in the corruption, f To the honor of 
the reformers of Basle be it recorded, that the 
intrigues which were eternally in operation 
to divide or to degrade them, were inefficient ; 
the firmness of those respectable ecclesias- 
tics,| their intelligence and their honesty re- 



* ' Scitis vosmetipsi quoties hae vobis dilationes 
nocuerint, quotiesque paucorurn mora dierum longis- 
simuin traxit spatium; qui jam octavum annum in 
dilatlonibus agitis, semper dilationes ex diJationibus 
vidistis emergere.' — Cardinalis Arelatensis, ap. 
^n. Sylv. Gest. Basil. Concil. 

t ' Quis est qui existimet Romanum pontificem ad 
sui emendationem concilium conjugare'? Nempe ut 
peccant homines, sic etiam impune peccar evolunt.' 
iEneas Sylv. de Gest. Basil. Cone, 1. i., p. 20. 

:{: The expressions of ^neas Sylvius almost rise 
into eloquence. ' Ubinam gentium talis patrum est 
chorus, ubi tantum scientia? lumen, ubi px-udentia, ubi 
bonitas est, quae noraen patrum sequare virtutibus 
queatl Oh integerrimam fraternitatem ! oh verum 
orbis terrarum Senatum! Quam pulchra, quam sua- 
vis, quam devota res fuit, hie celebrantes episcopos, 
illic orantes abbates, alibi vero doctores divinas le- 
gentes historias audire! . . et unum ad lumen can- 
delcc scribentem cernere, alium vero grande aliquid 
raeditantem intueri. . . . Illic cum exeuntem cella 
aut Christianum aut alium quempiam ex antiquioribus 
vidisses, non alium certe videre putasses, quam vel 
magnum Antonium, vel Paulum simplicem; et ilium 
sane Hilarioni, ilium Paphnutio, ilium Amoni aequi- 
parasses. Plus autem hoc in loco quam in Antoniana 
solitudine reperisses, siquidem Hieronymo etiam et 
Augustino obviasses, quorum litlerae in conclavi fue- 
runt, in eremo non fuerunt. . Custodiebatur inter dom- 
inos magna charitas, inter famulos bona dilectio, inter 
utrosque optimum siientium, &c. &c.' De Gestis 
Basil. Concil., lib. ii., pag. 57. It should be men- 
tioned that this description is not general, but relates 
only to the fathers who constituted the conclave for 
the election of tlie nevi' Pope— the elite of the council. 



ATTEMPTS AT SELF-REFORMATION, 



453 



fleeted upon the Catholic Church a splendid 
gleam of glory in the moment of her danger 
and tribulation ; and their perseverance might 
still have wrought some great advantage, had 
not a new cu'cumstance arisen to foil it. 

Final breach between the Pope and the Coun- 
cil. — The conciliation of the Greek Church 
was one of the avowed objects of the council ; 
and as deputies were expected from the east 
to confer on that subject, their convenience 
and inclinations as to the place of conference 
required some attention ; both (it was justly 
said) would be best consulted by substituting 
for Basle some city in Italy. It was m vain 
that the council then proposed Avignon, or 
Savoy ; the Pope would listen to no such 
compromise, but pressed the superior advan- 
tages of an ItaUan city. . . At the same time, 
both parties had opened negotiations at Con- 
stantinople ; and the contests, which had been 
enacted at Basle, were repeated, with a dif- 
ferent result, before the patriarch and the 
emperor. In that refined court, the superior 
tactics of the papal party prevailed ; and in 
the intestine commotions of the hierarchy of 
the west, the oriental autocrat listened more 
partially to the monarch, than to the senate, 
of the Church. Besides, while his emissa- 
ries were thus advancing his views abroad, 
the Pope's domestic embarrassments had 
gradually diminished, and with them his fears 
and his prudence. Thus elated, he deter- 
mined again to engage with the council in 
open warfare. Accordingly we observe, that, 
about the twenty-third and twenty-fourth 
sessions, his legates assumed a higher tone 
than formerly : on the other hand, the coun- 
cil breathed nothing but indignation and de- 
fiance ; and thus, after a short and feverish 
suspension,' the former quarrels were renew- 
ed, and not even the semblance of concord 
was ever aftei-wards restored. 

The second contest began nearly where 
the first had ended. The Pope manoeuvred 
to transfer the council to Italy. The council 
cited the Pope to Basle ( July 31, 1437,) to 
answer for his vexatious opposition to the 
reform of the Church. And the Pope, in 
that plenitude of power to which he had 
never formally abandoned his pretensions, 
declared the council transferred to Ferrara. 
In the 28th session ( Oct. 1, 1437,) Eugenius 
was convicted of contumacy; and on the 
10th of the January following, he celebrated, 
in defiance of the sentence, the first session 
of the council of Ferrara. On that occasion 
he solemnly annulled every future act of the 
assembly at Basle, excepting only such, as 



should have reference to the ti*oubles of 
Bohemia. 

Desertion of Cardinal Julian. — On the eve 
of the opening of the Council of Ferrara, 
Cardinal Julian, whose fidelity to the body 
over which he presided, and earnestness in 
the discharge of that office, had never been 
questioned, suddenly departed from Basle, 
and passed over to the party of the Pope. 
The defection of so considerable a person, at 
so dangerous a crisis, might naturally have 
shaken the firmness of the fathers ; and we 
can also readily believe, that, after Cesarini 
had taken his resolution, he exerted his great 
talents to induce as many as he could influ- 
ence, to follow him. It remains, however, as 
a memorable fact, that, among the numerous 
prelates assembled at Basle, four only were 
persuaded to imitate the example of their 
president ; nor does it appear that, even after 
the arrival of the Greeks in Italy, any one 
bishop, or doctor, or dignified ecclesiastic, 
deserted the cause in which he had first en^ 
gaged. The sovereigns of Europe remained 
equally firm, and the king of France even 
prohibited his subjects from joining the as- 
sembly at Ferrara. 

Questions on the legitimacy of the Council. 
— It is almost needless to say, that the legiti- 
macy of the Council of Basle has been a 
subject of dispute among Roman Catholic 
writers, and that they have differed, accord- 
ing to the diversity of their opinions on the 
extent and nature of papal supremacy. It 
has been commonly designated the Acepha- 
lous Council ; and some have maintained that 
its authority expired as early as the tenth 
session ; but even Bellarmine allows, that ita 
decrees were binding on the Church, until it 
commenced its deliberations respecting the 
deposition of the Pope. This last is the 
more general opinion even among the Trans- 
alpine divines — of whom none have been 
found so rash and inconsistent, as to dispute 
its canonical convocation and origin. If it 
be admitted, then, thus generally, that, during 
those few sessions, which it devoted to the 
reforjn of the Church, it was a true and in- 
fallible Council, the controversy, respecting 
the sessions which followed, can have little 
importance in the eyes of the historian ; 
since they were consumed in an obstinate 
contest with a perverse pontiff, without pro- 
ducing any lasting alteration either in the 
principles or administration of the govern- 
ment of the Church. 

Deposition of Eugenius. — We shall not 
pursue that contest into any detail. The 



454 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Cardinal Archbishop of Aries, who was 
born in France near the borders of Savoy, 
was elected, no unworthy successor to the 
Chair of Cesarini.* Eugenius was presently 
'superseded from all jurisdiction;' but it 
was not until the middle of April, 1439, that 
the Council published its celebrated 'Eight 
Propositions' against that pontiff, as a meas- 
ure preparatory to his deposition. On this 
occasion great dissensions arose ; the prelates 
of Spain combined almost unanimously with 
the Italian party ; and the opposition was 
powerfully conducted by the Archbishop of 
Palermo (Panormus or Panormitanus,) f who 
had recently made the sacrifice of his private 



* * Vir omnium constantissimus et ad guberna- 
tionem Generalium Conciliorum natus.' JEn. 
Sylv. Comment, de Gestis Basil. Concil., lib. i. p. 
25. Tiiis particular commendation 13 explained by 
subsequent expressions. We shall select two of a 
very different character. (1) The Cardinal, on an 
important occasion, fearing to be left in a minority, 
out-manoeuvred the opposition, and prorogued the 
Council. His friends were delighted — ' Alii quidern 
eum, alii vestimentorum fimbrias, deosculabantur, 
secutique ipsum plurimi, prudentiam ejus magnopere 
commendabant, qui, licet origine esset Gallicus, Italos 
tamen hac die .summa homines astutia, superasset.' 
Ibid. p. 37, (2) A violent pestilence broke out at 
Basle, and swept away some distinguished members 
of the Council. Every one supplicated the Cardinal 
to retire into the country; all his domestics, all his 
friends, joined with one voice in the same entreaty — 
*' Quid agis, epectate Pater! fuge hunc saltern lunse 
defectum, salva tuum caput, quo salvo salvamur 
omnes; quo etiam pereunte omnes perimus. Quod 
si te pestis opprimat, ad quern confugiemusl quis nos 
regel'? quis ductor hujus fidelis exercitus erit*? Jam 
tuam Cameram irrepsit virus, jam Secretarius tuus, 
jamque Cubicularius tuus mortem obiit. Considera 
discrimen, salva teipsum et nos . . . ." Sed neque 
ilium preces neque domestieorum ftmera flectere po- 
tuerunt, volentem potius cum vita? periculo salvare 
concilium, quam cum periculo concilii salvare vitam. 
Sciebat enim, quoniam, se reccdente, pauci re- 
mansissent, facileque committi fraus in ejus q,bsen- 
tia potuisset.' Ibid. lib. ii. p. 48. The ntian, who 
united more than Italian subtlerty with the courage 
and self-devotion here discovered, was undoubtedly 
born to rule his fellow creatures. 

t His speech is reported in the Commentaries of 
the then admirable advocate for the independence of 
the Church, iEneas Sylvius. His work is chiefly 
employed on those Acts of the Council, which more 
immediately preceded the election of Feljx V. Pan- 
ormitanus urged, among other things, that the Pope's 
error in dissolving the Council was not a heresy; 
since, though the superiority of the General Council 
■was a truth, it was not an article of faith — so that 
the Council had not sufficient ground for deposing 
Eugenius. This seemed unpardonable sophistry to 
jiEneas Sylvius— to Pope Pius II. it probably ap- 
peared a very feeble defeoce of papal rights. 



principles to the will of his sovereign. His 
talents and his eloquence were admired by 
all ; his sophistry influenced the weak or the 
wavering ; and when the Fathers next assem- 
bled for the resumption of the debate, the 
benches of the prelates were almost deserted ; 
— of the multitudes collected at Basle, scarce- 
ly twenty mitred heads could be numbered 
in that congregation.* The Cardinal of Aries 
was prepared for this defection ; and he had 
devised a remedy, suited no less to the char- 
acter of the declining days of Papacy, than 
of its most prosperous. He commanded the 
relics of all the Saints in the city to be 
brought from their sanctuaries, to be carried 
by the priests to the place of assembly, and 
deposited by their hands in the vacant seats 
of the bishops. At this spectacle, ( says 
^neas Sylvius,) and on the invocation of 
the Holy Spirit, the multitudes present were 
moved by an extraordinary impulse of de- 
votion, which overflowed in tears. And 
throughout the whole Church there was a 
soft and affectionate bewailing of pious men, 
who implored in soitow the divine assistance, 
and deeply supplicated the Omnipotent God 
to give aid to the Church, whose children 
they were. The Session (the thirty-third) 
was then peacefully dissolved; but in that 
which followed (June 25th, 1439) the con- 
tested measure was carried ; and, after eight 
years of open, or disguised hostility, Euge- 
nius IV. was at length deposed. 



* The Council of Basle was composed, besides nu- 
merous prelates and abbots, of a great multitude of 
inferior clergy, who appear to have formed the ma- 
jority ; and we observe, from the narrative of ^neas 
Sylvius, that, during the violent debates which pre- 
ceded the deposition of Eugenius, the prelates were 
for the most part on the side of Panormitanus, that is 
of the Pope, and the inferior orders on tlie other. In 
the session (the thirty-third) described in the text, 
' Nullus Arragoneqsium praelatorum interfuit, nullus- 
que omnino ex tota Hispania. Ex Italia soli Gros^ 
sitanus Episcopuset Abbas de Dona. Doctores autem 
et cieteri inferiores magno in numero Arragonenses 
fuerunt, et omnes fere, qui aderant, ex Italia Hispan- 
iaque (nee enim inferiores, sicut Preclati, princi- 
pem timuerunt.) Maximaque tunc Arragoiiensium 
et Cathelanorum virtus in inferioribus emicuit^ 
qui sese minime necessitati ecclesise denegarunt.* 
' Si enim episcopi baud multi erant, plena tamen 
omnia fuerunt subsellia procuratoribus episcoporum, 
archidiacoqis, praepositis, prioribus, presbyteris et 
divini et humani juris doctoribus, quos aut qua- 
dringentos aut certe plures esse dijudicavi, &c.' This 
republican constitution of the Council must, indeed, 
have rendered it peculiarly obnoxious to the prejudi-. 
ces of a monastic Pope. — Comment, iEn, Sylvij, ], 
ii. p. 43. 



ATTEMPTS AT SELF-REFORMATION. 



455 



Election of Felix V. and Dissolution of the 
Council. — On the 5th of November following, 
Amadeus, duke of Savoy, was elected to the 
See thus vacated, and assumed the name of 
Felix V. But as Eugenius retained, with- 
out any defection, the obedience of Italy and 
some other countries, the success of the anti- 
papal party had no other effect, than to create 
a second schism. Among the sovereigns of 
Europe, the most powerful, though ill affect- 
ed to Eugenius, were far from approving the 
violent proceedings of the Council ; and the 
German, as well as the French Court, be- 
came more distant and guarded in its inter- 
course with the fathers of Basle ; while the 
inferior princes appear to have recognised or 
rejected the ope Pope or the other, as suited 
the seeming policy of the moment. And 
this confusion continued with little interrup- 
tion until May, 1443, when the Council cele- 
brated its forty-fifth and last Session. It 
then dissolved itself — or rather transferred 
its (nominal) sittings to Lyons or Lausanne ; 
while the rival assembly, which was still 
lingering at Florence, withdrew, by a simul- 
taneous secession, to Rome. 

JVicholas V. Cession of Felix. — Felix V. 
maintained his scanty Couit, and the faint 
show of pontifical majesty, at Lausanne ; and 
though the sovereigns both of France and 
Germany made some exertions to remove 
the schism, it continued until the death of 
Eugenius in 1447. Nicholas V.- succeeded ; 
and the more general recognition, which he 
received from the Courts of Europe, as well 
as his more popular reputation, induced 
Felix, whose ambition was destitute of self- 
ishness, as his character was moderate and 
virtuous, to negotiate respecting the cession 
of his dignity. Certain conditions were ac- 
cordingly proposed and accepted, and in the 
year 1449, the creature of the Council of 
Basle for ever resigned his claims on the 
Chair of St. Peter. The happy escape from 
this second peril, which menaced the unity 
of the Church, filled the people with univer- 
sal joy ; the errors of the Hussites and the 
scandals of the clergy were for the moment 
forgotten ; and everywhere, after the fashion 
of the times, a commemorative verse was 
chanted, — 

Fulsit lux mundo; cessit Feiix Nicolao- 

Though the general measures of reform- 
ation, published by the Council of Basle, 
were very inadequate to the necessities of 
the Church, even in the eyes of an orthodox 
reformer, yet by conciu-rence with some na- 
tional assemblies held in Germany, and espe- 



cially in France, they became instrumental 
in improving the ecclesiastical government 
and discipline in both those countries. 

Diet of Mayence. — In Germany, s project, 
which had been prepared at Nuremburg, in 
1438, having failed to obtain the approbation 
either of the Council or the Pope, a Diet 
was opened at JMayence in the March of 
the year following. The deputies from Basle, 
and some emissaries of Eugenius were pre- 
sent ; and the Assembly, after some delibera- 
tion, received all the general decrees of the 
Council.* We do not learn, however, that 
any means were taken to give them efiicacy, 
or to establish them as the permanent and 
living code of the German Church. At any 
rate, its independence was soon afterwards 
betrayed by Frederic III. ; and in the nego- 
tiations between the empire and the Holy 
See, which were conducted by his secretary, 
iEneas Sylvius, that accomplished politician 
was less faithfiil to the interests which he 
thus represented, than to those over which 
he was destined hereafter to preside. The 
concordats, arranged at Aschaffenburg in 
1448, resigned most of the advantages which 
the Germans had derived from the proceed- 
ings at Basle, and left the papal rights neai-ly 
in the situation in which they had been 
placed by Martin V^ 

Council of Bourges. — The French were at 
the same time conducting their national ex- 
ertions with greater method and decision, 
and with a much better prospect of per- 
manent effect. The first meeting of their 
prelates at Bourges was contemporary with 
that of the Council of Basle. Some useful 
resolutions were then passed. But the Grand 
Assembly, which fixed the liberties of the 
Gallican Church, was held in the same city 
in the year 1438. It was convoked by 
Charles VII., who presided in person ; it was 
thronged by his most illustrious subjects, 
secular as well as ecclesiastic ; and it was 
attended by the authorized legates both of 
Eugenius and the Council. The result of 
their deliberations was the celebrated Prag- 



* The Diet of Mayence withheld its sanction from 
those decrees, which were directly levelled against 
Eugenius. 

t The Annates^ the great bone of contention, were 
retained in substance by the Pope. Instead of the 
arbitrary reservation of benefices, he obtained the 
positive right of collation during six alternate months 
of every year. Episcopal elections were restored to 
the chapters — the Pope only nominating in case of 
translation, or of a person, canonically disqualified, 
being presented for confirmation. — See Hallam, Mid* 
die Ages, chap. vii. 



456 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



matic Sanction,* the great bulwark of the 
national Church, against the usurpations of 
Rome — that to which the French divines 
afterwards clung with so much resolution 
and tenacity, even after it had been betrayed 
to the enemy by an interested rnonarch. 

The Galilean Liberties, while they embrac- 
ed a number of particular provisions, were 
founded on two grand principles : — (1) That 
the Pope has no authority in the kingdom of 
France over any thing concerning temporals. 
(2) That, though the Pope is acknowledged 
as sovereign lord in spirituals, his power even 
in these is restricted and controlled by the 
canons and regulations of the ancient Coun- 
cils of the Church,f received in this kingdom. 

The Pragmatic Sanction. — The Articles 
constituting the Pragmatic Sanction were 
chiefly founded on the Decrees of the twen- 
tieth, twenty-first, and twenty^third Sessions 
of the Council of Basle. Some of these 
were, indeed, modified, with a view to accom- 
modate them to the peculiar circumstances 
of the country, not (as was expressly declar- 
ed) from any disrespect to the authority of 
that Assembly. But the greater part were 
at once adopted into the Church of France, 
and ardently embraced by the clergy and the 
nation. Yet can it scarcely be necessary to 
remind the reader, that most of the abuses 
thus removed concerned no more vital ques- 
tion, than the patronage of the Church — that 
the object of most of those vaunted resolu- 
tions was only to relieve the clergy (and, to 
a certain extent, the people of France) from 
the contributions, which, under a thousand 
names and pretexts, were exacted by the 
Apostolical Chancery ; that the avarice of the 
Holy See was the most unpopular among its 



* Pragmatic sanction was a general term for ail 
important ordinances of Church or State — those, per- 
haps, more properly, which were enacted in public 
assemblies, with the counsel of eminent jm-isconsults, 
or Pragmatici. 

f * La premiere est. Que les Papes ne peuvent rien 
commander ni ordonner, soit en general soit en par- 
ticulier, de ce qui concerne les choses teraporelles es 
pays et terres de I'obeyssance et souverainete du Roy 
Tres-Chrestien : et s'ils y commandent ou statuent 
quelque chose, les sujets du Roy, encores qu'ils fus- 
sent clercs, ne sont tenus pour obeyr pour ce regard, 

' La seconde, Qu'encores que le Pape soit reconnu 
pour suzerain es choses spirituelles ; toutesfois en 
France la puissance absolue et infinie n'a point de 
lieu, mais est retenue et bornee par les canons et 
regies des anciens conciks de I'Eglise receus en ce 
royaume. Et in hoc maximd consistit Libertas Ec- 
ciesise GallicanGe.' See Commentaire sur le Traits 
des Lib. de I'Eglise Gall, de Pierre Pithov. Paris, 
1652. 



vices ; and that mere pecuniaiy motives were 
at the bottom of more than half the grievao* 
ces, which alienated its children from it. * 

We shall not here relate the exertions which 
were made by Pius II. to subvert the prin- 
ciples, of which, as ^neas Sylvius, be had 
been the warmest advocate, and to overthrow 
the liberties, which his own hand had plant- 
ed. The nominal repeal of the Pragmatic 
Sanction by Louis XI. was never ratified by 
his subjects, nor effected in defiance of their 
dissent ; and the articles which were enacted 
at Bourges continued for the most part in 
force until the reign of Francis I. The con- 
sequence was, that the French people, being 
in a great degree sheltered from the extor- 
tions of Rome, wer^ less disposed to question 
her general rights, and to rebel against her 
spiritual prerogatives. The most sordid and 
disgusting particulars of her system were not 
so commonly presented to their view. A 
smaller contribution, indeed, flowed into her 
treasuries, and her emissaries were more 
sparingly scattered in that country ; but her 
name was less odious, as her vices were less 
obtrusive. And while in Germany, the re- 
establishment of the Papal despotism, with 
all its train of annates, reservations, and in- 
dulgences, produced, by an inevitable neces- 
sit}^, the violent revolt and final independence 
of the oppressed, so the Catholics of France 
submitted with less reluctance to her mitigat- 
ed sway, 

The most important decree promulgated at 
Constance was, perhaps, that which fixed the 
periodical meeting of general councils ; for it 
was in vain to have established the supre- 
macy of those assemblies, unless continual 
opportunities were afforded them for its ex- 
ercise. The spirit of Rome was invanable, 
and in perpetual action ; it could not be coun^ 
teracted and restrained, unless by frequent 
collision with the restraining body. The wis- 
est resolutions, unless enforced by the con-; 



* The Pragmatic Sanction consisted of twenty- 
three articles, several of which regarded the police 
of cathedral churches, the celebration of the divine 
offices, and other matters not connected with papal 
prerogatives. There are also some few which are so 
connected, which have yet no reference to patronage 
— they respect the periodical assembly, and the supe- 
rior authority, of General Councils, and the number 
of the Sacred College. But elections, reservations, 
collections, expectative graces, and annates formed 
after all the burden of the grievances — and to those 
we may fairly add appeals to the Court of Rome, 
whicli were now become only an additional method 
of raising money. — See Histoire de I'Orig. de I4 
Pragra. S{Vnct.,.&c, par Pierre Pithov. 



ATTEMPTS AT SELF-REFORMATION. 



457 



etant protection of the power which created 
them, would be neutralized or crushed in the 
pontifical grasp. The justice of this appre- 
hension was proved by the fate of the very 
decree, of which we are now speaking. It 
was perseveringly eluded by the Popes who 
followed, and with so much success, that no 
other general council was convoked before 
the end of the century. After the separation 
of the fathers of Basle, the repose and pre- 
rogatives of the pontiffs were never seriously 
distiu-bed, until the destined season at length 
arrived, in which they were invaded by a 
harsher voice and a far ruder hand. 

It has been made a question among eccle- 
siastical writers, whether the decennial meet- 
ings of those bodies, as decreed at Constance, 
would have conferred benefit or the contraiy, 
on the Roman Catholic Church. It is argued 
on the one hand, that they presented the only 
check upon the excesses of the Roman court, 
which were hurrying the Church to its de- 
struction; that in the progressive light and 
mformation of the age, an absolute spiritual 
despotism could not possibly endure much 
longer, and that the monarchy of the Church 
could only hope for stability through an infu- 
sion of the popular principle ; since even the 
clergy themselves were no longer well affected 
towards an unlimited government ; that many 
abuses in morals and discipline, which were 
continually growing up, were most effectually 
corrected by the authority of councils. 

On the other hand, it is disputed whether 
the benefits derived from the three assem- 
blies, which had taken place, were, in fact, 
so very substantial ? Whether they were at 
all proportionate to the weighty machinery, 
which was moved to produce them ? Wheth- 
er the non-residence of so many prelates and 
other clergy, during such long periods, was 
jiot a new evil of immense importance? 
Whether those divisions and passionate con- 
tests among spiritual ministers, which seemed 
the necessary fruit of general councils, did 
not cast as many scandals on the church, as 
those which were removed? Whether the 
immediate danger of a positive schism, which 
had actually been occasioned by the proceed- 
ings at Basle, did not at least counterbalance 
those remote perils, which timely remedies 
might, or might not, perhaps, have averted ? 

To a Protestant impartially comparing 
these considerations, it is, in the first place, 
pbvious, that a cordial co-operation between 
an enlightened Pope and a body of intelligent 
ecclesiastics, for the single purpose of correct- 
ing abuses in government and discipline, and 
58 



otherwise modifying the system by season- 
able alterations, would have afforded the best 
human probability of preserving the papal 
supremacy undisputed, and deferring the 
hour of a more perfect reformation. But, on 
the other hand, it is equally manifest, that, as 
the court of Rome was at that time constitut- 
ed, so generous a co-operation, so provident 
a sacrifice of instant profit for future security, 
could not possibly have formed the policy of 
the Vatican. Those, who have long been in 
possession of usurped prerogatives, have sel- 
dom the courage, when the moment of retri- 
bution approaches, to concede a part, though 
they should thereby save the rest ; they cling 
pertinaciously to their meanest acquisitions, 
until the hand of the reformer is at length 
provoked to resume the whole. It was thus 
with the Bishops of Rome : educated in a 
profligate court, and in the narrowest princi- 
ples, they commonly obtained their elevation 
by intrigue or bribery. The pontifical digni- 
ty was itself beset by seductions, sufficient to 
corrupt the most generous mind. So that it 
was vain to look to Rome for any other policy, 
than the most contracted and the most selfish. 
If these conclusions be true, the periodical 
meetings of general councils would have 
only introduced periodical convulsions and 
schisms. And, although some partial benefits 
would no doubt have proceeded from their 
deliberations, they would scarcely have pro- 
longed the duration of a system, of which 
unity was a necessary characteristic. The 
manner of its destruction might, indeed, have 
been different ; it might have been torn in 
pieces by intestine discord, instead of sinking 
before the impulse from without. But its 
doom was uTevocably sealed ; and the seeds 
of dissolution were too amply sown in the 
very vitals of the papal Church, to admit of 
any effectual reformation. 

General Principles of the Councils of Con- 
stance and Basle. — Again ; however justly 
we may applaud the reforming projects of 
the fathers of Constance and Basle, as indi- 
cating some consciousness of shame or of 
danger, some foresight, at least, if not some 
virtue, yet it is certain that their general 
principles were in no respect more moderate 
than those of the Vatican. We have already 
observed how the former of those Councils, 
after investing itself with all the spiritual 
attributes and authority of the Church, im- 
mediately overstepped the boundaiy,* and 

* If the fathers of Constance offended the King of 
France by the orders which they issued respecting the 
safe conduct of Sigismond ia bis journey to Spain; 



458 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



drew, like the Popes whom it superseded, 
the temporal sword. But we have still to 
describe the most ai-bitrary and iniquitous 
act of the same assembly. The Holy Fathers, 
be it recollected, had met for the reformation 
of their Church. The word was perpetually 
on their lips, and they denounced, with un- 
sparing vehemence, some of the corruptions 
of their own system. In the midst of them 
were two men of learning, genius, integrity, 
piety, who had intrusted their personal safety 
to the faith of the council, John Huss and Je- 
rome of Prague ; and these too were reform- 
ers. But it happened that they had taken a 
different view of the condition and exigencies 
of the Church ; and while the boldest projects 
of the wisest among the orthodox were con- 
fined to matters of patronage, discipline, cere- 
mony, the hand of the Bohemians had probed 
a deeper wound: they disputed, if not the 
doctrinal purity,* at least the spiritual omnip- 
otence of the Church. Those daring inno- 
vators had crossed the line which separated 
reformation from heresy — and they had their 
recompense. In the clamor which was raised 
against them, all parties joined as with one 
voice: divided on all other questions, con- 
tending about all other principles, the grand 
universal assembly was united, from Gerson 
himself down to the meanest Italian papal 
minion, in common detestation of the heresy, 
in implacable rage against its authors. Those 
venerable martyrs were imprisoned, arraigned, 
condemned ; and then by the command, and 
in the presence of the majestic senate of the 
Church, the deposer of Popes, the uprooter 
of corruption, the reformer of Christ's holy 
Communion — they were deliberately con- 
signed to the flames. Is there any act record- 
ed in the blood-stained annals of the Popes 
more foul and merciless than that 7 , . , 
More than this. The guilt of the murder 
was enhanced by perfidy; and for the pur- 
pose of justifying this last offence ( for the 
former, being founded on the established 
Church principles, required no apology ) they 
added to those principles another, not less 
flagitious than any of those already recog- 
nised — 'that neither faith nor promise, by 
natural, divine, or human law, was to be 
observed to the prejudice of the Catholic 
religion.' f Let us here recollect that this 

BO did those of Basle irritate the princes of Germany 
by an assumption of temporal authority; and this 
was their great mistake. 

* See the following Chapter. 

t * Cum tamen dictus Johannes Huss, fidera ortho- 
doxaio pertinaciter impugnans, se ab omni conductu 



maxim did not proceed from the caprice of 
an arbitrary individual, and a Pope, — for so 
it would scarcely have claimed our serious 
notice — but from the considerate resolution 
of a very numerous assembly, which embod- 
ied almost all the learning, wisdom, and mod- 
eration of the Roman Catholic Church. 

General councils, claiming to act under 
the immediate influence of the Holy Spirit, 
were consequently infallible, as well as im- 
peccable. We shall, therefore, mention one 
or two of the subjects to which their unerring 
judgment was directed. In the July of 1434, 
the council of Basle confirmed a Bull, previ- 
ously published by Eugenius IV., respecting 
the veneration due to the sacrament of the 
Eucharist, and the indulgences granted at 
the feast of the holy sacrament ; with an order 
for its universal observance in the Church. 
The thirty-sixth session ( Sept. 17, 1439 ) of 
the same assembly was occupied in drawing 
up a decree in favor of the immaculate con- 
ception of the Holy Virgin.* This article of 
faith was solemnly enjoined to all good Cath- 
olics ; and an universal festival was instituted 
in its honor, ' according to the custom of the 
Roman Chui'ch.' Two years aflerwards, at 
their forty-third meeting, the same fathera 
confirmed, after a very long deliberation, the 
feast of the visitation of the Holy Virgin. 
They enacted that it should be celebrated 
throughout the whole Church by all the faith- 
ful ; and they accorded to those, who should 
assist at matins, at the processions, at the 
sermon, at mass, at the first and at the second 
vespers, a hundred days of indulgences for 
each of those offices. At the same time, 
while they were thus extending the reign of 
superstition over their obedient children, they 

et privilegio reddiderit alienum, nee aliqua sibi fides 
aut promissio de jure naturali, divino vel humane, 
fuerit in prejudicium Catholicse fidei observanda: 
ideirco dicta sancta synodus declarat, &c.' The 
words are cited by Hallam (Middle Ages, chap, vii.), 
without suspicion. We find it asserted, however, by 
Roman Catholics, that they exist in no MS. except 
that in the Imperial Library at Vienna; and that 
even there the formal signatures, attached to the other 
articles, are not subscribed to this; hence they infer 
its spuriousness. We should remark that Von der 
Hardt has published it (torn, iv., p. 521,) without 
any expression of doubt. 

* That is, that the holy Virgin was preserved in 
her conception from the stain of original sin. We 
observe that bachelors in theology, and others in the 
University of Paris, were compelled to subscribe, on 
oath, to their belief in this doctrine. In Spain it is 
considered an essential part of the Catholic faith at 
this moment. 



THE HUSSITES. 



459 



were contesting the double communion with 
the Bohemian rebels, and refusing every con- 
cession to reason and to scripture, excepting 
such * as was extorted from them by force. 
Some individuals must certainly have existed 
among them, who had penetrated the imvard 
depravity of their system and saw the totter- 
ing ground on which it stood; but they be- 
Jieved, no doubt, that things would continue 
to be, as they had been ; they were blind to 
the slow but irresistible progress of inquiry 
and knowledge. 

From the days of St. Bernard to those 
of Bossuet the extirpation of heresy formed 
a part or an object f of every scheme of 
Church reform proposed by churchmen. 
The principle of toleration was unknown in 
the ecclesiastical policy ; it may have guided 
the private practice of many enlightened in- 
dividuals, but it was never inscribed in the 
code of the Church. Those very councils, 
from whose generous professions and pop- 
ular constitution a wiser legislation might 
have been expected, did but exclude it more 
fiercely, and banish it more hopelessly. But, 
in return for their adherence to the favorite 
vice of the Church, did they amend any 
maxim of its government? Did they uproot 
any unscriptural tenet, any superstitious be- 
lief, any profitable imposture, any senseless 
ceremony, or degrading practice ? Did they 
wash away any spiritual stain from the sanc- 
tuary, now that the light from abroad was 
breaking in upon it ? On the contrary, they 
not only persevered in maintaining every 
absurdity which had been transmitted to 



* The concession of the council respecting the 
double communion amounted, at last, only to this, 
that whether the sacrament was administered in one 
kind or in both, it was still useful to communicants — 
' for there could be no doubt that Christ was entire in 
either element; and that the custom of communica- 
ting the laity in one kind, introduced with reason by 
the Church and holy fathers, long observed and ap- 
proved by theologians and canonists, should pass for 
a law, neither to be censured nor altered without the 
authority of the Church.' This decree was publish- 
ed in 1437, in the thirtieth session. 

t For instance, at Constance it formed a part of 
the scheme of the reformers. To ' repress simony, 
and prosecute Jerome of Prague,' were joint subjects 
of the same remonstrances. To restore the unity of 
the Church was to reform the Church. But at Basle 
the reformation in discipline was chiefly recommen- 
ded as the means of extirpating heresy. (See the 
passages above cited from Cardinal Julian's two 
letters.) But it never occurred to either council to 
consider, whether the heretics might not possibly be 
right; or, being wrong, whether they might not safe- 
ly be tolerated. 



them, but showed a preposterous anxiety to 
increase the number. It is perfectly true 
that, in mere matters of discipline, they were 
fearless innovators, and that they assailed 
with ardor the more palpable iniquities of 
the Vatican. But this was the extent of 
their daring ; this was the limit, as they 
thought, of safe and legitimate reform ; all 
beyond it was inviolable ground. Thus it 
was, that to question the sanctity of their 
spiritual corruptions wels deemed profane 
and heretical ; and their eyes were wilfully 
closed against the unalterable truth, that the 
Church of Christ cannot permanently stand 
on any other foundation, than the gospel of 
Christ. 

In the meantime, while the fathers of 
Basle, who saw some part of their danger, 
were ineffectually contending with an infat- 
uated pontiff, who was blind to the whole, 
the art of printing was discovered ; and the 
star of universal knowledge, the future arbiter 
of Churches and of Empires, arose unheeded 
from the restless bosom of Germany. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

History of the Hussites. 

( 1.) General fidelity of England to the Roman See— The 
beginnings of Wiclif, and the hostility he encountered — 
To what extent his opposition to Rome was popular — 
His death at Lutterworth, and the exhumation of his 
remains in pursuance of a decree of the Council of 
Constance — His opinions on several important points 
— He was calumniated by the high churchmen — His 
translation of the Bible.— (TI.) The writings of Wiclif 
introduced into Bohemia — Origin and qualities of John 
Huss — His sermons in the Chapel of Bethlehem — Di- 
vision in the University of Prague — Secession of the 
Germans, in hostility against Huss — He incurs the dis- 
pleasure of the Archbishop of Prague — of John XXIII. 
— is summoned before the Council of Constance — His 
attachment to the character of Wiclif — Opinions as- 
cribed to the Vaudois and Hussites by ^neas Sylvius — 
many of them disclaimed by Huss — Notion respecting 
tithes — The restoration of the cup to the laity — de- 
manded not by Huss, but by Jacobellus of Misnia — The 
principle of persecution advocated by Gerson — Huss 
proceeds to Constance — The safe conduct of the Em- 
peror — The motives of Huss— Assurances of protection 
— nevertheless Huss is placed in confinement — and 
eight articles alleged against him — Condemnation of 
Wiclif— A public trial granted to Huss — The insults 
and calumnies to which he is exposed — Three articles 
to which he adhered — Principles of the Council — Huss 
refuses to retract — Declaration of Sigismond — Various 
solicitations and trials to which Huss is subject during 
his imprisonment — Overture made to him by Sigismond 
— Interview between Huss and John of Chlum— The 
sentence passed on Huss— The process of his degrada- 
tion — and execution — Two principal causes of his des- 
truction.— (HI.) Jerome of Prague appears before the 
Council— His retractation— Subsequent avowal of his 
opinions— and execution— Observatioos.— (IV.) Mov»« 



460 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



ments occasioned in Bohemia by these executions— 
The name of Thaborite assumed by the Insurgents— 
The triumphs of Zisca — Massacre of the Adamites — 
The Bohemian Deputies proceed to the Council of 
Basle — The four articles proposed by them — and the 
consequent ineffectual debate — The scene of negotia- 
tion then removed to Prague — Various parties there — 
Defeat and massacre of the Thaborites— A compact 
concluded between Sigismond and the Separatists — 
Real principles of Rome — The Pope refuses to confirm 
the compact, and the dissensions continue — under Pius 
II. and Paul IL— Many of the opinions of the Hussites 
perpetuated by the ' Bohemian Brothers,' who became 
celebrated in the next century. 

I. The Roman See had been long accus- 
tomed to consider the English as the most 
obedient and exemplary among its subjects— 
an equivocal merit, which it rewarded by 
more oppressive extortions and more con- 
temptuous insult. It is true, that our kings 
and statesmen had made at various times 
some vigorous exertions to mitigate the 
Papal dominion ; but the Popes were enabled 
to thwart or elude their efforts by the fidelity 
of the clergy and the people.* Nor was it 
only the praise of ecclesiastical obsequious- 
ness that our Catholic ancestoi-s deserved of 
the Holy See ; that of immaculate doctrinal 
purity was ascribed to them with equal jus- 
tice. They received with reverence every 
innovation in their belief, every demand on 
their credulity, which proceeded from the 
unerring oracles of the Church ; but they 
faithfully discouraged any new opinions orig- 
inating in any other quarter. The conti- 
nental heresies of the twelfth and thirteenth 
centuries had not been allowed to defile their 
sanctuary ; still less had it 'been profaned by 
any weeds of indigenous growth. The land, 
in which Wiclif was already preparing his 
Immortal weapons for the contest, was that, 
on which the pontifical regards were fixed 
with the deepest complacency and most 
unsuspecting confidence. 

Wiclif. — John of Wiclif f was born in 
Yorkshire about the year 1324. He was 
educated at Oxford ; and the great proficien 
cy, which he made in the learning of the 



* The statutes of provisors and prcBmunire, en- 
acted in 1350, anticipated most of the articles of the 
Pragmatic Sanction of France, — since tlie first res 
trained the usurpation of Church patronage by the 
Pope, and the second protected the temporal rights 
of the Crown ; but neither of them was observed, and 
the Pope continued to fill the Sees with foreign pre- 
lates. 

f t We do not profess, in the present history, to 
treat in any detail the ecclesiastical affairs of Eng- 
land; and in the following short account of Wiclif 
there is little which may not be found much more 
fully and eloquently expressed in Professor Le Bas' 
•Life of Wiclif-' 



schools, did not prevent him from acquiring 
and desei*ving the title of the Evangelic, or 
Gospel, Doctor. His earlier life was distin- 
guished by a bold attack on the corruptions 
of the clergy, and by great zeal in the contest 
with the Mendicants, which, in 1360, dis- 
turbed the university and the Church. He 
was raised to the theological chair in 1372 ; 
he had previously defended the cause of the 
Crown against the Pope, respecting the pay- 
ment of the tribute imposed by Innocent III., 
and he was known to harbor many anti-papal 
opinions: but he was not yet committed in 
direct opposition to Rome. Soon afberwards 
he formed part of an embassy to Avignon, 
instructed to represent and remove the griev- 
ances of the Anglican Church. It was not 
till his return from that mission, when his 
language was heated by Ion g^ treasured indig- 
nation, or by the near spectacle of pontifical 
impurity, that the reformer first incun-ed the 
displeasure of the English hierarchy. He 
was cited before a convocation, held at St. 
Paul's in 1377; and it seems probable, that 
he owed his preservation to the powerful 
protection of John Duke of Lancaster. At 
the same time the Vatican thundered; and 
the heresy of Wiclif was compared to that 
of Marsilius of Padua and others, who had 
been sheltered against the oppression of John 
XXII. by the imperial patronage. But the 
Papal Bull was so little regarded at Oxford,* 
that it was even made a question, whether it 
should not be ignominiously rejected; and 
when the offender was subsequently sum- 
moned to Lambeth, he was dismissed with a 
simple injunction to abstain from diffusing 
his opinions. Howbeit, the Pope and his 
myrmidons continued eager and constant in 
the pursuit ; and there are many who believe, 
that it was the timely circumstance of the 
schism, which alone defrauded persecution 
of its intended victim. 

On the other hand, the ardor of Wiclif f 
was still further inflamed by the appearance 
of this new deformity — when he saw ' the 
head of Antichrist cloven in twain, and the 
two parts made to fight against each other.' 

* ' Diu in pendulo hserebant, utrum papalera Bul- 
1am deberent cum honore suscipere, vel omnino cum 
dedecore refutare.' Walsingham. 

t One of the latest labors of his life was another 
attack on the delinquencies of the clergy, which he 
described under thirty -three heads in the tract ' How 
the office of curates is ordained of God,' Tiie more 
profound sense of those delinquencies which he had 
derived from inveterate habits and principles of piety, 
gave an ardor to the expressions of his advancing 
age which surpassed that of his youthful enthusiasm 



THE HUSSITES. 



461 



He even proceeded so far, as to exhort the 
princes of Europe to seize that signal oppor- 
tunity of extinguishing the evil entirely. But 
in their eyes it did not perhaps appear to be 
an evil at all — at least it was still so deeply 
rooted in the prejudices of the people, that its 
extu'pation, even had they thought it desir- 
able, had not yet been practicable. It v^as 
the misfortune of Wiclif, as it was his great- 
est glory, that he anticipated, by almost two 
centuries, the principles of a more enlightened 
generation ; and scattered his holy lessons on 
a soil, nor yet prepared to give them perfect 
life and maturity. 

As long as Wiclif confined, or nearly con- 
fined, his vehement reprehensions to the de- 
linquencies of the clergy, or the anti-Chris- 
tian spirit of the Court of Rome — so long he 
obtained many and powerful disciples, and 
could count on their attachment and fidelity. 
But no sooner did he rise from that manifest 
and intelligible ground of dissent, and ad- 
vance into the region of doctrinal disputation, 
than the enthusiasm and number of his fol- 
lowers declined, and even John of Lancaster 
strongly enjoined him to desist. In 1381 -2 
he opened his Sacramentary Controversy ; 
some considerable tumults followed ; he was 
cited in consequence before the Convention 
at Oxford, and banished from that city. He 
retired to his rectory at Lutterworth ; and 
after two more years diligently employed in 
the offices of piety, he died there in peaceful 
and honorable security — security which was 
alike honorable to his own character, to the 
firmness of his illustrious protectors, and to 
the moderation of the English prelacy. His 
opinions were never extinguished ; and his 
name continued so formidable to the cham- 
pions of the Church, that, afl;er an interval 
of thirty years — after all personal malice and 
jealousy had long passed away — the Council 
of Reformers at Constance published that 
memorable edict, by which 'the body and 
bones of Wiclif were to be taken from the 
gi-ound, and thrown far away from the burial 
of any Church.'. . . . The decree met with 
a tardy obedience : after the space of thir- 
teen years, the remains were disinterred and 
burnt, and the ashes cast into the adjoining 
brook. ' The brook (says Fuller, in words 
which should be engraven on every heart) 
did convey his ashes into Avon ; Avon 
into Severn; Severn into the narrow seas; 
they into the main ocean. And thus the 
ashes of Wiclif are the emblem of his doc- 
trine, which now is dispersed all the world 
over.' 



Opinions of Wiclif. — His doctrine was 
formed, with an entire disregard of all spir- 
itual authority, on the foundation of Scrip- 
ture alone — for ' the Scripture alone (as he 
said) is truth.' Various innovations of the 
Roman Church were opposed by him with 
various degrees of confidence. Respecting 
images and the invocation of the saints he 
wrote at no great length, but with resonable- 
ness and moderation. He rejected tran sub- 
stantiation, according to the sense of the 
Church ; but he admitted a sort of real pre- 
sence, without affecting to determme the 
manner. His notion concerning purgatory 
seems to have gone farther from the belief in 
which he was educated, as he gradually ad- 
vanced in knowledge ; but he never entirely 
threw off" his original impressions. At last, 
indeed, he might appear to have considered 
it as a place of sleep ; but his expressions 
are vague and betray the ignorance, which he 
was not careful to conceal, either from others 
or from himself. On other matters he ex- 
pressed much bolder opinions. He rejected 
auricular confession ; he held pai'dons and 
indulgences to be nothing but 'a subtle mer- 
chandise of an ti- Christian clerks, whereby 
they magnified their own fictitious power; 
and instead of causing men to dread sin, en- 
couraged them to wallow therein like hogs.' 
Excommunication and interdicts were repu- 
diated with equal disdain. He reprobated the 
compulsory celibacy of the clergy and the 
imposition of monastic vows; and visited 
with the austerity of a Puritan, not only the 
vain and fantastic ceremonies of the Church, 
but even the devout use of holy psalmody. 
In the granting of absolution he treated the 
office of the priest as strictly ministerial and 
declaratory ; and he hastily pronounced con- 
firmation to be a mere ecclesiastical inven- 
tion, for the purpose of unduly elevatmg the 
episcopal dignity. He appears not to have 
disputed, that the Pope was the highest spii*- 
itual authority in the Church ; but he reject- 
ed with equal scorn his ghostly infallibility 
and his secular supremacy ; and his abhor- 
rence of the court of anti-Christ was so 
strong, as to be a continual incentive to the 
bitterest censure. According to the original 
institution he considered bishops and priests 
as the same order ; and he ascribed (through 
a defect in historical knowledge) the distinc- 
tion, which afterwards divided them, to the 
imperial supremacy. He objected to the 
possession of any fixed property by the cler- 
gy, and maintained that the ecclesiastical 
endowments were, in tiieir origin, eleemoey- 



462 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



nary, and that they remained at the disposal 
of the secular government.* 

Such were the opinions which Wiclif pro- 
mulgated in the theological chair, and in the 
fourteenth century. His reputation and his 
dignity raised him far above contempt ; but 
at the same time they imbittered the malig- 
nity of his enemies. Yet, monstrous as many 
of his real tenets must have appeared in that 
age, recourse was had to the usual expedient 
of charging him with absurd inferences and 
notions f wholly at variance with any that he 
professed — as if the churchmen of those days 
had some secret consciousness of the weak- 
ness of their cause, and despaired to make 
the enemies of their system generally detes- 
table, unless they could also stigmatize them 
as foes to the acknowledged principles of re- 
ligion, of morality, and of reason. We are 
not surprised by such calumnies ; neither is 
it strange that the dissemination of his actual 
doctrines (for they were diligently dissemi- 
nated by emissaries J employed by him for 
that purpose) was followed by some tumults 
and disorders. The first open struggles of 
reason against prescription and prejudice — its 
first appeals to the sense and virtue of man- 
kind against particular interests and estab- 
lished absurdities, are seldom unattended by 
popular heats and commotions ; and the won- 
der in this case rather is, that the prematurity 
of the Reformation did not occasion the mar- 
tyrdom of the reformer. 

For many of Wiclif 's opinions were too ad- 
vanced and ripe for the bleak season in which 
he lived. They were calculated, indeed, for 
the consideration of all virtuous and disin- 
terested men ; and they were sure to create in 
succeeding generations a disposition towards 
better principles of belief and practice; but 
they could look for no general reception 
among those, to whom they were first ad- 



* It is observed that, with these opinions, Wiclif 
heM the Divinity Professorship at Oxford, a Preben- 
dal Stall, and the Rectory of Lutterworth. He thought 
it excusable, no doubt, to conform to the system which 
he found established, and his enemies at the time 
thought it no crime in him that he did so; yet he 
would have stood higher with posterity, had he dis- 
dained the plausible excuse, and placed the unequivo- 
cal seal of private disinterestedness and generosity 
upon his public principles. 

f They are to be found in great numbers, chiefly 
among the articles of impeachment, levelled against 
his name and memory, and published by Popes and 
Councils. One error ascribed to him is, ' that he 
represented God as subject to the devil.' 

:j: Men whom he called his 'poor priests.' See 
chap. X. of Le Bas' Life of Wiclif. 



dressed. Therefore was it wisely determined 
by that admirable Christian, when he sent 
them forth into a prejudiced and ignorant 
world, to promulgate along with them the sa- 
cred volume on which they professed to stand. 
His translation and circulation of the Bible 
was that among his labors, which secured the 
efficacy, as it was itself the crown, of all the 
others. This was the life of the system which 
he destined to be imperishable — this the trea- 
sure which he bequeathed to future * and to 
better ages, for their immortal inheritance. 

John of Huss4 — II. The queen of Richard 
II. was a Bohemian princess ; and on the 
death of her husband, she returned, with a 
train of attendants, to her native land. It is 
commonly believed, that these persons intro- 
duced a precious^ but a dearly preserved, 
possession among their countrymen — the 
works of Wiclif Others suppose this pre- 
sent to have been made by an Englishman 
who had ti-avelled to Prague; others by a 
Bohemian who had studied at Oxford. All 
may possibly have contributed ; but in re- 
spect to the more important fact, there seems 
to be no dispute, that the writings of Wiclif 
kindled the first sparks of the Bohemian her- 
esies. During the latter days of that venerable 
teacher, a youth was growing up in an ob- 
scure village of Bohemia, who was destined 
to bear, in his turn, the torch of truth, and to 
transmit it with a martyr's hand to a long 
succession of disciples — and he was worthy 
of the heavenly oflnice. John of Huss, or 
Hussinetz, was very early distinguished by 
the foi-ce and acuteness of his understanding, 
the modesty and gravity of his demeanor, 
the rude and irreproachable austerity of his 
life. A thoughtful and attenuated counte- 
nance, a tall and somewhat emaciated form, 
an uncommon mildness and affability of man- 
ner added to the authority of his virtues and 
the persuasiveness of his eloquence. The 
University of Prague, at that time extremely 
flourishing, presented a field for the expan- 
sion of his great qualities ; in the year 1401 
he was appointed president, or dean, of the 
philosophical faculty, and was elevated, eight 
years afterwards, to the rectorship of the 
University. 

The Church divided with the academy his 
talents and his reputation. In the year 1400 



* The effect was felt even in the next generation, 
and the high churchmen began to tremble. By a 
decree published by the Convocation at St. Paul's in 
1408, it was prohibited either to compose or consult 
any private translation of the Scriptures, on the pen- 
alties attached to heresy. 



THE HUSSITES. 



463 



he was made confessor to Sophia of Bavaria, 
the Queen of Bohemia; and in 1405 he had 
obtained general celebrity by many eloquent 
sermons delivered in the vulgar tongue in his 
chapel* at Prague. In those fervent ad- 
dresses to the people, who composed his au- 
dience, he frequently inveighed against the 
corruption of the court of Rome, her indul- 
gences, her crusades, her extortions, and all 
the multitude of her iniquities ; and his har- 
angues were received with impassioned ac- 
clamation. Nevertheless, his name was not 
yet tainted by any charge of heresy ; and as 
late as the July of 1408, Subinco, (or Suinco,) 
Archbishop of Prague, declared in a public 
synod, that the kingdom, over which his spir- 
itual guardianship extended, was free from 
the stain of any religious error. But about 
this time the University of Prague was dis- 
turbed by a violent dissension. The Grerman 
students, who formed the majority, and to 
whom a greater share in the government, the 
dignities, and emoluments of the institution 
had been allotted by the original statutes, f 
were vigorously assailed by the native Bohe- 
mians ; who claimed, as a national right, that, 
according to the example of Paris, those en- 
viable prerogatives should be transfeiTed to 
themselves. Huss engaged with zeal in tlie 
cause of his countiymen. The king decid- 
ed in favor of his own subjects, and he was 
considered to have been chiefly influenced 
to that resolution by Huss. Many German 
doctors resigned their oflices and retired 
from the kingdom; and they carried with 
them, whithersoever they went, deep rancor 
against the author of theu* defeat and seces- 
sion. 

Again, about the same time, probably in 
the beginning of 1409, Huss was extremely 
zealous in bringing over his country from the 
cause of Gregory XH. , in whose obedience 
it persisted, to that of the cardinals assembled 



at Pisa; and this laudable forwai'dness ap- 
pears to have been the first oflfence, which 
awakened the displeasure of the archbishop. 
At least it is manifest, that this was the period 
at which the indignation of that prelate * first 
broke out ; and in the December of the same 
year, the Pope himself (Alexander V.) issued 
some prohibitory decree against Huss and his 
followers. 

The existence and cu'cumstances of the 
great schism, and the obvious evils produced 
by it, had long been a popular theme of cen- 
sure for the Bohemian reformer. And afi;er 
its extinction, John XXHL furnished him, 
in 1411, with fresh matter for reprehension. 
That pontiff sent forth his emissaries to 
preach a crusade against Ladislaus, King of 
Naples, and to accord the usual indulgences. 
The minds of many had been previously in- 
flamed against this mockery of the cross of 
Christ by the preaching of Huss ; and so it 
proved, that, on three several occasions, the 
pontifical missionaries were interrupted by 
violent exclamations in the midst of their 
harangues. Three offenders were according- 
ly seized by the order of the senate, and pri- 
vately executed ; but the blood which flowed 
from the prison into the street betrayed their 
fate. The people rose; and having gained 
possession of their bodies, carried them in 
procession to the various churches, chanting 
holy anthems. They then buried them in the 
chapel of Bethlehem, with the aromatic offer- 
ings usually deposited on the tombs of mar- 
tyrs. Other commotions followed ; the cler- 
gy f of Bohemia conspired very generally 
against the principles of the reformer ; and 



* Called the Chapel of Bethlehem. An opulent 
citizen of Prague had built and endowed it for the 
maintenance of two preachers, ' qui festis profestisque 
diebus verbum Dei Bohemico sermone plebibus in- 
sinuarent.' iEn. Sylv., Hist. Bohem., cap. xxxv. 

t The University, founded in 1347, by the Empe- 
ror Charles IV., was composed of four nations, Bo- 
hemia, Bavaria, Saxony, and Poland; and as the 
three last (even the last) were chiefly Germans, and 
had three votes, in four, three-fourths of the profes- 
sors, doctors, &c., were Germans. On the other 
hand, in the economy of the University of Paris 
(where the division was also quadripartite) the na- 
tives had three voices. The declaration of King 
VVenceslas in favor of his subjects was made on Oct. 
13, 1409. 



* Subinco, Archbishop of Prague, is characterized 
by Mairabourg as ' a man who feared nothing when 
the service of God and the interests of the church 
were at stake.' Such a compliment, from the pen 
of Maimbourg, is at least suspicious. 

t If we are to believe ^neas Sylvius (Historia 
Bohemica, cap. xxxv,) the clergy, in the first in- 
stance, were favorable to Huss; and the reason, 
which he malignantly gives for that fact, seems to 
prove at least his own conviction of its truth. ' Se- 
quebantur Johannem clerici fere omnes, aere alieno 
gravati, sceleribus et seditionibus insignes, qui rerum 
novitate evadere poenas arbitrabantur. His et non- 
nulli doctrina celebres juncti erant; qui cum in eccle- 
sia consequi dignitatem non potuissent, iniquo anirao 
ferebant sacerdotia majorum censuum his committi, 
qui, quamvis nobilitate praeirent, scientia tamen vide- 
bantur inferiores.' The probability seems to be, that 
Huss may have won, in the beginning of his preach- 
ing, the partial support of the secular clergy by the 
bitterness with which he inveighed against monastic 
abuses ; but that they deserted him, as soon as they 
saw his views more perfectly developed. 



464 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



John XXIII. cited him, but without effect, 
before the tribunal of the Vatican. In fact, 
BO great was the agitation which these dis- 
putes had now excited, that when the Council 
of Constance assembled presently afterwards, 
it issued an immediate summons for the ap- 
pearance of Huss. With whatsoever disre- 
gard that ecclesiastic may have treated the 
mandate of the Pope, he proved, without 
hesitation, his allegiance to the council. He 
knew the hostility and the faithlessness of the 
court of Rome ; but in the august represen- 
tation of the Church, in the full congregation 
of holy prelates assembled for the reformation 
of abuses, and the redressing of wrongs, he 
might find some foundation for confidence, 
and some hope of justice. 

Opinions imputed to Huss. — It is proper 
now to examine, what was the nature of those 
spiritual offences which excited such atten- 
tion throughout Christendom, and such terror 
among the directors of the Church. In the 
first place, the Bohemian innovator was ac- 
cused of disseminating the mortal venom 
which he had imbibed from England. His 
devotion to the faith and memory of Wiclif, 
for it was for some years concealed, became at 
length too deep and ardent for dissimulation ; 
and it is even related, that in his discourses 
from the pulpit of Bethlehem, he was wont 
to address his earnest vow to Heaven, that, 
wdienever he should be removed from this 
life, he might be admitted to the same regions 
where the soul of Wiclif resided ; since he 
doubted not, that he was a good and holy 
man, and worthy of a habitation in heaven.* 
It is certain, that on the first movement 
against Huss, the archbishop collected all the 
books of Wiclif, to the number of two hun- 
dred volumes, embossed and decorated with 
precious ornaments,! and caused them to be 
publicly burnt. The same element, which 
consumed the writings of Wiclif, was destin- 
ed to prey upon the body of his disciple ; and 
it came like a signal, that his vow had been 
registered above, and that his master awaited 
his coming at the gates of Paradise. 



* ' Qui, cum se libenter audiri animadverteret, 
multa de libris Viclefi in medium attulit, asserens in 
its omnem veritatem contineri ; adjiciensque crebro 
intei- prsedicandum, se, postquam ex luce migraret, 
ea loca proficisci cupere, ad quae Viclefi anima perve- 
nisset; quem virum fulsse bonum, sanctum, coeloque 
dignum non dubitaret.' JEn. Sylv., Hist. Boh., 

1. XXXV. 

f 'Quorum major pars argenteis atque inauralis 
jBbulis et pretiosis integumentis ornabatur.' Harps- 
field, ap. Contin. Fleury. ^Eneas Sylvius mentions 
the same fact nearly in the same words. 



It was another general charge against Huss, 
that he was ' infected with the leprosy' of the 
Vaudois : and that it may be seen how many 
gross offences were thought to be contained 
in this single accusation, we shall here follow 
the enumeration of iEneas Sylvius ; only 
premising that many opinions are there as- 
cribed to Huss, which, in his examinations 
before the council, he expressly disavowed. 
The most important among them were these 
— that the Pope is on a level with other 
bishops ; that all priests are equal except in 
regard to personal merit ; that souls, on quit- 
ting their bodies, are immediately condemned 
to eternal punishment, or exalted to everlast- 
ing happiness ; that the fire of purgatory has 
no existence ; that prayers for the dead are 
a vain device, the invention of sacerdotal 
avarice; that the images of God and the 
saints should be destroyed; that the ordei-s 
of the mendicants were invented by evil 
spirits ; that the clergy ought to be poor, sub- 
sisting on eleemosynary contributions ; that it 
is free to all men to preach the word of God ; 
that any one guilty of mortal sin is thereby 
disqualified for any dignity secular or ecclesi- 
astical ; that confirmation and extreme unc- 
tion are not among the holy rites of the 
Church ; that auricular confession is unprofit- 
able, since confession to God is sufficient for 
pardon; that the use of cemeteries is without 
reasonable foundation, and inculcated for the 
sake of profit; that the world itself is the 
temple of the omnipotent God ; and that 
those only derogate from his Majesty, who 
build churches, monasteries, or oratories; 
that the sacerdotal vestments, the ornaments 
of the altars, the cups and other sacred uten- 
sils, are of no more than vulgar estimation ; 
that the suffrages of the saints who reign with 
Christ in heaven are unprofitable, and vainly 
invoked ; that there is no holyday excepting 
Sunday ; that the festivals of the saints should 
by no means be observed ; and that the fasts 
established by the Church are equally desti- 
tute of divine authority. 

To these opinions, which he is accused of 
having habitually propounded in his- chapel 
of Bethlehem, and of which he disclaimed 
m.any of the most important, he appears in 
truth to have subsequently added another, by 
no means calculated to conciliate the clergy. 
During a period of suspension from his 
preachings at Prague, he retired to his native 
village, and addressed to large rustic congre- 
gations the popular doctrine, that tithes are 
strictly eleemosynary, and that it is free for 
the owner of the land to withhold or to pay 



THE HUSSITES. 



465 



them, according to the measure of his charity, j 
But the subject, on which the greatest heats | 
were afterwards excited, and in which, in- | 
deed, the other points of difference were for 
the most part forgotten, was the distribution 
of the sacramental cup to the laity. And this 
innovation upon the modern practice of the 
Church is not, as it singularly happens, as- 
cribed to Hass; though it origmated in the 
same country, and at the same time. A cele- 
brated preacher of the day, named Jacobellus, 
whose learning and piety are alike unques- 
tioned,* first promulgated the tenet, that the 
communion in both kinds was necessary for 
salvation ; and as the opinion was shown to 
rest not only on the authority of Scripture, 
but also on the practice of the ancient Church, 
* the heretics embraced it with immoderate 
exultation, as evincing either the ignorance, 
or the wickedness, of the Roman S.ee.' . . . 
Weneeslas, the King of Bohemia, regarded 
the rise of these principles with a careless 
and, as some assert, a stupid indifference ; 
his queen protected the person, if she did 
not profess the principles, of her confessor ; 
and thus the secular sword slept peacefully 
throughout these disputes, though it was 
loudly evoked by the zeal of the archbishop, 
and though Gerson f himself raised his voice 
to awaken it. 



* ' Per id teinpus popuium prsedicando instruebat 
Jacobellus Misnensis, literarum doctrina et morura 
pi-gestantia juxta clauus.' ^n. Sylv., loc. cit, 

t Sufficient extracts from Gerson's Letter to the 
archbishop are given by CochlBeus, Historife Hussita- 
ruin, lib. i,, p, 21, (ed. Mogunt, 1549,) and as it is 
curious to observe in what language the great Church 
Reformer of his day justified the principle of persecu- 
tion, we shall cite some passages from it, only premis- 
ing that, very nearly at the same moment, the Pope, 
John XXIII., was inditing an epistle to Weneeslas 
to the same purport. ' Inveniuntur adhuc hgereses 
extirpatse ab agro ecclesiastico diversis viis, veluti 
falce multiplici. Inveniuntur quidem primitus extir- 
patas falce vel acuto sarculo miraculorum, attestan- 
tium divinitus Catholicse verltati, et hoc tempore 
apostolorum. Inveniuntur extirpata? postmodura per 
falcem disputationis argumentativae per doctores. 
Sunt extirpalae deinde per falcem sacrorum Concillo- 
rum, faventibus imperatoribus, quum disputatio doc- 
trinalis particulariura doctorum inefficax videbatur. 
Tandem accessit, velut in desperata peste, securis 
brachii secularis, excidens heereses cum auctoribus 
suis et in ignem mittens. Providens hac tanta 
severitate et misericordi, ut sic dicatur, crudeli- 
tate ne sermo talium, veluti cancer, serpat in perni- 
ciem tam propriam quam alienam. Et ante mullo 
tempore non sinere peccatoribus ex sententia agere, 
sed statim ultiones adhibere magni heneficii est 
indicium.^ After showing that none of the ancient 
uaethods of extirpation were applicable to the exist- 
59 



The safe-conduct of Huss. — It has been 
matter of surprise to many writers, that Huss, 
with the consciousness that he had taught 
many of the above tenets, and with the know- 
ledge how detestable they were held by the 
churchmen, should have advanced so readily 
from a position of comparative security, and 
placed himself at once in the power of his 
enemies. It v/as not that he was ignorant of 
his danger, A letter, which he addressed to 
a friend immediately before his departure for 
Constance, contains passages almost prcphetic 
of his imminent fate. He had the precaution, 
however, to obtain an act of safe-conduct* 



ing heresy, he thus proceeds: — ' Superest igitur, si 
de pi-aemissorum nihil prosit, quod ad radicem in- 
fructuosag, immo maledictjs, arboris ponatur 
securis brachii secul aris. Quale vos brachiuni 
invocare viis omnibus convenit, et expedit ad salu- 
tem omnium vobis creditorum.' . . . The doctrines 
attributed to Huss were condemned by the Univer- 
sity of Paris, and the act was published with the sig- 
nature of Gerson, as chancellor: it contains the fol- 
lowing passage: ' For though there appears among 
the opinions of these heretics some zeal against the 
vices of the prelates, which in truth are very great 
and manifest, yet it is a zeal not sufficiently enlight- 
ened. A discreet zeal tolerates and deplores the sins 
which it finds in the house of God, when it cannot 
wholly remove them. It would be impossible to 
correct vice by vice, and error by error; as the devil 
is not expelled by Beelzebub, but by the spirit of 
God, whose will it is that the correction of abuses be 
undertaken with great prudence and regard to cir- 
cumstances of time and place.' This, loo, is lan- 
guage which might very well have proceeded from 
the court of John XXIII. 

* The following are given as the words of this 
frequently controverted 'safe-conduct:' — * Honora- 
bilem magistrum Johannem Huss, S. T, Baccalaure- 
um, etc., de regno Boemiae, in Concilium Generale . . 
transeuntem . . . vobis omnibus et vestrum cuilibet 
pleno recommandamus affectu, desiderantes, quatemis 
ipsum, cum ad vos pervenerit, grate suscipere . . . 
omnique prorsus impedimento remoto transire, stare, 
morari et redire libere permittatis, sibique et suis.* 
— (Act. Public, apud Bzovium, ann. 141'4., sect. 17.) 
It is not at all obvious that the Council was bound 
by tliis safe conduct — the less so, as the professed 
object of Huss's journey was to clear himself of her- 
esy in the presence and judgment of the Council: but 
the Emperor was certainly so bound; and that which 
he committed, and which the Council persuaded him 
to commit, was direct, unqualified treachery. It was 
manifestly the duty of Sigismond to receive Huss from 
the hands of the Council, and restore iiim to his na- 
tive country; then the affair might have been takefi 
up de nouo, Avithout any reflection on the faith of any 
party. The best illustrations of the rights of this 
question are such facts, as prove the light in which 
it was viewed by succeeding generations.. Thus we 
observe, that before the assembling of the first Diet 
of Worms (1521,) the Elector of Saxony privately 



466 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



from the Emperor, which was understood to 
be a pledge for his personal safety during the 
whole period of his absence from Bohemia. 
But that admirable Christian was unques- 
tionably impelled by motives too deep for the 
calculation of ordinary minds. He felt an 
intense conviction of the truth of his doctrines, 
and he was resolved, should need be, to lay 
down his life for them. That conviction, 
attended by that resolution, gave a confidence 
to his character, which, while it left him 
without fear, might at the same time animate 
him with the highest hopes. He was filled 
with that deliberate enthusiasm, which some- 
times raises the soul of man above that which 
we call wisdom ; and which, while it provokes 
the sneer of ordinary beings, has produced 
those lofty deeds of disinterestedness and self- 
devotion, which redeem human nature. 

Doubtless Huss was so influenced, when 
he published, both before his departure fi'om 
Bohemia and during his journey, repeated 
challenges to all his adversaries to appear at 
Constance, and meet him in the presence of 
the Pope and the Council ; ' If any shall there 
convict me of any error, of any doctrine con- 
trary to the Christian faith, I refuse not (he 
proclaimed) to undergo the last penalties of 
heresy.' * These expressions betoken confi- 
dence in his own principles and in the integ- 
rity of the Council. He had yet to discover, 
that his controversy was not with candid 
opponents, contesting his avowed opinions, 
before an impartial tribunal ; calumny and 
secret malice, and ecclesiastical bigotry, were 
more dangerous enemies ; and his fate was 
seemingly irrevocable, from the moment in 



required of the Emperor Charles V., a formal renun- 
ciation of the Decree of Constance — ' that no faith 
be kept with heretics.' On the same occasion, we 
find that great pains were again taken by the Cath- 
olics to induce the Emperor to violate his safe-con- 
duct to Luther; on which Louis, Elector Palatine, 
is recorded to have said — ' That all Germany would 
not stain itself with the shame of public perfidy to 
oblige a few ecclesiastics;' and Charles himself to 
have uttered that celebrated apophthegm — ' That if 
good faith were banished from the rest of the world, 
it should find refuge in the breast of kings.' — See 
Beausobre's Hist. Reform, liv. iii. 

* ' Significo toti Boemise et omnibus natjonibus, 
rae velle sisti primo quoque tempore coram Concilio 
Constantiensi, in celeberrimo loco, preesidente Papa, 
etc. ... Eo conferat pedem quisquis suspicionem 
de me habuerit, quod aliena a Christ! fide docuerim 
vel defenderim. Item doceat ibi, adstante Papa, me 
ullo unquam tempore erroneam et falsam doctrinam 
tenuisse. Si rae de errore aliquo convicerit, etc. . . . 
non recusabo quascunque haeretici poenas ferre.'. . — 
Huss. Bohemic, apud Bzovium, ad ann. 1414. 



which he placed his life in the power of that 

Catholic assembly. 

Huss is placed under confinement by the 
Council. — He was attended by some Bohemi- 
an noblemen, and he received the strongest 
assurances of protection from John XXHI. 
' Though John Huss (said that Pope) should 
murder my own brother, I would use the 
whole of my power to preserve him from 
every injury, during all the time of his resi- 
dence at Constance . . .'* Nevertheless, 
within a month from his arrival, after having 
professed before a meeting of the Council his 
readiness to repel every charge, he was plac- 
ed under a surveillance which was immediate- 
ly changed to strict confinement. It should 
not be forgotten, that this first violation of the 
safe-conduct was peculiarly the act of the 
Council. Sigismond, who was not present, 
strongly remonstrated against it; and the 
Pope (from whatever motive) f disclaimed all 
share in the proceedings. 

Accused. — This advantage was instantly 
pursued by his enemies, of whom the most 
ardent were found among his countiymen ; 
and accordingly eighty articles of accusation 
were prepared, and presented to John XXHI. 
When a copy of them was delivered to the 
accused, where he lay sick in prison, he re- 
quested that an advocate might be granted 
him to defend his cause ; but that was refused, 
on the plea of a general prohibition by the 
canon law to undertake the defence of any 
one suspected of heresy. And then, instead 



* Lenfant. Hist. Cone. Constant. lib. i. § xxviiK 
fThe cardinals were the agents in this affair; and 
John does not appear to have been present at that 
congregation. But we should not forget, that when 
Sigismond wrote to command the immediate ]iberatio» 
of Huss, on the strength of his own safe-conduct, the 
Pope opposed the execution of the order. Lenfant. 
Cone. Constant. 1. i. § 50. 

:j: It seems almost unnecessary to enumerate these 
charges, — they were as follows: — (1) That commu- 
nion in both kinds is necessary for salvation; — (2) 
that the bread remains bread after the consecration; 
— (3) that ministers in a state of mortal sin cannot 
administer the sacraments; and that any one in a 
state of grace can do so; — (4) that the Church does 
not mean the Pope nor the clergy ; that it cannot 
possess temporal goods, and that the secular powers 
can rightfully take them away; — (5) that Constantine 
and other princes erred when they endowed the Church ; 
— (6) that all priests are equal in authority; so that 
ordinations and privileges reserved to the Popes and 
bishops are the pure effect of their ambition; — (7) 
that the Church loses the power of the keys, when 
the Pope, cardinals, and the rest of the clergy are 
in mortal sin; — (8) that excommunications may bo 
disregarded v.ith safety. 



THE HUSSITES. 



467 



of striving to obviate the various intrigues 
which were employed for his destruction, he 
devoted the tedious leisure of his imprison- 
ment, and the resources of a mind superior to 
ordinary agitations, to the composition of va- 
rious moral and religious treatises. * 

The next step in the process against him 
was the condemnation of the doctrines and 
memory of Wiclif. It was in the eighth 
session, held on the 4th of May, 1415, that a 
list of forty-five articles was drawn up, which 
embodied ail (and more than all) the errors 
of that reformer ; that it received the solemn 
censure of the fathers ; and that the vengeance 
of that orthodox body pursued the spiritual 
offender even beyond the grave. It is a sin- 
gular circumstance, and serves well to illus- 
trate the position in which the Council then 
stood, as an assembly of reformation, that in 
the very sermon which opened that session, 
and which introduced the opinions of Wiclif 
to universal abhorrence, the Pope and his 
Court were treated with equal severity, and 
rebuked in language f which would have been 
held blasphemous had it proceeded from the 
lips of a heretic. 

It was an object of great importance with 
the Council, bent, as it certainly was, on the 
destruction of Huss, and conscious, as it pro- 
bably was, of the weakness of its own cause, 
to avoid the scandal of a public disputation. 
Accordingly, Huss was continually persecut- 
ed by private interrogatories, frequently ac- 
companied by intimidation and insult; and 
depositions against his orthodoxy were col- 
lected with great diligence and great facility, 
since every kind of information was admitted 
against a suspected heretic. On the other 
hand, he vehemently remonstrated against 
this inquisitorial secrecy, and demanded for 
his defence an audience of the whole Council. 
His Bohemian friends pressed the same point 
with equal earnestness. But in vain would 
they have solicited from that body this most 
obvious act of justice, if the emperor had not 
also been impressed with its propriety, and 
insisted with great firmness, that the trial 
should be public. 



* On marriage — on the Decalogue — on the love 
and knowledge of God — on penitence — on the three 
enemies of man — on the Lord's Supper — and others. 

t The Bishop of Toulon preached the sermon — 

* iibi puram dixit veritatem de Papa et cardinalibus.' 
'Benedicatur anima Domini Episcopi,' de Papa 
dixit, — ' Maledicatur caro swa; ' et alibi vere — 

• ita mentitur, sicut si dicerem, Deus non est unus et 
trinus.' The passage is found in a MS. of Vienna, 
and is cited Vjy Lenfant. Cone. Const, lib. ii. § 
59. 



Tried. — Consequently the fathers assem- 
bled very early in June for that purpose. The 
first charge was read. The defendant was 
called upon for his reply. But when he ap- 
pealed in his justification to the authority of 
the Scriptures, and the venerable testimony 
of the fathers, his voice was drowned in a 
tumult of contempt and derision. He was 
silent ; and it was interpreted as guilt. Again 
he spoke ; again he was answered by dis- 
dainful jests and insults ; and the assembly at 
length separated without any serious deter- 
mination. The second audience was fixed 
for the 7th of June.; and that greater decency 
might be preserved, the Emperor was re- 
quested to be present on that occasion. It i3 
carefully recorded bj historians, and not, per- 
haps, without some sense of superstitious 
awe, that the day, on which the fate of that 
righteous man was in fact decided, was sig- 
nalized by a total eclipse of the sun — total, as 
was observed, at Prague, though not quite so 
at Constance. But the fathers were not mov- 
ed by that phenomenon to any principle of 
justice, or any feeling of mercy. The vari- 
ous charges, already prepared, were pressed 
upon the culprit, less clamorously, indeed, 
but not less eagerly than before. His accu- 
sers were numerous and voluble, and armed 
with the most minute subtleties of the schools. 
Many among them were English ; and these 
urged their arguments as warmly, as if they 
had thought to redeem the land of Wiclif by 
the persecution of Huss, and to wash away 
the stains, which one heretic had cast upon 
them, in the blood of another. 

Numerous depositions were likewise pro- 
duced and read, alleging errors, which he had 
advanced in his writings or in his sermons, 
or even in his private convei'sations. Alone, 
and unsupported, save by two or three faith- 
ful Bohemians, and worn and enfeebled by 
confinement and disease, he presented a spirit 
which did not bend beneath this oppression. 
The opinions imputed to him related chiefly 
to the Eucharist, and the condemned propo- 
sitions of Wiclif. . . There were some which 
he entirely disavow ed ; others which he ad- 
mitted under certain modifications; others 
which he professed his readiness and his 
ability to maintain. Among the first was the 
charge respecting transubstantiation. On 
which subject he repeatedly and unequivo- 
cally asserted his entire concurrence in the 
doctrine of the Church. Among the last, the 
positions (they were ascribed to Wiclif) to 
which he clung with the greatest pertinacity, 
appear to have been three. (1.) That Pope 



468 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Sylvester and the Emperor Constantine did 
evil to the Church when they enriched it. 
(2.) That, if any ecclesiastic, whether Pope, 
prelate, or priest, be in a state of mortal sin, 
he is disqualified for the administration of the 
sacraments. (3.) That tithes are not dues, 
but merely eleemosynary. In defence of 
these, and perhaps some other opinions, the 
few arguments, which he was permitted to 
advance, were temperate, if not reasonable 
and scriptural : at least they proved his up- 
rightness and the integrity of his heart ; but 
they were received, as before, with reiterated 
shouts of derision. The question, indeed, 
was not, whether the opinions of Huss were 
founded in truth, or otherwise: that conside- 
ration seems not to have influenced any one 
mind in the whole assembly, excepting his 
own ; the question really to be decided ; the 
only question with which the council affected 
any concern, was, whether they were the 
doctrine of the Church. Whatsoever had 
once been pronounced by that infallible body 
was law, and the alternative was obedience 
or death. 

On the following day Huss was admitted 
to the mockery of another and final audience ; 
and on this occasion he v/as chiefly pressed 
on twenty-six articles, derived (fairly or un- 
fdu'ly) from his ' Book of the Church.' A 
scene similar to the preceding was terminat- 
ed, on the part of the judges, by urgent solic- 
itations to the accused to retract his errors. 
This act of submission was advised by several 
of the fathers; it was strongly recommended 
by the Emperor ; but Huss was unmoved. 
* As to the opinions imputed to me, which I 
have never held, those I cannot retract ; as to 
those which I do indeed profess, I am ready 
to retract them, 'when 1 shall be better in- 
structed by the Council.' . . . The province 
of the Council was not to instruct, but to de- 
cide — to command obedience to its decision, 
or to enforce the penalty. 

Condemned. — If Huss had hitherto nour- 
ished any reasonable hope of safety, it was 
placed in the moderation of the Emperor ; 
but at this conjuncture, even that prospect was 
removed. For, towards the conclusion of 
the session, Sigisniond delivered his unqual- 
ified opinion, 'that among the errors of 
Huss, which had been in part proved, and in 
part confessed, there was not one which did 
not deserve the penal flames;' to which was 
added, ' that the temporal sword ought in- 
stantly to be drawn for the chastisement of 
his disciples, to the end that the branches of 
the tree might perish together with its root.' 



Huss was again conducted to his prison, 
and thither was still pursued by fresh solic- 
itations on his constancy; and that, which 
had stood firm before public menace and 
insult, might have yielded to private impor- 
tunity, to bodily infirmity, to friendship, to 
solitude. First of all, an official formula of 
retractation, was sent to him by the Council ; 
it was express as to his abjuration of all 
the errors which had been proved against 
him, and as to his unconditional submission 
to the Council ; but it was free from any 
harsh or oflfensive expressions. Huss calmly 
persisted in his resolution. 'He was prepar- 
ed to aflTord an example in himself of that 
enduring patience, which he had so firequent- 
ly preached to others, and which he relied 
upon the grace of God to grant him.' Many 
individuals, of various characters, but alike 
anxious to save him from the last infliction, 
visited his prison, and pressed him with a 
variety of motives and arguments ; but they 
were all blunted by the rectitude of his con- 
science and the singleness of his purpose. 
One of his bitterest enemies, named Paletz,* 
was among the number; but, though his 
counsels had been successful in degrading 
the person of the reformer, they failed when 
they would have seduced him to infamy. 

Numerous deputations were sent by the 
Council, to which he always replied with the 
same modesty and firmness, equally removed 
from an obstinate perseverance in acknow- 
ledged error, and a base retractation of that 
vs^hich he thought truth. About the same 
time it was resolved to commit his books to 
the flames, as if to warn him by that prelude 
of the approaching catastrophe. But in a 
letter which he wrote to some friend on the 
occasion, he remarked, that that was no 
ground for despondency, since the Books of 
Jeremiah had suflTered the same indignity; 
but the Jews had not thus evaded the ca- 
lamities, with which the prophet had me- 
naced them. 

Notwithstanding his public and recent de- 



* It was supposed that the spiritual influence of a 
confessor might possibly be sufficient to lead him to 
retract; and Huss requested that the same Paletz 
might be the person so commissioned — partly to prove, 
that he could pardon his worst enemy; partly to 
show, how willing he was to confide the inmost 
secrets of his heart, even to one who might be dispo- 
sed to proclaim them most loudly. The Council did 
not think proper to accede to this generous request. 
It sent a monk to him, who gave him the same coun- 
sel as the others, and absolved him, without any 
penitential imposition. — See Lenfant's Hist. Cone. 
Const-, liv. iij. § xxxv. 



THE HUSSITES. 



469 



claration, the Emperor appears, even to the 
very conclusion of this iniquitous affair, to 
have entertained some lingering scruples res- 
pecting his safe-conduct. These had been 
silenced, it is true, by the sophistry of the 
doctors; and he had even been taught to 
believe, that his protection could not lawfully 
be extended to a man suspected of heresy,; 
that monstrous charge supereeded the ordi- 
nary economy of government, and dispensed 
with the imperious obligations of moral duty ! 
Howbeit, notwithstanding the spiritual au- 
thority on which this principle was advanced, 
Sigismoud would have greatly preferred some 
reasonable compromise to that violent termi- 
nation, which was now near at hand. Ac- 
cordingly, when he saw the fruitlessness of 
every other attempt to bend the spirit of 
Huss, he resolved himself to make one final 
effort for the same purpose. On the 5th of 
July, on the eve of the day destined for his 
execution, the prisoner was visited by an im- 
perial deputation, commissioned to inquire, 
'whether he would abjure those articles of 
which he acknowledged him§elf guilty?' 
And in regard to those which he disavowed, 
' whether he would swear that he held there- 
on the doctrine of the Church ? ' One objec- 
tion, to which Huss had throughout attached 
great importance, was removed by this pro- 
posal — the obligation to retract that which he 
had never maintained. But the grand, the 
insurmountable difficulty still remained — to 
abjure against conviction that which he did 
actually profess. Upon the whole, he saw 
no reason for any change, and returned to 
the Emperor the same sort of answer with 
which he had met all preceding solicitations. 
It remained for him still to encounter one 
other trial ; if, indeed, v/e can so designate 
the upright counsel of a faithful and virtuous 
friend — for such was the circumstance, which 
completed and crowned the history of his 
imprisonment — and it should be everywhere 
recorded, for the honor of human nature. A 
Bohemian nobleman, named John of Chlum, 
had attended Huss, whose disciple he was, 
through all his perils and persecutions, and 
had exerted, throughout the whole affair, 
every method that he could learn or devise 
to save him. At length, when every hope 
was lost, and he was about to separate from 
the martyr for the last time, he addressed 
him in these terms : ' My dear master, I am 
unlettered, and consequently unfit to counsel 
one so enlightened as you. Nevertheless, if 
you are secretly conscious of any one of 
those errors, which have been publicly im- 



puted to you, I do entreat you not to feel any 
shame in retracting it ; but if, on the contrary, 
you are convinced of your innocence, I am so 
far from advising you to say anything against 
your conscience, that I exhort you rather to 
endure every form of torture, than to re- 
nounce anything which you hold to be true.' 
John Huss replied with tears, ^ that God was 
his witness, how ready he had ever been, and 
still was, to retract on oath, and with his 
whole heart, from the moment he should be 
convicted of any error by evidence from Holy 
Scripture.^^ ... In the whole history of the 
sufferings and the fortitude of Huss, there is 
not one discoverable touch of pride or stub- 
bornness ; the records of his heroism are not 
infected b)' a single stain of mere philosophy; 
he was firm, indeed, but he was humble also ; 
he expected death, and he feared it, too ; he 
neither sought the Martyr's crown, nor af- 
fected the ambition of the Stoic : his princi- 
ples of action were drawn from the same 
source as the ai-ticles of his belief; he was a 
pure and perfect Christian, and he thought it 
no merit to be so. 

Sentenced. — There was a long interval be- 
tween his imprisonment and his audience, 
and again a tedious month intervened be- 
tween his audience and execution. This 
period was passed in preparation to meet his 
fate, not in struggles to avoid it. ' God, in 
his wisdom, has reasons for thus prolonging 
my life. He wishes to give me time to weep 
for my sins, and to console myself in this 
protracted trial by the hope of their remis- 
sion. He has granted me this interval, that, 
through meditation on the sufferings of Christ 
Jesus, I may become better qualified to sup- 
port my own.'f The time of those sufferings 
at length arrived. On the morning of July 6, 
1415, he was conducted before the CounciJ, 
then holding its fifteenth session ; and after 
various articles of accusation had been read, 
a sentence was passed to the following effect, 
— 'That for several years John Huss has 
seduced and scandalized the people by the 
dissemination of many doctrines manifestly 

* Huss, on the eve of his execution, wrote to the 
Senate of Prague to the following effect: — ^* Be well 
assured that I have not retracted or abjured one single 
article. The Council urged me to declare the false- 
hood of every article drawn from my books ; but I 
refused, unless their falsehood could be demonstrated 
from Scripture. So do I now declare, that I detest 
every meaning which may be proved false in those 
articles, and I submit in that respect to the correction 
of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who knows the sincerity 
of my heart.' See Contin. of Fleury, 1. ciii, Ixxviii. 

I Opera Job. Huss., episL 14, apud Lenfant. 



470 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



heretical, and condemned by the Church, 
especially those of John Wiclif. That he 
has obsiinately trampled upon the keys of 
the Church and the ecclesiastical censures. 
That he has appealed to Jesus Christ as 
sovereign judge, to the contempt of the ordi- 
nary judges of the Church ; and that such an 
appeal was injurious, scandalous, and made 
in derision of ecclesiastical authority.* That 
he has persisted to the last in his errors, and 
even maintained them in full Council. It 
is therefore ordained that he be publicly 
deposed and degraded from holy orders, as 
an obstmate and incorrigible heretic' . . . The 
prelates appointed then proceeded to the of- 
fice of degradation. He was stripped, one by 
one, of his sacerdotal vestments ; the holy 
cup, which had been purposely placed in his 
hands, was taken from them; his hair was 
cut in such a manner as to lose every mark 
of the priestly character; and a crown of 
paper was placed on his head, marked with 
hideous figures of demons, and that still more 
frightful superscription, Heresiarch. The pre- 
lates then piously devoted his soul to the 
infernal devils ;f he was pronounced to be 
cut off from the ecclesiastical body, and 
being released from the grasp of the Church, 
he was consigned, as a layman, to the ven- 
geance of the secular arm. It was in the 
chai'acter of 'advocate and defender of the j 
Church,' that the Emperor took charge of 
the culprit, and commanded his immediate 
execution. 

Executed. — The last, which was not per- 
haps the bitterest, of his sufferings was en- 
dured with equal constancy and in the same 
blessed spirit. On his way to the stake he re- 
peated pious prayers and penitential psalms ; 
and when the order was given to kindle the 
flames, he only uttered these words — 'Lord 
Jesus, I endure with humility this cruel 
death for thy sake ; and I pray thee to pardon 
all my enemies.' The ministers executed 
their office ; the martyr continued in uninter- 
rupted devotion ; and it was not long before a 
rising volume of fire and smoke extinguished 

* Probably, in the long list of Huss's imputed her- 
esies there Avas no single article which inflamed the 
Council against him nearly so violently as this appeal. 
Tiie point which, above all others, that assembly was 
interested to establish, was its own omnipotence and 
infallibility — its agency under the immediate opera- 
tion of the Holy Spirit — in fact, its divine power. 
Consequently, an appeal to any superior, even though 
it were Christ himself, was derogatory to the heaven- 
ly attributes, with which the Council had clothed 
itself. 

t ' Aniiiiam tuam devovemus iufernis Diabolia.' 



at the same time his voice and his life. . . . 
His ashes were carefully collected and cast 
into the lake. But the miserable precaution 
was without any efifect ; since his disciples 
tore up the earth from the spot of his martyr- 
dom, and adored it with the same reverence 
and moistened it with those same tears, 
which would otherwise have sanctified his 
sepulchre. 

The points of difference strictly doctrinal 
between Huss and his persecutors were, after 
all, neither numerous nor important ; since 
we are bound in this inquiry to give credit 
to the solemn disavowals of the accused, 
rather than to the malignant imputations of 
his accusers. Lenfant, in his accurate his- 
tory * of this affair, has investigated very 
minutely the real extent of the offences of 
Huss, and reduced them under two heads. 
(1.) He unquestionably refused to subscribe 
to any general condemnation of the articles 
of Wiclif. There were many particulars on 
which he dissented from that reformer, but 
in several others he professed the same no- 
tions ; and among these last were disparage- 
ment of the Pope and the Roman Church, 
and opposition to tithes, indulgences, and 
ecclesiastical censures. (2.) It was also made 
a dangerous charge against him, that the 
spirit of ecclesiastical insubordination, which 
had already appeared in Bohemia, was prin- 
cipally occasioned by his preaching. . . . 
Such was the burden of his offence. And 
though all the leading authors and orators of 
the time were as imsparing as Huss himself, 
in their denunciations of papal and ecclesi- 
astical enormities, even from the pulpits of 
Constance ; though it was even usual with 
them to ascribe to these abuses the heresies 
of the day ; still the independent exertions of 
a Bohemian preacher in the same cause were 
stigmatized by them as indiscreet and im- 
moderate zeal — because the principles, from 
which that zeal proceeded, were not in ac- 
cordance with their own hierarchical preten- 
sions; because tlie Bible, and not the Church, 
was the source from which it flowed. . . . 
And as to the disaffection of the Bohemians, 
if the Council really hoped to repress it by the 
perfidious execution of the most pious and 
popular of their teachers, the events, which 
presently followed, were a lesson of bloody 
and indelible instruction both to those who in- 
dulged that error, and to their latest posterity. 

III. Jerome of Prague. — In less than a 
year from the execution of Huss, the same 
* Hist. Cone. Const, lib. iii. § 52, 60. 



THE HUSSITES. 



471 



scene of injustice and baibarity was acted a 
second time, though with some variety of 
circumstances, iu the same polluted theatre. 
Jerome, master iu theology in the university 
of Prague, and a layman, was the disciple of 
John Huss. Huss (says yEneas Sylvius) was 
superior in age and authority; but Jerome 
was held more excellent in learning and 
eloquence. While the former presided in 
the chair, the latter delivered his lectures in 
the schools; and the same opinions were 
taught with equal zeal and effect by the one 
and by the other. In the troubles, which had 
been excited through those opinions, Jerome 
had had, perhaps, the greater share; there 
was at least no favorable feature to distinguish 
his offence from that of his master. Accor- 
dingly he was summoned to Constance soon 
after the meeting of the Council ; and he 
appeared there on the 4th of April, 1415, not 
unprepared for the treatment which awaited 
him. It should be observed, that he also 
obtained a safe-conduct from the Emperor ; 
but that in his case the conditional clause, 
salva semper justitia, was inserted ; wliereas 
that of Huss contained no such provision. 

At his first audience (on May 23rd) he 
exliibited great firmness ; but at the second, 
which took place only thirteen days afler the 
execution of Huss, it was expected that the 
impression made by that frightful example 
would render him more tractable. And so 
assuredly it proved ; for on his third exam- 
ination (on September 11th) he submitted, 
after suffering much insult and intimidation, 
to make a formal and solemn retractation. 
He 'anathematized all heresies, and especial- 
ly that of Wiclif and Huss with which he 
had been previously infected (infamatus) ; 
he denounced the various articles which 
expressed it, as blasphemous, eiToneous, scan- 
dalous, offensive to pious eai-s, rash, and se- 
ditious ; and professed his absolute adhesion 
to all the tenets of the Roman Church.' . . . 

It was admitted that, in this mournful ex- 
hibition of human inconstancy, he had satis- 
fied eveiy demand which was made upon his 
weakness, both in substance and in form; 
nevertheless be was still retained in confine- 
ment. After a short space, his enemies 
pressed forward with new charges against 
him. They found many eager listeners 
among the members of the Council ; and 
Gei-son* himself again took up the pen of 



* He composed at this time (in October, 1415) his 
treatise ' De Protestatione et Revocatione in Negotio 
Fidei, ad eluendam Haereseos notam.' He sought to 



bigotr}^ and again sought to dip it in blood. 
Mattel's continued thus until the 23rd of May, 
1416, when a final and public audience was 
gi-anted to his repeated entreaties. On this 
occasion he recalled, with sorrow and shame, 
his former retractation, and openly attributed 
the unworthy act to its real and only motive 
— the fear of a painful death. 

His execviion. — His bitterest foes desu'ed no 
further proof against him ; and only seven 
days were allowed to elapse before he was 
condemned, and executed on the same spot 
which had been hallowed by the sufferings 
of his master. The courage, which had 
abandoned him in the anticipation of the 
flames, returned with redoubled force as he 
approached them. The executioner would 
have kindled the fagots behind his back : 
'Place the fire before me,' he exclaimed ; 'if 
I had dreaded it, I could have escaped it.' 
' Such (says Poggio * the Florentine) ' was the 
end of a man incredibly excellent. I was an 
eye-witness to that catastrophe, and beheld 
every act. I know not whether it was obsti- 
nacy or incredulity which moved him; but 
his death was like that of some one of the 
philosophers of antiquity. Mutius Scaevola 
placed his hand in the flame, and Socrates 
drank the poison with less firmness and spon- 
taneousness, than Jerome presented his body 
to the torture of the fire.' 

Whatsoever may have been the respective 
excellence, in their living or in their martyr- 
dom, of those two venerable heralds of the 
Reformation, the conduct of the Council 
was not at all less iniquitous in respect to its 



cast suspicion on such retractations; and this was the 
first step towards the execution of Jerome- The 
Composition may be found in Von der Hardt, torn, 
iii. p. iv. 

* In a letter addressed to Leonardus Aretinus, of 
which the whole is valuable, as describing the entire 
transaction, and painting the character of Jerome. 
It is cited by Beausobre, Histoire de la Reformation, 
lib. ii. ; by Von der Hardt, torn. iii. pars iii.; and 
other writers. There was, indeed, a little more of 
philosophical parade, and a little less of the genuine 
Christian spirit in the death of Jerome than in that 
of his master. yEneas Sylvius, however, whose 
eye was not likely to perceive this distinction, or to 
value it when perceived, includes botli in the same 
sentence of admiration. ' Pertulerunt ambo constant! 
animo necem et quasi ad epulas invitati ad incendiura 
properarunt, nullam emittentes vocem, quje miseri 
animi posset facere indicium. Ubi ardere cceperunt, 
hymnura cecinerunt, quem vix flamma et fragor ignis 
intercipere potuit. Nemo Philosophorura tarn forti 
animo mortem pertulisse traditur, quam isti incen- 
dium.' Hist. Bohem. cap. xxxvi. 



472 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



instance the violationof the safe-conduct dis- 
played imblushing perfidy, the contempt of 
the retractation was at least as shameless in 
the other. The first crime was followed by 
no remorse ; it seems rather to have led to 
the more calm and deliberate perpetration 
of the second. The principle by which the 
deeds were justified was never, for an instant, 
questioned in either case. And we should, 
at the same time, bear in mind (for it is a 
consideration deserving repeated notice,) that 
this was not a principle exclusively papal — no 
peculiar emanation from the apostolical chair 
or the Court of Rome — it was a principle 
strictly ecclesiastical, animating the Council 
as the representative of the Church, and in- 
flaming the individual bosom of the church- 
men who composed it. It was embraced by 
the French and English, as warmly as by the 
Italians themselves ; nor was it pressed to any 
greater extremity by the champions of eccle- 
siastical corruption, than by the men who 
called themselves its reformers. 

IV. Tlie condition of Bohemia is describ- 
ed to have been singularly flourishing at that 
moment. There was no other region* more 
abundant in useful productions, or in which 
the people were blessed with gi'eater com- 
forts ; none more distinguished for the splen- 
dor of its churches and monasteries, and the 
wealth of its clergy. Unhappily, that body 
had used with little moderation the advantages 
enjoyed by it ; and its excesses had for many 
years excited the murmurs of the laity. This 
disaffection had even shown itself in occa- 
sional outrages; but no systematic hostility 
had yet been arrayed either against the per- 
sons or the property of the sacred order. 
Howbeit, no sooner were the proceedings 
of the Council made known throughout the 
country, tlian the people gave indications of 
a ferocious spirit; the nobles f likewise ad- 



*Cochlaeus (lib. i. p. 314) cites some verses ' Con- 
radi Celtis primi apud Genrianos Poetae Laureati,' 
in praise of the city of Prague: — 

Visa non est Urbs meliore coelo ; 
Explicat septem haec spatiosa coJles, 
Ambitu murorum imitata niagnge 
Moenia Romte. 
f They had previously addressed several remon- 
strances to the Emperor on the subject of Huss's 
imprisonment, representing that thei'e was no person, 
great or small, who did not see the violation of his 
safe-conduct with indignation. Their letter to the 
Council immediately followed the execution of Huss, 
and was dated September 2. The great considered 



dressed a bold remonstrance to the :fether3j 
and as their rising opposition was met by new 
edicts * of condemnation, which still farmer 
inflamed it ; and as Martin V. at length pub- 
lished a Bull f of Crusade against the contu- 
macious heretics, every hope of reconciliation 
was removed, and the difference was fairly 
committed to the decision of the sword. 

InsuiTection of the. Bohemians. — ^It was one 
of the earliest and most innocent acts of in- 
subordination to spread three hundred tables 
in the open air, for the public celebration of 
the communion in both kinds.J And as the 
sense of some one specific grievance is ne- 
cessary for the union of a large multitude in 
revolt against any established power, so it 
was wise in the Bohemian insurgents to 
select one among their spiritual wrongs, as 
the principal motive of resistance, and to se- 
lect that which would be most intelligible to 



the act as an affront to the kingdom of Bohemia; the 
populace exclaimed against the fathers, as persecutors 
and executioners, and assembling in the chapel of 
Bethlehem, decreed to the victim the honors of mar- 
tyrdom. It is related, that Jerome of Prague was 
prematurely associated with his master in this popular 
canonization ; and it is remarkable that this crown 
was conferred upon him within a few days from that, 
on which he made his retractation. 

* Among tlie edicts published at Constance against 
the Hussites, there was one, in 1418, which prohibit- 
ed the singing of songs in derision of the Catholic 
Church. 

f The Bull published by Martin in 1421 contained 
a prohibition to keep faith with heretics, as distinct- 
ly conveyed as words can express it, — 'Quod si tu 
aliquo mode inductus defensionem eorum suscipere 
promisisti ; scito te dare, fidem. kareticis, violatori- 
bus Fidei Sanctge, non potuisse, et idcirco peccare 
mortaliter, si servahis; quia fideli ad infidelem non 
potest esse ulla communio.' It is addressed to Alex- 
ander, Duke of Lithuania, and published by Coch- 
Iseusf-a prejudiced Catholic. Lib. v. p. 212. 

:j: After all, it appears nearly certain, that Huss 
was not the autlior of the restoration of the cup. 
Lenfant follows the account of iEneas Sylvius, and 
argues that he was not. The retrenchment of the 
cup appears to that author to be a necessary conse- 
quence of the doctrine of transubstantiation, which 
Huss seems to have professed to the last. The 
Catholics of Constance, and even Gerson himself, 
(for he published a very elaborate and artificial trea- 
tise on the subject,) appear to have been more per- 
plexed in the defence of this, than of any other of 
their abuses. Antiquity, of course, is the great ob- 
ject of appeal ; and yet the antiquity of this prac- 
tice could scarcely reach two centuries (Lenfant, liv. 
iii., §xxxi.); and it certainly never acquired the 
force of a law till the contrary was declared to be 
heresy, in the 10th Session of the Council (May 14, 
1415.) 



THE HUSSITES, 



473 



the lowest classes. Again, the distinction of 
a name was useful in rousing enthusiasm, and 
preserving the show of concord. And so 
this chosen people stigmatized the surrounding 
nations as Idumseans or Moabites, as Amale- 
kites or Philistines; themselves were the 
well-beloved and elect of God ; Thabor was 
the mount on which they pitched their tents, 
and Thaborite the appellation which they 
adopted. The first effects of their indigna- 
tion were directed against the monks and 
clergy. These were plundered and even 
massacred without pity and without remorse. 
The sacred buildings were overthrown, the 
sanctuaries profaned, the altars stained with 
blood ; and all those abominations were un- 
sparingly committed, which commonly attend 
a premature resistance to inveterate oppres- 
sion. 

Their triumphs. — Sigismond conducted the 
armies of the Church ; Zisca led the rebels 
against them ; and the name of Zisca is sig- 
nalized by several triumphs over the imperial 
crusaders, which evinced not only his great 
military genius and resolution, but the deep 
religious enthusiasm and devotion of his fol- 
lowers. Atrocities were perpetrated by both 
parties, as if in emulation of each other, and 
of the heroes of former holy wars ; and so 
keen was the thii*st for blood, that the Hus- 
sites indulged it in the massacre of a sect of 
brother-heretics. A number of unfortunate 
enthusiasts, usually designated Adamites, were 
collected in an insular spot, in the neigh- 
borhood of Zisca's encampment. They are 
accused by various writers of the habit of 
nudity, and of many scandalous crimes ; and 
in this matter it is probable that they have 
been much calumniated. It may be, as Mos- 
heim is disposed to think, that they were in- 
fected with some of the absurdities of mys- 
ticism ; or, as Beausobre * learnedly argues, 
that their difference from the Catholics was 
confined to the use of the cup. It is beyond 
dispute, that they did not maintain all the 
opinions of the Thaborites ; and it would 
seem that some fatal quarrels had taken place 
between individuals of the two sects. Zisca 



* This very ingenious writer, in his dissertation 
on the ' Adamites,' addressed in two books to M. 
Lenfant, and published together with the ' History 
of the Council of Constance ' by the latter, certainly 
clears the Adamites from the worst charges that have 
been brought against them, which he shows to have 
been Catholic calumnies. Still the question, why 
Zisca destroyed them, is scarcely answered satisfac- 
torily. 

60 



suiTounded and destroyed them without any 
discrimination or mercy ; but lest we should 
on this account consider him as having sur- 
passed the wickedness of his Catholic adver- 
saries, we may remark, that by this very act 
he has incurred the deliberate praise of their 
historians,* and redeemed in their eyes some 
portion of the guilt of his apostasy. 

Divisions. — Zisca died in 1424, and divis- 
ions immediately ensued among his followers. 
Two other factions, the Orebites and the Or- 
phans, distracted the Bohemian reformers ; 
but they united on occasions of common 
danger. In 1431 they repelled another for- 
midable crusade, which was conducted by 
the celebrated cardinal of St. Angelo ; and in 
this affair the rout was so complete, that the 
Pope's Bull, as well as the hat, cross, and bell 
of the cardinal, fell into the hands of the vic- 
tors, f In the meantime, a more moderate 
party arose and acquired influence among 
the Hussites ; its hopes were turned to a pa- 
cific accommodation with the Church ; and 
with that view it was an-anged, that the Bo- 
hemians should send deputies to treat with 
the Council of Basle. . . Accordingly some of 
the most renowned among their military and 
ecclesiastical directors appeared at that city 
on the day appointed. The fame of their 
fierce exploits made them objects of deep and 
fearful curiosity with that peaceful assembly ; 
they were treated with respect, for they had 
earned it by their sword; and no violation of 
their safe-conduct, or other breach of faith, 
was on this occasion meditated. 

Embassy to Basle.— They were introduced, 
on February 16, 1433, to a general meeting 
of the fathers, and immediately proposed the 
conditions of reconciliation, which were four 
in number. I (1.) The use of the cup in the 
administration of the sacrament. (2.) The 
free preaching of the word of God. (3.) The 
abolition of the endowments of the clergy. 
(4.) Thepunishment of heinous transgressions 
and mortal sins. A separate debate was then 
opened upon each of these articles; and John 
of Rokysan, the most conspicuous among the 

* See Cochteus, lib. v., p. 218. 

t See Lenfant, Guerre des Hussites, 1. xvi. s. 
V. &c. 

t According to Cochljeus (lib. v., p. 205,) these 
were first agreed upon in a general assembly ' Baro- 
num terrse Bohemise et Moraviae, et dominorum in- 
clytae urbis Pragensis, militarium,clientum, civitatum 
et communitatum,' A. D. 1421. This will account 
for the moderation of the demands contained in 
them. 



474 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Hussite divines, commenced by a defence of 
the double communion, which lasted for three 
entire mornings. He was afterwards answer- 
ed by John of Ragusa, an ingenious Domini- 
can, who so far surpassed the prolixity of his 
opponent, as to occupy eight mornings in the 
delivery of his arguments ; * six others were 
then consumed by the reply of Rokysan. The 
other subjects were contested with scarcely 
less tediousness ; and when the debate had 
thus continued for nearly two months, and 
when it was found that, so far from any pro- 
gress having been made towards accommoda- 
tion, the obstinacy of both parties was only 
confirmed and inflamed, the Duke of Bavaria, 
the secular protector of the council, sought 
for other expedients to bring them to terms. 
But in this attempt he failed likewise j and 
after the Catholics had advanced some coun- 
ter propositions, which were rejected by the 
Hussites, the conference terminated, and the 
deputies returned to recount to their compa- 
triots the failure of their mission. 

The Ccdixtines, — But the Catholics, being 
now better informed as to the variety and 
nature of the dissensions which divided their 
opponents, thought to profit by that circum- 
stance, if they should carry the controversy 
into the hostile territories ; a solemn embas- 
sy was accordingly appointed to proceed to 
Prague. Negotiations were again opened \ 
and again the Catholics essayed the arts of 
persuasion in vain. They then introduced 
such amendments into the four articles as 
effectually destroyed their force, or altered 
their meaning ; but these were firmly re- 
jected by the larger and more determined 
portion of the separatists. There existed, 
however, among these last, a more moder- 
ate and very influential party, which was 
strongly disposed to waive all other sub- 
jects of complaint, provided the double com- 
munion were fairly conceded by the Church. 
These were called Calixtinesf — from the 

* It is observed tliat John of Ragusa gave great 
offence to his opponents by the frequent use of the 
word heresy, as applied to their opinions. With 
them it was still a question whether it was not the 
Church which was in heresy; with the Dominican, 
the Church was infallible. With them it was error 
to differ from the Scripture; with John, to differ 
from the Church. Thus the term, taken in a differ- 
ent sense, was as obnoxious in their eyes as in those 
of the Dominican. 

t Cochlaeus (lib. v., p. 192) mentions early dif- 
ferences between the Magistri Pragenses and the 
Thaborites. The former were the more moderate 
Dissenters; the Church Hussites and Jacobellus Mis- 



chalice * to which their demands were confin 
ed — and they were distinguished from the 
Thaborites, who constituted the more violent 
faction ; and the sum of whose grievances 
was by no means comprehended in the four 
articles, though they might consent in their 
public deliberations to suppress the rest. 
Among the Calixtins were several of the 
substantial citizens and leading members of 
the aristocracy ; and of such too the Catholic 
party was chiefly composed. As these, next 
after the clergy, were the principal sufferers 
by the continuance of anarchy and the devas- 
tations of war, they entered without much dif- 
ficulty into the designs of the council. And 
since it was now obvious, that no reconciliation 
was to be expected from discussion, it was de- 
termined to make another appeal to the sword. 
Renewal of War. — A civil war was imme- 
diately kindled throughout the country (in 
1434 ; ) the party of the council was directed 
with ability by a distinguished Bohemian, 
named Maynard : his schemes were at first 
advanced by dissensions which raged be- 
tween the Thaborites and the Orphans ; and 
he afterwards conducted matters with so 
much address, that he engaged them when 
united, and entirely overthrew them. On 
this occasion it so happened, that the most 
hardened and desperate among the insurgents 
fell alive into the power of the conquerors ; 
and as they were numerous, and objects, even 
in their captivity, of fearful apprehension, 
Maynard resolved to use artifice for their de- 
struction. Among the prisoners there were 
also several, who were innocent of any pre- 
vious campaigns against the Church, and 
who were neither hateful as rebels, nor dan- 
gerous as soldiers. These it was the design 
of the Catholics to spare ; and the better to 
distinguish them from the veterans of Zisca, 
they caused it to be proclaimed, that the gov- 
ernment intended to confer honors and pen- 
sions on the more experienced warriors, the 
heroes of so many fields. These were ac- 
cordingly invited to separate themselves fi-om 
their less deserving companions, and to with- 



nensis, Rokysan, and other distinguished reformers, 
belonged to them. But the Thaborites, who were 
the Puritans, and also the soldiers of the party, had 
Zisca with them, and the two Procopiuses — both 
eminent warriors — so that they were for some time 
the stronger faction. 

* Tot pingit calices Bohemorum Terra per urbes, 

Ut credas Bacchi numina sola coli — 

is a contemporary distich. It should be observed, 

that every other picture was an object of aversion, 

at least to the more rigid reformers. 



THE HUSSITES. 



475 



draw to some adjacent buildings, where 
more abundant entertainment and a worthier 
residence were prepared for them. They 
believed these promises ; and then it came 
to pass (says ^neas* Sylvius,) 'that many 
thousands of the Thaborites and Orphans en- 
tered the barns assigned to them ; they were 
men blackened, and inured and indurated 
against sun and wind ; hideous and horrible 
of aspect; who had lived in the smoke of 
camps ; with eagle eyes, locks uncombed, 
long beards, lofty stature, shaggy limbs, and 
skin so hardened and callous as to seem 
proof, like mail, against hostile weapons. The 
gates were immediately closed upon them ; 
fire was applied to the buildings ; and by 
their combustion, that ignominious band, the 
dregs and draff of the human race, at length 
made atonement in the flames, for the crimes 
which it had perpetrated, to the religion 
which it had insulted.'. . . Among the crimes 
with which the Thaborites are reproached, 
was there any more foul than that, by which 
they perished ? or can any deeper insult be 
cast on the religion of Christ, than to offer 
up human holocausts in his peaceful name ? 
In the balance of religious atrocities the mass 
of guilt must rest at last with those, who es- 
tablished the practice of violence, and conse- 
crated the principles of Antichrist. 

Compact of Iglau. — But the adversaries of 
Rome were not thus wholly extirpated : un- 
der the spiritual direction of Rokysan, they 
were still so considerable, that Sigismond did 
not disdain to negotiate with them. The 
result was, that a concordat or compact was 
concluded at Iglau in the year 1436, by 
which the Bohemians conceded almost all 
their claims; but in return, the use of the 
cup was conceded to them, not as an essen- 
tial practice, but only through the indulgence 
of the Church.f Some arrangement was 
likewise made respecting the ecclesiastical 
property, which had been despoiled by the 
rebels. This affair was conducted with the 
countenance of the Council. The first result 
was favorable ; and the contest with Rome 
might then, perhaps, have ceased ; the Bohe- 
mians, fatigued with tumult and bloodshed. 



might have returned to the obedience of the 
Church, contented with one almost nominal 
concession, if the chiefs of the hierarchy 
could have endured any independence of 
thought or action, any shadow of emancipa- 
tion from their immitigable despotism. For 
this was, in fact, the spirit which guided the 
Councils of Rome ; it was not the attachment 
to any particular tenet or ceremony, which 
moved her to so much rancor ; but it was 
her general hatred of intellectual freedom, 
and the just apprehensions with which she 
saw it directed to the affairs of the Church. 

In September, 1436, Sigismond made his 
entry into Prague, amid congratulations al- 
most universal ; and the calamities which 
had desolated the country for two-and-twenty 
years appeared to be at an end.* But the 
Pope refused his assent to the concordat ; he 
refused to confirm the appointment of Roky- 
san to the See of Prague, though the Empe- 
ror had promised it; and though all the 
factions of the people were united in desiring 
it. Wherever the guilt of the previous dis- 
sensions may have rested, henceforward we 
need not hesitate to impute it wholly to the 
Vatican. Legates and mendicant emissaries f 
continued to visit the country, and contend 
with the divines, and tamper with the people. 
Even Pius II., whose personal \ intercourse 



* Hist. Bohem., cap. li., ad finem. 

f The Council of Basle, in its thirtieth session, 
published its Decree on the Eucharist, in which are 
these words: — ' Sive autem sub una specie sive du- 
plici quis communicet, secundum ordinationem seu 
observationem Ecclesiee, proficit digne communicant- 
ibus ad salutem.' Cochlteus, lib. viii. p. 308. Com- 
municants might be saved according to either method, 
BO long- aa that method was sanctioned by the Church. 



* The appointment of a double administrator of 
the Sacrament in every Church, one for the Catholic, 
the other for the Separatist, was of somewhat later 
dale. Lenfant places it in 1441, and mentions that 
great good proceeded from it. 

f The most celebrated among these papal mission- 
aries was John Capistano, a Franciscan, who had 
gained great distinction in a spiritual campaign 
against the Fratricelli in the Campagna di Roma 
and March of Ancona, and had condemned thirty- 
six of them to the flames. ... He is described by 
Cochlseus (lib. x. ad finem) as a little emaciated old 
man, full of fire and enthusiasm, and indefatigable in 
the service of the Church, The year of his exertions 
in Bohemia was 1451. Such emissaries were in those 
days among the most useful tools of the Roman hie- 
rarchy. 

X It was in 1451 that ^neas Sylvius made his 
celebrated visit to Bohemia, as imperial envoy. His 
mission was merely political; but it deserves our 
notice from tiie very interesting description which he 
has drawn of the manners of the Thaborites, among 
whom he found an asylum when in some danger from 
bandits: — 'It was a spectacle worthy of attention. 
They were a rustic and disorderly crew, yet desirous 
to appear civilized. It was cold and rainy. Some 
of them were destitute of all covering except their 
shirts; some wore tunics of skin; some had no sad- 
dle, others no reins, others no spurs. One had a 
boot on his leg, another none. One wag deprived of 



476 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



with the sectarians had not softened his ec- 
clesiastical indignation at their disobedience, 
exhibited in his negotiations with Pogebrac,* 
the king, an intolerant and resentful spirit. 
And at length Paul II., his successor, once 
more found means to hght up a long and 
deadly war in the infected country. It was 
considered, no doubt, as a stigma upon the 
Church, which all occasions and instruments 
were proper to efface, that a single sect should 
anywhere exist, which dared to differ from 
the faith or practice of Rome on a single 
article, and which maintained its difference 
with inpunity. 

TJie Bohemian brothers. — It was in 1466 
that Paul II. excommunicated and deposed 
Pogebrac, and transferred the kingdom to 
the son of Huniades. In that object he was 
not successful ; but during the discords of 
almost thirty years which followed, the 
offensive names of Thaborite, Orphan, and 
even Hussite, gradually disappeared, and the 
open resistance to the Catholic predominance 
became fainter and fainter. But the princi- 



a.n eye, another of a hand; and to use the expression 
of Virgil, it was unsightly to behold 

populataque tetnpora raptis 

Auribus et truncos inhonesto vulnere nares. 

There was no regularity in their march, no constraint 
in their conversation ; they received us in a barbarous 
tind rustic manner. Nevertheless, they offered us 
hospitable presents of fish, wine and beer. . . On the 
outer gate of the city were two shields; on one of 
them was a representation of an angel holding a cup: 
as it were to exhort the people to this communion in 
wine, — on the other Zisca was painted an old man, 
blind of both eyes . . whom the Thaboriles followed, 
not only after he had lost one eye, but when he became 
a perfectly blind leader. Nor was there any incon- 
sistency in the, etc' — (See his 130th Letter.) In 
the meantime these wild and unseemly sectarians 
nourished in their rude abodes opinions, which were 
the glory of the following age, but which were indeed 
pernicious to themselves. Exactly seven years after 
the visit of JEneas Sylvius, the King of Bohemia, 
Pogebrac, willing to bring them to more moderate 
sentiments of reform, summoned a General Council 
of Hussites, who condemned some of their tenets; 
and then, on their refusal to abjure them, the King 
assaulted Thabor, and destroyed them (as it is relat- 
ed) with such scrupulous exactness, that not one was 
left alive. 

* Pogebrac was a moderate reformer, a Calixtine; 
he was extremely anxious to be subject to the Church, 
on the condition only, that it would leave him the 
cup: he had been brought up, as he said, in that prac- 
tice, and would never resign it. His persecution of 



pies were so far from having expired in this 
conflict, that they came forth from it in 
greater purity, and with a show of vigor 
and consistency, which did not at first disdn- 
guish them. Early in the ensuing century, 
about the year 1504, a body of sectarians, 
under the name of the ' United Brethren of 
Bohemia,' begins to attract the historian's 
notice. Beausobre * affirms, that this associ- 
ation was originally formed m the year 1467 ; 
that it separated itself at that time from the 
Catholics and Calixtines, and instituted a 
new ministry ; that it made ai)plication to the 
Vaudois, in order to receive through them 
the true apostolical ordination ; and that Ste- 
phen, a bishop of that persuasion, did actually 
ordain Matthew^ the first bishop of the 'Uni- 
ted Brethren.' It is unquestionable, that 
those among the Thaborites, and the other 
more determined dissenters, who had escaped 
the perils of so many disasters, continued 
with uncompromising constancy to feed and 
mature the tenets for which they had suf- 
fered ; and that many of the leading articles 
of the Reformation were anticipated and 
preserved by the ' Bohemian Brothers.' It is 
also true, that the evangelical principles of 
their faith were not unmixed with some 
erroneous notions ; but it is no less certain, 
that when Luther was engaged in the accom- 
plishment of his mission, he was welcomed 
by a numerous body of hereditary reformers, 
who rejected, and whose ancestors had reject- 
ed, the sacrifice of the mass, purgatory, tran- 
substantiation, prayers for the dead, the 
adoration of images ; and who confirmed 
their spiritual emancipation by renouncing 
the authority of the Pope.f 

the Thaborites sufficiently proves how far he was 
from any anti-ecclesiastical tendency. Yet he seems 
to have been as much hated at Rome, as if he had 
gone to the full extent of opposition, and he was 
certainly much less feared. The Pope had still a 
powerful party among the aristocracy of Bohemia. 

* Dissertation sur les Adamites. Part I. 

t Bossuel (in the eleventh chapter of his Variations) 
consumes his ingenuity in endeavoring to show that 
the ' Bohemian Brethren ' were descended from the 
Calixtines, not from the Thaborites, and had thus 
only one point of doctrinal difference with Rome. 
But, at the same time, he admits their disobedience 
— * Voila comme ils sont disciples de Jean Huss. 
Morceau rompu d'un morceau, schisme separe d'un 
schisme — Hussites divises des Hussites ; et qui n'en 
avoient presque retenu, que la desobeissance et la 
rupture avec I'Eglise Romaine.' 



THE GREEK CHURCH. 



477 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

History of the Greek Church after its Separation 
from the Latin. 

Origin, progress, and sufferings of the Paulicians — They 
are transplanted to Thrace, and the opinions gain some 
prevalence there — Their differences from the Manich- 
aens— and from the Church— Six specific errors charg- 
ed against them by the latter— Examined — Points of 
resemblance between the Paulicians and the Hussites — 
Mysticism at no time extinct in the East — and generally 
instrumental to piety — Introduction of the mystical 
books into the West — Opinions of the Echites or Mes- 
salians — Those of the Hesychasts or Quietists— who 
are accused before a Council, and acquitted — The 
mixed character of the heresy of the Bogomiles — Con- 
troversy respecting the God of Mahomet — terminated by 
a compromise — Points of distinction between the two 
Churches — Imperial supremacy constant in the East — 
Absence of feudal institutions — Superior civilization of 
the Greeks — They never received the False Decretals, 
nor suffered from their consequences — Passionate re- 
verence for antiquity — Animosity against the Latins — 
Hopes from foundation of the Latin kingdom of Jerusa- 
lem — Its real consequences — Establishment of a Latin 
Church in the East — Influence of the military orders — 
Legates a latere — Latin conquest of Constantinople — 
confirmed by Innocent III. — A Latin Church planted 
and endowed at Constantinople — Tithes — Dissensions 
of the Latin Ecclesiastics — Increasing animosity be- 
tween the Greeks and Latins — Secession of the Greek 
hierarchy to Nice — Mission from Rome to Nice — Sub- 
'ectand heat of the controversy, and increased rancor — 
John of Parma subsequently sent by Innocent IV. — 
Extinction of the Latin empire — The Church does not 
still withdraw its claims — Subsequent negotiations 
between the Emperor and the Pope — Confession of 
Clement IV. — Conduct of the Oriental Clergy — Am- 
bassadors from the East to the Second Council of 
Lyons — Concession of the Emperor presently disavow- 
ed by the Clergy and People — Subsequent attempts at 
reconciliation — Arrival of the Emperor and Patriarch 
at Ferrara — First proceedings of the Council — Private 
deliberations by Members of the two churches — The 
four grand Subjects of Division — The Dispute on Purgji- 
tory — Doctrine of the Latins — of the Greeks — First 
Session of the Council — Grand disputations on the 
Procession — The Council adjourned to Florence, and 
the same Discussions repeated there — Suggestions of 
compromise by the Emperor, to which the Greeks 
finally assent — The Common Confession of Faith — A 
Treaty, by which the Pope engages to furnish Supplies 
to the Emperor— The Union is then ratified— The man- 
ner in which the other differences, as the Azyms, 
Purgatory, and the Pope's Primacy, are arranged — 
Difficulty as to the last — How far the subject of Tran- 
substantiation was treated at Florence. On the fate of 
Cardinal Julian — Return of the Greeks — Their angry 
reception — Honors paid to Mark of Ephesus — Insubor- 
dination of three Patriarchs — Russia also declares 
against the Union— Critical situation of the Emperor— 
The opposite Party gains ground— The prophetic ad- 
dress of Nicholas V. to the Emperor Constantine — Per- 
versity and Fanaticism of the Greek Clergy — They 
open Negotiations with the Bohemians — Tumult at 
Constantinople against the Emperor and the Pope's 
Legate— Fall of Constantinople — JVote. On the Arme- 
nians—and Maronites. 

While the jealousies, which had so long 
disturbed the ecclesiastical concord of the 
east and west, were ripened into open schism 
by the mutual violence of Nicholas and Pho- 



tius,* the Eastern Church was in the crisis 
of a dangerous contest with a domestic foe. 
A sect of heretics named Paulicians had 
arisen in the seventh century, and gained 
great prevalence in the Asiatic provinces, 
especially Armenia. It was in vain that 
they were assailed by imperial edicts and 
penal inflictions. Constans, Justinian IL, 
and even Leo the Isaurian successively chas- 
tised their errors or their contumacy ; but 
they resisted with inflexible fortitude, until 
at length Nicephorus, in the beginning of the 
ninth century, relented from the system of 
his predecessors, and restored the factious 
dissenters to their civil privileges, and re- 
ligious liberty. 

During this transient suspension of their 
sufferings, they gained strength to endure 
others, more protracted and far more violent. 
The oppressive edicts were renewed by 
Michael Curopalates, and redoubled by Leo 
the Armenian ; as if that resolute Iconoclast 
wished to make amends to bigotry, for his 
zeal in the internal purification of the Church, 
by his rancor against its sectarian seceders. 
The struggles, the victories, and the misfor- 
tunes of that persecuted race are eloquently 
unfolded in the pages of Gibbon : we shall 
not transfer the narrative to this history, for 
it belongs not to our purpose to trace the de- 
tails even of religious warfare. It may suf- 
fice to say, that the sword, which was re- 
sumed by the enemy of the Images, was 
most fiercely wielded by their most ardent 
patroness ; and that, during the fourteen years 
of the reign of Theodora, about 100,000 
Paulicians are believed to have perished by 
various methods of destruction. The conflict 
lasted till nearly the end of the century ; and, 
at length, the survivors either sought for ref- 
uge under the government of the Saracens, 
or were transplanted by the conqueror into 
the yet uncontaminated provinces of Bulgaria 
and Thrace. ' But not thus were the doctrines 
silenced, or the spirit extinguished. The 
fierce exiles carried with them into their new 
habitations the sectarian and proselytizing 
zeal; and the errors of the East soon took 
root and flourished in a ruder soil. During 
the tenth and eleventh centuries the Pauli- 
cians of Thrace were sufficiently numerous 
to be objects of suspicion, if not of fear ; and 
in the latter we find it recorded, that Alexius 
Comnenus did not disdain to employ the 
talents and learning, with which he adorned 
the purple, in personal controversy with the 

* We refer the reader to the 12th chapter of thia 

Histoi-y. 



478 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



heretical doctors. Many are related to have 
yielded to the force of the imperial eloquence ; 
many also resigned their opinions on the 
milder compulsion of rewards and dignities ; 
but those who, being unmoved by either in- 
fluence, pertinaciously persisted in error and 
disloyalty, were corrected by the moderate 
exercise of despotic authority.* 

After this period we find little mention of 
the Pauhcian sect in the annals of the Ori- 
ental Church. But we should remark that 
Armenia, the province of its biith, was never 
afterwards cordially reconciled to the See of 
Constantinople ; and that, though it no longer 
fostered that particular heresy, it continued 
to nourish some seeds of disaffection, which 
frequently recommended it in later ages to 
the interested affection of the Vatican.f 

Opinions of the Paulicians. — It is generally 
much easier to describe the fortunes of a 
suffering sect than to ascertain the offence for 
which they suffered. The resistance of the 
Paulicians, their bravery, theii* cruelty, their 
overthrow, are circumstances of unquestion- 
able assurance ; the particulars of their opin- 
ions are disputed. By their enemies, they 
were at once designated as Manichaeans — it 
was the name most obnoxious to the Eastern 
as well as the Western Communion : yet, if 
we may credit contemporary testimony,! they 



* They were removed to Constantinople, and plac- 
ed in a sort of honorable exile in the immediate 
precincts of the imperial palace. Anna Comnena 
(Alexiad, b. xiv.) describes with filial ardor her 
father's zeal and patience in converting these Mani- 
cheans. Toig i.uv onXoig rovg ^aq^uqovg iriy.a, 
roig 8e loyoig i;(£iQovro rovg aiTi&sovg. wontQ 
St tore y.ara Twv Mavi/aiiav i^ojTcliOTo, arcoaro- 
XixijV avrl Grqary]Yiy.yig avaSn^autvog orycoviav — y.ai 
syoiys TOVTov ToioxaiSixaxov av ccTr6<JTo?.ov bvou- 
acaifii . . . ccTto TCiJUitag ovv (■UXQ'- ^^i-^V? «w«? 1^' 
xal sOTtiqag, ioriv ov xai SevrtQag xai rgiriig 
tpv^ax^g rijg vvxrbg usru7T£U7tousvog avrovg, &c. 
&c. 

t See the Note at the end of this chapter. 

i ' lidem sunt (says Petrus Siculus, page 764) nee 
quicquam divertunt h. Manichaeis PauUiciani, qui hasce 
recens a se procusas hrereses prioribus assuerunt, et 
ex sempiterno exitii barathro effoderunt: qui,tametsi 
se a ManichcBorum impuritatibus alienos dictitant, 
sunt tamen dogmatum ipsorum vigilantissimi custodes, 
&c.' ' Historia de Manichaeis;' a Latin translation 
of which is published in the Maxima Bibliotheca 
Patrum Veterum; torn, xvi., ann. 860 — 900. The 
expressions of Photius are ' Mr^Ssig 8' biiad^w qitrig 
eXtQug ^JLuOryji^ia slvai, naq^ y,v iSoltwOsv 6 -dsou- 
axo? Muv7]g, rijV TvaQacpvuSa Tavrrjv ri^v dvaoe^cov 
SsQY'tov doyauTtxiv f.iia yti^ ton y.al ij avri^, &c.' 
(^Ji)',Y7}0ig, &c., published in the Bibliotheca Cois- 
liana (Paris, 1715) page 349. 



earnestly disclaimed tlie imputation. The 
truth is, that they are only known, like so 
many other sects, through the representations 
of their adversaries.* These have been in- 
vestigated by Mosheimf with his usual care 
and impartiality, and the result of his inquiry 
may be received with as much confidence 
as is consistent with the nature of the evi- 
dence. 

The m.ost obvious difference between the 
Paulicians and Manichaeans related to the 
ecclesiastical profession and discipline. The 
former rejected the government by bishops, 
priests, and deacons ( to which the Mani- 
chaeans adhered,) and admitted no order or 
individuals set apart by exclusive consecra- 
tion for spiritual, offices. Neither did the au- 
thority of councils or synods enter into their 
system of religious polity. They had, indeed 
certain doctors, called Synecdemi^ or Notarii _ 
but these were not distinguished by any pe- 
culiar dignities or privileges, either from each 
other or from the body of the people. The 
only singularity attending their appointment 
was, that they changed, on that occasion, 
their lay for scriptural names. They received 
all the books of the New Testament, except 
the two Epistles of St. Peter ; and the copies 
of the Gospel in use among them were the 
same with those authorised by the Church, 
and free from the numerous interpolations 
imputed to the Manichaeans. 

The peculiarities already mentioned may 
appear alone sufficient to have excited the 
animosity of the established clergy of the 
East ; but these were by no means the only 
offences objected to the Paulicians by the 
Church writers. These last, without pro- 
fessing to give a perfect delineation of the 
monstrous system of the Heretics, are con- 
tented to charge them with six detestable 
errors: 1. That they denied that either the 
visible world or the human body was the 
production of the Supreme Being ; and dis- 
tinguished their Creator from the most High 
God who dwells in the heavens. 2. That 
they treated contemptuously the Virgin Mary. 
3. That they disparaged the nature and insti- 



* The books from which our best accounts of the 
Paulicians are derived, are Photius (Ji/jYtjoig tmv 
vioipuiT(x}v 3lavixccivjv yara^XaOTi'iOBajg) , and Petrus 
Siculus (Historia de Manichaeis). By the account 
of Petrus Siculus we learn, that, in the year 870, un- 
der the reign of Basilus the Macedonian, he was sent 
as ambassador to the Paulicians at Tibrica, to treat 
with them concerning the exchange of prisoners, and 
that he lived among them for nine months. 

t Cent. ix. p. 2. chap. v. 



THE GREEK CHURCH. 



479 



tution of the Lord's Supper. * 4. That they 
loaded the cross of Christ with contempt and 
reproach. 5. That they rejected, after the 
example of the greatest part of the Gnostics, 
the books of the Old Testament, and looked 
upon the writers of the Sacred History as 
inspired by the Creator of the world, not by 
the Supreme God. 6. That they excluded 
Presbyters and Elders from all part in the 
administration of the Church.f 

We are, of course, bound to receive these 
articles with suspicion, as the allegations of 
an enemy. Still they had, unquestionably, 
some foundation. The first and fifth are 
sufficient to prove that the Paulicians main- 
tained some opinions resembling those of 
Ma&es. It seems, indeed, most probable that 
they were descended from some one of the 
ancient Gnostic sects, which, though diver- 
sified in many particular, all professed one 
common characteristic. Again, whether or 
not they believed the eternity of matter is 
questionable ; but it was seemingly their opin- 
ion that matter was the seat and source of 
all evil ; and that, when endued with life and 
motion, it had produced an active principle, 
which was the cause of vice and misery. 
Respecting the thii'd charge, it appears that, in 
their passion for the allegorical interpretation 
of Scripture, they attached merely a figurative 
sense to the bread and wine administered 
by Christ at the last supper, understanding 
thereby a spiritual food and nourishment 
for the soul. The second and fourth evince 
their freedom from some of the popular su- 
perstitions of the Greeks — adoration of the 
Virgin, and reverence for the fancied relics 
of the Cross ; and this, again, had alone been 
crime sufficient to arm against them, in the 



* The words of Petrus Siculus are — * Quod divinam 
et tremendam corporis et sangviinis Domini nostri 
conversionem negent, aliaque dehoc mysterio doceant 
— A Domino nempe non panem et vinum in coena dis- 
cipulis propinatura, sed figurate symbola tanttim et 
verba, tanqiiam panem et vinum, data.' In the arti- 
cle following — ' Quod formam et vim venerandae et 
vivificae crucis non solum non agnoscant, sed infinitis 
etiam contumeliis onerent.' The six articles thus 
stated by Petrus Siculus are given by Photius in the 
same order, and with no very important alteration or 
addition: only, the patriarch increases the list by the 
charge of the most abandoned obscenity and pro- 
fligacy. 

t The Sicilian elsewhere admits that the Paulicians 
professed the principal Catholic doctrines; but aliter 
ore, aliter corde. These mental heresies, so gra- 
tuitously imputed v^•here every outward proof is want- 
ing, are the most wicked invention of ecclesiastical 
rancor. 



eighth and ninth centuries, the intemperate 
zealots of the Oriental Church. Add to this, 
that they held the images of the Saints in no 
reverence, and recommended to every class 
of the people the assiduous study of the sa- 
cred volume ; not suppressing their indigna- 
tion against the Greeks, who closed the 
sources of divine knowledge against all, ex- 
cept the priests*. . . These various subjects 
of difference duly considered, we shall not 
wonder that the Paulicians became the vic- 
tims of the most deadly persecution which 
ever disgraced the Eastern Church. And 
since they were, in some manner, the reform- 
ers of then- time, and as their zeal was in- 
discriminately directed as well against the 
sacerdotal order as against the corruptions 
introduced or supported by it, the Schisma- 
tics of Armenia resembled, both in their prin 
ciples and their excesses, the Bohemians of 
the fifteenth age. The resemblance was in- 
creased by the violent means which were in 
both cases adopted to crush them, and which 
were resisted with the same ferocious he- 
roism by both. Nor were their concluding 
destinies very different ; for, though the sect 
of the Paulicians was at length expatriated, 
and finally extinguished or forgotten in the 
Bulgarian deserts, the Christians of Ar- 
menia never afterwards returned with any 
fidelity to the communion from which they 
had been so violently dissevered. 

Mysticism prevalent in the East. — Amidst 
the metaphysical disputes which agitated the 
Greeks in the sixth and seventh centuries, 
that strong disposition to mysticism, which is 
peculiarly congenial with the oriental char- 

* A considerable proportion of the work of Petrus 
Siculus is consumed in describing the process, by 
which the mind of Sergius or Constantine, the foun- 
der of the sect, was corrupted by the seductions of a 
Manichaean woman. The following is an important 
specimen of the dialogue (page 761): ' Audio, Domine 
Sergi, te literarum scientia et erudiiioue preestantem 
esse, et bonum prseterea virum usquequaque. Die 
ergo mihi, cur non legis sacra Evangelial Qui- 
bus ille ita respondit. Nobis profanis ista legere 
non licet, sed sacerdotibus duntaxat. At ilia — 
Non est ita ut putas ; nee enim personarum acceptio 
est apud Deum. Omnes siquidera homines vult salvos 
fieri Dominus et ad agni tionem veritalis venire. At 
sacerdotes vestri, quoniam Dei verbum adulterant et 
raysteria occulunt, quae in Evangeliis continentur, 
idcirco, vobis audientibus omnia non legunt quae 
scripta sunt, &c. It is related that Constantine re- 
ceived from a deacon, in return for some acts of hos- 
pitality, the present of the New Testament. Thus it 
appears that, before the middle of the seventh century, 
the Eastern clergy had effectually shut up the sources 
of sacred knowledge. 



480 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



acter, gave frequent proofs of its activity, 
though it never became the predominant 
spirit. It was principally cherished in the 
monastic establishments ; and when free from 
the strange notions into which it not uncom- 
monly seduced irregular minds, it gave birth, 
without any doubt, to much genuine and ar- 
dent piety. But in the course of ecclesiasti- 
cal history, through a painful necessity per- 
petually imposed upon its writer, it is by the 
excesses of piety rather than its natural and 
ordinary fruits, fey the abuses of religion 
rather than its daily and individual uses and 
blessings, that attention is fixed and curiosity 
excited. In the civil and political records 
of nations the exploits of patriotism and the 
deeds which throw dignity on human nature, 
are proclaimed and celebrated, because they 
were performed in the public fields of re- 
nown, with kings and nations for their wit- 
nesses. But in a religious society the purest 
characters are commonly those, which shun 
celebrity and court oblivion. The noblest 
patriots in the kingdom of Christ are men 
who serve their Heavenly Master in holiness 
and in peace. They have their eternal re- 
compense ; but it is rare that they rise into 
worldly notice, or throw theu' modest lustre 
on the historic page. 

On this account it is, that, while the absur- 
dities of mysticism are commonly known and 
derided, the good effect which it has had, in 
turning the mind to spiritual resolves and 
amending the heart of multitudes imbued with 
itj is generally overlooked. We cannot now 
recall the names, or publish the pious acts or 
aspirations, which have been concealed or 
forgotten ; yet may we approach, in a spirit 
of benevolence, the follies which have been 
so carefully recorded ; and while we pursue 
with unsparing denunciation the crimes of ! 
ecclesiastical hypocrites — the ambition, the 
frauds, the avarice, the bigotry of a secular 
hierarchy — we may pass with haste and com- 
passion over the errors and extravagances 
of piety. 

Euchites or Messcdians. — Mosheim* as- 
cribes the introduction of the mystical theol- 
ogy into the Western Church to a copy of the 
pretended works of Dionysius the Areopa- 
gite, sent by the Emperor Michael Balbus to 
Lewis the Meek. Whether this be true or 
not, it was certainly in the East that those 
opinions were most prevalent, not in earlier 
only, but also in later ages. It is particularly 

* Cent. ix. p. 2, chap. iii. The works of Diony- 
sius, though long received as genuine, are a palpable 
forgery, probably of llie fifth century. 



recorded, that, in the twelfth century, nu- 
merous fanatics disturbed the unity and re- 
pose of the Oriental Church by errors pro- 
ceeding from those principles. It is said that 
they rejected every form of external worship, 
all the ceremonies, and even the sacraments 
of the Church ; that they placed the whole 
essence of religion in internal prayer ; and 
maintained that in the breast of every mortal 
an evil genius presided, against which no 
force nor expedient was availing, except unre- 
mitted prayer and supplication. One Lycop- 
etrus is believed to have founded this sect, 
and to have been succeeded by a disciple 
named Tychicus; and their followers were 
presently known throughout the East by the 
denomination of Euchites, or Messalians,* 
Men of Prayer. The term was considered 
ignominious ; and it presently came generally 
into use to designate all who were adverse to 
the persons of the clergy, or the system of 
the Church. The Churchmen of the West 
were at the same period beginning to employ 
the terms Waldenses and Albigenses with the 
same latitude and for the same purpose; 
and as,, in the one instance, we are well as- 
sured that many holy individuals were in- 
volved in the indiscriminate scandal, so also 
may the seeds of a purer worship have lurked 
in the barren bosom of the Messalian heresy. 
Hesychasts, or Quietists. — Two centuries 
afterwards, the eye of Barlaam, an inquisitive 
ecclesiastic, sharpened by much intercourse 
with the hierarchy of the West, detected, in 
the monasteries of Mount Athos, a very sin- 
gular form of fanaticism. A sect of persons 
was their discovered, who belieVed that, 
through a process of intense contemplation, 
they had attained the condition of perfect and 
heavenly repose. The method of their con- 
templation is conveyed in the following in- 
structions, handed down to them, as it would 
seem, from the eleventh century :f — 'Being 
alone in thy cell, close the door, and seat 
thyself in the corner. Raise thy spirit above 
all vain and transient things ; repose thy beard 
on thy breast, and turn thine eyes with thy 
whole power of meditation upon thy navel. 
Retain thy breath, and search in thine entrails 
for the place of thy heart, wherein all the 



* This was, in fact, only the revival of an ancient 
heresy, condemned, under the same name and proba- 
bly for the same errors, by the Council of Aniioch, 
held towards the end of the fourth age. See Fleury, 
1. xix. s. 25, 26, and 1. xcv. s. 9. 

t It is found in a spiritual treatise of Simon, abbot 
of the monastery of Xerocerka, at Constantinople, 
and is cited by Fleury, 1. xcv. s. 9. 



THE GREEK CHURCH. 



481 



powers of the soul reside. At first thou wilt 
encounter thick darkness ; but by persevering 
night and day thou wilt find a marvellous and 
uninterrupted joy ; for as soon as thy spirit 
shall have discovered the place of thy heart, 
it will perceive itself luminous and full of 
discernment.' When interrogated respecting 
the nature of this light, they replied that it 
was the glory of God ; the same which sur- 
rounded Christ during the transfiguration. 
These enthusiasts were originally called 
Hesychasts, or, in Latin, Quietists ; they after- 
wards obtained the name of Ouipa/.oipvxoi, or 
Umbilicani, 'men whose souls are in their 
navels.' They were also known by that of 
Thaborites, from theii- belief respecting the 
nature of their divine light. 

It might seem beneath the dignity of 
history to waste a thought or a sigh on such 
pure fanaticism. Yet such was it not con- 
sidered in the age in which it rose ; but it 
occupied, on the contrary, the solemn con- 
sideration of courts and councils. Barlaam 
officiously denounced the heresy to the Pa- 
triarch of Constantinople. The Metropolitan 
was astounded, and instantly summoned the 
Hesychasts into his presence. As they argued 
with confidence, a Council was thought ne- 
cessary to decide so grave a controversy ; but 
the Emperor Andronicus hesitated to convoke 
it, and strongly recommended to both parties 
silence and reconciliation. Hovvbeit, the po- 
lemics persisted ; the Emperor yielded ; and 
the Council was assembled.* The Archbish- 
op of Thessalonica, Gregory Palamas, advo- 
cated the cause of the Thaborites ; and^ what 
might astonish even those most familiar with 
the triumphs of religious extravagance, he 
succeeded. Nay, so signal was his success, 
that the accuser thought it expedient to retire 
fix)m the country and return to Italy. . . . 
The controversy was soon afterwards renew- 
ed, and became the occasion of other councils, 
which agreed without exception in the con- 
demnation of the Barlaamites. But the ques- 
tion had now assumed a more general form ; 
the Quietism of the Monks of Mount Athos 
was no longer the subject of dispute ; it 
ascended to the mysterious inquiry, whether 
the eternal light with which God was encir- 
cled, which might be called his energy or 
operation, and which was manifested to the 
disciples on Mount Thabor, was distinct from 
his nature and essence, or identified with it ? f 

* It was held on June 11, 1341, and the Emperor 
presided in person, together with the Patriarch and 
many of the nobility of the empire. 

t See Mosheira, Cent. xiv. p. 2, ch. v. 
61 



The former was the opinion of the pious 
Archbishop Palamas. It grew gradually to 
be considered as the more reasonable tenet, 
and finally took its place, after a series of 
solemn deliberations, among the dogmas of 
the Oriental Church. 

Bogomiles. — We must notice one or two 
other disputes, of greater notoriety than im- 
portance, which occasioned some transient 
agitation in the East. A monk named Ba- 
silius was burnt in the Hippodrome during 
the reign of Alexius Comnenus for opinions 
which he refused, on repeated solicitation, to 
renounce.* They are known to us only fi*om 
his enemies. He is said to have maintained 
that the world and all its inhabitants were 
the creation of an evil and degraded demon, 
so that the body was no better than the prison 
house of the immortal spirit: wherefore, it 
became man to enervate and subject it by 
fasting, prayer, and contemplation, and there- 
by to redeem the soul from its degrading 
cai)tivity. This Heresiarch had many fol- 
lowers, who were called Bogomiles — as it is 
said, from a Mysian word signifying ' the in- 
vocation of divine mercy.' These sectarians 
also denied, with the Phantastics, the reality 
of the body of Christ ; while, with the Gnos- 
tics, they rejected the law of Moses. Upon 
the whole, it would seem that theii* creed 
was formed by an infusion of mysticism into 
the leading Paulician tenets — a combination 
which it was natural to expect in an age, 
when the latter were still in some repute, 
and in a Church, wherein the former never 
wholly lost its influence, f 

About the same time, the same Alexius 
Comnenus was compelled to apply to the 
exigencies of the state some of the figures 
which adorned the churches. Leo, Bishop 
of Chalcedon, loudly exclaimed against the 
sacrilege, asserting that the images were en- 
dued with some portion of inhererd sanctity. 



* ""O 8e TTQog anaoav riuwQiav xui aTCsU7,v 
y.afacpQoriiriiibg y.arscfairsTo. ovrs ya§ to nvQ 
xurtuuku^e ri^v OiSjjquv avrov ipv/i^r, ovrs at rod 
jlvroy.Qucroqog Jiqog avrov diaTZOfiTiiuol diccij.rjrv<}eig 
xariSi?.^av. The people demanded the execution 
of all his followers, but the Emperor was contented 
with a single victim. See the Alexiad. book xx- 

t Anna Comnena's expression is, rb rwv Boyou Utot 
Soyua, ix MaoaaliavMV y.ai Mavixai^'f' ovyy.i'iuB'- 
rov. That orthodox princess vituperates in very 
strong language tlie persons, the practices, and the 
opinions of the Bogomiles, and relates how the here- 
siarch was one night stoned by demons while reposing 
in his cell. She also particularizes an error respect- 
ing the Eucharist ; but is not otherwise very specific 
in her charges^ 



452 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



The monks re-echoed the charge, and a coun- 
cil was in consequence assembled at Constan- 
tinople. It decided that images had only a 

relative worship [a;(STiy.cog nQooy.wovufv ov 
kaTQsvrixMg ruq tixovac) ; and that it was offer- 
ed not to the substance of the matter^ but to 
the form and features, of which they bear the 
impression ; that the representatives of Christ, 
whether in painting or sculpture, did not 
partake of the nature of Christ, though en- 
riched by a certain communication of divine 
gi'ace ; and lastly, that invocations were to be 
addressed to the saints only as servants of 
Christ in their relation to their master. This 
moderate exposition of the doctrine did not, 
however, satisfy the Bishops, who persisted 
iu their lofty notions, until the secular au- 
thority interposed to repress them.* 

The God of Mahomet, — The curious learn- 
ing of Manuel Comnenus gave birth, in the 
twelfth century, to several frivolous disputes. 
There is, however, one which deserves some 
notice, as well fi-om the singularity of its 
subject as from the spirit in which it was 
conducted and concluded. The catechisms 
of the Greek Church contained a standing 
anathema against the God of Mahomet. 
Through the imperfect comprehension of an 
Arabic word, the Greeks represented that 
Being as solid and spherical,] and consequent- 
ly not an object of spiritual adoration. As 
this anathema tended to add irritation to the 
subsisting animosity, and offended especially 
such. Mahometans as had embraced, or were 
disposed to embrace, the Christian faith, the 
Emperor ordered it to be erased from the pub- 
lic ritual. The doctors and dignitaries were 
scandahzed at the rashness of the innovation ;, 
they entered eagerly into the most abstruse 
inquiries respecting the nature of the Deity ; 
they condemned the imperial decree, and the 
purple itself was an insufficient shelter against 
the imputation of heresy, t But an imperial 
heretic will never be destitute of supporters ; 
and the contest was carried on with the ac- 
customed vehemence and rancor. In this, 
as in most other controversies, a moderate 



* Mosh,, c. xi., p. 2, cb. iii^ 

\ '^ OXoOcpaiQog. Tlie Arabic word, wbicb bears 
tbat signification^ aJso signifies eternaL 

^ Hildebrand himself, in an earlier age, bad made 
himself, liable to the same imputation. In a letter to 
the King of Morocco, expressing thanks for the liber- 
ation of sonm Christian captives, he expressed his 
conviction that the King had been moved thereto by 
the spirit of God; and that both he and the infidel 
worshipped the same God, though the modes of their 
adoration and faith were different. This is mention- 
ed by Mills in Ills History of tbe Crusades. 



party interposed and proffered a project of 
conciliation ; but in this, unlike the usual 
fortune of theological conflicts, the moderate 
party prevailed. A council was assembled ; 
and, after an angiy and protracted struggle, 
the Bishops at length consented to the fol- 
lowing compromise : — ' That the anathema 
should keep its place in the ritual, but that 
its object should be changed from the God 
of Mahomet to Mahomet himself. ' On these 
conditions the fathers retired, authorized to 
denounce the impostor, but compelled to 
spare the Deity. 

Essential distinctions between the two 
Churches. — In resuming, after so long an 
interval, the history of the Oriental Church, 
it becomes necessary to recur to some of the 
leading principles of its constitution, and to 
notice the material feature by which it was 
early distinguished^ as it is still distinguished, 
from its Roman rival. And as we have 
before traced the connexion of those cammu- 
nions until the beginning of the schism, and 
as we now propose shortly to describe the 
principal attempts which were made to reu- 
nite them, it is proper to observe the different 
ground on which they stood, that we may 
truly estimate the difficulty of those attempts \ 
for, though the matters of doctrinal dispute 
may be reduced to a few articles, and though 
the differences on discipline and government 
might seem to be virtually absorbed in one 
— the supremacy of the Pope — nevertheless, 
the numerous diversities which subsisted in 
all the principles, as well as the economy, of 
the two establishments, threw impediments 
in the way of reconciliation, which, though 
not always in sight, were ever in active ope- 
ration. 

In the first place, we may mention the 
firm, uninterrupted maintenance of the im- 
perial supremacy. While the pontiffs of the 
West were first securing their emancipation, 
and then asserting their pre-eminence over 
every secular authority, the Greek ecclesias- 
tics were the subjects of the civil magistrate ; 
they were translated, deposed, or even exe- 
cuted, at his undisputed control ; and what- 
ever wealth or influence they may have 
obtained, they were never able to withdraw 
themselves from the temporal yoke, nor to 
establish, like their Latin brethren, a distinct 
and independent republic* Hence it results 
that the individuals who composed the higher 
order of the clergy, were essentially different 
in the two communions ; different in their 
personal habits, in their private views, in 



See Gibbon, chap. liii. 



THE GREEK CHURCH. 



483 



their public estimation of the sacerdotal cha- 
racter, and the true polity of the Church. 

How much more widely was this distinc- 
tion extended by the absence in the East of 
all feudal institutions, and of the character 
which they so deeply impressed upon every 
order, and almost every individual, living 
under them! That patrimonial jurisdiction 
by which public justice became private pro- 
perty ; the secular pomp and appendages of 
baronial state ; and, above all, the practice 
of military achievement, were circumstances 
unknown to the hierarchy of the East. They 
viewed with astonishment the temporal great- 
ness of the apostolical successors ; they con- 
demned it with justice and seeming sincerity ; 
and the envy, which may have mingled with 
that condemnation, rendered it the more se- 
vere and malevolent. 

Notwithstanding the literary degeneracy 
and languor of the Greeks, their supei-stitious 
reverence for the ancient models, the sei-vility 
with which they copied without daring to 
emulate — though it be true that 'in the revo- 
lution of ten centuries not a single discovery 
was made to exalt the dignity or promote 
the happiness of mankind, not a single idea 
added to the speculative systems of antiquity' 
— yet was it something in those baiTcn ages, 
to admire, to copy, to praise, even to possess 
the noblest monuments of human genius. 
And, though they lay fruidess in the hands 
of their possessors, and unproductive of any 
original effort or bold imitation, yet were 
they not without effect in diffusing light and 
information, and in raising the people, by 
which they were cultivated however imper- 
fectly, far above the prostrate barbarism of 
the West.* Nor was it only that the educa- 

* The eleventh age, for instance, produced, be- 
sides Alexius Comnenus, and others of less renown, 
Cerularius, Cedrenus, and the illustrator of Aristotle, 
Michel Psellus. Among the literary names of the 
twelfth (and thirty-six are enumerated by Dupin as 
commendables for their knowledge of theology, canon 
law, and history) are Cinnamus, Glycas, Zonaras, 
Nicephorus, Dionysius the geographer, and the cele- 
brated commentator Eustathius, Bishop of Thessalo- 
nica. The industry of the Greeks seems ever to be 
most keenly excited by controversy; and this age 
was enlivened, not only by some warm disputes with 
the Latins, but also by a contest between the systems 
of Plato and Aristotle. During the greater part of 
tlie thirteenth age the Latins were in possession of 
Constantinople; but in the fourteenth, the names of 
Nicephorus Gregoras, Manuel Chrysoloras, Niceph- 
orus Callistus, are boasted by the Greeks ; and the 
works of St. Thomas Aquinas, and other scholastic 
writers, were translated and studied. Yet Plato had 
still his followers. 



tion of the clergy embraced more subjects of 
useful instruction, but also, that education 
was not wholly confined to the clergy, but 
extended generally to the higher classes in 
society. It was the same with theological as 
with profane literature. It was an object of 
very general interest and inquiry; and the 
industry to pursue it was kept alive among a 
disputatious race, by the occasional appear- 
ance of domestic heresy, and by the long-pro- 
tracted controversies with the rival Church. 
A superiority in literary discrimination will 
account for the circumstance that the forgery 
called the 'false decretals' was at once re- 
jected by the Eastern Church. There were, 
indeed, other sufficient reasons to prevent a 
code, which conferred supremacy almost un- 
limited on the Roman Bishop, from being 
acknowledged either by the Court or the 
Church of Constantinople : but it is also pro- 
bable that the penetration of the Greeks at 
once detected the clumsy imposture. 

The mention of the Decretals recalls the 
consideration of the Papal pohty, founded m 
a great measure upon them. We have ob- 
served, that, after their promulgation, a sys- 
tem of government and a form of discipline 
unknown to earlier ages grew up, and con- 
tinued, as it grew, to deviate farther and far- 
ther from the original canons and practices. 
We have traced the gradual usurpations of 
the See of Rome, and the changes introduced 
by pontifical ambition into the very heart 
and vitals of the Catholic Church. That 
powerful agency had no existence in the 
East; before it began to operate with any 
great success, the separation of the Churches 
was so decidedly pronounced, and their ani- 
mosity so strongly marked, that the introduc- 
tion of a change into the one would have 
been reason almost sufficient for rejecting it 
in the other. 

It was not, indeed, that the Patriarchs of 
Constantinople were exempt from the ruling 
passion of their Roman brethren, nor that 
they failed to profit by any favorable occasion 
to extend their authority and curtail the in- 
dependence of their clergy. But such occa- 
sions were rare, because they could only arise 
through the co-operation or connivance of 
the civil authorities; and what the caprice of 
one despot had bestowed, might be as easily 
taken away by the opposite caprice of anoth- 
er. In the meantime, there was one steady 
and unvarying principle, on which the eccle- 
siastical policy of the East was conducted — 
an inviolable reverence for antiquity. It was 
by this standard that the excellence of every 



4t$4 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



institution was measured. The canons of 
the Seven General Councils, the precepts of 
the early fathers, the practice of the primitive 
Church — these were the unalterable rules and 
models for the guidance and government of 
the Church. It was not so with the worldly 
hierarchy of Rome. They presently learned 
to subject antiquity to the more flexible laws 
of expediency. When it countenanced the 
purpose of the moment, they bowed to its 
venerable name. But whenever its voice was 
unequivocally raised in opposition to their 
schemes, then was it readily discovered, that 
all truth and excellence were not communi- 
cated in the beginning; but that something 
was reserved for more seasonable revelation, 
or mere human discovery. On the other 
hand, the Greeks were the bigots of antiquity ; 
their worship was blind, and therefore both 
consistent and passionate. Hence it happened, 
that the least important among the modera 
opinions or practices * of their rivals disgust- 
ed them at least as deeply as the most essen- 
tial; and that, while they rejected the change, 
they detested the innovator. They were as 
intolerant in their feelings towards the Latins, 
as were the Latins towards their own here- 
tics ; and so general were those feelings and 
so carefully nourished by the clergy, and so 
continually rekindled by the continuance of 
schism and controversy, that if a sincere re- 
conciliation, founded on compromise, could 
possibly have been effected by the directors 
of the two Churches, it was scarcely probable 
that it would be accepted by the inferior 
clergy and people of Greece. 

Latin King-dam of Jerusalem. — The founda- 
tion of the kingdom of Jerusalem at the end 
of the eleventh century gave to the Latins a 
substantial footmg in the East, and seemed to 
open the gates of concord. In a close alli- 
ance against the common enemy of the Chris- 
tian name, there was hope that the less per- 
ceptible differences among Christians would 
altogether vanish and be forgotten. The har- 
mony of so many sects and tongues united in 
adoration of the same Saviour, at his birth- 
place and round his tomb, might have afford- 
ed a spectacle of charity and a prospect of 
peace. If any circumstance of place or as- 
sociation, any reverence of sacred monu- 
ments, any brotherhood in holy enterprise, 
eould have quenched the fire of sectarian 
animosities, we might have expected that 
blessing from the occupation of Palestine and 

* The Latin practice of Tonsure (^y.ovqzvua) may 
be particularly mentioned, as exciting the indignation 
aind disdain, of a bearded priesthood>^ 



the redemption of the Sepulchre of Christ 

What was really the result ? The very cir- 
cumstances, which should have produced re- 
ligious unanimity, seem to have had no other 
effect than to multiply the causes of discord, 
to exasperate its nature, and to aggravate its 
shame. 

The first act of the conquerors was to es- 
tablish, throughout the narrow extent of their 
new kingdom, a numerous body of Latin 
clergy. A Latin Patriarch was appointed at 
Jerusalem, a second at Antioch ; and episco- 
pal sees were multiplied under the jurisdic- 
tion of both. Of the native population, those 
who followed the Christia'n faith were indis- 
solubly attached to a different rite, and the 
authority of the Latin Prelates was confined 
to a precarious host of crusaders and colonists. 
Nevertheless, their first care was to place on 
a solid foundation the temporalities of their 
Churches ; * and since the feudal institutions 
were those on which the civil government of 
Godefroy was formed, so the bishops sought 
to attach to their sees cities, and fortresses, 
and baronies, according to the preposteroiTS 
practice of the West. Then arose the cus- 
tomary dissensions between the spiritual and 
secular authorities, on the extent of their pre- 
rogatives and the limits of their jurisdiction: 
and they were inflamed in Palestine, even 
beyond their usual violence, by the peculiar 
position and character of the Military Orders; 
for these were endowed with various priv- 
ileges by the Roman See, and were not dis- 
posed to concede them. Thence proceeded 
perpetual appeals to Rome, with all their train 
of pernicious consequences : legates a latere 
were profusely poured into the Holy City ; 
and by then- ignorance, their obstinacy, their 
aiTOgance, and their avarice, precipitated the 
downfal of the kingdom. 

It was dissolved after the battle of Tiberias, 
in 1187; and whatsoever contempt of their 



* See Fleury's Sixth Discourse on Ecclesiastical 
History. ' According to the spirit of the Gospel 
(says that writer) the Latin clergy should have at- 
tended principally to the instruction and correction 
of the crusaders,' to form, as it were, a new Christi- 
anity, approaching as nearly as possible to the purity 
of the early ages, and capable of attracting, by its 
good example, the surrounding infidels. Next they 
should have engaged in the reconciliation of heretics 
and schismatics, and the conversion of the infidels 
themselves : it was the only method of making the 
crusade useful. But our Latin clergy was not suf- 
ficiently well-informed to have views so pure and 
exalted — as it was on this side of the sea, such was 
it in Palestine, or even more ignorant and more cor- 
rupted. .. . .' 



THE GREEK CHURCH. 



485 



Latin brethren. the clergy of the East may 
have pi'eviously and perhaps iguorantly en- 
tertained, it was not diminished by the nearer 
inspection of their character, which was af- 
forded by the conquest of Palestine. Thus 
it proved, that the advances towards concilia- 
tion, which were made during this century 
by the Emperors of the Coranenus family, 
led to no good result. Negotiations were 
opened ; but the demands of the Vatican were 
positive, and they amounted to nothing less 
than spu'itual submission. Perhaps the Em- 
perors, who had discovered the secret of their 
own political weakness, and began to tremble 
at the temporal influence of the Vatican, 
might have consented even to that condition. 
But the Prelates of the East, who were sway- 
ed by different views and interests, indignant- 
ly rejected it; and the failure of the attempt 
only increased the asperity of both parties. 

Of Constantinople. — The reign of the La- 
tins in Palestine was concluded in less than 
ninety years ; their dominion in Constantino- 
ple had a still shorter duration ; yet its effects 
on the ecclesiastical relations of the East and 
the West were more direct and permanent, 
without being in any respect more beneficial. 
The capital of the East was stormed by the 
crusaders in the year 1204. Innocent IIL 
was at that time Pope; and in the fii*st in- 
stance he strongly reprobated the treacherous 
achievement: but the conquerors were ac- 
quainted with a sure expedient to soften his 
displeasure. Already did Alexis, when raised 
to the purple which he so soon foi-feited, greet 
the Pontiff with promises of spiritual obe- 
dience for himself and for his Church ; »iid 
Innocent, in rejoinder, gave him divinc^ assur- 
ance of prosperity should he reserve his 
faith,* and of speedy reverse sl^uld he violate 
it. It was also one of t-'^e first acts of the 
Latin conquerors to tender the same submis- 
sion to the Pontic to proffer the same prom- 
ises, and like^fise to solicit, with all humility, 
his confii-mation of the conquest. Innocent 
profe-ssed some emban-assment at this appli- 
cation; the perversion of the legitimate object 
of the crusaders was too scandalous — their 
excesses in the spoliation of the city too no- 
torious — their motives too obvious — the of- 
fence too recent. Accordingly the Pontiff 



* The express condition prescribed by Innocent to 
Alexis was, that he should engage the Patriarch to 
fiend a solemn deputation to Rome, for the purpose 
of recognising the supremacy of the Roman Church, 
promising obedience to the Pope, and soliciting the 
Pallium, as necessary for the lawful exercise of his 
patriarchal functions. 



expressed his disapprobation both of tlie en- 
terprise itself and the 6u*cumstances attending 
it; and particularly condemned that sacri- 
legious violence which had exasperated the 
Greeks, and turned them away from ' obedi- 
ence to the Apostolic See.'* Nevertheless, 
since the deed was pei-petrated, he thought it 
expedient, after mature deliberation, not only 
with his cardinals, but with all his influential 
clergy^ not to withhold from it his sanction — 
because, forsooth, the designs of Providence 
were inscrutable; and it might be, that, in 
chastising the long-endured iniquities of the 
Greeks, a just God had employed the arms 
of the Latins as the instruments of a holy re- 
generation, f 

In the year following, the Pope applied 
himself more directly to reap the fruits of 
this unprincipled adventure. He excited the 
zeal of all the faithful for the defence of the 
new eiijpire. He wrote a circular letter to the 
leading prelates of France, exhorting them to 
preach the indulgence for its defence, and at 
the same time observing, that Providence had 
transferred the sceptre from the proud, super- 
stitious, and rebellious Greeks, to the humble 
Catholic and obedient Latins, to the end that 
his holy Church might be consoled by the 
reunion of the schismatics. 

Establishment of the LaCm Church.— In the 
meantime not a moment was lost in estab- 
lishing the Lati« Communion at Constanti- 
nople ; in ijia*oducing the Latin Liturgy ; in 
encour?v?i"o eminent ecclesiastics to emi- 
graJ^.:^ to the East, and firmly to plant in the 
churches and schools of Constantinople the 
doctrines, the discipline, the polity, and the 
leai-ning of the West. That the nature of 
that encouragement was not wholly spirimal 
— that an establishment founded by Innocent 
III. held out no inconsiderable temporal al- 
lurements | — is a circumstance which will 



* * Ut jam merito Latinos abhorreant plus quam 
canes.' Epistle to the Marquis of Montserrat. 

t See the Epistle of Innocent to the Marquis of 
Montserrat, published by Raynaldus, ad. ann. 1205. 
' Divinum enim videtur fuisse judicium, ut qui tamdiu 
misericorditer tolerati,et toties non solum ab aliis sed 
etiara a nobis studiose commoniti noluerum redire ad 
Eccleeias universitatem, nee uUum terrae sanctae sub- 
sidium impertiri, per eos, qui ad utrumque pariter 
intendebant, omitterent locum et gentem, quatenus 
perditis male malis terra bona bonis Agricolis loca- 
retur, qui fructum reddant tempore opportuno, &c.^ 

X The following are the Pope's expressions, ad- 
dressed to the Archbishop of Rheims and his suf- 
fragans : — ' Exhortamur, quatenus tam clericos quam 
laicos efiicaciter inducatis ut ad eapessendas spirit- 
uales pariter et temporales divitias ad prsefatuna 



486 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



excite no surprise in us; though it did not, 
perhaps, increase the respect or affection of 
the Greeks towards their new instructers. A 
concordat was signed in 1206 by the Latin 
Patriarch on the one hand, and the regent, 
barons, knights, and people on the other, by 
which a fifteenth portion of all domains with- 
out the walls, of all cities, castles, villages; of 
corn-fields, vineyards, forests, meadows and 
other immoveables, was at once bestowed 
upon the Latin Church. At the same time, 
all the monasteries, even within the walls, 
appear to have been transferred to the ascen- 
dant establishment.* By another article it 
was regulated, that tithe should also be paid 
by all Latins — and 'if (it was added) in pro- 
cess of time it should be found practicable to 
persuade the Greeks also to contribute their 
tithe, the laity shall offer them no impedi- 
ment.' We should here recollect, that this 
method of remunerating the clergy, .so long 
familiar to the people of the West, had never 
been sanctioned by any law, or grown into any 
general use, in the Oriental Church. 

Dissensions. — If one of the earliest exhibi- 
tions presented by the Roman Catholic cler- 
gy to the schismatics of the East was that of 
their avarice ; another as early, as violent, and 
almost as revolung, was that of their dissen- 
sion. Before the storming of the city by the 
French and Venetians, o sort of convention 
had been made between thoa^, two nations, to 
this effect — that, if the empire sli^uld be vest- 
ed in a Frenchman, the Church sv^ould be 
under Venetian superintendence. Aci^rd- 
ingly the first patriarch, Thomas Morosini, 
was a native of Venice ; and he immediately 
took measures so to fill the chapter of the 
Patriarchal Cathedral, as to secure a compa- 
triot for his successor. Innocent vehemently 
remonstrated against this design. He sent 
his legates to Constantinople; and as they 
acted in opposition to the resident head of 
the Church, the Schismatics were edified by 
witnessing the jealous disputes of two inde- 
pendent authorities. But it was on the death 
of Morosini (in 1211) that the struggle really 
commenced. The Venetian Canons entered 



Imperatorem accedant, qui singulos vult et potest, 
secundum status suos, &c. augere divitiis et honori- 
bus ampliare. . . .' 

* It should be mentioned that the French and 
Venetians had entered into a convention, by which, 
after making a decent provision for the Oriental 
clergy, they proposed to divide between themselves 
the rest of the Church property. But Innocent look 
under his own protection tlie property even of a rival 
Church, and immediately annulled the convention. 



the Church of St. Sophia, with arms in their 
hands, and proceeded to the choice of a Ven- 
etian successor. Other ecclesiastics of other 
nations, who also claimed their share in the 
election, nominated three other candidates, 
and the matter was referred to Rome. The 
Pope commanded them to meet and delibe- 
rate in common, and the result was a second 
disagreement. The dispute was conducted 
with the customary violence ; and as it lasted 
for about three years, during which space the 
highest office in the Church remained vacant, 
it furnished the schismatic spectators with 
another equivocal proof of the superior ex- 
cellence of the Roman polity. In the mean- 
time the sectarian antipathy continued to be 
so strongly manifested on their part, that 
there were many of their clergy who, before 
they celebrated the Communion, caused those 
altars to be washed, which had been polluted 
by the ceremony of the Latins ; and who 
likewise insisted on re-baptizing all who had 
received that sacrament from Latin hands. 
These proofs of insubordination are men- 
tioned with censure in one of the canons of 
the Fourth Lateran Church. 

While the Roman hierarchy was endeavor- 
ing to fix and extend its conquest along the 
western shores of the Bosphorus, the genuine 
pastors of the oriental Church, the legitimate 
guardians of its apostolical purity, were as- 
sembled in honorable exile at Nice. They 
bad witnessed the shame, the pillage, and the 
desolation of the metropolis of their faith , 
they had seen their churches despoiled, and 
their altars violated ; the holy images trampled 
ur^er foot, the relics of departed saints scat- 
tered "ji the dust, the sacred utensils desecrat- 
ed, and thq sanctuary of St. Sophia profaned 
and plundered by lawless and Latin hands. 
Such assuredly v^as not the season for any 
dreams of reconciliation. But after the lapse 
of one generation, when ibese bitter recollec- 
tions were not quite so recbv\t, an accident 
occurred which opened the way to a serious 
negotiation between the churches — if we 
should not rather say, the courts — of Nice and 
Rome. Five Franciscan missionaries, in the 
discharge of their perilous duties among the 
infidels, were seized by the Turks, and on 
their liberation, dismissed to Nice. They 
were humanely received by the patriarch 
German us, who was edified by their poverty 
and their zeal ; and, in the communications 
of a friendly intercourse, the division of the 
two churches was mentioned and deplored 
by both parties. The emperor (John Vata- 
ces) had strong political reasons for desiring 



THE GREEK CHURCH. 



487 



an accommodation ; and with his consent the 
patriarch addressed some amicable overtures, 
though not unmixed with untimely reproach,* 
both to the Pope and the cardinals. 

Latin Mission to Nice. — This took place in 
1232, during the reign of Gregory IX. ; and 
in the year following the pontiff sent four 
mendicants, (two Dominicans, and two Fran- 
ciscans) to conduct the negotiations in the 
east. They presented themselves at Nice 
before the emperor and the patriarch, in the 
January of 1234; and a series of conferences 
then commenced, which did not finally ter- 
minate, though occasionally interrupted, till 
the middle of May. It were needless to unfold 
the particulars of this controversy, though 
they are not destitute of interest and instruc- 
tion to the theological reader ; nor shall we 
pursue the intricate manoeuvres of the dis- 
putants, though the most practised polemic 
might possibly peruse them with profit. It is 
sufficient to mention, that the dispute turned 
entirely on two points, the procession of the 
Holy Spirit ; and the use of leavened or un- 
leavened bread in the Eucharist. The Greeks 
urged the ancient doctrine and practice ; the 
Latins, without conceding their claims to the 
authority of early writers, rested the weight 



* ' To go to the bottom of the question (said the 
patriarch) many powerful and noble persons would 
obey you, if they did not fear your oppression, and 
the wanton extortions and undue services which you 
exact from your subjects. Hence proceed cruel wars, 
the depopulation of cities, the closing of the churches, 
the cessation of the divine offices, every thing short 
of martyrdom, and some things not far short of that. 
For there is now imminent danger that the tyrannical 
tribunal will be unclosed, and torments and blood- 
shed, and the crown of martyrdom proposed to us. 
Is this the lesson which St. Peter teaches, when he 
instructs the shepherd to conduct his flock without 
constraint or dominationl' In his letter to the car- 
dinals he wrote with equal bitterness, * Permit me 
to speak the truth to you. Our division has arisen 
from the tyrannical oppi-ession which you exercise, 
and the exactions of the Roman Church, which, 
from being a mother, has become a step-mother, and 
tramples upon others in proportion as they humble 
themselves before her. We are scandalized to see 
you exclusively attached to the good things of this 
world; heaping up from all quarters gold and silver, 
and making kingdoms your tributaries.' That such 
reproaches, however just, should have broken forth 
in letters expressly conciliatory, might well have led 
those, to whom they were addressed, to despair of the 
success of the negotiation. The original epistles are 
given by Matthew Paris, Histor. Major, ann. 1237; 
whose remark it is that the animosity of the Greek 
Qiurch was occasioned by the acts, more than tlie 
opinions, of its rival. See also Raynaldus, ann, 
1232-3. 



of their defence on scripture. The debates 
were broken off, and renewed ; the same ar- 
guments and assertions were repelled and 
reiterated; and the ardor of the opposition 
increased, as the contest was prolonged. 

At length the emperor, who was less heated 
by the theological zeal, and more sincere, as 
he was more interested, in his desu*e for 
reconciliation, personally proposed to the en- 
voys a compromise. As in political, (said 
this simple mediator) so be it in theological, 
negotiations. When princes differ respecting 
a city or a province, each party relaxes some- 
what of his pretensions for the attainment of 
peace. Our differences in this matter are 
two,* and if you sincerely wish for concord, 
concede one of them. We will approve and 
revere your holy sacrament; abandon to us 
your creed; say the creed as we say it, effac- 
ing the offensive addition. They replied — 
Let us tell you that the Pope and the Roman 
Church will not abandon one iota of its faith, 
or of any thing contained in its creed. But 
the following proposal we may consent to 
make to you. You must firmly believe and 
teach others, that the body of our Lord may 
be consecrated with unleavened as well as 
leavened bread ; and you must burn all the 
books which your churchmen have written to 
the contrary. And in respect to the Holy 
Spirit, you must believe that it proceeds from 
the Son as well as from the Father, and teach 
the people so ; but the Pope will not oblige 
you to insert the article in your creed — only 
all books which have been written against it 
shall be burnt. . . On hearing this final decla- 
ratioji, the emperor resigned himself to des- 
pair ; f but in his prelates it excited only feel- 



* We should observe, that throughout this dispute., 
it was always assumed by the Latins., that the result, 
or rather that the meaning, of the reconciliation would 
be the obedience of the Greek to the Roman Church; 
a return to that (supposed) submission which the 
former had shaken orf. Now this assumption was 
not (as far as we can see) contested by the Greeks, 
certainly it was not made matter of argument. And 
yet that establishment o( supremacy was, in fact, the 
point at which the Roman was ultimately aiming — ass 
it was also that to which his pretensions were most 
slightly founded. 

t ' De corpore Christi ita dicimus — quod oportebit 
vos firmiter credere et aliis praedicare quod Corpus 
Christi confici potest ita in Azymis sicut in fermen- 
tato; et omnes libri, quos vestri scripserunt contra 
Fidem, condemnentur et comburantur. De S. Sancto 
ita dicimus; quod opoi-tebit vos credere S. S. pro- 
cedere a Filio sicut a Palre, et istud necesse, ut 
prsedicetur io populo ; quod autem cantetis istud ia 
Symbolo, nisi velitis, non compellet vos Dominus 
Papa ; condeamatis et combustis omnibus libris, qui 



488 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



ings of indignation and revenge. One other 
violent conference followed, to which large 
multitudes of the people were admitted ; and 
it was broken off by mutual charges of heresy, 
and confirmations of the ancient anathema. 
The legates then withdrew ; having increased 
the evils which they had proposed to remove, 
and added fresh fuel and fierceness to the 
controversy. 

The failure of this enterprise did not pre- 
vent a similar attempt on the part of Innocent 
IV., which was conducted with more mode- 
ration, but with no better success, than the 
former. The agent, selected for the conduct 
of this mission, was of great dignity and re- 
putation in the Church. John of Parma, 
general of the Franciscan order, and alike 
eminent for his theological erudition, and the 
austerity of his life, was a character well 
calculated to influence the prelates of the 
East. It is something to be enabled to assert 
that his sojourn at Nice (in 1249) produced no 
mischief; but the negotiations, which seemed 
likely to result from it, were prevented by 
the death of the Pope and the Emperor. In 
1261, the sceptre of the Latins was broken ; 
and, upon the whole, we are unable to ob- 
serve that their conquest had any spiritual 
fruits, or any other consequences than bitter- 
ness and aggravated rancor.* And we may 
here remark, that as the Latins on their ex- 
pulsion from the East did not resign their 
claims to ecclesiastical ascendency, or abolish 
the titles of the dignities there conferred up- 
on their own clergy, so there continued long 
to exist about the Roman court titular patri- 
archs, and titular bishops, of Constantinople, 
Antioch, Jerusalem and other oriental sees, 
who, by the assumption of those empty 
names, offended the sensitive vanity of the 
Greeks, and kept alive the mutual irritation. 

Subsequent attempts at re-union. — Howbeit, 
for a short period after the restoration, the 



huic capitulo sunt contrarii. Quod audiens imperator 
graviter tulit, &c.' The envoys wrote an account of 
their own embassy, addressed to the Pope, and con- 
tained in Lihro Censuum; whence Raynaldus (ann, 
1232) has made extracts. 

* Fleury goes so far as to consider the schism, 
properly speaking, to have commenced only at this 
period. Such, however, was not the opinion of peo- 
ple in those days; in the account of the previous ne- 
gotiations at Nice, we observe, that the emperor, on 
some occasion, I'emarked, that the schism had then 
lasted three hundred years. On the othe»- hand, the 
emperor did not date with accuracy — from the breach 
between Photius and Nicholas, tlie space was above 
360 years; from the dispute between Cerulaiiiis and 
Leo IX., not more tlma ISO. 



re-union was negotiated with much more 
ardor than at any former time, and even 
with a momentary show of success. The 
reason of this eagerness on the part of Palaso- 
logus was the consciousness of his weakness, 
and the terror of another crusade against his 
still unsettled government. 'I speak not 
now,' he said, ' about dogmas or ceremonies 
of religion. If there is any difference on 
that subject, we can arrange it more easily, 
after peace shall have been concluded be- 
tween us.' The union desired by the em- 
peror was external and political : a perfect 
theological concord he might think'hopeless, 
or he might not comprehend its importance. 
Some Franciscans were once more sent to 
the East by Urban IV.; and some articles 
v/ere hastily drawn up. But Clement IV. 
refused them his ratification, and composed 
a more accurate formulary of faith, which he 
proposed for the acceptance of the Greeks. 
This confession contained not only the dis- 
puted tenet of the Holy Procession, but also 
expressed, with great precision, the doctrine 
of purgatory, and specified the condition of 
souls after death, according to the degrees of 
their impurity. Also, the doctrine and name 
of transubstantiation were marked in it very 
particularly. Moreover, the plenitude of 
pontifical power, and the duty of universal 
appeal to that tribunal were carefully incul- 
cated. Clement could scarcely have expected 
so much acquiescence from the clergy of the 
East; but in a subsequent letter to the empe- 
ror he failed not to remind him, that the 
crown possessed power sufficient, and even 
more than sufficient, to control the inclina- 
tions both of the clergy and the people. 

In the earlier part of these negotiations, 
the clergy had preserved the appearance of 
neutrality ; because they were unwilling, 
without great necessity, to oppose any project 
of the emperor, and because they considered 
his present project as wholly impracticable. 
Probably they did not suppose that he was 
himself sincere in so desperate a scheme. 
Nevertheless, as his political difficulties in- 
creased, he became more earnest in his de- 
sign; and when some of his prelates were 
at length alarmed into resistance, he employ- 
ed the secular authority to repress them. 

Council of Lyons. — In the meantime, the 
second council of Lyons had been called 
together, and one of its professed objects 
was the reconciliation of the churches. It 
was still assembled, when (on June 24, 1274) 
the ambassadors from the East arrived. Sev- 
eral difficulties were still apprehended ; and 



THE GREEK CHURCH. 



439 



there were many who reasonably trembled, 
lest that solemn meetuig of the universal 
church should be distracted by the passionate 
broils of an endless controversy. But the 
emperor had arranged it otherwise ; and at 
the session which immediately followed, the 
Western fathers were edified and astonished 
by the voice of the prelates of the East, 
chanting the Double Procession, in unison 
with the worship of the orthodox. The 
policy, which had dictated the humiliating 
concession, did not hesitate there ; probably 
there was no depth of spiritual submission 
to which the emperor was not then prepared 
to descend : for it seemed to depend on the 
decision of that council, whether the arma- 
ment, to which all Europe was contributin'g, 
should be directed against Syria or against 
himself. Accordingly, the Pope's supremacy 
was acknowledged without any scruple ; and 
a communication from Palaeologus was pub- 
licly recited, in which he professed, without 
any equivocation or cavil, every tenet laid 
down in the confession of Clement IV. The 
re-uuion of the churches was then officially 
announced ; and the Pope pronounced the 
Te Deiun, with his head uncovered, and his 
eyes suffused with unsuspicious joy. 

As long as the fears and necessities of the 
eastern empire continued, as long as the 
fragile vessel of state lay at the mercy of any 
tempest from the west, so long did this hollow 
truce subsist. But not quite ten years after 
its conclusion, Andronicus, having succeeded 
to the sceptre of his father, proceeded, with- 
out delay, to dissolve the union. A council 
was assembled at Constantinople ; the hateful 
act of humiliation was repealed; and the 
revival of the schism was proclaimed amidst 
the acclamations of the clergy of Greece. 
One circumstance, indeed, is here particular- 
ly forced upon our attention. The motive 
which chiefly persuaded Andronicus to re- 
open that ancient wound was, that he might 
heal a still more dangerous disorder, which 
the reconciliation with Rome had inflicted 
upon his own Church. The j)ower of Palas- 
ologu's had secured the outward submission, 
but it had not changed the opinions, or the 
principles, or the j)as3ions, of his prelates; 
the great majority remained adverse to the 
re-union ; and in their importunate and pres- 
sing clamors, the fears of an ancient and 
distant rival were forgotten. Howbeit the 
domestic dissensions of the Greeks were not 
even thus allayed; there were some too 
strongly impressed with the policy of their 
late connexion to applaud its hastv dissolu- 



tion ; and there remained ever afterwards a 
party in the East which professed its adhesion 
to the Roman communion. 

We shall not pursue the insincere and 
fruitless overtures which were so often de- 
feated and renewed during the fourteenth 
century, and especially under the Popes of 
Avignon. The pontificates of John XXII., 
of Clement VI., of Innogent VI., and Bene- 
dict XII., were particularly marked by those 
vain negotiations;* and during this period 
we may remark that the motives of both 
parties were equally removed from any spir- 
itual consideration. If political exigencies 
invariably actuated the one, the other was 
now chiefly moved by pecuniary necessities. 
The militaiy succors, which the Pope might 
be the means of raishig, would be recom- 
pensed by obedient contributions to the 
apostolical treasury. According to the ap- 
proach or suspension of immediate danger, 
the zeal for reconciliation burnt fiercely, or 
subsided; but the characters were still sus- 
tained under all circumstances. 'That old 
song respecting the Greeks (said the fathers 
of Basle) has already lasted for three hundred 
years, and every year it is chanted afresh.' 
At length the progress of the Turks excited 
a permanent alarm, and a proportionate 
sincerity; and we shall now shortly trace 
the chief events to which it led. 

Council of Ferrara. — After separate nego- 
tiations with Pope Eugenius and the Council 
of Basle, the Emperor of the East at length 
decided to accept the proposals of the former. 
An oriental despot might well be perplexed 
by the claims of two rival authorities, both 
professing to be legitimate and supreme, and 
both acknowledged by many adherents in 
their own communion. But whether his im- 
perial prejudices inclined him towards the 
Monarch of the church, or from whatsoever 
other motiv^e, he embarked (in November, 



* It was on the last occasion that the empeior sent 
that Barlaam, whom we have ah"eady mentioned, 
(the same who instructed Petrarch in the rudiments 
of Greek,) to the court of Avignon. Sufficient ac- 
counts of these various negotiations are given by 
Bzovius, ad ann. 1331, s. i. 1339, s. 22, 1345-6-9, 
and particularly 1356, s. 22. On one occasion (in 
1339) great efforts were made to show tliat the Greek 
opinions had alwajs been the same with the Latin 
(after so many mutual excommunications!) and this, 
as we all know, furnished Leo Allatius in a later age 
with a fruitful field for sophistry. The detestation, 
which tlie Greeks still entertained for the Pope, is 
strongly expressed by the Patriarch Gennadius in a 
document which is cited by Bzovius, ann. 1349, s. 
14. 



490 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



1427) with his patriarch, and numerous ec- 
clesiastics, on the galleys of Eugenius, and 
arrived in due season at the appointed city, 
Ferrara. A trifling difference first arose re- 
specting the seats to be respectively occupied 
during the conference by its spiritual and 
temporal presidents. But this was arranged 
by a compromise, by which the Pope con- 
ceded a part of his claim, but retained his 
pre-eminence. They were placed on differ- 
ent sides of the Church, but the Pope was on 
the right, and his throne was one step higher 
than that of the Emperor. The next pro- 
ceeding, and it might occasion some surprise, 
if not distrust, among strangers, unused to 
the discords of the west, was the promulga- 
tion of a solemn anathema against the Coun- 
cil of Basle. All public deliberations were 
then adjourned for some months ; but it was 
arranged that, during this interval, a select 
number of doctors of the two churches 
should frequently meet, and prepare the way 
by amicable discussions for a more speedy 
reconciliation- 

Accordingly these deputies, who were, in- 
deed, the leading members of both parties, 
did meet. On the one side was the celebrated 
Julian Cesarini, Cardinal of St, AngeLo, and 
so lately the President of the rival Council ; 
and with him were Andreas, Bishop of Co- 
lossus (or Rhodes,) John a Doctor of Spain, 
and some others. Marc of Ephesus, and 
Bessarion, Archbishop of Nice, conducted 
the disputations, on the other. It was here 
agreed, seemingly without difference, that the 
articles by which the schistn was entirely oc- 
casioned were four. (1) The Procession of 
the Holy Spirit- (2)/rhe use of leavened or 
unleavened bread in the Eucharist. (3) Pur- 
gatory. (4) The Primacy of the Pope. It 
was further settled, that the subject of the 
first discussion should be Purgatory. 

Accordingly, Cardinal Julian laid down 
the doctrine of his Church on that matter as 
follows: — that the souls of the just, which 
are pure and without stain, and have been 
exempt from mortal sin, proceed directly to 
heaven, to the enjoyment of eternal happi- 
ness ; but tliat the souls of men who have 
fallen into sin after their baptism, unless they 
have fully accomplished the penance neces- 
sary to expiate that sin, (even though they 
may have performed some penance,) and also 
manifested fruits worthy of their penitence, 
so as to receive enth'e remission, pass into 
the fire of purgatory ; that some remain there 
for a longer, others for a shorter period, ac- 
cording to the nature of their offences ; and 



that, being at length purified, they ai*e admit- 
ted to beatitude. But that the souls of those 
who die in mortal sin are consigned to im- 
mediate punishment To this, Marc of 

Ephesus replied, that the doctrine, in the 
main, was that of the Greek Church ; only 
that the latter did not admit the purification 
by fire, but held that sinful souls were sent 
into a place of darkness and mourning, where 
they remained for a season in afiiiction, de- 
prived of the light of God. He admitted 
that they were purified, and delivered from 
this desolate abode by sacrifice and alms ; but 
he held that the comdemned would not be 
wholly miserable ; and that the saints would 
not be admitted to perfect beatitude until 
after the resurrection of their bodies. . . . On 
this last point an unexpected difference arose 
between Marc of Ephesus and his colleague, 
Bessarion, as to what really was the doctrine 
of their Church ; and this was pressed to dis- 
pute and altercation. In the meantime, the 
season advanced, and these perliminary con- 
ferences were discontinued before the dispu- 
tants had touched on any other subject, or 
arrived at any specific conclusion even upon 
that. 

At length the formal deliberations of the 
Council commenced, and the first public ses- 
sion was held on the 8th of October; but 
there were some among the Greeks who, 
observing that the Fathers of Basle had 
shown, in the meantime, no indications of 
submission, began already to despair of any 
durable effect from their mission. However, 
the Prelates assembled in considerable num- 
bers; the same were recognised by both 
parties, as the important subjects of differ- 
ence, and it was agreed that the first of them 
was that, in which the whole difficulty of 
reunion was, in fact, involved. They pre- 
pared, in consequence, to argue the mystery 
of the Procession with becoming solemnity : 
and it was vainly hoped, that a question 
which had employed the learning and wear- 
ied the ingenuity of the Christian world for 
about eight hundred years, would finally be 
set at rest by the eloquence of the Doctors of 
Ferrara. 

It must be admitted that the advocates of 
both opinions displayed on this occasion 
abundant talents, unwearied zeal, and re- 
sources almost inexhaustible, especially the 
Cardinal of St. Angelo ; * who here exhibited, 



* Tiraboschi (vol. vi. p. 1,1. ii.) cites the testimony 
of Sguropulos, who was present at all these discus- 
sions, and expressed his astonishment at the eloquence 
of Julian. 



THE GREEK CHURCH. 



491 



in defence of the doctrine of his Church, the 
same commanding faculties and energy with 
which he had urged, at Basle, the refor- 
mation of its discipline. Through fifteen 
tedious sessions the controversy was main- 
tained with unabated ardor; and though the 
point principally argued was only, whether 
the words Filioque were, properly speaking, 
an addition or an explanation, it might have 
been supposed, from the warmth and prolixity 
of the orators, that the very existence of the 
Christian faith was at stake. At length, as 
no immediate result seemed at all probable, 
and as Ferrara was found, on many accounts, 
inconvenient for so large * an assemblage, the 
Pope, with the consent of the Emperor, ad- 
journed the Council to Florence. 

Removed to Florence. — The Council of Flo- 
rence held its first session on Feb. 26, 1439 ; 
and it opened with some proposals on the 
part of the Emperor and Cardinal Julian, for 
arriving more directly at the practical object 
of these conferences — a pubhc reconcihation. 
But no expedient was discovered for attaining 
that end, and the disputations were accord- 
ingly renewed. The results of the conferen- 
ces at Ferrara had not been such, as either 
to bring the Latins to retrench the contested 
expression from the creed, or the Greeks to 
insert it : thus the Procession became once 
more the subject of debate. For the seven 
succeeding sessions the same assertions were 
advanced and denied, the same arguments 
reiterated and confuted. At length, however, 
the Latins found a new and powerful cham- 
pion in John, provincial of the Dominicans. 
This learned mendicant, by reference to an- 
cient manuscripts of St. Basil, and other 
Greek Fathers, professed to demonstrate, that 
those venerable Patriarchs had asserted the 
double Procession. This was an assault up- 
on that point, on which alone the Greeks 
were very sensible. Every shaft of reason 
might be foiled or blunted by sophistry or 
prejudice; every other authority might be 
suspected or disavowed ; but when tlie ar- 
chives of their own unerring Church were 
cited against them, it was hard indeed to raise 
any defence, or reply with any confidence. 
It would appear, too, that Bessarion had for 



* About one hundred and fifty Bishops, besides 
numerous Abbots, are said to have been present. We 
should here mention that the Greeks lived at the ex- 
pense of the Pope, receiving a regular stipulated 
allowance from the Apostolical Treasury. Notwith- 
standing, so great was their despondency as to the 
result of the embassy, that they betrayed from time to 
time a strong desire to retura to Greece. 



sometime taken little share in the disputes, 
and at length even Marc of Ephesus with- 
drew fi*om the conference. The victory now 
appeared to rest with the Latins ; when the 
Emperor, who possessed some skill in the- 
ology, and was sincerely desirous of the 
re-union, discovered w^hat he considered an 
equitable method of compromise. In a letter 
of St. Maxim us, that Father was found to 
have asserted, that 'the Latins, when they 
declare that the Holy Spirit proceeds from 
the Son, do not pretend that the Son is the 
cause of the Holy Spirit, since they know 
very well that the Father is the only cause 
both of the Son and the Holy Spirit — of the 
Son by generation, of the Holy Spirit by 
Procession — they only mean, that the Holy 
Spirit proceeds through the Son, because he 
is of the same essence.' Soon after this pro- 
posal had been made, the public sessions of 
the Council were suspended, and the Greeks 
held several conferences among themselves, 
with a view to some honorable accommoda- 
tion. 

The Greeks were now openly divided. 
Bessarion, gained, as his adversaries assert, 
by the presents and promises of the Pontiff, 
at once avowed his adhesion to the Latin 
dogma, and defended it with confidence and 
eloquence. Of this same party was the Em- 
peror, through his anxiety to reconcile the 
Churches on any terms, and at any sacrifice. 
Marc of Ephesus obstinately maintained his 
original opinions ; he abhorred the heresy of 
the Latins, and rejected every overture of 
compromise. Nevertheless the conferences 
continued : several attempts were made to 
devise some explanation of the Oriental doc- 
trine which might be satisfactory to the La- 
tins ; and the party of the Unionists gained 
ground. The Emperor saw his advantage, 
and pursued it by such means of pei-suasion 
as an Emperor may always exercise. And 
at length, after more than two months of dis- 
cussion, the Greeks unanimously consented to 
the terms of reconciliation, with the single 
honest exception of Marc of Ephesus. 

Common Confession of Faith. — The con- 
fession of faith, on which this treaty of con- 
cord was founded, was as follows : — 'In the 
name of the Holy Trinity, of the Father, the 
Son, and the Holy Ghost, we, Latins and 
Greeks, agree in the holy union of these two 
Churches, and confess that all true Christians 
ought to receive this genuine doctrine: that 
the Holy Spirit is eternally of the Father 
and the Son, and that from all eternity it pro- 
ceeds from the one and the other as from a 



492 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



single principle, and by a single production, 
which we call Spiration. We also declare 
that what some of the Holy Fathers have 
said, viz. that the Holy Spirit proceeds from 
the Father through the Son, should be taken 
in such manner as to signify, that the Son, 
as well as the Father, and conjointly with 
him, is the principle of the Holy Spirit. And 
since, whatsoever the Father hath, that he 
communicates to his Son, excepting the pa- 
ternity which distinguishes him from the Son 
and the Holy Spirit, so is it from the Father 
that the Son has received, from all eternity, 
that productive virtue through which the 
Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son, as well 
as from the Father.' 

Treaties of Union. — We should here men- 
tion, that while this spiritual negotiation was 
in progress, another convention of a very dif- 
ferent character was also under considera- 
tion ; and the two treaties were brought to 
their conclusion at the same time. It was 
stipulated by the latter, that his Holiness 
should furnish the Greeks with resources for 
their return ; that he should maintain a stand- 
ing military and naval force for the defence 
of Constantinople ; that the galleys carrying 
pilgrims to Jerusalem should be compelled to 
touch at Constantinople ; that, if the Empe- 
ror should require twenty galleys for six 
jaionths, or for a year, the Pope should bind 
iiimself to supply them ; and that, if soldiers 
were wanted, he should use his influence 
with the princes of the west to procure them. 
This convention having been officially rati- 
fied, the emperor announced the consent of 
his Prelates to the doctrinal accommodation ; 
nnd on the 6th of June, 1439, it was an- 
nounced, that the divisions of so many cen- 
turies were at length closed for ever. The 
Confession of Union was recited in Greek 
and in Latin, and it was hailed by the accla- 
mations of both parties, who embraced with 
seeming warmth, and interchanged the salu- 
tation of peace. 

It will have been observed, that the public 
disputations had been entirely confined to one 
of the four subjects of difference ; and that 
the arrangement of that, as it was considered 
by far the most difficult question, was held to 
be a sufficient i)ledge of agreement upon all. 
And so indeed it proved. The difference on 
the Azyms was removed by the confession 
of the Greeks, that the Eucharist might be 
celebrated with unleavened, as worthily as 
with leavened, bread. Respecting purgatory, 
it was acknowledged on both sides, that those 
souls which could neither, through some un- 



atoned sins, be received into immediate be- 
atitude, nor yet deserved eternal condemna- 
tion, were delivered into some abode of 
temporary durance and purification ; but 
regarding the method of purification — 
whether it was by fire, as some thought, or by 
darkness and tempest, as seemed to be the 
opinion of others — it was held more prudent 
to abstain from any positive declaration. The 
question of the Pope's primacy occasioned 
somewhat greater embarrassment, because its 
practical consequence was more directly per- 
ceptible ; and though the Imperial eye might 
overlook the importance of doctrinal differ- 
ences, it was not blind to any encroachment 
on Imperial prerogative. And thus, though 
Palseologus readily assented to the general 
proposition of papal supremacy, he objected 
to its application in two cases. He would not 
consent that the Pope should call councils in 
his dominions without his approbation and 
that of the Patriarchs ; nor would he permit 
appeals from the Patriarchal courts to be 
carried to Rome. He maintained that the 
Pope should send his legates to decide them 
on the spot. The pontiff insisted ; but as the 
Emperor declared that he would prefer to 
break off the negotiations even in that their 
latest stage, rather than yield those points, a 
method of verbal compromise was discovered, 
which satisfied the consciences of both par- 
ties. 

Question on Transuhstantiation. — To the at- 
tentive reader it will, perhaps, appear strange, 
that in so many controversies between the 
two Churches no dispute had yejt been raised 
on the subject of Transuhstantiation. And it 
will thence seem natural to infer, that, on that 
point, no difference existed between them. 
In a later age, when the Protestants were 
contending with the Roman Catholics for the 
spiritual adhesion of the Greeks, this impor- 
tant question was thoroughly investigated; 
and the result, as it appears to us,* was not 
quite favorable to either party. For, if some 
of the ancient Fathers indulged in very lofty 
expressions on the nature of the Eucharist, 
yet the Latin dogma was never formally 
established among the Articles of the other 
Church. We shall now mention, that dur- 
ing the conferences at Ferrara and Florence 
certain expressions fell from the Greek Doc- 
tors, which excited suspicions of their ortho- 
doxy so generally, that the Pope deemed it 
necessary to demand of them a formal decla- 



* This subject has been shortly treated by the 
author of this history, in a work ' On the Condition 
and Prospects of the Greek Church.' 



THE GREEK CHURCH. 



493 



ration on that point, before the ' Decree of 
Union' should, be finally ratified. According- 
ly, Bessarion of Nice, on the part and in the 
presence of his brethren, made an affirmation 
to this effect : — ' Since in the preceding con- 
gregations we have been suspected of hold- 
ing an erroneous opinion touching the words 
of the Consecration, we declare, in the pre- 
sence of your Holiness, . . . that we have 
learnt from our ancient Fathers, and especial- 
ly from St. Chrysostom, that it is the words 
of our Lord which change the substance of 
the bread and wine into that of the Body and 
Blood of Jesus Christ ; and that those divine 
words have the force and virtue to make that 
wonderful change of substance, or that Tran- 
substantiation ; and that we follow the senti- 
ments of that great Teacher.' These expres- 
sions are, in themselves, sufficiently explicit : 
but, on the other hand, we are bound to re- 
collect, that the Greeks at Florence had by 
this time abandoned in despair every manner 
of resistance to the Emperor and the Pope ; 
and also, that the Prelate who read the decla- 
ration, and whose motives are liable to very 
well-founded suspicion, was afterwards ex- 
alted to the dignity of a Cardinal in the Ro- 
man Church.* 

* Bessarion, an Asiatic Arclibishop, ended his days 
in the peaceful enjoyment of a Roman dignity. His 
great antagonist, Julian Cesarini, Cardinal of St. 
Angelo, under a less auspicious influence, exchanged 
the field of controversial achievement for that of mili- 
tary dishonor. Let us here trace his concluding for- 
tunes. Being appointed by the Pope to superintend, 
as his legate, the warlike operations against the 
Turks, he attached himself to the camp of Huniades. 
Under his sanction, and with his consent, (it was a 
reluctant consent,) a truce for ten years was signed, 
■with religions solemnities, between the contending 
parties; and Amurat reposed in confidence on the 
shores of the Bosphorus, or employed his forces in 
some other enterprise. Suddenly some new circum- 
stance came to light, which promised advantage to 
the Christians from the renewal of hostilities. Here- 
upon the Cardinal Legate, perceiving some hesitation 
among the generals, seized a favorable moment to 
counsel the violation of the truce. To this effect, he 
urged the impolicy of the secret engagement, the in- 
fidelity of the party with whom it was contracted. 
He pi-essed the injustice thereby offered both to the 
Pope and the Emperor; the prejudice done to their 
own reputation, and to the interests of the Church. 
He maintained that the very compact with the Turk 
was in itself an act of perfidy to their allies. These 
and similar arguments he advanced with his custom- 
ary power. But seeing that his unlettered hearers 
were not yet persuaded, that a treaty so solemnly 
ratified could at once be violated without reproach, 
he proceeded more curiously to distinguish betv/een 
the obligation due to a mere promise and that which 



Return of the Greeks, — After this last con- 
fession of Bessarion, the ' Decree of Union ' 
was signed and ratified ; and the Greeks, their 
object accomplished, ?fet forth, with various 
emotions perhaps, but with general satisfac- 
tion, on their return to the east. The voyage 
was favorable ; and on the 20th of February, 
1440, they were restored to the altars of Con- 
stantinople. With what feelings were these 
messengers of religious concord welcomed ' 
What salutations hailed them on their ar 
rival from that holy enterprise ? The joy 
the gratitude, the affection of their fellow 
Catholics? Let us turn to the circumstances 
of their reception: through a general confed 
eracy of the Clergy, of the people, and par- 
ticularly of the Monks, who chiefly swayed 
the conscience and directed the movements 
of the people, the authors of the Union found 
themselves excluded even from their ecclesi- 
astical functions. They were overwhelmed 
with insults. They were called azymites, 
apostates, traitors to the true religion ; the 
sanctuaries which they entered were deserted ; 
they were shunned, as if convicted of impie- 
ty, or blasted by excommunication ; and in 
many of the Churches the spirit went so far, 
that the very name of the Emperor himself 
was erased from the Dyptics. On the other 
hand. Marc of Ephesus, who had fought 
without concession or compromise the battles 
of his Church, and persisted inflexibly in his 
repugnance to the re-union, was rewarded by 



is demanded by the public welfare, and to show the 
higher authority of the latter. Whenever these, for- 
sooth, were at variance, the faith plighted to an in- 
fidel could have little solid weight. For though, i» 
truth, an oath is binding, when it is just and founded 
in equity, it is properly considered as null, and dis- 
pleasing to God, when it leads to private or public 
calamity, &c. Stc! 

The eloquence of the Cardinal so well enforced his 
fallacies upon minds which probably were only thirst- 
ing for conviction, that the whole assembly demanded 
with acclamations the violation of the truce. The 
army moved forwards, and immediately engaged ia 
that campaign, which was terminated by the battle 
of Varna. In that fatal encounter, among thousands 
of less illustrious victims, fell the Cardinal of St. 
Angelo. The nature of his death is uncertain. It is 
variously asserted that he was slain in the field, and 
in the rout; that he was drowned in the Danube; 
that he was plundered and murdered by Hungarian 
robbers. And it had been happier for his memory 
had the last struggle of his genius been wrapped in the 
same obscurity — could we forget that it was made for 
the purpose of corrupting the rude morality of Chris- 
tian soldiers and statesmen, and leading them into 
that perjured enterprise, which ended in his destruc- 
tion and their disaster, and tlie infamy of all. 



494 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



universal acclamation. Marc of Ephesus had 
alone stood forth as the defender of the faith, 
and of the honor of the CEcumenic Church. 
Dissensions in the East. — The controversy 
was immediately renewed in the East. Marc 
placed himself at the head of the schismatics, 
and many compositions were published, as 
well by himself as by others, to press the re- 
peal of the Union. Various polemical treati- 
ses were also put forth in rejoinder ; and at 
the same time the Emperor exerted, on the 
same side, a more equivocal method of per- 
suasion. He selected for the Patriarch of 
Constantinople a decided supporter of the 
Union, and caused the patronage of the See 
to be conferred exclusively upon ecclesiastics 
of that party. . . Within the hmits of his tem- 
poral sovereignty the Head of the Oriental 
Church received a reluctant obedience. But 
beyond those boundaries, in the Patriarchats 
of Jerusaletn, of Antioch, and Alexandria, his 
spiritual subjects — for they were no more 
than spiritual — broke forth into undisguised 
rebellion. In 1443 those three Prelates united 
in publishing a Synodal Episde, in which 
they pronounced the sentence of deposition 
against all those, on whom their Brother of 
Constantinople had conferred ordination ; and 
then added the threat of excommunication, in 
case this sentence should be neglected. At 
the same time they addressed to the Emperor 
himself a similar menace, should he still con- 
tinue to protect his Patriarch. 

A Synod, which combined the authority 
of three of their Patriarchs, was reverentially 
regarded by a people already predisposed to 
embrace its edicts. Even the resolution of 
Palaeologus appears to have been shaken by 
so bold an act of insubordination. At the 
same time, as if to increase his confusion, the 
Clergy and populace of the Northern Prov- 
inces of his Church, Russia and Muscovy, 
loudly declared themselves against the Union, 
and insulted and imprisoned a Papal Legate 
who was sent to publish it among them. 
Thus, after his sojourn under foreign domin- 
ion, after his personal exertions in allaying 
the heats of controversy, and conducting it, 
as he fondly fancied, to a lasting termination, 
the Emperor of the East discovered that his 
ecclesiastical influence was confined almost 
to the city and suburbs of Constantinople ; 
and that the treaty from which he expected 
such advantage was received even there with 
a reluctant and precarious, even though it 
was an interested, submission. 

It might have been supposed that some 
eense of political advantage would have mov- 



ed the feelings of his subjects; that the pros- 
pect of a powerful alliance would have exert- 
ed some influence; that the sight of the 
advancing Turk would have inspired some 
moderation ; or, if reason was, indeed, ex- 
cluded from the controversy, that the passion 
of fear would, in some degree, have counter- 
acted the passion of bigotry. Some mitiga- 
tion of the first frenzy might at least have 
been expected from time ; and in the interval 
of eleven years, more charitable feelings, and 
more provident considerations might grad- 
ually have gained prevalence under the 
Imperial patronage. But the event was far 
otherwise : if the heat of either party relaxed 
during this critical period, it was that of the 
friends of the Union ; its opponents increased 
in strength, and remitted nothing of their 
original rancor. 

Prediction of Nicholas V., and fall of the 
Greek Empire. — In the year 1451 Nicholas 
v., after engaging in some earnest endeavors 
to rouse the energies of Christendom against 
the common foe, issued a celebrated address 
to the Greeks. He exhorted them to pay some 
regard to their own safety, and not to paralyse 
the eflTorts which Providence was making to 
preserve them ; to .display their devotion in 
acts of penitence ; and to receive, without de- 
lay, the decree of the Council of Florence. 
To the Emperor Constantine he addressed a 
menace, dictated, as some have thought, by a 
prophetic spirit. After complaining, that the 
Greeks had now too long trifled with the pa- 
tience of God and man, in deferring their 
reconciliation with the Church, he announced 
that, according to the parable^ in the Gospel, 
three years of probation would still be grant- 
ed for the fig-tree, hitherto cultivated in vain, 
to bring forth fruit. But, if it did not bear 
fruit in that season — if the Greeks, during the 
space which God still indulged to them, did 
not receive the decree of the Union — that 
then, indeed, the tree would be cut down even 
to its root — the nation extirpated by the min- 
isters of divine justice. 

This denunciation contemplated no im- 
probable catastrophe ; and the Emperor took 
such measures as were left to him to concil- 
iate the dispositions of the Vatican. But what 
was the spirit which at this last crisis animat- 
ed his subjects? It was during this very 
year that several Greek ecclesiastics address- 
ed, in the name of the whole Church, a com- 
munication to the rebels of Bohemia. They 
praised the zeal of their brother-schismatics ; 
they applauded them for their rejection of the 
innovations of Rome, and their adherence to 



THE ARMENIANS. 



495 



the true faith ; and, finally, called on them to 
conclude a treaty of Union with themselves — 
not such union as that mockery of concord 
dressed up at Florence, from which truth was 
far removed, but Union, founded on the re- 
spectable opinions of the ancient Fathers ! 

And thus, those precious moments, which the 
Pope devoted to vows and exertions for the 
salvation of Greece, were employed by her 
zealous theologians in courting the bitterest 
enemies of his government. 

In the year following, the Emperor having 
received with honor the Papal Legate, and 
made him some fair promises, they proceed- 
ed to celebrate the Liturgy in St. Sophia. 
But as soon as mention was made, in the 
course of the service, of the names of the 
Pope and the Latin Patriarch,* the whole 
city rose in commotion, and the multitude, 
uncertain what course to take, rushed in a 
mass to consult a popular fanatic, named 
Gennadius. This man was a monk; and 
attached to the door of his cell they found a 
written rescript, denouncing the last inflictions 
against all who should receive the impious 
decree of Florence. Then it was that Priests 
and Abbots, Monks and Nuns, soldiers and 
citizens, the entire population, except the im- 
mediate dependents of the Emperor, shouted, 
as with a single voice — 'Anathema against I 
all who are united with the Latins ! ' The 
sanctuary of St. Sophia was proclaimed pro- 
fane ; all intercourse was suspended with all 
who had assisted at the service with the La- 
tins; absolution was refused, and the Church- 
es were closed against them. 

This was the madness of a falling empire 
— this was the heaven-inflicted delirium 
which prepared the path for destruction. The 
measure of fanaticism was at length filled up ; 
the pontifical prophecy f hastened to its ac- 
complishment. And while the frantic people 
of Greece were in the highest ferment of 
theological excitement, — while their religious 
hatred against their brother Christians was 
burning most intensely, — while partial dif- 
ferences were most exaggerated, — while sec- 
tarian intolerance was most fierce and un- 
compromising, the banners of the Infidel were 



* Gregory — then a voluntary exile at Rome, through 
his reluctance to preside over a rebellious Church. 

f Constantin-opte was certainly taken in the third 
year (inclusive) after the prediction of Nicholas. 
The Pope wrote some time in 1451 ; the city fell on 
May 29, 1453. The coincidence, even with this 
latitude, was fortunate; but after the battle of Varna, 
no light from heaven was necessary to foreshow the 
speedy downfal of the Greek empire. 



in motion towards the devoted city, and a 
nation of Christians was consigned in bondage 
to the common enemy of Christ. 



NOTE (1) OJV THE ARMENIANS. 

The first occasion on which we can observe 
the Armenians to have come into contact, as 
an independent communion, with the Church 
of Rome, was the following : — In the year 
1145, while Pope Eugenius was resident at 
Viterbo, certain deputies from their patriarch 
(also called their Catholic^) arrived to salute 
the Pontiff, and proffer every sort of respect 
and deference. The particular object of their 
mission appears, however, to have been this, — 
to appeal to the decision of the Pope respect- 
ing their differences vs^ith the Greek Church. 
The differences principally debated were two ; 
— the Armenians did not mix water with the 
wine in the eucharist ; they made use of leav- 
ened bread, excepting on the festivals of 

Christmas and the Epiphany We do 

not learn that there were any lasting results 
from this embassy ; but it is carefully record- 
ed, * that the Orientals assisted at the Latin 
Mass celebrated by the Pope in person ; and 
that one of them beheld on that solemnity a 
sunbeam resting on the head of the PontiflT, 
as well as two doves ascending and descend- 
ing above him, in an inexplicable manner — 
a marvel which greatly moved him to rever- 
ence and submission. 

Notwithstanding, the circumstances under 
which the Armenians next present themselves 
to the historian, prove the futility of the for- 
mer overtures to Rome. For we find that, 
in the year 1170, the Catholic Norsesis ad- 
dressed a letter to Manuel Comnenus, in 
which be mentioned some points, whereon 
himself and the Greeks were not agreed, and 
expressed a strong desire for reconciliation. 
The Emperor intrusted the commission to a 
philosopher named Tbeorian, who proceeded 
to Armenia, and conferred with the patriarch 
and another influential prelate. On this oc- 
casion much more important differences were 
advanced than those discovered at Viterbo; 
and that, which was most prominent, respect- 
ed the nature of Christ. From the account 
of tliis controversy it would appear, that, in 
the outset, the Greeks supposed the Armeni- 
ans to be involved in the Eutychian heresy ; 
while the Armenians imagined the Greeks 
to have embraced the opposite error of Nes- 



* By Otho Frisingensis, who was at that time at 
Viterbo. 



496 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



torius. In the course of the conference both 
were undeceived. The Armenians did in- 
deed admit, that they held one incarnate 
nature ; but not by confusion, Hke Eutyches, 
nor by diminution, like Apollinaris: but in 
the 'orthodox' sense of Cyril of Alexandria.* 
The Greeks cleared their own tenets from 
the charge of Nestorianism with equal per- 
spicuity. The result was, that the Catholic 
acknowledged their orthodoxy, and under- 
took to bring over all his compatriots to the 
same opinion. Some other differences of 
inferior weight were also discussed ; and 
these, too, the Armenian is related to have 
softened away with equal facility. At length, 
after an affecting interview, in which many 
tears were poured forth in pious sympathy 
by both parties, Theorian returned to Con- 
stantinople, and Narsesis prepared to com- 
municate his own convictions to the Church 
over which he presided. 

With what little success these negotiations 
were attended appears from the next ghmpse 
that we catch of the ecclesiastical affairs of 
the Armenians. On the 23rd of May, 1199, 
Leo, their king, addressed an epistle to Inno- 
cent III., expressing his anxiety for the re- 
union of his Church with that of Rome. At 
the same time he disclosed the motive of his 
anxiety; for he deplored the ravages, to 
which his kingdom was exposed by the in- 
roads of the infidels, and proclaimed the 
absolute need in which he stood of foreign 
succor. This application was accompanied 
by one from the Catholic, in which he pro- 
fessed his wish for reconciliation, and his 
readiness to make submission to the Vatican. 
The Pope sent, in reply, many civil expres- 
sions ; and intended, no doubt, to confer a 
more substantial service on his militant fellow 
Christians, when he presented them at the 
same time with the standard of St. Peter, as a 
safeguard against the sword of the unbeliever. 
Some negotiations succeeded: at length (in 
the year 1205,) the king prevailed upon his 
subjects to acknowledge their spiritual alle- 
giance to the Pope ; and the Catholic publicly 



* See ' Theoriani Orthodoxl cum Catholico Ar- 
meniorum Colloquium,' in the Maxima Biblioth. 
P.P. torn. xxii. p. 796—812, (Edit. Lugdun. 1677). 
* Diciraus in Christo naturam unam esse, non secun- 
dum Eutychen confundentes, nee secundum Apollina- 
rem detrahentes, sed secundum Alexandrlnum Anti- 
stitem Cyrillum, in Ortliodoxia, qu?e in libro contra 
Nestorium scripsit, unam esse naturam Sermonis 
incarnatam ' . . . . Tlie controversy turned a good 
deal on the distinction (real or imaginary) between 
Christtis and Sermo, in this question. 



placed the act of his submission in the hands 
of the legate. He accepted the pallium* 
from the same authority, and engaged to 
visit the holy See, by his Nuncios, once in 
every five years, and to assist in person, or 
by deputy, at all councils which might be 
held in the west for the regulation of his in- 
terests. Greater objections appear to have 
prevailed among those orientals against the 
introduction of the Roman code of canon 
law ; but it was arranged that some part of 
its institution should be received at once, and 
the rest at some future time, after more ma- 
ture deliberation among the Armenian pre- 
lates. Such was the general nature of the 
reconciliation then effected ; but some dissen- 
sions presently ,,arose between the king and 
one of the pontifical legates ; and there seems 
no reason to believe that the above negotia- 
tion had any lasting consequences.! 

As the amicable overtures from Armenia 
to Rome were entirely occasioned by the 
political necessities of the former, they were 
more frequent during the desolation of the 
East in the fourteenth century. The in- 
terested obedience of that communion was 
tendered to John XXII., and accepted by 
him. A few years afterwards (in 1341) we 
observe another king, named Leo, soliciting 
temporal assistance from Benedict XII. The 
Pope made answer in two letters, respectively 
addressed to the king and to the Catholic. In 
the former, he made mention of the errors 
entertained by the Armenians, and of the ex- 
ertions which he had made, both by personal 
inquiry from those professing them, and by 
the examination of the authorized books, to 
ascertain their nature and extent. In the lat- 
ter, he exhorted the clergy to assemble in 
council, to condemn and extirpate the false 
opinions which they held, and then, for their 



* See the Letter from Leo to Innocent, published 
by Raynaldus, ann. 1205, in which he boasts, that, 
with great labor, and through divine grace, he had at 
length brought about that obedience of the Armenians 
to the Roman Church, which his ancestors had so 
long attempted in vain. 

t From the fragment of a Greek writer, named 
Nico, (probably of the thirteenth century,) translated 
and published in the Max. Bibjiotheca P.P. (tom. 
XXV. p. 328), and entitled ' De Pessimorum Arraeni- 
orum pessima Religione,' it appears that they still 
retained all the errors imputed to them by either 
Church. Among a multitude here enumerated it is 
one, that ' they do not adore the venerable images, 
but, on the contrary, that their Catholic anathematizes 
those who do so. Neither do they worship the Cross, 
until they have driven a nail into it, and baptized it, 
&c. 



THE ARMENIANS. 



497 



belter instruction in the faith and observances i 
of the Roman Church, to receive the Decree, | 
the Decretals and other Canons used in the ; 
West. He expressed a pious persuasion, that 
when the errors of the Armenians should 
once be removed, the enemies of the faith 
would no longer prevail against them ; and 
concluded his address by the proposal of a 
conference. 

The first of these epistles was accompa- 
nied by a memorial, in which the errors in 
question were enumerated. They were ex- 
panded into a tedious catalogue of one hun- 
dred and seventeen ; but they may, without 
much inaccuracy, be reduced under the fol- 
lowing heads : — 1. The Armenians were ac- 
cused of adhesion to the opinions of Eutyches, 
involving, of course, the Monophysite heresy, 
the rejection of the council of Chalcedon, 
the condemnation of St. Leo, and the seces- 
sion from both the CEcumenic Churches. 2. 
They were charged with administering the 
sacraments of confirmation and the eucharist, 
together with that of baptism — a practice 
which (as Fleury observes) had very early 
prevalance in the Church. 3. They mixed 
no water with the wine in the holy com- 
munion — which again was an ancient usage. 
4. They rejected Tran substantiation, and 
maintained that it was the figure only, not 
the real body, that was received by the Com- 
municants — an opinion which was then na- 
turally considered as a consequence of the 
Eutychian error respecting the nature of 
Christ — for if auy doubts were thrown on the 
reality of Christ's body on earth, the same 
would extend in an equal (if not in a greater) 
degree, to the reality of his flesh in the sacra- 
ment of his supper. The other imputations 
concerned some fabulous notions respecting 
the resun-ection, the last judgment, the place 
of punishment, the earthly and heavenly pa- 
radise, the intermediate state, and other ques- 
tions of difficult determination. 

In consequence of the pontifical remon- 
strances, the Patriarch assembled his council, 
and condemned all the imputed errors ; he 
then sent deputies to the succeeding Pope 
(Clement VI.,) charged with a general obliga- 
tion, to retract any other obnoxious opinions 
which might thereafter be discovered ; and at 
the same time to acknowledge the Bishop of 
Rome as the chief of the Church of Christ, 
and to solicit copies of the decretals, for the 
more faithful administration of his own sub- 
ordinate communion. The Pope engaged to 
send them, and in November, 1346, despatch- I 
ed two legates on a mission to the East. ' 

63 



Five yeai-s afterwards, the Pontiff, still dis- 
satisfied with the communications ( perhaps 
equivocal) which he received from his new 
subjects, and desiring a more express declar- 
ation of their opinions on those points which 
most interested himself, addi'essed the Cath- 
olic of Lesser Armenia in terms not substan- 
tially different from the following: — 'Since 
we are unable clearly to collect your opinions 
from your answers, we desire distinctly to 
propose the following questions: — Do you 
believe that all who at their baptism have 
received the Catholic faith, and have after- 
wards separated from the communion, are 
Schismatics and heretics, if they persist in 
such separation ? and that no one can be 
saved, who has renounced obedience to the 
Pope ? Do you believe that St. Peter received 
from Jesus Christ full power of jurisdiction 
over all the faithful ? that all the power which 
the apostles may have possessed in certain 
provinces was subject to his? and that all the 
successors of St. Peter have the same power 
with himself? Do you believe that, in virtue 
of that power, the Pope can judge all the 
faithful immediately, and delegate to that 
effect such ecclesiastical judges as he may 
think proper ? Do you believe that the Pope 
can be judged by no one, except God him- 
self; and that there is no appeal from his 
decisions to any judge ? Do you believe that 
he can translate bishops, and abbots, and 
other ecclesiastics from one dignity to anoth- 
er, or degi'ade and depose them, if they de- 
serve such punishment ? Do you believe that 
the Pope is not subject to any secular power, 
even regal or imperial, in respect to institu- 
tion, correction, or destitution ; that he alone 
can make general canons, and grant plenary 
indulgences, and decide disputes on matters 
of faith?' .... These interrogations were 
accompained by the notice of some Armenian 
errors on the intermediate state, on the sacra- 
ments, and especially the Eucharist ; and by 
some complaints, that promises, hitherto made 
with facility, had not been sufficiently ob- 
served. But they chiefly merit the historian's 
attention, as they prove the uncompromising 
severity with which Rome, even during the 
exile of her Pontiffs, exacted all her usurped 
ecclesiastical rights, and imposed the whole 
weight and pressure of her yoke even on the 
most distant and most reluctant of her sub- 
jects. Howbeit, after that period, we do not 
observe auy proof of the continuance or re- 
newal of friendly negotiation between Rome 
and Armenia, suflaciently important to deserve 
a place in this history. 



4^ 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



NOTE (2) ON THE MARONITES. 

Mako, or Maroun, from whom this sect de- 
rives its appellation, lived during the latter 
part of the sixth century on the banks of the 
Orontes ; and in the disputes then prevailing 
between the eastern and western Churches, 
he exerted his influence, which was consid- 
erable in that part of Syria, in favor of the 
[alter. About a century later, a certain John, 
surnamed the Maronite, was distinguished by 
his opposition to the Melchites Greeks ; and 
it seems to have been under his guidance, 
that the Syrian ' rebels ' * settled apart i-n the 
secure recesses of Libanus and Antilibanus. 
There they formed a powerful association, 
formidable alike to the orthodox Greeks and 

to the Mahometan invader The first 

crusades brought them once more into im- 
mediate contact with the Latins ; but not 
always as allies, nor by any means as mem- 
bers of the same ecclesiastical communion. 
For it appears certain, that the Maronites 
had imbibed, in the first instance, the opinions 
of the Monothelites, and that they long main- 
tained them, together with some other pecu- 
liarities in rites and discipline. At length, 
however, about the year 1182, they were 
hiduced to abandon then- leading error, and 
were then received into the bosom of the 
Roman Church, 

At the same time it was stipulated, that 
the Pope should in no respect interfere with 
any of their ancient practices or ceremonies ; 
consequently they continued to- observe the 
discipline of the Greek Church, regarding 
the marriage of the clergy, and to administer 
the eucharist in both kinds, and according 
to the manner generally in use in the East. 
They retained, too, in other matters, a much 
closer resemblance to their original, than 
to their adopted, communion. Nevertheless, 
they have faithfully preserved the name of 
obedience to Rome from that time to the 
present ; and if the contributions, which they 
have continually received from the apostol- 
ical treasuiy, should occasion any suspicion 
respecting the motives of their fidelity, it is 
worthy, at least, of observation, that the 
pecuniary current has invariably set in that 
direction, and that the more ordinary prin- 
ciples of the Vatican have never extended 
to the oppression of its Maronite subjects; 



* They were then called Mavdaites — which means 
Rebels. The reader is familiar with the picture of 
die Maronites drawn in Volney's admirable ' Travels 
in Syria.' 



CHAPTER XXVn. 

From the Council of Basle to the beginning oj 
the Reformation. 

The real weight of General Councils as a part of the Con- 
stitution of the Church — Circumstances preceding the 
accession of JSTicholas V^ — His popular qualities — Love 
of all the Arts— His public virtues— Recorded particu- 
lars of his Election — Concord with Germany— Celebra- 
tion and abuse of the Jubilee — Death of the Cardinal of 
Aries — His recorded miracles and canonization — Efforts 
to unite the Christian States against the Turks — Dis- 
satisfaction and Death of Nicholas — Calixtus III. Cru- 
sading enthusiasm of yEneas SylVius — Jealousy be- 
tween the Pope and Alphonso of Arragon- — Nepotisms 
of the former — ^neas Sylvius justifies the Pope against 
the complaints of the Germans — His history — The cir- 
cumstances of his elevation to the Pontificate — The 
Council of Mantua, for the purpose of uniting Europe 
against the Turks— The project of Pius II. — Failure of 
the whole Scheme— Embassy to Rome from the Princes 
of the East — Thomas Palneologus arrives at Rome — 
Canonization of Catharine of Sienna— The Bull of Pius 
II. against all appeals from the Holy See to Genera! 
Councils — The Pope retracts the errors into which he 
fen, as ^neas Sylvius— Probable motive of his aposta- 
sy — His speech in Consistory — Departure against the 
Infidels — Arrival at Anrona, and Death — His Character 
— Compared to Nicholas V., and Cardinal Julian — Con- 
ditions imposed by the Conclave on the future Pope — 
Remarks — Paul II. is elected, and immediately violates 
them — A native of Venice — Principles of his Govern- 
ment — He diverts the War from the Turks against the 
Hussites, and persecutes a literary Society at Rome — 
Siztus IV. makes a faint attempt to rouse Christendom 
against the Turks — Violent broil between the Pope an(J 
the Florentines — Otranto taken by the Turks — Exces- 
sive Nepotism of this Pope — Institution of the Minimes 
— Increased venality of the Court of Rome — The moral' 
character, tatbnts, learning of Sixtus — Elevation of In- 
nocent VIIL — Violation of the oath taken in Conclave 
— Preferment conferred, on his illegitimate Children — 
His weakness and his avarice- The great wealth, elec- 
tion, and reputation of Alexander F7.— Distribution of 
his Benefices, &g. among the Cardinals who voted fos 
him — Great Festivities at Rome — Moral profligacy and 
indecency of the Pope — His projected alliance with the 
Sultan Bajazet— He confers the possession of the New- 
World on the Kings of Spain — The Act contested by 
the Portuguese — On what ground — His negotiations 
with Charles VIII. of France— History and fate ofZi- 
zim, brother of Bajazet — Cassar Borgia, Duke of Valen- 
tion, or Valentinois — His co'-operation with his father — 
The object of their common ambition — Probable cir 
cumstances of the death of Alexander VI. — Express- 
sions of Guicciardini— PiMs ///. dies immediately after 
his election — Julian della Rovera, or Julius II. unani- 
mously elected — His policy and character — His disputa 
with Louis XII. — Ecclesiastical scruples of the latter — 
Julius resumes the possession of the States of the 
Church, and extends them — Hisextraordrnary military 
and political talents — Encouragement of the Arts— Lays 
the foundations of St. Peter's— A Council convoked by 
the Cardinals against the Pope — Its entire failure — Ju- 
lius convokes the fifth Lateran Council — Subjects dis- 
cussed by it till his death — Continuation of the Council 
under Leo X. — A number of constitutions enacted by it 
— Its edict to restrain the Press— Its abolition of the 
Pragmatic Sanction, through the co-operation of Francis 
L— Dissolution of the Council— Observations— On the 
gradual degeneracy of the See— Of the Government of 
the successive Popes— their Nepotism— On the morality 
of the Conclave— Obligations undertaken there on Oatli 
— Reasons of their perpetual violation— Ignorance oS 



NICHOLAS V. 



499 



Cisalpines respecting the real character of the Court 
of Rome — Respectability ascribed to it through the mer- 
its of its literary Pontiffs — The great use made by the 
Popes at this period of the dangers of a Turkish inva- 
sion, in order to suppress the question of Church Re- 
form. 

The council of Basle, after its protracted and 
resolute struggle with the Vatican, having at 
length dissolved itself, and Felix V. , its crea- 
ture, having resigned his Ul-supported preten- 
sions to the Chair of St. Peter, the prospects 
of the Court of Rome once more brightened, 
and its authority was again secure from any 
immediate invasion. As a restraint on papal 
despotism, a General Council was effectual, 
so long as the council was assembled ; and 
even its name and the menace of an appeal 
to it, as a last resource, have operated, on 
more occasions than one, with salutary influ- 
ence on the fears of an arbitrary Pope. But 
the power of the Monarchy was continuous ; 
its principles were never suspended ; its ac- 
tion was uniformly directed to the same 
object — whereas the controlhng body, the 
Senate of the Church, had only an occasional 
and very precarious existence ; and even 
when it was more efficaciously in action, it 
was liable to all the incidents which throw 
uncertainty into the deliberations of very large 
assemblies. It is true that the councils of 
Pisa, Constance, and Basle had endeavored, 
by express enactments, to make their sittings 
periodical, so as to erect the Council General 
into a permanent branch of the constitution of 
the Church. But as the power of convoking 
it still remained with the Pope ; as the collect- 
ing together of so large a body of prelates 
from all parts of Europe must always have 
occasioned many local evils ; and as the gen- 
eral consent, and even private inclinations, of 
the more powerful sovereigns were not, under 
such circumstances, to be disregarded, it was 
easy for the Pontiff to evade an obligation 
which he detested. So, in fact, it proved ; 
for when they had once shaken off the fetters 
that were forged for them at Basle, the suc- 
cessors of Eugenius IV. carefully abstained, 
for above half a century, from acknowledging 
any power in the Church, except their own. 
The moment of the accession of Nicholas 
V. was even favorable to the unlimited su- 
premacy (the high Papists called it the In- 
dependence) of the Court of Rome. The 
faithful children of the Church had now, for 
seventy years, been distracted by dissensions 
almost uninterrupted. The schism which 
had dissevered kingdoms, and dishonored the 
Church, had been seemingly aggi'avated by 
the council of Pisa ; and no sooner was it 



appeased, afler many fierce disputes at Con- 
stance, than a third assembly succeeded, 
which occasioned (to all appearances) a new 
broil, and which ended by creating a second 
schism. The spectacle of a Pope and a coun- 
cil launching anathemas against each other 
was not calculated to edify the devout Cath- 
olic, nor even to conciliate towards the coun- 
cil the affections of the unthinking, who fonn 
the majority of mankind. But when the 
Pope assembled his rival council at FeiTara, 
and when the two infallible antagonists inter- 
changed the bolts of excommunication, we 
may fairly believe that the dignity of those 
venerable bodies suffered much in popular 
opinion, and even that their utility was made 
matter of serious question. Wearied by con- 
tinual dissension, and disgusted by endless 
exhibitions of ecclesiastical discord, many 
were disposed to acquiesce in the unrestrain- 
ed licentiousness of the Vatican, as the lesser 
evil. 

JVicholas V. — Again, the formidable suc- 
cesses of the Turks, and their near approach 
to the capital of the East, diverted the atten- 
tion of men from their spiritual grievances 
to a more sensible object ; and the zeal which 
Nicholas displayed in that, the common cause 
of all Christendom, reconciled many to an 
authority, so earnestly exercised in so holy a 
cause. Above atl, the personal character of 
that Pope was of great use in conciliating 
the disaffected, and rallying them under the 
pontifical banners. His reputation, his tal- 
ents, his pursuits, were in accordance with 
the spirit, which, in Italy, at least, so pecu- 
liarly prevailed at that time, for the cultivation 
of ancient literature. His gradual ascent from 
an inferior origin to the highest dignity was 
truly ascribed to his literary genius and ac- 
complishments; and having attained that emi- 
nence, he surrounded it — not with sensualists 
or sycophants, — but with men of study and 
erudition, whose society he loved, and whose 
affection he obtained. A multitude of tran- 
scribers and translators were continually in 
his employment; and the learning of the 
Greeks was placed within the reach of an 
ordinary' education. He founded the Vatican 
library, and sent his messengers into every 
country for the collection of rare and valu- 
able manuscripts ; and while he sought to 
amass the most precious treasures of profane 
lore, he exerted even greater zeal to multiply 
authentic copies of the sacred writings. 

But neither was his polite taste, nor the 
profusion of his liberality, confined entirely 
to literary objects. His patronage was bestow- 



500 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



ed on the arts, and especially on that of archi- 
tecture. He embellished his capital with sev- 
eral superb edifices ; many churches, which 
had fallen into ruins during the schisms and 
disorders of preceding generations, were now 
restored to more than their ancient splendor ; 
and the ground was prepared, and the foun- 
dations traced out, on which the least unwor- 
thy temple which man has ever dedicated 
to Omnipotence, was destined to rise. The 
talents of Nicholas were illustrated by private 
as well as public virtues.* He discouraged 
the practice of Simony, so long habitual to 
the Court of Rome ; and the records of his 
history permii us once more to associate the 
word 'charity' with the character of a Pope. 
Such were purposes on which the revenues 
of the Church were honorably employed, and 
for which they were less reluctantly contrib- 
uted ; and such the character which, being 
raised at that moment to the pontifical chair, 
conciliated minds already weary with dissen- 
sion, and seduced them into a temporary ac- 
quiescence in acknowledged abuses. 

When the Cardinals went into conclave, 
on the death of Eugenius, nothing was farther 
from their intention, or from general expecta- 
tion, than the election of Nicholas, Prosper 
Colonna was the person on whom the choice 
was expected to fall ; and though the common 
proverb was not then forgotten, 'that he who 
enters the conclave Pope, comes out Cardi- 
nal,' (chi entra Papa, esce Cardinale) still 
among the names at all connected with suc- 
cess Thomas of Sarzana was not mentioned. 
Eighteen Cardinals were present ; and, after 
two or three scrutinies, eleven were united in 
favor of Colonna ; one only was wanting to 
give him the requisite majority. At that 
moment the Cardinal of St. Sixtus is reported 
to have turned suddenly to Sarzana, and said 
to him, 'Thomas, I give my vote to you, 
because this is the eve of St. Thomas ! ' It 
was, in fact, the eve of St. Thomas Aquinas. 
The rest of the College immediately followed 
the example, and Thomas of Sarzana was 
unanimously elected.f 



* We may be allowed to cite (from Platina) a part 
of iiis epitaph, because the praises it offers were really 
well founded: — 

Hie sita sunt Quinti Nicolai Antistitis ossa, 

Aurea qui dederat snecula, Roma, tibi. 
Consilio illustris, virtute iirustrior omni, 

Excoluit doctos doctior ipse vires. 
Abstulit errorem, quo Schisma infecerat orbem. 

Restituit mores, moenia, templa, demos. 
Attica Romanffi complura volumina lingus 
Prodidit— en tumulo fundite thura sacro. 
f The Roman people were allowed to retain (in re- 
«arn, perhaps, for their long-lost share in the election) 



One of the first act of Nicholas was, to sign 
a Concordat with the German Church. Its 
provisions did not extend beyond the subject 
of patronage ; and it w^as arranged that the 
Pope should appoint to all great benefices of 
every description which should become va- 
cant in curia; to all vacated by Cardinals, or 
other officers of the Roman Court ; and to all 
inferior benefices which should fall during 
six alternate months of the year. The rest 
appear to have been left at the disposal of the 
Ordinaries ; all (except the smallest) being lia- 
ble to the payment of Annates, according to 
the tax of the Apostolical Chamber ; and all 
to Papal confirmation. This Concordat, pro- 
perly considered, was the substantial effect 
produced by the Council of Basle upon the 
constitution of the Church of Germany ; it 
was for this end that the labors of so many 
pious prelates and learned doctors had been 
exhausted ! Yet even this result, as we shall 
presently see, was not such as to secure the 
satisfaction or bind the faith of the Court of 
Rome. 

Jubilees. — In the year 1450 the avarice of 
the Roman Clergy and people was again 
j noufished by the celebration of the Jubilee ; 
and so vast were the multitudes which on 
this occasion sought the plenary indulgence 
at the tombs of the apostles, that many are 
said to have been crushed to death in Chm-ch- 
es, and to have perished by other accidents.* 
Nevertheless, as there were still many devout 
persons, particularly in the more remote 
countries of Europe, who were precluded 
from reaping the promised rewards by per- 
sonal disabilities, Nicholas, in imitation of 
the abuse of his predecessor, aflfbrded them 
facilities to redeem their omission. To the 
Poles and Lithuanians a private jubilee was 
accorded, on the condition, that every pious 
person should pay for his indulgence only 
half of the money which the pilgrimage to 
Rome would have cost him ; but through 



tlie licentious privilege of plundering the mansion of 
the Pope elect. On this occasion it happened, that 
Prosper Colonna, as first Deacon, had the office of 
communicating the election from the window to the 
assembled populace. Now the people, knowing him 
to be the favorite, thought no other than that he had 
appeared to announce his own election. Conse- 
quently they rushed, without further inquiry, to his 
magnificent palace, and stripped it bare. After they 
had learned their mistake, they proceeded to atone for 
it by plundering Sarzana also; but he was a scholar, 
and had little to lose. 

* Ninety-seven pilgrims, for instance, were thrown 
at once by the pressure of the multitude from the 
bridge of St, Angelo, and dcovvnedv 



NICHOLAS V. 



501 



some sense of shame, as is said, at the enor- 
mous sums which would thus have been 
raised, the proportion was finally reduced to 
one quarter. Of the proceeds, which were 
still considerable, half was consigned to the 
King of Poland, for the prosecution of the 
holy war, a fourth to the Queen Sophia, for 
charitable uses, and a fourth for the repara- 
tion of the Roman Churches. In this in- 
stance we have the unusual consolation of 
believing, that the money thus levied upon 
superstition, and levied, too, chiefly upon the 
superstition of the poor, was applied, for the 
most part, to the purposes professed. There 
are shades in the colore of religious impos- 
ture; and the sin of deluding a credulous 
race would have been still blacker, had it 
been followed by perfidy, or had its fruits 
been expended in pampering the profligacy 
of the Court of Rome. 

The Cardinal of Aries. — In that year, also, 
died the Cardinal of Aries, the same who 
had succeeded Julian Cesarini as the Presi- 
dent of the Council of Basle. But the history 
of that eminent ecclesiastic did not terminate 
at his death. On the interment of his body 
at Aries, many extraordinary miracles were 
performed at his tomb ; and their fame spread 
so widely, and with such assurance of truth, 
that the partisans of the rival Council of 
Florence were struck with confusion. This 
Prelate had been excommunicated by Pope 
Eugenius, and stigmatized as the author of 
schism, the child of perdition, the nursling 
of iniquity ; he had been condemned by two 
General Councils for rebellion against the 
Church, and degraded and deprived of all 
his dignities. He had continued, notwith- 
standing, in the exercise of his episcopal 
functions at Aries ; and so lasting was the 
impression of his sanctity — founded on his 
charitable disposition, and other Christian 
excellences — and so pressing was the impor- 
tunity of his devotees, who had even antici- 
pated in their prayers the determination of 
the Vatican, that at length Pope Clement 
VII. published {in 1527) the Bull of Beatifi- 
cation ; and by that act exalted among the 
holy mediators the denounced, anathematized 
foe of Pontifical corruption and despotism. 

If Nicholas V. had made some ineffectual 
exertions to preserve the Eastern empire, 
while there seemed yet some hope of its 
preservation, he redoubled his efforts where 
tbe shadow of a hope no longer existed. 
The fall of Constantinople, though long 
foreseen, fell like an unexpected bolt upon 
the nations of the West ; and it was quickly 



perceived that the capital of the ancient 
Empire, the throne of the Christian religion, 
the opulent palaces and cities of Italy, pre- 
sented peculiar temptations to an ambitious, 
unbelieving depredator. Accordingly nu- 
merous religious persons began to preach a 
new crusade ; and while ^neas Sylvius was 
astonishing the Princes of Germany by his 
polished eloquence, a simple Monk, a hermit 
of St. Augustine, was exerting a more suc- 
cessful influence over the republics of Italy. 
His name was Simonet ; he was destitute 
of all acquirements ; but his natural address 
won the confidence of those who listened to 
him. He traversed the country, in repeated 
journeys, with unwearied activity. At Ve- 
nice, at Milan, at Florence, he reiterated his 
counsels and his arguinents. The orator 
was disinterested, and his object was the 
concord of liis hearers. It was by such 
simple machinery, that he prevailed in ef- 
fecting an union among those powerful cities. 
Yet the practised statesmen of the day were 
confounded * when they learned, that a hum- 
ble, undistinguished Monk, without rank, 
without wealth, without any worldly support, 
had accomplished an enterprise which the 
Pope, and his Court of Cardinals, had at- 
tempted in vain. 

In the midst of his chivalrous designs to 
recover Constantinople, and expel the con- 
queror from Europe, and at a moment when 
there seemed some prospect of a partial co- 
operation for that purpose, Nicholas V. died. 
His complaint was gout ; and it is commonly 
asserted, that its progress was hastened by 
the affliction with which he saw the triumphs 
of the infidel. It is at least certain, that dur- 
ing the two or three last years of his life the 
natural suavity of his temper deserted him; 
that he became morose, and even cruel ; fear- 
ful of his enemies, and suspicious of his 
friends ; querulous, and discontented even 
with the Chan- of St. Peter. ' No man (he 
once said) ever crosses my threshold who tells 
me a word of truth. I am confounded by 
the artifices of those who surround me ; and 
if I was not restrained by the fear of scandal, 
I would resign the Pontificate, and become 
once more Thomas of Sarzana. Under that 
name I had more enjoyment in a single day, 
than any year can henceforth ever bring me.' 
Nicholas, however amiable in his domestic 
qualities, had been ever unable to recognise 

* 'Visum est id omnibus monstri simile humilera 
et incogiiitum monachum Italiam pacavisse.' ^neae 
Sylv. Hist, de Europa, cap. 68, p. 460, edit, Basif. 
See Platina, Vit. Nic. V. ad finem. 



502 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



any political rights in the subjects of the state ; 
and thus he had persecuted the patriots of 
his day with precipitate severity. In conse- 
quence, it is made a natural question by the 
author of ' The Italian Republics,' whether 
it was not remorse, rather than commisera- 
tion, which imbittered and curtailed his de- 
clining days. 

Calixtus III. — Alphonso Borgia, a native 
ef Spain, was chosen as his successor, and 
assumed the name of Calixtus III. Scarce- 
ly was he established in his dignity, when 
JEneas Sylvius presented hinjself at Rome, 
the bearer of the most flattering assurances 
on the part of the Emperor, both respecting 
liis own military preparations, and the gen- 
eral eagerness for the Turkish war. In an 
animated address to the Pope and Cardinals, 
the orator depicted the dangers which impen- 
ded over Europe : he then dilated upon the 
great numercial superiority of the Christians 
— that many Princes of Germany had taken 
the vow ; that the King of Arragon was in 
readiness ; that the Duke of Burgundy was 
ardent for the enterprise. Charles of France 
would not fail to emulate the zeal of his pre- 
decessors ; the ancient courage of the English 
would not now desert them ; the Castilians, 
the Portuguese, all nations, in short, awaited 
only the pontificial summons to arm for the 
defence of religion — if his Holiness would 
only second the vows of the faithful, by un- 
locking the treasures of the Church, and 
sending the laborers to the harvest. . . . These 
magnificent declarations were, for the most 
part, the spontaneous fruits of the orator's 
enthusiasm— that they had no result, is not to 
be entirely ascribed to the lukewarmness of 
the Pope. Yet it is remarkable that, among 
the various Princes announced as forming that 
holy confederacy, the first who withdrew 
from it, and that, too, in consequence of per- 
sonal dissension with the Pontiff, was Al- 
phonso of Arragon. Borgia had been the 
subject of that monarch — more than that — 
he had been engaged in his domestic service, 
and owed his ecclesiastical advancement to 
the same patronage. On his elevation to the 
Chair, Alphonso sent ambassadors to inquire 
of his Holiness, what terms were hereafter to 
subsist between them ? Calixtus peevishly re- 
plied, ' Let him rule his kingdom, and leave 
the government of the Church, without any 
interference, to me.' Some have considered 
the reply as too harsh, while others have dis- 
covered in the overture of Alphonso a want 
of due veneration for the Vicegerent of 
Christ. Probably, the monarch had not for^ 



gotten, and perhaps the Pontiff could not for- 
give, the relation which had formerly subsist- 
ed between them ; and their knowledge of 
each other's character may have been too deep 
and intimate to leave much room for rever- 
ence on either side. 

The System of JVepotism. — Calixtus III. 
reigned only three years, and died in August, 
1458, at a very advanced age. His pontificate 
was signalized by no striking incident, nor 
were his acts in any respect remarkable, 
unless, indeed, we should consider him as 
having introduced into the government of the 
Church the system of Nepotism. For, though 
instances of that vice had occasionally occur- 
red before, it was not till now that it became 
the practice of the Vatican. Calixtus ex- 
hausted upon his worthless nephews the 
riches of the Apostolical Treasury, and lim- 
ited his ambition to the aggrandizement of 
his own family. It was to this that the as- 
pirations of pontificial presumption sank at 
last I From that lofty spiritual arrogance, 
which, in earlier ages, has extorted from us 
something approaching to admiration, the 
character of papacy first descended to the 
grasping after temporal power ; its great ob- 
ject then became to enlarge the dominions of 
the See — to secure the obedience of the city. 
Avarice attended ; still its fruits were, for the 
most part, applied to ecclesiastical objects — to 
maintain the interests of the Church, and 
extend the authority of the Vicar of Christ. 
Intrigues and wars flowed from the Vatican, 
and deluged Europe with blood ; still they 
were designed to extend the power, to aug- 
ment the dignity, of jRome., It was for the 
declining years of Papal despotism, that the 
last and lowest degi*adation was reserved : it 
was not till the age of Calixtus HI. and Six- 
tus IV. that the ambition of St. Peter's suc- 
cessors degenerated into mere family passion, 
and was confined to the narrowest circle of 
selfishness. 

Policy of Mneas Sylvius. — In the year pre- 
ceding his death, Calixtus was accused by the 
Germans of having raised exorbitant contri- 
butions, under the pretext of a holy war, and 
violated the Concordat made with his pre- 
decessor. There was considerable ground 
for both these complaints. Nevertheless, it 
was on this occasion that ^neas Sylvius, for- 
merly the adversary of pontificial oppression, 
more recently the advocate of the Imperial 
claims, came forward in defence of the Pope, 
and vigorously maintained his rights and jus- 
tified his conduct. In some letters, composed 
during this dispute, he reproached the Ger- 



PIUS 11. 



503 



man Prelates for referring to any other au- 
thority, rather than the Chief of the Church.* 
He asserted that their grievances, even had 
they been real, should have been left to the 
remedial benevolence of the Holy See; he 
applied himself to confute some arguments 
against its authority, which w^ere derived 
from the Councils of Constance and Basle ; 
he made mention of a sort of Pragmatic 
Sanction, established by certain Prelate-Prin- 
ces of Germany, with a view to degi-ade the 
Holy See ; and he reproached the nation with 
an unnatural ingratitude, in having resolved 
to withold contributions from Rome, to pre- 
vent appeals, to restore elections to the Ordi- 
naries, to refuse Annates, and so, in effect, to 
deprive the Sovereign Pontiff of the plenitude 
of his power. 

It is important to liotice these particulars, 
because they indicate the secret working of 
that spirit, which, in the next generation, 
broke forth with irresistible violence. Nor 
is it without a feeling of sorrow, mingled 
with shame, that we observe the most en- 
lightened ecclesiastic of his age casting off 
the wise and generous principles of earlier 
life, as his ambition was warmed by a nearer 
prospect of gratification, and as his selfish in- 
terests became more closely associated with 
ecclesiastical corruption. ^neas Sylvius 
Piccolomini was born at Corsigni, near Si- 
enna, in 1405, and his first laurels were gath- 
ered at the Council of Basle ; he remained 
faithful to that Assembly, and promoted its 
objects, and advanced his o^vn reputation in 
the conduct of some important missions 
which were confided to him. In the year 
1442 he became secretary to the Emperor 
Frederic; but throughout the pontificate of 
Nicholas V. he was engaged in the service of 
the Holy See, and zealously exerted himself, 
as its Nuncio, in a cause which was always 
dear to him, to confederate the Christian 
powers against the Turkish aggressor. 

He was raised to the dignity of Cardinal 
(of Sienna) by Calixtus III., and on the death 
of that Pope he entered into Conclave with 
his brethren. The first scrutiny was indeci- 
sive ; but it was followed by a very effective 



* He went to the utmost extent of papal orthodoxy, 
by asserting, * that none who had disregarded the 
authority of the Roman Pontiff, could at any time 
enter the kingdom of heaven, and that those, who had 
spurned the commands of the Apostolical See, should 
not now have any occasion for exultation. Hos enim 
Catholica Veritas, nisi resipuerint ante obitum, ignis 
asterni mancipio sine intermissione deputat.' JEa. 
Sylv. Epist. lib. i. Ep. 369, &c 



intrigue, which seemed likely to terminate in 
the election of the Archbishop of Rouen, an 
ambitious and unprincipled Frenchman. Pic- 
colomini exerted all his eloquence and in- 
fluence against that choice ; he addressed 
several of the Cardinals separately; he appeal- 
ed to their consciences, to their interest, to 
their vanity ; he exaggerated the vices of the 
Archbishop ; he addressed the national jeal- 
ousy of his compatriots ; he threatened them 
with a second secession to Avignon, and 
painted the approaching shame and desola- 
tion of Italy. The College proceeded a 
second time to the scrutiny. The golden 
chalice was placed upon the altar, and the 
Cardinals of Rouen, of Rimini, and Colonna 
remained near it. The others took their ap- 
pointed seats, and, rising in succession, ac- 
cording to seniority, they placed in the chalice 
the paper which expressed their suffrage. 
When Sylvius went up in his turn, the Cai- 
dinal of Rouen, who knew how bitter an 
enemy he was, hastily said to him, 'Remem- 
ber me on this occasion.' ' What,' replied 
Piccolomini, 'do you address me, who am 
but a vile worm of earth ! ' He resumed his 
place ; and when the scrutiny was finished, 
and the papers examined, it appeared that 
the Cardinal of Sienna had nine votes, and 
that of Rouen six only. 

His Election to the Poniijicate, — Three still 
were wanting to the former to make good his 
election ; and the Cardinals tlien proceeded 
to the accessit. For some time they sat in 
profound silence. One of them at length 
arose, and gave his voice to Piccolomini; it 
was a thunderbolt for the Cardinal of Rouen. 
There was a second interval of silence, and 
during it those individuals who had any 
hopes for themselves, having penetrated the 
secret, that Piccolomini was on the point of 
being elected, left their places on various pre- 
texts. Presently another Cardinal gave his 
vote to Sylvius ; and only one more being 
now required, Prosper Colonna rose ; and 
though the Cardinals of Rouen and Nice en- 
deavored to prevent his design by a charge 
of perfidy, he gave his decisive suffrage to 
Piccolomini. The latter was then saluted 
Pope by the whole College ; and afl;er reply- 
ing, with great modesty, to the excuses and 
congratulations of the opposite party, ten- 
dered by Bessarion of Nice, he assumed the 
name of Pius IT., and went through the cus- 
tomary solemnities. 

Council of Mantua. — The object to which 
the exertions of ^Eneas Sylvius had been 
faithfully directed in all his subordinate ofRces, 



604 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



equally distinguished his pontificate ; and the 
gradual progress of the Turks, by increasing 
his apprehensions, fortified his zeal. Ac- 
cordingly he allowed not a moment to elapse 
before he convoked a Council for the promo- 
tion of a general crusade. Mantua was the 
place selected for that purpose ; his call was 
obeyed by the gi*eater number of the Italian 
Princes ; and, finally, though with more re- 
luctance, by representatives from most of the 
European States. Many deputies from the 
East were also present — from Rhodes, from 
Cyprus, from Lesbos, from the Peloponnesus, 
Epirus, and lUyria — to express their suffer- 
ings or their fears, and pour out their suppli- 
cations. Pius II. proceeded with extraor- 
dinary pomp to the opening of the Council. 
In various cities through which he passed 
he was received with the same ostentatious 
homage which is paid to a temporal Prince ; 
and the religious motive which may have 
animated the Pontiff was forgotten in the less 
questionable policy of his design. 

Pius II. opened the Council of Mantua on 
the 1st of June, 1459, just six years after the 
fall of Constantinople. His first discourse 
was employed in rebuking the indifirerence 
of the Christian Princes ; in contrasting the 
devotion of the Turks for their execrable sect 
with the apathy of the children of the Gos- 
pel; and in expressing his own resolution 
never to abandon his project, but to sacrifice 
his life, if necessary, for the people intrusted 
to him by God. His earnestness, his activity, 
his brilliant and commanding eloquence, pro- 
duced an immediate, though it proved but a 
temporary, effect. The Council continued 
its sessions till the end of the January follow- 
ing : as its deliberations proceeded, it increas- 
ed in numbers and dignity ; and it grew 
warmer in the cause, as it was more influenc- 
ed by the ardor and genius of the Pontiff. 
The methods by which he proposed to effec- 
tuate his design contained nothing that was 
impracticable — much that was reasonable 
and generous. An army of 50,000 or 60,000 
confederates was to be immediately collected 
for the defence of Hungary and the adjacent 
provinces; the men were to be raised in 
Germany, Bohemia, Poland, and Hungary. 
The pecuniary means were to be furnished 
chiefly by Italy ; the clergy * were to contri- 



bute a tenth of all their property, the Jews a 
twentieth, and the laity a thirtieth part. The 
Pope professed his readiness to conduct the 
war in person, and to consecrate to that pur- 
pose all that belonged to him. 

The Council was then dissolved : and 
whatsoever may have been the sincerity of 
its members, while they were awed by the 
presence of the Pontiff, and animated by his 
eloquence, the engagements they contracted 
were, for the most part, violated. The intes- 
tine dissensions of the Christian Powers were 
too deeply seated to permit any cordial or 
general co-operation ; and so far was Pius II. 
from succeeding in his attempt to heal them, 
that he did not himself long escape their 
contagion, but presently became entangled in 
the malignant politics of Europe. 

Embassy from the East. — In the same year 
(1460) a solemn embassy from the Princes 
of the East arrived at Rome : the respect, 
which could not be claimed for their power, 
was offered to their titles and pretentions, 
and to the object of their mission. The En- 
voys professed to represent David, Emperor 
of Trebizond, George, King of Persia, the 
Sovereigns of the Two Armenias, and many 
others. They advanced a profusion of hopes 
and promises — the Turks were to be assailed 
from the East by a powerful army, through 
the Hellespont, Thrace, and the Bosphorus ; 
among their allies they numbered Bendis, 
King of Mingrelia and Arabia, Pancratius, 
King of the Georgians, Moiiic, Marquis of 
Goria, Ismael, Lord of Sinope, and some 
others ; it was the object of their mission to 
inform his Holiness of these preparations, 
and to render homage to the Vicar of God 
upon earth. Pius II. applauded their zeal, 
and accepted their homage ; but assuring 
them that little could be done on his part, un- 
less in conjunction with the Courts of France 
and Burgundy, he sent them forth to tell their 
pompous tale beyond the Alps. It may seem 
needless to add, that this deputation had no 
result. 

The year following, Thomas Palaeologus 
presented himself at Rome, and he was re- 
ceived with a munificence which did honor to 



* The Venetians and Genoese were not included in 
this engagement. The greatest difficulties were raised 
by the former, partly owing to their commercial and 
other intercourse with the Infidel, and partly, perhaps, 
because they had been accustomed to profit by crusades, 
not to contribute to them. Again, though the Duke 



of Burgundy had given some reluctant promises of aid, 
neither the French, Castilians, nor Portuguese had 
offered any hopes. 'As to England (said the Pope), 
we have nothing to expect from that kingdom, on 
account of the troubles which divide it ; nor from 
Scotland, hidden in the depths of the ocean. Den- 
mark, and Sweden, and Norway, are too distant to 
send us soldiers, and, content with their fish, they 
I could not send us money, if they would.' 



PIUS II. 



505 



the pontifical Court. The Imperial Exile had 
passed from Corfu to Ancoua, and brought 
to that city the relics of the Apostle St. An- 
drew. He bestowed the sacred treasure upon 
the Pope ; and accordingly commissioners 
were appointed, who conducted it with great 
solemnity to Rome. It was deposited in St. 
Peter's with eveiy mark of veneration : and 
though the reader is already famihar with 
such absurdities ; though he has had frequent 
occasion to deplore the deference to popu- 
lar superstition wdiich has been paid by veiy 
intelligent, and even very pious, ecclesiastics, 
we may still record another humiliating act, 
which it was the fate of Pins II. to perform. 
Catharine of Sienna had died above eighty 
years before in perfect odor of sanctity ; con- 
tinual miracles, certified by sufficient tes- 
timony, had been perfoi-med at her tomb; 
people were anxiously expecting her canon- 
ization.* A Duke of Austria and a King of 
Hungary had successively solicited the Pon- 
tiflf of the day to do that justice to her ex- 
traordinary qualities ; but the ceremony had 
been deferred through the confusion of the 
Church and the disorders of the Holy See. 
It was reserved to the genius of yEneas Syl- 
vius at length to perform that office ; and one 
of the most extravagant enthusiasts, that ever 
dishonored the profession of Christianity, f 
was enthroned among the Saints of the 
Church by one of the most enlightened Pre- 
lates who has in any age adorned it. 

From being the zealous advocate of the 
Council of Basle, we have observed ^Eneas 
Sylvius defending the usurpations and exalt- 
ing the majesty of the Roman See. It was 
thus that he became qualified to occupy it ; 
and the enjoyment of its povs^ and preroga- 
tives was not calculated to revive his ardor 
for its reformation. To have imposed limits 
on an authority exercised by himself had 
been a rare and difficult effort of magnanim- 
ity : and so far was Pius II. from harboring 
the design, that he seized an early occasion 
to discourage those liberal principles of 



* The first recorded Act of Canonization was per- 
formed in 993, by John XV., in behalf of Udalrig, 
Bishop of Augsburg. The right in the first instance 
was not exclusively vested in the Pope: councils, and 
even prelates of high rank, were qualified to perform 
it; till Alexander III. placed this among the more 
important acts of authority (Causte Maj(jres) to be 
executed only by the Pope. — See Mosh. Cent, x., p. 
ii. ch. iii. 

t The exploits of this fanatic fill twenty-four folio 
pages in the works of St. Antoninus. Archbishop of 
Florence, — (Chronicorum, Tertia Pars, p. 692, et 
seq.) 

64 



Church government, which were entertained 
by many ecclesiastics, and which had so late- 
ly been propagated by himself During the 
Council of Mantua, shortly before its disso- 
lution, and at a moment when his influence 
over its members was probably the greatest, 
he published a celebrated Bull against all 
appeals from the Holy See to general Coun- 
cils. ' An execrable abuse, unheard of in an- 
cient times,* has gained footing in our days, 
authorized by some, who, acting under a spi- 
rit of rebellion rather than sound judgment, 
presume to appeal from the pontiff of Rome, 
Vicar of Jesus Christ, to whom, in the per 
son of St. Peter, it has been said, " Feed my 
sheep;" and again, " Whatsoever thou shall 
bind on earth shall be bound in heaven ; " to 
appeal, I say, from his judgments to a future 
Council — a practice which every man in- 
structed in law must regard as conti-ary to 
the holy canons, and prejudicial to the Chris- 
tian republic. . . .' The Pope then proceeded 
to paint in vague and glowing expressions 
the frightful evils occasioned by such appeals ; 
and finally pronounced to be ipso facto ex- 
communicated all individuals who might 
hereafter resort to them, whether their dig- 
nity were imperial, royal, or pontifical, as well 
as all Universities and Colleges, and all others 
who should promote and counsel them. 

Recantation of Pius II. — This Edict, pub- 
lished in January, 1460, was no unworthy 
prelude to the most remarkable act of the 
pontificate of Pius — his public retractation of 
his early opinions. Not contented to leave 
others to contrast his actual conduct with his 
former principles, and both were too notori- 
ous to escape such contrast, he boldly stepped 
forward as his own judge, and published the 
most unequivocal condemnation of himself. 
Before his departure for Ancona, in the year 
1463, he addressed to the university of Co- 
logne a bull to the following effects — That 
being liable to human imperfection, he had 
said, or written, much which might unques- 
tionably be censured ; but that, as he had sin- 
ned, like Paul, and persecuted the Church of 
God through want of sufficient knowledge, 
so he now imitated the blessed Augustine, 
who, having fallen into some erroneous ex- 
pressions, retracted them ; that he ingenu- 
ously acknowledged his former ignorance, 
lest what he had written while young should 
lead to some error prejudicial to the Holy 
See; for if there were any one whom it 

* ' JExecrabilis et pristinis temporibus inauditus ' 
are tlie opening words, which give the title to the 
decree. 



506 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



peculiarly became to defend and maintain the 
eminence and glory of the first Throne of 
the Church, it was assuredly that individual, 
whom God, in his mercy and goodness, had 
raised to the dignity of the vicar of Jesus 
Christ. That, for these reasons, no confi- 
dence was due to those of his writings, which 
offended, in any manner, the authority of 
the Apostolical See, and established opinions 
which it did not acknowledge. 'Wherefore 
(he added) if you find anything contrary to 
its doctrine, either in my dialogues, or my 
letters, or any other of my writings, — despise 
those opinions, reject them, and follow that 
which I now proclaim to you. Believe me 
now that 1 am old, rather than then, when I 
spoke as a youth ; pay more regard to the 
Sovereign Pontiff than to the individual; 
reject ^neas — receive Pius. The former 
name was imposed by my parents — a Gentile 
name, — and in my infancy : the other I as- 
sumed as a Christian in my Apostolate.'* In 
conclusion, the Pope, anticipating the natural 
suspicion of ambitious motives as the occa- 
sion of his change, took some pains to remove 
that notion, by recounting the circumstances 
of his introduction to the council, and recur- 
ring to the seductions which misled his ten- 
der inexperience. If that change, of which 
the first indication was so nearly coincident 
with his personal advancement, had been a 
change to a wiser, from a rash and inconsi- 
derate opinion ; had the adopted principles 
of the convert been calculated to advance the 
permanent interests of his See, better than 
those which he rejected, the historian might 
have listened with some attention to his as- 
surances of sincerity. But v/hen we have 
the soundest reasons to convince us, that the 
counsels of his youth were sage, and provi- 
dent, and generous, those of his riper years 
narrow, and at the same time selfish, there is 
scarcely space to doubt what the motives 
really were, which determined his apostasy. 

His exertions against the Turks. — In the 
meantime the Turkish arms were making 
progress in all quarters, and the tide of war 
was rapidly descending to the Adriatic. Italy 
lay next in its course; and her contentious 
children seemed, for the moment, dispose<^l 
to suspend their intestine animosities. The 
Pope renewed his exertions. ' Life itself 
(thus he spoke in consistory) must be laid 
down for the safety of the flock intrusted to 
us. The Turks are wasting the provinces 

* ' iEneam rejicite, Plum recipite — illud Gentile 
nomen parentes indidere nascenli; hoc Christianum 
in Apostolatu suscepi-' 



of Christendom in succession. What expe- 
dients remain to us? To oppose arms to 
their invasions ? We have no means to pro- 
vide them. What then? Shall we exhort 
the princes to confront and expel them.^ 
This has already been attempted in vain : it 
is in vain that we tell them to go ! Perchance 
they would listen better, if we should say to 
them — Come! This, then, shall be our next 
experiment: we will march in person against 
the Turks, and invite the Christian monarchs 
to follow us; not by words only, but by 
example also. It may be, when they shall 
behold their master and father — the Roman 
Pontiff, the Vicar of Christ Jesus — an infirm 
old man, advancing to the war, they will take 
up arms through .shame, and valiantly defend 
our holy religion. . . Not that we propose 
to draw the sword — a task incompatible with 
our bodily feebleness and sacerdotal charac- 
ter, — but after the example of the Holy Fath- 
er Moses, who prayed on the mountain, while 
Israel was fighting with the Amalekites, we 
shall stand on some lofty galley or mountain's 
brow, and holding before our eyes the Divine 
Eucharist, which is our Lord Jesus Christ, 
we shall implore Him to grant safety and 
victory to our contending armies.' * 

Death of Pius 11. — These were not vain 
expressions; a numerous force was already 
assembled at Ancona, and the Venetians had 
at length engaged to furnish maritime suc- 
cors. The Pontiff departed to assume, in 
person, the conduct of the expedition. He 
was preceded by the Cardinal of St. Angelo 
— an old and venerable prelate, remarkable 
for his zeal against the Infidel ; he followed 
at slow journeys, borne in a litter, and debil- 
itated by sicb0[gss ; and on his arrival at the 
camp, he was received by a multitude im- 
perfectly armed, without resources, without 
discipline, and, for the most part, without 
enthusiasm. Such were the champions of 
the Cross; such the human instruments, 
to which the care of Christendom seemed at 
that moment to be confided ! Many of them 
Pius immediately dismissed with his pontifi- 
cal benediction, and a profusion of indulgen- 
ces, which they no longer affected to value. 
Those who remained he still proposed to 
lead against the enemy, and only awaited 
the arrival of the Venetian galleys. They 
arrived ; but scarcely were their white sails 
visible from the towers of Ancona, when the 
Pope expired. On this event the whole 
expedition immediately dispersed; and it 
seemed as if so many spectators had assem^- 



* Raynaldus, ann. 1463, sect. 25. 



PAUL II. 



507 



bled, from such various and distant regions, 
for no other purpose than to witness the death 
of their chief, and swell his funeral proces- 
sion. 

The treasure which was found in his chest 
was sent, by his express command, to Cor- 
vinus, king of Hungary ; but it bore no pro- 
portion to the sums which had been placed 
at his disposal for crusading purposes; and 
there was reason to believe that much had 
been diverted by the pontiff for the establish- 
ment of Ferdinand on the throne of Naples. 
And thus Pope Pius II., who was fortunate 
in many circumstances of his life, may not 
have been least happy in the moment of his 
departure ; at least, it is manifest tliat he had 
engaged with very slender resources, and 
little promise of support, in a dangerous en- 
terprise, which could scarcely have terminat- 
ed otherwise than in defeat and dishonor. 

Nevertheless, Pius II. was the most accom- 
plished, the most liberal, perhaps the most 
enlightened, individual of his time. Like 
Nicholas V., he obtained his ecclesiastical 
advancement by his literary powers, by the 
acquisition of learning, and the useful appli- 
cation of it. Like Cardinal Julian, he was 
intrusted with the conduct of difficult nego- 
tiations; he influenced the councils of courts; 
he swayed the deliberations of ecclesiastical 
assemblies. Like both those eminent church- 
men, he displayed unremitting zeal for the 
defence of Christendom against the Turkish 
aggression. And herein he imitated the 
merit of the former, that it was his strenuous 
exertion in this cause, which gave the color 
and character to his pontificate ; and in one 
respect he accomplished, in some manner, 
the destiny of the latter, that he died in the 
heart of a Christian camp; prepared to move, 
under his own personal direction, in a hope- 
less enterprise, against the armies of the In- 
fidel. 

Conditions imposed in Conclave. — It Avas 
now so common for the cardinals, while in 
conclave, to bind themselves to the observ- 
ance of certain stipulations, in case of election 
to the pontificate, and so invariable for the 
cardinal elected to violate his engagement, 
that we have ceased to notice acts of habitual 
— it might almost seem authorized — perjury. 
But the articles which were injposed by the 
college, on the death of Pius IL, were such 
as to require attention, from their own im- 
portance. The following were, in substance, 
the principal: — 'That the pope shall con- 
tinue the war with the Turks, re-establish 
the ancient discipline of the Roman Court, 



and assemble a Council General within three 
years. That he shall not augment the num- 
ber of cardinals to more than twenty-four, 
nor create any one who is less than thirty 
years of age, or deficient in the knowledge 
of civil and canon law and of the Holy Scrip- 
tures ; nor more than one from among his 
own relatives. That he shall condemn no 
cardinal, except according to the legal and 
canonical forms ; that he shall enter into no 
war, nor sign any treaty without the consent 
of the college ; that he shall leave to the sub- 
jects of the Roman court entire hberty to 
make then- wills; that he shall establish no 
new imposts, nor increase those existing; 
that he shall take the votes of the cardinals 
aloud, and not in a whisper, so that the result 
of their deliberations may be faithfully ex- 
pressed; and lastly, that the cardinals shall 
assemble twice a year, apart from the Pope, 
to examine whether these conditions have 
been observed.' 

Paul 1 1. — From these stipulations we per- 
ceive, that it was no light or lenient yoke to 
which the courtiers of Rome, with all their 
outward show and pomp of licentiousness 
were, in fact, subjected ; and if they had 
indeed acquired the efficacy of laws, the 
constitution of the Vatican would have un- 
dergone an entire change, — from a slightly 
limited despotism, it would have assumed 
much more of the oligarchical character. It 
may be questioned, whether the Catholic 
Church would haA-e gained any advantage 
by that alteration — whether the dominion of 
the Sacred College would not have been at 
least as oppressive, as despotic, as fruitful in 
abuses, as hostile to reformation, as that of 
the Pope, But the experiment was not 
made ; the oath was indeed administered with 
great solemnity, and accepted by all. One 
among those who had taken it (the cardinal 
of St. Marc) was immediately raised to the 
pontificate ; and his first official act was to 
confirm his obligation. But Paul II. (he 
assumed that name), alike imperious and 
vain, pompous and frivolous, was not so con- 
stituted, as to sacrifice any interest to the 
sanctity of any engagement. He presently 
expressed his contempt for the laws imposed 
by the conclave ; he enacted others on his 
own authority ; he demanded the approbation 
of the cardinals, and after a very feeble resist- 
ance, partly by menaces, partly by promises, 
partly by granting them some childish indul- 
gences,^ he obtained it. He then proceeded 

* He permitted them to wear mitres of silk, such 
as had hitherto been confined to the pontiffs alone 



608 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



to administer the Church, according to the 
estabHshed maxims of government.* 

His abominable policy. — Paul II. was a na- 
tive of Venice, and his election vs^as, in some 
measure, occasioned by that circumstance ; 
for it was manifest, that no Italian confed- 
eration could act with any vigor against the 
Turkish power, unless Venice should place 
herself at its head ; and it was hoped that her 
co-operation would be effectually secured by 
the choice of a Venetian pontiff. Italy was 
now at peace ; the impulse towards the East 
had been given by Pius II., and all circum- 
stances seemed favorable to the enterprise. 
Much unquestionably depended, at that mo- 
ment, on the character and policy of the Pope. 
Now the measures taken by Paul II., during 
his whole pontificate, were precisely those 
which a council of Mahometans assembled at 
Constantinople would have dictated. He be- 
gan his reign by a nefarious attempt to em- 
broil the states of Italy in civil confusion. 
He failed ; and then he engaged in a differ- 
ent project, which has made him more hate- 
ful, because it was, for the moment, more 
successful. Corvinus, the son of Huniades, 
was defending the frontiers of Christendom 
with courage and honor. He had gained 
several advantages over the enemy, which he 
might with efficient succors have converted 
into substantial triumphs. Let us mark the i 
policy of Paul II. Thirsting, as it would 
.-seem, for Christian blood, that Pope proposed 
rto divert the war from the Turks, and turn it 
against the Hussites. He professed a Cath- 
olic ardor to punish the priests who fostered 
those errors, to reduce the rebels to obedience 
to the Apostolical See, and to extirpate every 
heresy. Accordingly, he offered to Corvinus 
the crown of Bohemia on those terms, and 
the boon was accepted. For the space of 
seven infamous years, those arms, which 

he forbade their use to all other prelates. He like- 
wise allowed them to adorn their horses and mules 
with trappings of a scarlet color. 

* One of his first acts was, to dismiss from their 
offices all tlie abbr aviators appointed by his pre- 
decessor. The biographer Platina was one of them. 
And when he remonstrated with the pontiff, and 
threatened to bring the case before the judges of the 
Rota, Paul regarded him fiercely, and said, — ' Nos 
ad judices revocasl Ac si nescires omnia jura in 
scrinio pectoris nostri collocata esse ? Sic stat 
sententia. Loco cedant omnes ; eant quo volunt ; 
nihil eos moror; pontifex sum ; mihique licet arbitrio 
anirai aliorum acta et rescindere et approbare.' 
Platina, notwithstanding, was contumacious, and the 
Pope placed him, for some months, in rigorous con- 
fiaement. See his Life of Paul H. 



might have chastised the foreign aggressor, 
were fiercely directed' against tlie kings of 
Bohemia ; and it is no alleviation of the pon- 
tifTs guilt, that those reiterated efforts were 
finally defeated. While he pursued the prin- 
ciples of Innocent III., his conduct was even 
less pardonable, because he pursued them 
under circumstances of greater danger to 
Christendom, and in an age in which the 
increase of knowledge left less excuse for 
crime. 

If it was the object of this pontiff to make 
his internal government as detestable as his 
external policy, he took an effectual measure 
to accomplish it. We have observed with 
what ardor the taste for polite learning was 
cultivated in Italy at this time, and what great 
encouragement it had received from two re- 
cent pontiffs. In furtherance of those objects 
a literary society was formed at Rome during 
the reign of Paul II. But Paul affected to 
discover in that institution a dangerous con- 
spiracy against the safety of the Pope and 
the peace of the Church. The stupid jeal- 
ousy, which suggested that suspicion, was 
supported by the cruelty usually inherent in 
narrow and passionate minds; and, as if the 
blood of the Bohemians flowed in too scanty 
profusion, the Pope commenced the work of 
inquisition at Rome. Several innocent indi- 
viduals, of great literary * and moral reputa- 
tion, suffered on the rack ; one in particular, 
Agostino Campino, died under the torture. 
Paul persevered in his persecution, but he 
did not succeed in eliciting any confession, 
or discovering any shadow of heresy or con- 
spiracy, in excuse for so much barbarity ; nor 
did it produce any other result, than to create 
one additional motive for execrating his name. 
He died in 1 471, in possession of treasures 
which he had hoarded through the mere love 
of gold ; and in the very year preceding his 
death, he increased an ecclesiastical abuse (in 
the belief, no doubt, that he should personally 
reap the fruits of his change,f ) by reducing 
once more the intervals between the cele- 
brations of the Jubilee, from thirty-three to 
twenty- five years. 

Sixtus IF. — SixtusIV. (a Franciscan Monk) 
commenced an unusually long pontificate, of 



* A long account of this affair is given by Platina 
(himself a sufferer) in his Life of Paul IL That 
Pope's hatred for learning was so great, that he held 
the terms studious and heretical to be synonymous, 
and carefully impressed upon his subjects the advan- 
tages of ignorance. The historian died in the year 
1481. 

t Thus the year 1475 became a year of jubilee. 



SIXTUS IV. 



509 



thirteen years, by professing the policy and 
affecting the designs of Pius II. He called 
for the enforcement of the decrees of Man- 
tua; he promised indulgences to all who 
should march against the Turk in person, or 
find efficient substitutes, or contribute to the 
expense of the expedition ; he sent letters and 
legates to all the Courts of Europe. All dis- 
regarded his solicitations, some through apa- 
thy, others, perhaps, through suspiciousness ; 
others through the nearer occupation of 
civil dissension. The Pope was easily di- 
verted from an object on which he may have 
never been sincerely bent. His boiling zeal 
presently evaporated ; his clamors were si- 
lenced by the first repulse ; and he appeared 
to resign his daring projects, and subside into 
the ordinary channel of papal misgovern- 
ment, without a sigh or a struggle. 

His dispute with Florence. — In the year 
1478, during some disturbances between the 
Medici and the Pazzi at Florence, the Arch- 
bishop of Pisa suffered an ignominious death 
at the hands of the former. There is little 
doubt, that he had promoted a sanguinaiy 
tumult — nevertheless, this was an outrage 
upon the prerogative of the hierarchy, which, 
in an earlier age, would have been visited with 
signal vengeance, and which even Sixtus IV. 
was not prepared to overlook. He placed 
the offending city under an interdict, excom- 
municated Lorenzo de' Medici,* and pub- 
lished a declaration of war. The Florentines, 
even the ecclesiastics, defended the cause of 
their compatriot; they treated with scorn the 
pontifical menaces; they continued to cele- 
brate the divine offices in defiance of the in- 
terdict ; they assembled a Synod of the Bish- 
ops of Tuscany, in order to appeal with 
greater solemnity to a general Council. At 
the same time they retorted all the blame of 
the original offence upon the Pope himself, 
and called upon France and Milan to aid 
them against his oppression. 

Soon aflerwards Louis XL held an As- 
sembly at Orleans, principally for the puq:>ose 
of restoring the Pragmatic Sanction, which 
he had previously and hastily annulled. But 
an embassy, subsequently sent to Rome, was 
likewise charged to exhort the Pontiff to 
make peace with Florence, and to assemble, 
without any delay, a General Council. These 
solicitations were seconded by certain mena- 
ces, to which Louis could have given efficacy, 
had he so chosen. But he had either no se- 
rious intention of enforcing his d emands, or 

* The Bull is given at length by Roscoe, Life of 
Lorenzo de' Medici. Appendix, No. XXVL 



he allowed it to melt away before the tempo- 
rizing policy of the Vatican.* In the mean 
time the Pope persevered in measures of jios- 
tility, and the blood of the Archbishop cried 
so loudly for vengeance, that all external dan- 
gers were forgotten, and the hosts of Mahomet 
II. approached unheard to the gates of Italy. 
The same Pontiff who had so lately preached 
the blessings of union to the Christian Courts, 
even while the danger was more remote, per- 
sisted in hostility against a Christian State, 
when it was already impending over his head. 
At length he relented ; but it was not till the 
city of Otranto had been stormed by the In- 
fidel that the conditions of peace were dictat- 
ed,! «^^d the Florentine ambassadors admitted 
to receive their absolutions at the entrance 
of St. Peter's ; and even then they appear to 
have been subjected to more than the cus- 
tomary circumstances of humiliation. The 
j Pope was presently relieved from immediate 
I apprehension by the death of Mahomet, and 
I he then had leisure to return to what had 
I been, indeed, the favorite object of his ponti- 
I ficate, the aggrandizement of his nephews. 

Flis JWpotism. — The nepotism of no former 
I Pontiff had been indulged with so scandalous 
' a sacrifice of the interests of the Church as 
that of Sixtus IV. One of his nephews, 
Leonardo della Rovera, he married to a nat- 
ural daughter of Ferdinand of Naples ; and 
on this occasion he a])andoned to that mon- 
arch some estates and fiefs, which his prede- 
cessors had spared no toil to acquire and re- 
tain. Another, named Julian, the same wha 
was afterwards Julius II., was enriched with 
several ecclesiastical benefices. For a third, 
named Jerome Riario, the principality of 
Imola was purchased from the resources of 
the Apostolical Treasury. But it was on 
Pietro Riario, the youngest, that the profusion 
of his fondness was principally lavished. 
Without talents, without virtues, from a sim- 



* The advice tendered to the Pope on this occasiou 
by the Cardinal of Pavia, the most accomplished 
politician in his Court, affords an excellent illustra- 
tion of the great principle of ecclesiastical statesman- 
ship — not to remove the grounds of complaint; but 
to gain time, to preserve the abuse, to defer the hour 
of danger, rather than avert it altogether by timely 
concession. 

t This scene is described at length by Machiavel, 
Stor. Fiorent., lib. viii. The particulars of the dis- 
pute are detailed by Paul Jovius, in his First Book 
of his Life of Leo X. This connexion of Pope Sixtus 
with the history of Florence has procured for him a 
peculiar, and not very enviable, celebrity. ' Di grossi 
conti (says Muratori, Annal. v. 9) avra avuto questo 
I Pontefice net tribunale di Dio,' 



510 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



pie Franciscan Monk, Pietro was immediate- 
ly elevated to the dignity of Cardinal. He 
was made titular Patriarch of Constantino- 
ple ; he was raised to the Archiepiscopal See 
of Florence ; he received, besides, two other 
Archbishoprics, and a multitude of inferior 
benefices. In the meantime his splendid 
prodigality, the pride of his attendants, his 
equipage, and his sumptuousness, kept pace 
with the abundance of his resources, and he 
expended on the pomp of a single ceremony, 
or the festivities of a single night, sums which 
exceeded the revenues of kings. 

The Minimes. — The same Pope, as if to 
atone for the laxity of one extreme of the 
ecclesiastical establishment by the austerity 
of the other, gave his confirmation to a new 
religious body, called the Minimes — the least 
among the servants of Christ. They were 
founded by one Francisco of Paula; and to 
the usual monastic obligations they added a 
fourth vow, of perpetual fast and abstinence 
from all nourishment, except herbs and roots. 
The popular appetite for such extravagance 
was not yet wholly satiated ; and though the 
Minimes never acquired the celebrity which 
would certainly have attended them in the 
thirteenth age, there were still not wanting 
devotees to swell their numbers, and recom- 
pense their vain enthusiasm by reverence and 
by gold. 

When we shall come to examine the spir- 
itual condition of the Roman Catholic Church 
during this period, and the character of the 
papal edicts which were more particularly 
directed to that object, we shall find that no 
one descended more deeply into superstition 
than Sixtus IV. At present we shall only 
mention the singular venality introduced in- 
to his government by the creation of certain 
new offices, which he publicly sold, and 
which he created for the purpose of selling. 
This was a new scandal in the history of the 
Vatican ; and when the same Pontiff raised 
to the dignity of Cardinal a youth, named 
Jacopo di Parma, his own valet, he may seem 
to have offered the last insult to his Court and 
his Church. The deeper outrage, which was 
now continually cast upon the religion of 
Christ, has almost ceased to be matter of 
mention with us, because the name of Chirst 
was now seldom appealed to, unless in sup- 
port of some monstrous ecclesiastical preten- 
sion ; and the rulers of the Apostolical Church 
had for some time learned to dispense, both 
in their morals and their administi-ation, even 
with the semblance of holiness, even with a 
decorous affectation of religious motives. 



Character of Sixtus. — Sixtus IV. was not 
deficient, as a political character, in quickness 
and sagacity, and even grandeur of concep- 
tion. But his character (as Sismondi has well 
observed) corrupted his talents, and stained 
his noblest projects with falsehood and perfi- 
dy. As he could discern no distinction be- 
tween virtue and crime, he employed the 
basest means to attain the best ends, and dis- 
honored his own designs by the instruments 
with which he chose to accomplish them. 
His private life has not escaped the suspicion 
of the foulest enormities — it cannot, at least, 
pretend to the praise of piety or innocence. 
His learning, the exertions which he made, 
and the funds which he appropriated to en- 
rich the Library of the Vatican from every 
quarter ; his architectural labors, and the noble 
buildings * with which he adorned his capital ; 
these are the only monuments by which he is 
honorably known to posterity. His capacity 
was considerable, and it was enlarged and 
enlightened by his literary accomplishments. 
But if these were unable to infuse into his 
soul any disinterested virtue, or generous 
principles of action, they failed to accomplish 
the only purpose, for which they are really 
valuable, and they left the possessor the more 
dangerous and the more detestable, from the 
authority which they added to his talents, and 
the aid which they lent him to abuse them. 

Election of Innocent VIII. — Sixtus IV. died 
in 1484, and the election of his successor was 
attended by some circumstances more scan- 
dalous than any which had yet polluted the 
recesses of the Conclave. Julian della Rove- 
ra. Cardinal of St. Peter ad Vincvla, had un- 
dertaken the negotiations requisite, and the 
price of every vote was already arranged, 
when the College proceeded to invoke the 
Holy Spirit. The terms are expressly speci- 
fied by a contemporary writer ;t they were 
faithfully observed by the successful candi- 
date ; and they might be ascertained from the 
various castles and benefices, which he im- 
mediately bestowed on his supporters. John 
Baptist Cybo, a native of Genoa, was the 



* The Ponte Sesto was his great work. His lit- 
erary monuments were of a less durable construction ; 
for, indeed, the subjects which he chose were not 
always the most favorable to their perpetuity. One 
treatise he composed on The Blood of Jesus Christ; 
another on Indulgences accorded to Souls in Purga- 
tory ; another on the Conception of the Holy Virgin, 
&c. Sec. Such, however, were the controversies of 
the day. 

i The letter of Guidantonio Vespucci to Lorenzo 
de' Medici on this subject, is given entire by Roscoe, 
Append. 44, and without suspicion of its truth. 



ALEXANDER VL 



511 



individual thus elevated to the throne of the 
Church, and he assumed the name of Inno- 
cent. 

Notwithstanding the recent perfidy of Paul 
II., defended by the constitution of Innocent 
VI.,* and countenanced by the example of so 
many Pontiffs, the members of the Conclave 
once more attempted to bind the future Pope 
by a similar engagement. It were tedious to 
repeat the stipulations which were accepted 
in the name of God, on his holy altar, and 
which were even then intended for imme- 
diate violation. Their object was ever the 
same — to increase the power of the Cardinals 
at the expense of that of the Pope — and it 
was ever frustrated by the most deliberate 
perjury. On the day of his installation, In- 
nocent VIII. confirmed and repeated his oath, 
and bound himself, on pain of anathema, 
neither to receive nor give absolution from 
it — for the Pontiff possessed exclusively the 
power of self-absolution. Howbeit, he no 
sooner felt his strength, and the independence 
of his despotism, than he cancelled the treaty, 
and annulled both his oaths. 

If Sixtus IV. had wasted the resources of 
the Church upon his profligate nephews, In- 
nocent introduced a still more revolting race 
of dependants, in the pereons of his illegiti- 
mate offspring. Seven children, the fioiits of 
various amors, were publicly recognised by 
the Vicar of Christ, and became, for the most 
part, pensioners on the ecclesiastical Treas- 
ury. This was yet a new scandal for the 
Apostolical Church! Again, if Sixtus IV. 
was bold and unprincipled, Innocent was, at 
least, destitute of any positive virtue ; and the 
extreme weakness which distinguished him 
was, in his cu'cumstanees, little less pernicious 
than wickedness. With power so vast and 
arbitrary, in a Court so utterly depraved, the 
personal excesses of a vigorous character 
might even have been less hurtful to the 
Church, than the unrestrained license of so 
many masters. Fewer crimes would, per- 
haps, have been perpetrated, had the Pontiff 
resolved to be the only criminal. But with 
all his weakness. Innocent was animated by 
a spirit of avarice, which attracted observa- 
tion even in that age of the popedom. And 
he performed at least one memorable exploit, 
as it were, in the design to> surpass his prede- 
cessor by a still bolder msult on the sacred 
College ; he placed among its members a boy, 
thirteen years old, the brother-in-law of his 
own bastard.f But the Court of Rome did 



* Published in 1353. See Cliapter XXII. p. 390. 
t This boy was John, the son of Lorenzo de' Medicij 



not resent the indignity — it was sunk even 
below the sense of its own infamy. 

The Pontiff sounded, like most of his pre- 
decessors, the trumpet of a general crusade 
against the Infidel ; in his addresses to the 
European ambassadors, he set forth, in elo- 
quent expressions, the blessings of concord, 
and the calamities of international warfare ; 
and he preached with the usual inefficacy. 
Some Italian States did, indeed, exhibit a 
slight disposition to su])port him, owing to 
the greater proximity of the danger, and In- 
nocent persisted, to the end of his reign, in 
pressing his first solicitations. But the only 
effects proceeding from them were those 
which flowed into the Apostolical Treasury, 
and which the Pope consumed, partly in his 
own personal expenses, partly in family hos- 
tilities against the King of Naples. He died 
in 1492. 

Alexander VL — In the downward progress 
of pontifical impurity, from Paul II. we de- 
scend to Sixtus IV. ; from Sixtus to Innocent 
VIII. ; from Innocent to Alexander VI : and 
here, at length, we are arrested by the limitSj 
the utmost limits, which have been assigned 
to papal and to human depravity. The eccle- 
siastical records of fifteen centuries, through 
which our long journey is now nearly ended, 
contain no name so loathsome, no crimes so 
foul as his ; and while the voice of every im- 
partial writer is loud hi his execration, he is^ 
in one respect, singularly consigned to infa- 
my, since not one among the zealous annalists 
of the Roman Church has breathed a whisper 
in his praise. Thus, those who have pui-sued 
him with the most unqualified vituperations 
are thought to have described him most faith- 
fully ; and the mention of his character has 
excited a sort of rivalry in the expression of 
indignation and hatred. 

The College assembled for this election 
amidst the tumults of the Roman people, who 
were venting their curses against the avarice 
of the deceased Pontiff; and it was not till the 
Conclave had been garrisoned by soldiers, 
and fortified by cannon, that the Cardinals 
ventured to proceed to their deliberations. It 
was presently discovered that the candidates, 
who bad any prospect of success, were two f 



the same who became Leo X. It should be observed, 
that Innocent, on making the creation, stipulated that 
the boy should not take his seat in Consistory till he 
was sixteen. Some state the age of creation at fifteen, 
that of admission at eighteen. See Raynaldus, ann. 
1489. 

* Ascagna Sforza, who appeared at first to possess 
some claims, very soon resigned them in favor of 
Borgia. 



512 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



only. One of them was Roderic Borgia, who 
was nephew of Calixtus III. ; the other was 
Julian della Rovera, nephew of Sixtus IV. 
Nepotism now formed so conspicuous a fea- 
ture in the pontifical policy, that we shall not 
be surprised to see the popedom disputed by 
the nephews of Popes. Roderic was far ad- 
vanced in years ; he abounded in wealth, ac- 
cumulated in the service of the Church ; he 
was, at the same time, in the enjoyment of 
three archbishoprics in Spain, besides numer- 
ous other benefices in other quarters of Eu- 
rope. All these would be vacated by his 
elevation, and, falling into his patronage, 
would be bestowed, of course, according to 
the measure of private services. Borgia was, 
moreover, a man of some abilities, of great 
address and versatility in negotiation and in- 
trigue, and of morals which opposed no im- 
pediment to any means of compassing any 
purpose. . . Julian possessed more powerful 
talents, and, though his habits had been chiefly 
military, a much less exceptionable charac- 
ter. But he was younger ; his preferment was 
not nearly so valuable, and the private wealth 
at his disposal bore no proportion to that of 
his competitor. The College was principally 
composed of the creatures of the two last 
Popes, Sixtus and Innocent, educated in those 
principles, on which the morals of the Roman 
Court were at this time founded. . . . Ac- 
cordingly the election was not long doubtful ; 
indeed, Borgia had taken a sure precaution 
to preclude hesitation, by placing two mules 
laden with gold * at the disposal of a faithful 
Cardinal, to be bestowed as occasion might 
require. 

Manner of his election. — Alexander VI. 
immediately proceeded, after the example of 
his predecessor, to fulfil the conditions pri- 
vately stipulated with the cardinals, who 
had simoniacally elected him. On Ascagna 
Sforza he conferred the profitable dignity of 
vice-chancellor ; to Cardinal Orsini he ceded 
his palace at Rome, together with two other 
mansions; to Cardinal Colonna he gave an 
abbey, with numerous dependences ; to the 
cardinal of St. Angelo, the bishopric of Porto, 
together with his furniture and a cellar of 
delicious wines; to others, churches or towns ; 
to others, undisguised gold. Five only in 
the whole college — one of whom was Julian, 
his rival — are believed to have resisted all 
these varieties of corruption. In the mean- 
time, the Roman people, as if they gloried 
in the iniquity of their rulers, hailed the de- 



* Some say, four mules laden with silver. The 
difference, in a moral point of view, is not important. 



cision of the Conclave with unusual expres- 
sions of satisfaction. On no other occasion 
had the holy city arrayed herself in such 
festive splendor, or descended to such loath- 
someness of adulation,* as on that, when she 
placed in the apostolical chair the most prof- 
ligate of mankind, and offered the last insult 
— we say not to the name of Christ, for that 
had long been scorned, — but to a Church 
which still called itself Christian, and to the 
nations which still recognised that Church. 

In early life, during the pontificate of Pius 
II., Roderic Borgia, already a cardinal, had 
been stigmatized by a public censure for 
his unmufiled debaucheries. Afterwards he 
publicly cohabited with a Roman matron 
named Vanozia, by whom he had five ac- 
knowledged children. Neither in his man- 
ners nor in his language did he aflTect any 
regard for morality or for decency ; and one 
of the earliest acts of his pontificate was, to 
celebrate, with scandalous magnificence, in 
his own palace, the marriage of his daughter 
Lucretia. Those cardinals, who had con- 
spired for his elevation, could not pretend 
either surprise or ofifence at this outrage. 
But Julian della Rovera refused his counte- 
nance to those festivities, and shut himself up 
in the fortress of Ostia. 

JVegotiations with Bajazet. — At this period 
in the annals of papacy, the spiritual exertions 
of the See were so very insignificant, com- 
pared with its struggles for temporal objects, 
and these struggles were now so interwoven 
with the general politics of Europe, that to 
trace, with any accuracy, the exploits of 
Alexander, or Julius IL, would be to trans- 
cribe the civil history of Italy, France, and 
Germany. Such a task is consistent neither 
with the limits of this work, nor its design ; 
and since the various vices, which peculiarly 
distinguished this Pope, are chiefly exempli- 
fied in his political transactions, we must 
refer the reader to the circumstantial narra- 
tives of Sismondi, or Guicciardinif — con- 

* The following distich was published on this oc- 
casion: — 

Caesare magna fuit, nunc Roma est maxima ; Sextus 
Regnat Alexander : ille vir, iste Deus. 

This was the serious flattery of the day: some other 
verses, published after some little experience of the 
Pope's divine administiation, are ^ess discreditable 
to the city of Caesar and Pasquin 

Vendit Alexander Claves, Altarja, Christum. 

Enierat ille prius : vendere jure potest. 
De vitio in vitium, de flammi transit in ignera; 

Roma sub Hispano deperit imperio. 
Sextus Tarquinius, Sextus Nero, Sextus et iste — 
Semper sub Sextis perdita Roma fuit- 

t We shall cite the words in which this author hag 
drawn the character of Alexander VI. ' In Alessan- 



ALEXANDER VL 



513 



tented in our more contracted course to 
mention such incidents, as are more closely 
connected either with the rehgion of Christ, 
or the economy of the Church, or the preten- 
sions of the Apostohcal See. Thus shall we 
not pass unnoticed the celebrated project 
of alliance against Charles VIII. of France, 
which was proposed by Alexander VI. to 
Bajazet, emperor of the Turks. The Pope 
appeared, on this occasion, as the Suzerain 
Lord of Naples; and in his overtures he rep- 
resented to the Sultan, that that kingdom 
was menaced by foreign invasion ; that it 
was the design of Charles to subject it to his 
authority, and then to turn his arms into 
Thrace, against the walls of Constantinople ; 
that the French king was full of ambition, 
and careless about the means of indulging it ; 
while for himself he had nothing more at 
heart, than the repose of the Turk, in consid- 
eration of the good-will and mutual friend- 
ship subsisting between them The nature 

of the engagements, into which Bajazet 
consequently entered, does not certainly ap- 
pear, but when the crisis arrived, he took 
no measures to fulfil them ; and the Vicar of 
Christ, after having invoked the Mahometan 
arms into the heart of Europe against a 
Christian prince, was pursued by the addi- 
tional, and to him more bitter, reflection, that 
he had incured that infamy in vain. 

Donation of the newly discovered Regions. — 
On the return of Columbus to Spain, Ferdi- 
nand and Isabella announced to the Pope, 
their compatriot, the success of his expedition. 
Alexander VI. hastened to avail himself of so 
magnificent an occasion to exhibit the plen- 
itude of his authority: accordingly, he con- 
fered upon the crown of Castillo the full 
right to possess all that had been discovered, 
and all that might hereafter be discovered, 
whether islands or continents, whether situ- 
ated in the Indies or in any other region. In 
a succession of bulls published on this subject, 
in the year 1493, at a season when the power 



dro Sesto fu solerzia e sagacitk singolare, consiglio 
eccellente, efficacia a persiiadere maravigliosa, e a 
tutte le faccende gravi sollecitudine e destrezza in- 
credibile — ma erano queste virtu avanzate di grande 
intervallo da' vizii — costumi oscenissimi, non sin- 
cerita, non vergogna, non veritk, non fede, non re- 
ligions, avarizia insaziabile, ambizione immoderata, 
crudeltk piu che barbara, e ardentissima cupidita di 
esaltare in qualunque modo i figliuoli, i quali erano 
molti ; e tra questi qualcuno. . non meno detestabile 
in parte alcuna del padre.' Storia d' Italia, lib. i. 
Guicciardini was ten years old when Borgia was 
raised to the pontificate, and his history begins with 
that year. 

65 



of the See bore no proportion to its ancient 
grandeur, and when the character of the pre- 
lates, who administered it, was not, certainly, 
such as to redeem its degradation, Pope 
Alexander drew a line along the map, from 
the north to the south, and gave avv'ay, by a 
stroke of his pen, half the habitable world. 
And so much seriousness did he affect to 
attach to his donation, that he descended to 
specify the exact distance from his line, at 
which the rights of Spain should begin, and 
those of other nations end. 

It is proper to add, that the Portuguese 
contested the validity of the act. Let us in- 
quire, then, on what ground did they rest 
their opposition ? Did they dispute the au- 
thority by which the edict had been issued ? 
Far otherwise ; only they maintained that, by 
a similar act, Eugenius IV. had previously 
bestowed the same rights upon themselves. 
It was no contest between the king of Portu- 
gal and the See of Rome, but only a question, 
whether a Pope could confer upon one prince, 
what a preceding Pope had already bestowed 
upon another. And in this dispute, between 
a living and a departed pontiff, after manj'- 
assemblies had been held, and new bounda- 
ries delineated, and great violence displayed, 
Alexander persisted, and succeeded, in defi- 
ance of every right and every semblance even 
of pontifical justice. In the year following, 
Africa became the subject of a verj' similai* 
dispute ; but on this occasion the Pope showed 
thus much respect to the authority of Pius II., 
who had conferred the contested provinces 
upon Portugal, that he confined the conquests 
of Ferdinand and Isabella to the kingdoms 
of Algiers and Tunis, leaving Fez and the 
contiguous regions to the possession of Por- 
tugal. We may smile at the arrogance of a 
declining despotism ; nor shall we be aston- 
ished by the obsequiousness of those who 
found their interest in obsequiousness. At 
the same time, if the right of the See was not 
disputed, the motives which it pretended were 
certainly such as to justify the exercise of its 
right. For it was expressly stipulated in the 
act of donation, that holy and pious missiona- 
ries should be despatched forthwith, for the 
conversion of the newly conquered tracts, and 
the extension of the kingdom of Christ, and 
of the Catholic Church. 

Charles VI n. at Rome.— When Charles 
VIII. entered Rome, in the year 1494, Julian 
della Rovera (as well as some other cardinals) 
was in his suite, and shared in his counsels.* 

* Guicciardini (lib. i. cap. iii.) does not hesitate 
to ascribe the accomplishment of Charles's designs 



514 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



From the determined hostility of Julian; 
from the wish for reformation, which had 
so often been manifested by the court and 
people of France ; from the undue estimate 
then formed of the character of the actual 
king, Alexander felt reason to apprehend the 
accomphshment of the menace so frequently 
repeated, — the assembly of a general council ; 
and he easily foresaw, that the first act of that 
council would be, to depose himself. From 
the castle of St. Angelo he opened negotia- 
tions with the conqueror ; but, whether it had 
never been the intention of Charles to press 
the Holy See to any extremities, or whether, 
as is believed by the best writers, Alexander 
found means to corrupt the most intimate 
advisers of the king by largesses and pro- 
mises, the designs of Julian wei'e frustrated, 
and the dignity of the Pope was preserved 
by a favorable convention. He returned to 
the pontifical palace ; he resumed his former 
state ; he gave the king a formal reception at 
St. Peter's, with the usual solemnities; and 
the king did not disdain to submit to the 
usual humiliation. He bent his knees, and 
kissed the pontiff's foot and hand ; and, sub- 
sequently^ on the celebration of the pontifi- 
eal mass, took his seat below the first cardinal, 
and ministered water to the hands of the 
Pope.* Such were the marks of deference 
which had long been exacted by Popes, and 
paid by Sovereigns ; but never, till now, had 
they been prostituted so gratuitously — never, 
till now, had they been tendered in the place 
of chastisement and infamy, by a powerful 
and victorious prince, to a pontiff as destitute 
of strength, as he was notoriously polluted 
with crimes. 

Zizim the hroiher of Bajazet — There was 
one article in the above treaty which leads to 
the mention of a singular episode in papal 
history. The Sultan Bajazet had a brother 
named Zizim, or Jem, (like himself, the son 
of Mahomet II.,) whose popularity, courage. 



against Italy to this Cardinal — ' fatale instrumento e 
allora, e prima, e poi de'mali d'ltalia.': — The King 
at one moment certainly relaxed in his zeal, and was 
reanimated by the authority and vehemence of Julian. 
* Guicciardini mentions, that the Pope, to preserve 
the memory of these ceremonies to all posterity, caused 
them to be represented in painting, in one of the cham- 
bers of the castle of St. Angelo. It is to be remark- 
ed, that they were the formal ceremonies following 
the reconciliation of the parties. On their first meet- 
ing, which was not thoroughly official, some of the 
most humiliating were dispensed with. The ' Capit- 
ula Conventionis Papae et Regis Franciae, &c.,' are 
cited from the ' Diary of Burchard,' by Roscoe, Life 
of Leo X., Appendix, No. xxxv 



and ambition, made him dangerous to the 
throne. The morals of the Seraglio permit- 
ted the destruction of such rivals; and Zizim, 
fearing that fate, had escaped to Rhodes, and 
placed himself in Christian hands. From 
Rhodes he was carried to France, and thence 
he passed into the custody of Pope Innocent 
VIII. It was then that Bajazet, availing him- 
self of the avarice of the vicars of Christ as 
the means of preserving the concord of an 
empire hostile to the Christian faith, engaged 
to pay to the See a yearly sum of forty thou- 
sand ducats — nominally, for the keeping and 
entertainment of his brother ; really, to make 
it the interest of the Vatican to secure the 
prisoner at Rome, and not to resign him to 
any enemy of the empire.* The money was 
faithfully paid, and Zizun remained a safe 
and profitable captive at the apostolical court. 
Charles VIII., who seems at that time to 
have really harbored some ulterior designs 
■against the Turkish power, stipulated with 
Alexander for the possession of Zizim. The 
pontiff observed his engagement; but the 
prisoner carried with him from his confine- 
ment the seeds of a mortal disorder. He died 
very soon afterwards ; and there seems some 
reason to believe, that the cause of his death 
was a slow and subtle poison administered 
under the superintendence of Alexander.f 

The Duke Valentino. — CsBsar Borgia was 
the secondj and favorite, and worthy son of 
Alexander VI. He commenced his career 
as a Churchman; but in 1498, he found it 
more politic at once to throw off that profes- 
sion ; and he then received the title, which 
he has rendered one of the most famous in 
history. As Duke Valentino, or Valentinois, 
he took the field in Romagna, the temporal 
champion of the Holy See, for the destruction 
of its enemies, the confirmation of its author- 
ity over the city, and the enlargement of its 
territories. Supported by the talents and 
resources of his father, he succeeded in these 
designs to an extent attained in no preceding 
age, and by means which are known to every 
reader. But, in seeking thus to advance the 
interests of the Church, Alexander had, in 
truth, no other design than to aggrandize his 



* Guicciard., lib. i. cap. iii. 

•f- Of course this fact is not, nor could it well have 
been,- undisputed. Raynaldus (ann. 1495, s. 8, &c.) 
refers to Burchardus to prove that the captive died 
from a change of diet. The words of Burchardus 
are — ' 15 Feburier, le fils du grand Turc raourut a 
Naples — ex esu sive potu non convenienti naturae suae 

et consueto ' At the same time, Raynaldus 

mentions the vulgar account, which is affirmed by 
Guicciardini. See Roscoe, Life of Leo X., chap, iv 



ALEXANDER VI. 



515 



son; nor did Valentino toil through such a 
mass of crimes with any more distant object, 
than to erect a principality for himself.* To 
this end he had calculated, as seemed to him, 
every possible contingency ; by much daring, 
great address, and an entire contempt of every 
scruple, of all faith, and of all shame, he had al- 
ready accomplished much : and, to secure the 
stability of his power, he had employed every 
expedient within the reach of human fore- 
sight—when the realization of his schemes 
was put to an unexpected trial, by the death 
of his father, and his own dangerous sick- 



Deaih of Alexander VI. — The following 
are the circumstances relating to the death of 
Alexander, which stand on the most extensive 
evidence : — The Duke Valentino, being great- 
ly in want of money to pay his troops, appli- 
ed to his father for assistance ; but the apos- 
tolical treasury was exhausted, and neither 
resources nor credit were then at hand to 
replenish it. On which the duke suggested 

* ' Yet what he did (says Machiavel) turned to 
the Church's advantage; which, after the death of 
the Pope, and the removal of the Duke, became the 
heir of all his pains.' The partiality of this writer 
to the public character of the Duke (with whom he 
was personally acquainted) is known to every one. 
Yet there is a passage (in the Prince, chap, vii.) 
which is worth citing. ' Having thus collected all 
the Duke's actions, methinks I could not well blame 
him, but rather set him as a pattern to be followed 
by all those who, by profane and other means, have 
been exalted to an empire Whoever, there- 
fore, deems it necessary, on his entrance into a new 
principality, to secure himself from his enemies, and 
gain his friends; to overcome, either by force, or by I 
cunning ; to make himself beloved or feared of his 
people ; to be followed and reverenced by his soldiers ; 
to root out those that can hurt him, or owe him any 
hurt ; to change the ancient orders for new ways ; to 
be severe, and yet acceptable, magnanimous, and lib- 
eral ; to extinguish the unfaithful soldiery, and create 
new; to maintain to himself the amities of kings and 
princes, so that they shall either with favor benefit, 
or be wary how they offend him — cannot find more 
fresh and lively examples than in the actions of ihis 
man.' In a separate narrative, usually published in 
the same volume, Machiavel relates at length (what 
is, no doubt, one of those lively examples) the methods 
which the Duke employed to rid himself of certain 
enemies — Vitellozzo Vitelli, Oliverotto of Fermo, 
Paul, and the Duke of Gravina ; and a more black 
and scandalous tissue of pei'fidy, cruelty, and villany 
cannot possibly be imagined. That he was the author 
of the assassination of his elder brother, the Duke of 
Gandia, is believed by most historians; and that the 
motive was an incestuous jealousy respecting their 
common sister is a further imputation advanced by 
many, and not rejected by Sismondi; but there is no 
sufficient evidence to establish either of these charges. 



to the Pope an easy, and, as it would seem, 
not very unusual method of supplying their 
wants. The Cardinal Corneto, as well as 
some others of the sacred college, had a great 
reputation for wealth ; and it was then the 
practice at Rome for the property of cardinals 
to devolve, on their decease, to the See. He 
proposed to get rid of this Corneto. The 
Pope consented ; and, accordingly, invited 
the cardinals to an entertainment, which he 
prepared for them in his vineyard of Corneto, 
for it was near the Vatican. Among the 
wines sent for this occasion, one bottle was 
prepared with poison; and instructions were 
carefully given to the supermtendent of the 
feast respecting the disposal of that bottle. 
It happened that, some little time before sup- 
per, the Pope and his son arrived, and, as it 
was very hot, they called for wine. And 
then, whether through the error or the ab- 
sence of the confidential officer, the poisoned 
bottle was presented to them. Both drank 
of it, and both immediately suffered its vio- 
lent effects. Valentino, who had mixed much 
water with his wine, and was, besides, young 
and vigorous, through the immediate use of 
powerful antidotes,^ was saved. But Alex- 



* He is said to have been inclosed in the belly of a 

living mule, and so preserved The following 

is the brief account given by Paul Jovius of this trans- 
action, in the beginning of lib. ii., De Vita Leouis X. 
' Nam Pontifex inopiaa metu rapax atque illo iramani 
ingenio sasvus, ut Csesari filio magnos alenti exercitus 
et regio luxu liberalitatem passim ostendenti pecuniam 
suppeditaret, ditissimum quemque Cardinalium veneno 
sustulerat, baud dubie in reliquos aula? sacerdotiis at- 
que opibus insignes haereditatis spe saeviturus, nisi 
admirabili deorum providentia homo in religionis 
causa probrosus et quod omnium fortunae interfuit, ad 
exitium Italiae natus, sibi mortem, supremam vero 
CfBsari filio calamitatem, peperisset — hilariori scilicet 
in coena dum ad umbrosum Vaticani fontem venenum 
bibunt, lagena pocillatoris errore commutata, quam 
dira fraude opulentis aliquot senatoribus honoris 
specie paravissent. Mortuo Alexandro, et Cresare 
exquisitis antidotis vel in ipso juventse robore veneni 
impetum vix sustinente, Comitia sunt habita,' &c. &c. 
The same author describes the same event (De vita 
Magni Consalvi, lib. ii.) with little variation, but 
with the following addition: — * Accepi ego ab Ad- 
riano Cardinale Cornetano, in cujus villa coenabatur, 
se eodem mortifero poculo petitum ita exarsisse eo 
subito viscerum fervore, ut obortse caligines oppressis 
sensibus sibi rationem excuterent, sese in solium 
frigida plenum mergere cogeretur, neque prius per- 
ustis interaneis ad vitam rediisse, quam ei extrema 
cutis in exuvias ablens toto corpore decideret.'. 
Raphael Volaterranus, in his life of Alexander VI., 
likewise mentions the illness of the cardinal, simul- 
taneous with that of the Pope. Voltaire disbelieves 
the whole story, owing to its extreme improbability; 



516 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



ander having taken his draught nearly pure, 
and being hkewise enfeebled by age, died in 
the course of the same evening. 

It is proper to add, that there are two other 
accounts of this transaction, differing from 
that which is here given on the general agree- 
ment of numerous authorities. One is that 
of Pietro Martiri d'Angleria, a councillor of 
Ferdinand, of whom an epistle is extant, in 
which the Pope is exculpated from all par- 
ticipation in the crime, and the whole guilt 
thrown upon the duke. And this has been 
received by some writei-s as the more prob- 
able, through consideration of the general 
hatred then subsisting against Alexander, and 
the prevalent disposition to propagate and 
l)elieve any evil rumor respecting him ; but 
we are not aware that it rests on any other 
original testimony. The other account is 
extracted by Raynaldus (ann. 1503, sect, xi.,) 
from a manuscript journal of the house of 
Borgia;* and herein we are entertained by 
a circumstantial description of the last na- 
tural illness of Alexander, the character of 
the fever, the practice of the physicians, the 
piety of the departing pontiff, the reverence 
with which he received the last sacrament, 
the demeanor of the cardinals and others 
who were present at the edifying scene. But 
this family narrative, being at variance with 
the less partial accounts of the same transac- 
tion, may be rejected without much hesita- 
tion. 

Such, then, was the probable end of Alex- 
ander VI. : he was poisoned by the cup pre- 
pared for his own guest by his own hand, 
or, at leasty by the hand of a beloved son, 
whose notorious crimes he had long endured 
and fostered, and whom he seems to have 
loved for those very crimes ; so that, in res- 
pect to his general character, it imports not 
very much, whether he was an accomplice 
or not in that last offence, of which he was 
the ■ deserving victim. ' All Rome (says 
Gnicciardini) rushed to St. Peter's to behold 



while he allows that the father and son were ' Jes deux 
plus grands scelerats parrni les puissances de I'Europe.' 
Is the story, then, so very improbablel But if it were, 
mere probability is a very faithless test of historical 
truth. Things contrary to all calculation are happen- 
ing e-sery day, and have always happened. 

* Sismondi likewise refers to the ' Letters of the 
Ambassador of the House of Este,' and to Muratori, 
Annali d' Italia, fom, x. p. 15. According to Guic- 
ciardini (lib. vi.), the death of Alexander took place 
on August 17, 1503,— 'eil giorno seguente e portato 
morto secondo 1' uso dei Pontific inella Chiesa di San 
Piero, nero, infiato e bruttitisimo segni manifestissimi 
di veleno.' 



his corpse with incredible festivity ; nor was 
there any man who could satiate his eyes 
with gazing on the remains of a serpent, 
which, by his immoderate ambition and pes- 
tiferous perfidy, and every manner of fright- 
ful cruelty, of monstrous lust and unheard- 
of avarice, trafficing indiscriminately with 
things sacred and profane, had impoisoned 
the whole world.' Yet the world still con- 
tinued to acknowledge the vicegerent of 
Christ, and to bow before the throne of St. 
Peter. The cup was not yet full ; some few 
remaining iniquities were still to be accom- 
plished ; the arm of vengeance was still sus- 
pended, and Luther, the destined instrument, 
had not yet commenced his noviciate among 
the x-Vugustinian Mendicants. 

Election and Death of Pius III. — After 
the funeral honors had been duly paid to the 
departed pontiff, eight and thirty cardinals 
entered into Conclave to choose a successor. 
The unusual number of the electors may be 
one reason why the present election was not 
charged with simony ; but it presented a 
scene of treacherous intrigue, scarcely less 
shameful, in which Julian della Rovera was 
the principal actor — for as no man was more 
daring in warfare, so was not any one more 
astute in duplicity, than he. By the success 
of his machinations, a sick and feeble old 
man, the nephew of Pius II., was raised to 
the pontificate on September 22, 1503; and 
scarcely had he received the ordination to 
the priesthood, (which, though a cardinal, he 
had not previously received,) and undergone 
the ceremony of coronation, and assumed the 
name of Pius III., when he died — six and 
twenty days after his election. Great expect- 
ations were excited by his reputed virtues 
and piety and his ardently expressed desire 
for a reformation of the Church ; and it may 
be fortunate for his memory that they were 
disappointed by his death, rather than by 
some act of apostasy, by which he might not 
improbably have imitated so many of his pre- 
decessors. 

Julius II. — Julian celebrated the mass at 
his obsequies; and scarcely was that office 
performed when he re-opened his former 
intrigues in the design, on this occasion, of 
procuring his own election. He gained the 
leading cardinals; he gained the Duke de 
Valentinois, who directed the Spanish party 
in the conclave, by magnificent promises, 
and the confidence that they would be ob- 
served. On the very first scrutiny, Julian 
della Rovera was unanimously raised to the 
chair of Alexander VI. We should here 



PIUS III. — JULIUS II. 



517 



mention that, before the election of Pius III., 
the cardinals in conclave had bound the 
future Pope, among other conditions, to con- 
voke a council general for the reform of the 
Church, within two years from the time of 
his election, and to make the assembly of 
such councils, hereafter, triennial. It appears 
that Julian, on his elevation, gave his assent 
to the same stipulations.* 

His military character. — He took the name 
of Julius II., thereby intending, as many 
suppose, to avow his preference of the mili- 
tary to the sacerdotal character, and to declare 
his greater disposition to imitate the glories 
of Pagan, than of Christian, Rome. Assur- 
edly his whole pontificate was directed by 
such motives; and if the ten years, through 
which it extended, are not wholly destitute 
of events properly appertaining to ecclesias- 
tical history, those events did scarcely ever 
originate with the Pope, and were unconnec- 
ted with the principles of his government. 
It was not that he neglected, in the progress 
of his negotiations and campaigns, to carry 
on his lips the name of St. Peter, to whet the 
material upon the spiritual sword, and to 
thunder forth bulls and anathemas with all 
the majesty of former days; but it was in 
this respect only that he was distinguished 
from the other temporal sovereigns, with 
whom he leagued or contended. 

After so long a course of pontifical degen- 
eracy, in the hands of a Pope so absolutely 
secular as Julius, it might have been expected 
that those bolts had lost their force and their 
terrors ; and that the bishop of Rome, having 
descended to the policy of a secular prince, 
would have been treated by his brother prin- 
ces with no superior reverence. Yet was it 
otherwise; the fetters of the inveterate preju- 
dice were not yet wholly unloosed, and the 
spiritual weapon was still an object of appre- 
hension even to the king of France. So late 
as the year 1510, Louis XII.,f being deeply 
embroiled with the Pope, and struck with 
the sentence of excommunication, assembled 
a council of his clergy at Tours, and formally 
demanded their opinions on such points as 
these: — 'Whether the Pope had a right to 



* The form of the oath deserves to be cited in its 
very words. ' Praemissa omnia et singula promitto, 
voveo et juro observare et adlmplere, in omnibus et 
per omnia, pure et simpliciter et bona fide, realiter, 
et cum effectu perjurii et anathematis, a quibus nee 
me ipsum absolvam, nee alieni absolutlonem commit- 
tam. Ita me Dens adjuvet, &c.' It appears in 
Beausobre, Hist. Reform, liv. i. 

t The same who caused a coin to be struck, bear- 
ing the inscription, Perdam Bahylonis nomen. 



make war, when neither the interests of reli- 
gion, nor the domains of the Church were in 
danger ? Whether a prince might seize the 
ecclesiastical states, in case the Pope were 
his declared enemy, and keep temporary pos- 
session of them, until he should have hum- 
bled his adversary? Whether, under the 
same circumstances, a subtraction of obedi- 
ence, under certain restrictions, were lawful ? 
Whether a prince might defend another 
prince — his ally — against the pontifical 
arms ? ' Such were the scruples which still 
were felt even in the court of France. They 
were removed by the loyalty of the episcopal 
assembly: nevertheless, even after their re- 
moval, enough remained to distinguish the 
apostolical from all other governments ; and 
as those distinctions were founded on popular 
opinion, fostered by priestly influence, it was 
not very easy to counteract then- effect, or 
foresee their termination. 

His successes. — Julius II. knew better 
than any one the advantage which he thus 
possessed, and he likewise knew the precise 
extent of it, so that in using it constantly, he 
seldom abused it ; and thus it proved that he 
was successful beyond all expectation in the 
accomplishment of his most difficult designs. 
When he ascended the throne, he found the 
Duke de Valentinois in possession of many 
cities in the Romagna, which the latter had 
usui-ped during the reign of Alexander, and 
of which he appropriated the revenues. Him, 
the most dissembling of men, Julius in some 
measure supplanted by dissimulation.* From 
another nobleman (Paolo Baglioni) he recov- 
ered the city of Perugia by singular audacity ; 
he suddenly entered the hold of his enemy 
with his cardinals only, attended by no es- 
cort, and in such guise reclaimed and recov- 
ered his rights of sovereignty. He compelled 
the Venetians to restore several places which 
they had conquered from the Holy See — 
Rimini, Faenza, Ravenna, Cervia ; and before 
the end of his pontificate, he had established 
a direct authority over all the cities which 
constitute the ecclesiastical states. Even in 
Milan he was almost paramount, while Mo- 
dena, Reggio, Parma, Piacenza, were held in 



* Alexander VI., who detested Julian, always ad- 
mitted that he had one, though only one, redeeming 
quality: it was veracity. This reputation, Guicciar- 
dini says, gave him great opportunities of lying with 
advantage. Nevertheless, in this case, having the 
Duke's person entirely in his power, he certainly did 
not treat him so ill :is the principles of his enemies, 
and even of his age would have justified, nor nearly 
so severely as many expected and hoped. 



518 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



the Dame of the Church.* And some have 
supposed, that, had his reign been prolong- 
ed for a very few years, the whole extent 
of Italy would have been united under the 
sceptre of St. Peter. 

The object, however, which he more open- 
ly professed, and which was at least honor- 
able to his patriotism, was the expulsion of 
all foreigners (Barbari) from the soil of Italy. 
The measures, by which he pursued that 
object, belong to civil history, as well as the 
splendid reputation which they acquired for 
him. The talents and the qualities of Philip 
and Alexander are described by the panegyr- 
ists of Julius, as combined in him : even in 
their vices he resembled them— anger and 
intemperance. Respecting the particulars 
of his policy, it is recorded that he never 
would listen to any proposal of peace, so long 
as war, with any promise of success, was 
open to him ; yet that he so conducted war, 
as to be in perpetual negotiation. Enemies, 
as well as friends, were made to serve his 
designs, and distant, as well as neighboring, 
powers. He was so fierce and indefatigable 
a wanior, that at an age almost decrepit he 
did not shrink, when necessary, from sharing 
the severest toils of the meanest soldiers; but, 
at the same time, no one ever wielded the 
spiritual weapon with more imposing author- 
ity than Julius. His energy in the Vatican 
was scarcely surpassed by his bravery in the 
field ; and he dictated a bull with the same 
energy with which he commanded an army. 
It was, moreover, particularly remarked, that 
he directed the ecclesiastical functions, and 
nringled in the holy services, with wonderful 
decorum and solemnity : thus under no cir- 
cumstances forgetting the advantages to be 
derived from his sacred ofiice, nor ever failing 
to make it the means of raising his personal 
dignity, or advancing his political purposes. 

His patronage of the ^rf*.— -Another proof 
of the expanded mind of Julius II. was, his 
patronage of the arts of peace, wdiich had 
suffered in the general degradation of the 
preceding pontificates. Many celebrated mas- 
ters flourished during his reign, and his en- 
couragement was never wanting to animate, 
nor his liberality to support them. The foun- 
dations of St. Peter's after being designed by 
Nicholas V., were finally laid by Julius ; and 
to prove the value which he attached to that 
undertaking, he placed the first stone with 
his own hand. The accumulation of so many 
and such various qualities in one character 



* See Deuina, Rivol. d' Ital., lib. xjx. cap. vii. 
^nd Jib, XX. cap. i., ii., iii. 



leaves no space to doubt his extraordinary 
capacity. And could we be contented to 
consider him only as a secular prince — could 
we forget that he was really the chief of the 
Church of Christ, and that he professed ta 
be his vicegerent — the homage which is ex- 
torted by his genius, his audacity, and the am- 
bitious grandeur of his spirit, however qual- 
ified by his political immorality, would be 
oflTered with less reluctance. 

Some Cardinals convoke a Council at Pisa, 
— But the Popes, even during this their sea- 
son of licentiousness, had not wholly forgot- 
ten the lessons inculcated at Constance and 
Basle; and among the various dangers to 
which they were liable, the name which ever 
filled them with the deepest apprehension, 
was that of a general Council. And thus, 
when Julius engaged * to convoke such an 
assembly within two years from his election, 
nothing was farther from his intention than 
to keep his faith, and in efiFect he constant- 
ly eluded every proposition tending to thai 
end. The king of France saw the advantage 
thus given him ; and as there was also a party 
in the sacred college, which, through an hon- 
est regard for the Church, or a personal dis- 
pleasure against the Pope, (for Julius II., by 
an ungracious and disdainflil manner, fre- 
quently offended even those whom he in- 
tended to oblige,) boldly clamored for the 
redemption of his pledge, Louis at length 
prevailed upon them to summon the councii 
on their own authority. They were nine in 
number ; and the city which they appointed 
for the assembly was Pisa; it was a place 
convenient to the French and Italian prelates, 
and it contained, in its own history, the pre- 
cedent of a general council, summoned by- 
cardinals. The emperor Maximilian gave 
only a cold assent to these proceedings. Ju- 
lius exerted every nerve to crush the project : 
nevertheless, the prelates met together, and 
the council was formally opened on the 1st 
of November, 1511. Presently some tumults 
between the French and Florentine soldiers 
alarmed the fathers ; and after the third ses- 
sion they retii-ed to Mjlan, where they were 
entirely under French protection. During 
that winter and the following spring they 
held five other sessions; and then, as the 



* Raynaldi, Annales, 1503, s. i., &c. It should, 
perhaps, be mentioned, that Julius published, in 1506, 
a severe edict against the simoniacal election of 
Popes. He pronounced Popes so elected to be Here- 
siarchs, and consequently degraded and deposed. 
The decree was confirmed in the Lateran Couucil 
which followed, 



LEO X. 



519 



German bishops had never joined them, and 
as the emperor had at length withdrawn even 
the equivocal countenance hitherto vouch- 
safed to them, they retired, for the second 
time, from Milan to Lyons. But on this last 
removal, notwithstanding the efforts of Louis 
to give dignity and power to the refugees, the 
council became virtually extinct. 

It is unnecessary to particularize the re- 
spective acts of the eight sessions of that 
assembly, not only because they were never 
carried into effect, but because they were 
enth-ely directed to one subject — the relative 
authority of the council and the Pope. Ju- 
lius, on his side, thundered from the Vatican ; 
he excommunicated all the members ; he de- 
graded and deprived the cardinals. They, 
on their pait, after some verbose declarations, 
summoned the Pope into their presence, de- 
clared him contumacious, and finally sus- 
pended him. But this was their last effort, 
and the signal, as it were, for their extinction ; 
and the blow thus impotently dealt by the ex- 
piring assembly was not felt on the Throne 
of St. Peter.* 

The Fifth Lateran Council. — Nevertheless, 
this short-lived council in some measure 
achieved its professed purpose. Julius, in the 
first instance, really feared it; and he then 
saw no effectual method of crushing it, ex- 
cept the convocation of a rival council. He 
therefore issued a summons to the Catholic 
hierarchy, to assemble at Rome, in April, 
1512, for the celebration of the fifth Lateran 
council ; and on the 3rd of May he opened it 
in person, with extraordinary dignity and so- 
lemnity. Fifteen cardinals, and about eighty 
archbishops and bishops were present ; but it 
must not be forgotten, that almost all were 
Italians. During the nine following months 
five sessions were held, in which no sub- 
ject of any ecclesiastical importance was pro- 
posed, f except the Pragmatic Sanction ; and 
this was treated in a spirit of such undisguised 
hostility to the French court and Church, as 
to show very clearly what were the uses to 
which Julius intended to turn his council. 

* The contest, literally speaking, did not cease 
here. Julius pursued his adversaries into France, 
and laid the kingdom which harbored them under an 
interdict. But though some fresh controversies then 
arose on the old subject — the comparative auferibil- 
ity of a council and a Pope, — it was clearly the king, 
who was now fighting the battle, not the council. 

t Tlie confirmation of Julius's former decree against 
the simoniacal election of Popes, should, perhaps, be 
considered as important, though there could be no 
great hope of its efficacy — not, at least, till the con- 
stitution of the sacred college was wholly changed. 



But he was interrupted by a fatal sickness. 
On the night of February 20, 1513, he died ; 
and it was the last recorded act of his life, to 
refuse the cardinal's hat to an undeserving 
claimant. When the Pope was on the point 
of death, the boon was earnestly solicited by 
a very near relative, — a woman, for her own 
brother. Julius coldly replied, ' that the per- 
son was unworthy,' and then turned his head 
away, and expired. 

Leo X. — He was succeeded by Leo X. — '■ 
a name which belongs to the history of the 
Reformation, and with which, in this work, 
we are no further concerned, than as we 
propose to follow the council, assembled by 
his predecessor, through its remaining delib- 
erations. Before the end of the year it held 
three more sessions, under the presidency of 
the new Pope: the sixth and seventh pro- 
duced no memorable enactments, but the 
eighth was somewhat more important. On 
this occasion the king of France at length 
announced his adhesion. A bull was like- 
wise published, for the purpose of establishing 
the separate existence and immortality of the 
soul against the dangerous and, as it would 
seem, prevalent theories of certain philoso- 
phers; and at the same time an edict of 
safe-conduct was granted to the Bohemian 
schismatics, with an invitation to assist at the 
council: for their heresy was again rising 
into formidable attention. These measures 
were followed by a decree, directed against 
the officers of the apostolical court, for the 
diminution of their fees or salaries. 

Canons of Reformation, — On the 5th of 
May, 1514, the prelates proceeded fi-om the 
abuses of their dependants to the considera- 
tion of their own ; and on this occasion they 
published an imposing body of regulations 
for the reformation of the Roman court, and 
the general discipline of the Church. It was 
enacted, that only persons of worth and mor- 
ality should be appointed to benefices : to 
bishoprics, at an age not earlier than twenty- 
seven years ; to abbeys, not earlier than 
twenty-two ; and that care should be taken 
to ascertain their merit, before their names 
were proposed in consistory. That depri- 
vation should only be inflicted after due ex- 
amination. That monasteries and abbeys 
should not be held in commendam, unless for 
the better preservation of the authority of the 
Holy See, and by cardinals or other persons 
qualified; and that cures and dignities of 
little value (less than 200 ducats a year) 
should not be so held even by cardinals. 
That there be no separation or union of 



520 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Churches, unless for a reasonable cause. That 
no dispensation be granted to hold more than 
two incompatible benefices, unless to persons 
qualified, and for sufficient I'easons. That 
persons possessing more than four benefices, 
cures, or dignities, be obliged, within two 
years, to reduce them to the number of four, 
by resigning the rest. 

It was likewise ordained, that the cardinals 
should lead an exemplary life, — celebrating 
mass in their chapels, observing perfect 
sacerdotal modesty in their house, furniture, 
and tables, to the exclusion of all secular 
pomp ; treating with honor and respect those 
about them ; attentive to the interests of the 
poor, no less than to those of princes ; visiting 
in person, or by deputy, their titular church- 
es ; providing for the prosperity of the mon- 
asteries, or benefices, which they might hold 
in commendam ; avoiding every show of 
luxury, and every suspicion of avarice in 
their attendants. Respecting the inferior 
members of the court of Rome, a number of 
laws were published against blasphemy, con- 
cubinage, and simony. It was strictly pro- 
hibited to all kings, princes, and lords, to 
seize or sequestrate the ecclesiastical property, 
unless by permission of the Pope. All the 
laws concerning the exemption of ecclesiasti- 
cal persons and goods from lay jurisdiction 
were confirmed. And lastly, the inquisitions 
were stimulated to proceed zealously against 
heretics * and Jews ; especially against those 
who had relapsed, from whom every hope 

of pardon was withheld On the above 

regulations, which formed the substance of 
the most important decree of this council, it 
is scarcely necessary to observe, that they 
touched very ineffectually even those few 
among the multifarious corruptions of the 
Church, which they touched at all ; that, in 
respect to the Court of Rome, as no attempt 
was made to reduce one fraction of its power 
and wealth, it was superfluous to publish 
general exhortations of modesty and humili- 
ty ; and, besides, that the principal points in 
dispute with France and Germany were en- 
tirely overlooked in this reformation of the 
Catholic Church. 

The Press. — A year afterwards, (on May 
4, 1515,) the council held its tenth session. 
It then published a decree to restrain some 
of the abuses of chapters ; to moderate, 
though very slightly, the granting of exemp- 



*' How ill, alas! (says Raynaldus,) these most holy 
laws were observed, appears from the hydra-birth of 
the Lutheran heresy, which came so soon afterwards.' 
Ann, 1514. sect. 31, &c. 



tions; to refer the decision of trifling smts 
resj.)ecting the smaller benefices to the ordi- 
naries ; and to encourage provincial councils. 
Another decree peremptorily cited the eccle- 
siastics of France to appear at the council, 
and shovt' sufficient reasons why the Pragma- 
tic Sanction should not be wholly abolished. 
Another, promulgated on the same occasion, 
was levelled against the presumed abuses of 
the press. The Pope (an enlightened and 
literary Pope) pronounced to the effect, Uhat, 
though knowledge was acquired by reading, 
and though the press much facilitated such 
acquirement, the cultivation of the mind, the 
instruction of Christians, and the consequent 
propagation of the faith and the Church ; 
yet, as it had reached the ears of his Holiness, 
how some printers' had published inany Latin 
translations from the Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, 
and Chaldean, which contained false and 
pernicious dogmas, and offended the reputa- 
tion of persons in dignity, he was bound to 
ordain, in his desire to remedy that evil, that 
no book should be hereafter printed at Rome, 
or in any other city or diocese, until it had 
been examined — at Rome by the vicar of 
his Holiness, and the master of the sacred 
palace — in other dioceses, by the bishop, or 
some doctor appointed by him, or by the in- 
quisitor of the place, on pain of immediate 
excommunication.' * 

Abolition of the Pragmatic Sanction. — The 
next session was not held till the 19th of 
December, 1516. The Pope found himself 
at the head of a very tractable assembly, still 
consisting almost entirely of Italian prelates, 
and yielding obsequious approbation to de- 
crees dictated from the Vatican. Thus, with- 
out any display of impatience, he steadily 
pursued that which seems to have been the 
only object of his predecessor in this matter, 
and which was clearly the leading one with 
himself, — the abolition of the Pragmatic 
Sanction. In the present session he accom- 
plished that design ; and the bull which he 
published on the occasion is worthy of the 
proudest days of pontifical despotism. He 
began by asserting the implicit obedience due 
by divine authority to the Holy See, and 
afterwards took occasion especially to con- 
firm and renew the constitution Unam Sanc- 
tam of Boniface VIII. He showed the ille- 



* This was not the first effort of the Popes against 
what they considered the abuses of the press. In 1501 , 
Alexander VI. ordained, under the severest penalties, 
that no books should be printed in any diocese, with- 
out the sanction of the bishop (Raynaldus, 1501, s. 
36). But Sixtus IV. has the distinction of being the 
first who establiohed that inquisition. 



LEO X. 



521 



gality and schismatic nature of the ' Sanc- 
tion, ' by disparaging the councils of Bourges 
and Basle, and proclaimed the unlimited 
control of the Pope over such assemblies ; 
and finally, by his certain knowledge, by the 
plenitude of his power, and with the appro- 
bation of the holy council, he annulled all the 
decrees, statutes, and regulations contained in 
the offensive enactment. 

The bull received the assent of the council, 
with only one dissentient voice. The bishop 
of a small diocess in Lombardy had the bold- 
ness to express his veneration for the coun- 
cils of Bourges and Basle, and his reluctance 
to disturb their inviolable decisions. But he 
was immediately overborne ; the authority of 
the present (it was argued) was not inferior to 
that of preceding assemblies ; and in ancient 
times St. Leo had revoked at Chalcedon, 
what had been too rashly ordained at Ephe- 
sus. Yet such arguments might not effectu- 
ally have served the Pontiff, had not Francis 
1. conspired to betray the liberties of his 
Church. The abolition of the Sanction was 
immediately followed by the publication of a 
concordat, which tacitly restored the posses- 
sion of Jinnates to the Pope,* and openly 
transferred a valuable portion of the eccle- 
siastical patronage to the king. During the 
same session, certain restrictions were impos- 
ed upon the license of preachers, and generally 
upon the disciphne of the monastic orders; 
but these last were- compensated by some pri- 
vileges, which, though of no great apparent 
importance, offended the jealousy of the 
bishops, and roused some opposition in the 
council. The assembly divided, but the ma- 
jority was in favor of the papal measures. 



* The Annates were not expressly mentioned in tlie 
Concordat. But as the Pragmatic, which had alone 
abolished that payment, was itself abolished, the right 
to the payment was restored ; at least, it Avas left on 
the same footing on which it stood before the Sanc- 
tion, and then it was commonly levied by the Pope. 
In fact, in the ecclesiastical writers on this subject, 
the words pragmatic sanction, and annates, are so 
constantly connected, as to make it very clear, that 
the recovery of that contribution was a great object 
with the Popes in their enmity to the Sanction, as 
the exemption from it may have been a great cause 
of attachment to their liberties with the clergy of 
France. The question continued where it was then 
placed, till the arrangement brought about by Bossuet, 
in 1682. The arguments by which the conduct of 
Francis has been defended are — that many of the sees 
and monasteries were of royal foundation ; that much 
confusion was occasioned by the popular method of 
election ; that when subjects intrust the sovereign 
with the government of the state, that of the Church 
is therein included, &c. &c. 

m 



Dissolution of the Council, — On the 16th of 
the following March (1517,) the council met 
for the twelfth and concluding session, and 
after prohibiting the popular practice of pil- 
laging the mansion of the Pope elect, and or- 
daining an imposition of tenths for the service 
of the Turkish war, it was dissolved. The 
bull of dissolution announced the accomplish- 
ment of every object of the assembly : peace 
had been re-established among the princes of 
Christendom ; the schismatic synod of Pisa 
abolished ; and, above all, the reformation of 
the Church and court of Rome had been 
sufficiently provided for ! There were, indeed, 
some fathers who ventured to argue, that 
every abuse had not even yet been removed, 
and that the lasting interests of the Church 
would be better promoted by the further con- 
tinuance of the council — but the majority 
supported the Pope ; and the last universal 
assembly of the western Church, after having 
deliberately regulated all matters requiring 
any attention, and restored the establishment 
to perfect health and security, separated with 
complacency and confidence ! And here we 
may mention, (for the coincidence is remark- 
able,) that in the very same yeai-, almost be- 
fore the assembled prelates had concluded 
their mutual congratulations on the peace, 
and unity, and purity, of the apostolical 
Church, Luther commenced, in the schools 
of Wittenberg, his public preaching against 
its most revolting corruption. 

Degeneracy of the See. — Though it is not 
strictly true, that the history of the Popes, 
from Nicholas V. to Leo X., presents, so far 
as their personal . characters are concerned, a 
series of uniform degeneracy ; yet the prin- 
ciples of their government being bad, and 
not being corrected, became gradually and 
necessarily worse. And thus, though the 
name of Julius II. fills us with much less 
abhorrence than that of Alexander VI., the 
policy of the apostolical See was never so 
directly opposed to every spiritual object, as 
when guided by the former: ends purely 
temporal were never pursued with such un- 
disguised vehemence, or by means so san- 
guinary ; the keys of St. Peter, though not 
wholly cast away, were never before so merely 
subsidiary to the sword of St. Paul;* inso- 

* The popular story, that Julius II. actually threw 
the keys into the Tiber, and drew the sword of St. 
Paul, seems to be founded (at least so thinks Bayle) 
on the following utfama est of an obscure poet, Gil- 
bertus Ducherius Vulto: — 

In Galium, ut fama est, helium gesturus acerbum, 
Armatam educit Julius Urbe manum. 



622 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



much, that the hand of a retributive provi- 
dence might almost seem to be traced in this 
circumstance — that the long succession of 
spiritual usurpers, who were the chiefs of a 
religion of peace and the professed vicegerents 
of the God of love, should terminate at length 
in a military pontiff. The patience of angels 
and of men was exhausted by this last mock- 
ery ; and the more daring the exploits of the 
soldier, and the more splendid the conquests 
of the prince, the more awful was the bolt 
which was even then descending to rend his 
spiritual empire. 

We should also observe, respecting the 
Popes described in this chapter, that there 
was scarcely one whose government did not 
deteriorate as it proceeded. Almost all began 
their reign with some promises of religious 
practice, or ecclesiastical reform, or broad 
European policy ; and some, for the first year 
or two, observed such promises. But their 
reigns, upon the whole, much exceeded the 
usual duration of pontifical power, and they 
had space to imbibe the corruption which 
surrounded them ; so that even those who 
carried with them into the Vatican the ordi- 
nary principles of human conduct, presently 
forgot them in the society of debauched par- 
asites, in the iniquities of a simooiacal court, 
in the administration of a system full of every 
impurity. Thus are we in no manner sur- 
prised, when we observe these sovereigns 
engrossed by the temporal interests of their 
states, and engaged in securing their power 
within the city, and extending their sway 
without it : this was merely to govern like 
secular princes, and to pursue the policy 
which some of the greatest among their own 
predecessors had bequeathed to them. But 
the vice peculiarly characteristic of this race, 
and that which reduced them below the level 
of former pontiffs, was Nepotism.* It was 
for this that the keys and the sword co-ope- 
rated ; that benefices were publicly sold, and 
the pontificate all but publicly bought — that 

Accinctus gladio Claves in Tybridis amnera 
Projicit, et saevus talia verba facit — 

Q,uum Petri nihil efficiant ad praslia Claves, 
Auxilio Pauli forsitan ensis erit. 
*(1.) Eugenius IV. was nephew of Gregory XII.; 
(2.) Paul II., of Eugenius IV.; (3.) Alexander VI., 
of Calixtus III.; (4.) Pius III., of Pius II.; (5.) 
Julius II., of Sixtus IV.; (6.) and finally, Leo X. 
was brother-in-law of the bastard of Innocent VIII. 
We should remark, however, that the thirst for ag- 
grandizing their own families was not peculiar to the 
Popes, though peculiarly disgraceful to them. It was 
connected with that general struggle for super-emi- 
nence among private families which distinguished the 
Iiistory of Italy during this century. 



the nephews and bastards of a profligate 
Pope might be enriched and aggrandized. 
Many fiefs of the Church were alienated for 
that purpose ; and what was of worse con- 
sequence than this, the chief of the Church 
thus acquired a new motive for attachment 
to its abuses, and repugnance to any serious 
reformation. If Julius II. was less tainted 
with this vice than those who immediately 
preceded him* — for Julius mingled some 
magnanimity with his worldliness, — it was 
presently restored to honor by Leo X., and 
resumed its dominion over the counsels of 
the Vatican. 

Degradation of the Sacred College. — Anoth- 
er circumstance that strikes us, in the consid- 
eration of this period, is the utter debasement 
to which the Sacred College finally descend- 
ed. The influence, which the most wicked 
Pope invariably acquired in consistory, may 
be ascribed to the less direct operation of his 
power and patronage. But the secrets of the 
conclave, which have been transmitted by 
contemporary writers, abound with the par- 
ticulars of intrigue, and undisguised perfidy, 
and unblushing venality. Such was the mu- 
tual consciousness with which the Pope and 
his senate assembled to govern the Church 
of Christ! such the councils, from which 
edicts were issued for the suppression of 
simony and the correction of the morals of 
the clergy ! . . . . Again, it was now become 
almost the practice of the Conclave to bind 
the future Pope by a solemn obligation, in- 
tended to influence the nature of his govern- 
ment. The cardinal, while on the point of 
being elected, voluntarily took this oath, in 
common with his colleagues; and immediate- 
ly after his election he confirmed it. In a 
similar manner, restrictions were at that time 
not uncommonly imposed by the electiA^e 
body on the emperor of Germany and the 
king of Poland, and they were found effectu- 
al. But at Rome the result was so far other- 
wise, that among the many who undertook 
such engagements, there seems not to have 
been one, who faithfully observed what he 
had sworn, first as cardinal, next as Pope. 
This distinction, so shameful to the Court of 
Rome, confirms the charges of supereminent 
immorality commonly brought against it: it 



* ' Julius designed to make himself master of Bo- 
logna, and extinguish the Venetians, and chase the 
French out of Italy ; and these projects all proved 
fortunate to him, and so much the more to his praise, 
in that he did all for the good of the Church, and in 
no private regard.' Machiavel (Principe, cap. xi.) 
is no great eulogist of Julius. 



LEO X, 



623 



proceeds, however, from the singular princi- 
ples of the papal hierarchy. In the first place, 
the Pope, who enjoyed power unlimited over 
the obligations of others, might reasonably 
claim the right to dispense with his own. In 
the next, he had means of influencing those 
who might release him from his engagements, 
or connive at his contempt of them, such as 
the crown did not possess, either in Germany 
or Poland. The immense extent of his pa- 
tronage, his authority over the property and 
persons of the cardinals, and his prerogative 
of creating others, gave him irresistible in- 
struments both of seduction and terror. He 
exercised them unspai'ingly ; and the result 
was, that among the various crimes of the ; 
Vatican, that which became, as it were, pe- 
culiarly pontifical, was perjury. 

While the crimes of the Vatican were in- 
/ ^eed so various, as to embrace almost every 
/ denomination of ungodliness, there vvas not 
/ one among the Popes of this period, who 
/ made even the slightest pretension to piety ; 
1 . scarcely one, by whom decency, £is well as 
morality and religion, was not grossly out- 
raged. Indeed, when we consider the enor- 
mity of the scandals permitted and perpetrat- 
ed by Popes and cardinals during the latter 
years, it seems a matter of wonder that the 
I whole "Christian world did not rouse itself, 
^'-t[s^by an earthquake, and destroy them. But 
here it must be observed, that however noto- 
rious was the infamy of the Roman court to 
the nobles, and even the people of Rome ; 
however generally it might be related and 
credited, even throughout Italy, that country 
profited too extensively by the tributes of 
foreign superstition, to feel any desire to close 
their sources: besides which, Italy, having 
long exhibited less regard than any other land 
for the spiritual treasures and censures of 
Rome, was less disgusted by the spectacle of 
her vices. But beyond the Alps, where a just 
indignation would really have been excited, 
the private aiTangements of the conclave, and 
even the secrets of the pontifical palace did 
yet rarely or imperfectly transpire — a sacred 
veil still continued to conceal the impurities 
of the Fathei-s of the Church, nor was it rais- 
ed, until the barriers were at length broken 
by Charles VIII., and the natives of every 
country were admitted to a nearer view of 
the pontifical mysteries. 

Literary Popes. — ^ Another circumstance, 
which made men less disposed to rebellion 
against the Holy See, was the literaiy char- 
acter of some of the later pontiflTs. The ge- 
mus a«d acconiplishnjeiits of Nicholas V., of 



Pius II., and even of Sixtus IV., threw a light 
round the chair of St. Peter, which dazzled, 
and for awhile deceived, the Cisalpine na- 
tions. Besides, the vices of the court were 
really less general during those reigns ; for if 
the example of the Pope did not necessarily 
influence all his cardinals, at least his own 
character directed him in the choice of those 
whom he created ; so that it is not uncommon, 
during this period, to find respectable au- 
thors,* as well as patrons of learning, among 
the members of the Sacred College. But in 
the example of Sixtus, evil upon the whole 
predominated ; and those who next succeeded, 
presented models of flagitiousness almost un- 
qualified, so that the eflfect produced upon the 
Christian world by the brilliancy of those for- 
mer reigns, gradually faded away ; and when 
Leo X. restored the image of a splendid pon- 
tificate, it was too late to prevent the out- 
breaking of settled, deliberate discontent. 

Efforts against the Turks. — The period de- 
scribed in this chapter was also marked by one 
other feature very deservmg of attention; — 
the hostility of the Turk, and the consequent 
clamor for a grand Christian confederacy. In 
former ages the calamities of the Holy Land 
and the pollution of the tomb of Christ were 
motives sufficient to arm the indignation of 
the west. As time proceeded, and knowledge 
slowly advanced, and wisdom still more slow- 
ly followed it, that rage at length evaporated : 
but not till the Popes had turned it, in various 
manners, to their own profit, to enrich and 
aggrandize their See, and to unitA the Catho- 
lic Church. Precisely after the same fashion, 
as far as the altered principles of the age 
would allow, did the Vatican treat the ques- 
tion of the Turkish conquests. In this case, 
there was more of reason in the outcry, and 
proportionably less of superstition ; the danger 
was sometimes imminent ; it was never very 
remote ; and the projected crusade was vir- 
tually defensive. It is not that some Popes 
were not very sincere, especially in the be- 
ginning of their reigns, in their exhortations 
to arm against the infidel — and some had been 
equally earnest in former ages, in their exer- 
tions for the liberation of Palestine — but many 



* Some of these — for instance Cardinal Bessarion, 
who died under Sixtus IV. — were the creations of an 
earlier period — the turbulent times of Constance and 
Basle, when the Roman court was obliged, in self- 
defence, to adopt men of some learning and talents. 
The works of Bessarion are enumerated and describ- 
ed by the Continuator of Fleury (p. 113, 126). His 
defence of platonism (in Calumniatorem Platonis) 
against George of Trebisond is the most celebrated 
of his writings. 



624 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



more were not so: yet these raised the same 
outcry, and repeated as loudly the same ar- 
guments and declamations. One of them, 
indeed, Paul IL, so closely imitated the worst 
exploit of Innocent III., as to divert the course 
of war from its purposed channel, and direct 
it against Christian heretics. But the others, 
when not absolutely threatened by invasion, 
had, for the most part, two objects in their 
vociferations; the one, to bring money into 
the apostolical chamber; the other, to drown 
the reviving demands for Church reform, 
and turn the thoughts of men to any subject, 
rather than a general council.* In both these 
objects they, for a time, succeeded — unhappi- 
ly for the age in which they lived, unhappily 
for the permanence of their own empire. 
But it was God's providence which ordered 
this — to the end that the reformation should 
be more full and perfect, owing to the very 
blindness which had retarded it, and to the 
very bigotry which thought to withhold it for 
ever. For, however various the opinions 
prevalent at the moment, there can now be no 
question, that if the court of Rome had zea- 
lously employed itself, during this period of 
seventy-four years, in removing its scandals, 
in amending its morals, in retrenching its 
more extravagant claims, in reducing its ex- 
penses, and moderating its exactions, it might 
liave continued, according to all human cal- 
culation, to sway for some time longer the 
spiritual destinies of Europe. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

PRELIMINARIES OF THE REFORMATION. 

Section I. — On the Potcer and Constitution of 
the Roman Catholic Church. 

(1) Origin, progress, and prosperity of the Pope's secular 
monarchy — Character and policy of Julius II. — Excuse 
for the union of the two powers in the Pope — Evils pro- 
ceeding from it. (2) The spiritual supremacy of Rome 
— its rise, character, and exjtent — Usurpation of Church 
patronage — pretensions to personal infallibility — con- 



* Sixtus IV., when pressed, in 1472, by the king 
of France, to call a general council, openly pleaded, 
as an objection, the urgency of the Turkish war. * It 
was out of season (the Pope replied) to demand the 
convocation of a council, which required considerable 
time, when the evil was pressing, and the progress of 
the Tui-ks rendered the slightest delays prejudicial to 
religion; the other Christian princes had either kept 
their engagements, or were on the point of keeping 
them ; and the king of France should rather join them 
in so holy a work, and permit the levying of tenths, 
and other charitable contributions, throughout his 
kingdom, &c.' See Contin. Fleury, L. 113, s. 145. 



trol over the general morality— in Penance, Purgatory, 
and Indulgences— decline of the power— not of the pre- 
tensions. (3) Claims of Rome to universal temporal 
siipretnacy— as advanced by Gregoiy VII. — on what 
founded— by what means supported- use and abuse of 
this power. (4) Constitution of the Church. Origin 
and gradual aggrandizement of the Cardinals — to the 
rank of kings — The capitulations sworn in Conclave, 
and invariably violated — Relative interests and influ- 
ence of the Pope and the Sacred College— to the advan- 
tage of the former — its usual co-operation witli the 
Pontiff— General Councils— subordinate machinery of 
the Church— highest dignities accessible to all ranks — 
Good and evil of this— Envoys and emissaries— Men- 
dicants — Inquisition — Moral extremes permitted — 
Maxims of policy — Methods of securing the obedience 
of the lowest classes. 

Section II. — On the Spiritual Character, Disci- 
pline, and Morals of the Church. 

(1) Conservation of the most essential doctrines— Various 
innovations — Original system of penance — the Peniten- 
tial of Theodore, Ar'fehbishop of Canterbury — subse- 
quent abuses — The intermediate state — Purgatory — 
Original object and gradual abuse of indulgences — in 
nature and in object — Translation of an indulgence 
published by Tetzel — Prayers for the dead — Masses, 
public and private. The mystery of the Eucharist — 
The elevation of the Host— use of the bell— worship of 
the Host — Communion in one kind only — its object and 
impolicy — Prohibition of the Scriptures — Miraculous 
impostures — Saints, relics, &;c. — More recent disputes 
and superstitions — on the ring of St. Catharine — and 
her Stigmata— on the Immaculate Conception— or! the 
Worship due to the blood of Christ— the inscription on 
the Cross — the reed and sponge. (2; Discipline and 
morals — Concubinage of the Clergy — Influence of the 
laity — Perpetual acknowledgment of Church abuses 
from St. Bernard downwards — Cardinal Ximenes — 
Benefits conferred by the Church — in ignorant ages 
— Truce of God — Exercise of charity — Law of asylum 
— penance, &c. — Original character of Monachism — 
Merits of the Mendicants — chiefly as Missionaries — 
their success in the thirteenth and fourteenth ages 
—Morality in the fifteenth century comprised in the 
Mystics and the lower Clergy — Progress and preser- 
vation of Mysticism in the Western Church — Great, 
though obscure, virtues of many of the inferior Clergy. 

Section III. — On various Attempts to reform or 
subvert the Church. 

(1) Attempts at self-reform— The era of Boniface VIII.— 
subsequent decline— Necessity of some reform generally 
admitted — Designs of the Church reformers, as compar- 
ed with the real nature of the corruptions — confined 
wholly to matters of revenue and discipline — very im- 
perfect even in that respect — and never really enforced 

— Learning and blindness of the papal party — their 
momentary success — Progress of improvement and 
knowledge to final and certain triumph — Tardy re- 
formation in the Roman Catholic Church. (2) Attempts 
of Protestants to trace their Church to the Apostolic 
times — how far successful — where they fail — Vaudois 
and Albigeois — Bohemian Brethren — J^ote on Bossuet — 
Errors of those Dissenters — On the Paulicians — On the 
Mystics — Real value and merit of the sects of the 
twelfth and following centuries. (3) Treatment of 
heretics by the Church — Canon of Innocent III. — its 
fair explanation — consequence — Inquisition — Unity of 
the Church — A more moderate party — Principle of in- 
tolerance adopted by the Laity also — Conduct of the 
Church in the fifteenth age. (4) On some individual 
witnesses of the truth— John of Wesalia — Wesselus — 
Jean Laillier — Savonarola — his history and pretensions 

— Erasmus. (5) Particular condition of Germany — 
Great scene of clerical licentiousness and papal extor- 



POWER, &c. OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



525 



tion — Political hostilities of Rome and the Empire — 
Violation of the Concordats — ' The Hundred Griev- 
ances ' — Thirst of the people for the Bible — Character 
of Leo X. — Conclusion. 



Section I. — On the Power and Constitution of 

the Roman Catholic Church. 
I. — In retracing the steps by which Papacy 
descended to that ground whereon it received 
its effectual overthrow, we shall observe in 
most of its elements signs of increasing cor- 
ruption and decay ; but there was oue cir- 
cumstance, in which its singular prosperity 
ran counter to the general current. The 
temporal monarchy of the Pope was at no 
former period so extensive and so secure as 
at the accession of Leo X. At no time had 
the limits of the Ecclesiastical states been so 
widely stretched, or the factions, which alien- 
ated the capital from the government of its 
Bishop, so depressed and helpless as then. 
We have shown, in former chapters, how the 
Pope's political authority originated under the 
Exarchs of Ravenna, through the neglect or 
weakness of the Eastern empire ; and how it 
was ri vetted by the vigor and the virtues of 
some who then occupied the Chair. Soon 
aftenvards the domains of the See were 
formed and enlarged by Pepin and Charle- 
magne, tliough still held by the latter as a 
dependent portion of his empire. 

We have mentioned the donation of Ma- 
tilda to Gregory VII., and the exertions after- 
wards made to secure those various posses- 
sions. In this struggle. Innocent III., and 
some other Popes of the thuteenth century, 
obtained partial, though never permanent, 
successes; and the territories of Boniface 
VIII. were more respectable in magnitude, 
than united in allegiance and fidelity. But 
the secession to Avignon was the signal for 
general insubordination ; on every side the 
Barons rose and seized whatever lay within 
their gi-asp ; and the patrimony of St. Peter 
was torn in pieces by their petty ambition and 
rapacity.* 

The Schism followed : and, if the residence 
of an Antipope recovered some portion of i 
that authority which had been forfeited by 



* ' Je regarde Rome (says Voltaire, Pyrrhonisme 
de I'Histoire) depuis le temps de I'Empereur Leo HI. 
risaurien, comme une ville Jibre, protegee par les 
Francs, ensuite par les Germains, qui se gouverne 
tant qu'elle put en republique, plutut sous le patronage 
que sous la puissance des Empereurs, dans laquelle le 
souverain Pontife eut toiijours le premier credit, et 
qui enfin a ete entierement soumise aux Papes.' It 
is observed, that no Pope ever assumed the title of 
King of Rome. This subject is remarkably well 
treated by Gibbon, in bis 49tli cliapter. 



the absence of the Pope, yet it was not much 
that was resumed, nor was it held with firm- 
ness or confidence. But when the Schism 
had ceased, and a Bishop of undisputed le- 
gitimacy became again resident, though Mai- 
tin, Eugenius, Nicholas, and Sixtus* even 
then had some storms and reverses to en- 
counter, the machine of temporal power upon 
the whole moved onwards ; and at length, 
under the guidance of Alexander VI. and 
Julius II., it reached those ample boundaries, 
from which it has never since receded. 

The dangerous feuds of the Colonna and 
Orsini were extinguished ; the usurpations on 
the states of the Church were extorted from 
the nobles who had made them; even the 
turbulence of the Roman people was worn 
down by severity, or softened by luxuiy and 
licentiousness; and a compact and fi-uitful 
kingdom bowed in secular servitude before 
the sceptre of St. Peter. 

The emperor Maximilian designed himself 
as the successor of Julius II. and solicited 
the votes of several members of the college, 
some little time before the death of that Pope. 
He did not strongly press his project ; but 
the very attempt may show how little neces- 
sary any pretensions to the spiritual char- 
acter were then thought for the enjoyment 
of the loftiest spiritual dignity. Julius was, 
in all essentials, a temporal prince ; and had 
he not been so, he could scarcely have 
crowned his ambition with such extraordi- 
naiy triumphs. Yet the spectacle of a secu- 
lar and militai-y Pope f was not well calcu- 

* Gibbon has remarked, that Eugenius IV. was the 
last Pope expelled by the tumults of the Roman people 
(in 1434); and Nicholas V. (in 1447) the last im- 
portuned by the presence of the Emperor. The same 
writer places the last disorder of the Nobles of Rome 
under Sixtus IV, and considers the papal dominion 
to have become absolute about the year 1500. Ma- 
chiavel (Frencipe, cap. xi.) has observed, that the 
great difficulty in crushing the two rival factions in 
Rome arose from the short reigns of the Popes, and 
the inconstancy of their policy: for when any Pontiff 
had succeeded in humbling one of those families, his 
successor might, very probably, raise it up again and 
depress the opposite. On the other hand, the exist- 
ence of this feud accounted, in a great degree, for the 
temporal weakness of the Popes. At length, Alexan- 
der VI. and his son overthrew the Barons from motives 
oi family ambition, and Julius II. reaped the fruits 
of their victory for the advantage of the Church. 

t A plausible precedent was affoi'ded by the per- 
sonal expedition made by that simple, pious Pontiff, 
Leo IX. against the Normans who so signally over- 
threw him. But it should be recollected, that Leo 
never repeated the experiment — his military thirst 
was satisfied by a single enterprise. 



526 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



lated to conciliate to the See, in the most 
critical moment of its history, the affection or 
respect of any description of Christians. The 
deep penetration of Juhus may possibly have 
foreseen the approaching downfall of the 
spiritual supremacy, and for that reason he 
may have labored the more zealously to give 
strength to the temporal fabric. If he did so, 
it was a wise and salutary providence ; for, 
in that controversy so often raised-— whether 
the secular dominion of the Pope has tended, 
upon the whole, to increase or to diminish 
his general influence, — there is ample room 
for difference, in respect to early times ; but 
after the first movements of the Reformation, 
it is quite clear that it produced to him no- 
thing but advantage : and from that moment 
the question rather becomes, whether any 
.shred or fragment of his ghostly authority 
could have been saved without it. 
y^" Argument for the Papers Secular Monarchy. 
/ — The enjoyment of secular power and pride 
/ by the Vicegerent of Him whose kingdom is 
/ not of this world, is justified on the ground 
I of his independence. It is plausibly main- 
I tained, that the Chief of the OEcumenic 
Church, scattered throughout so many na- 
tions, ought to stand unconstrained by any 
earthly potentate, and owe no other allegiance 
than that to Heaven. The principle, which 
would prevent him from being a subject, 

\ compels him to be a monarch, — no other 
condition can be conceived, which could se- 
' cure him from the control of the tempoi*al 
sceptre. The above argument acquires some 
confirmation from the decline which did, in 
feet, take place in the pontifical domination 
during the exile at Avignon, though the Pope 
was there resident rather as a guest than as a 
subject, free from the direct authority of the 
prince, the slave only of his influence. In 
truth, the Catholic, after he has assumed the 
divine establishment of one spiritual univer- 
sal monarchy, wants not sufficient plea for 
the maintenance of the temporal government, 
as secondary and subsidiary. But the Prot- 
estant, thoughtfully surveying the perplexities, 
the intrigues, and the crimes in which a Chris- 
tian Prelate is thus necessarily involved — the 
armies which he levies, the contributions 
when he extorts, the blood which he sheds — 
receives from the sad spectacle only fresh 
reason to doubt, whether the family of Christ 
has really been consigned to the rule of one, 
who can scarcely rule it in innocence. 

And this remark is the more striking, be- 
cause, when we reflect on the different wars 
which the Popes have waged in Italy, it real- 



ly appears that they had, for the most part, 
the plea of justice. It was generally theiif 
object, (notwithstanding some deplorable ex- 
ceptions,) not to make conquests in the do- 
minions of others, but to defend or to recover 
their own. There was no province in Eu- 
rope so harassed by rebellions and usurpa- 
tions as the states of the Church. We need 
not pause to account for this circumstance ; 
but it is unquestionably true that no other 
prince was so commonly liable to depredation 
and insult as the Pope. Accordingly, his 
wars were usually defensive, and (it may be) 
necessary — but that very necessity annihilat- 
ed the pastoral character, and despiritualized 
the Vicar of Christ. 

The Tributes which he levied. — Again, these 
contests were not carried on without great 
expense ; and the holy See, despoiled of its pa- 
trimony, was at the same time deprived of its 
natural resources. Thence arose an obliga- 
tion to seek supplies in other quarters ; * and 
with an obedient clergy and a superstitious 
people it was not difficult to make the whole 
of Christendom tributary. Once in posses- 
sion of this ample treasury, and of the keys 
which unlocked its innumerable chambers, 
the Pontiffs explored and ransacked it with- 
out restraint, without decency, without dis- 
cretion. Their emissaries were dreaded as 
the tax-gatherers of the Christian world. 
Their name was associated with donations, 
fees, contributions, exactions — with every 
name that is most vile and unpopular in secu- 
lar governments. And thus, besides the great 
scandal thereby reflected upon themselves^ 
they exhausted the affection, the endurance, 
and almost the credulity of the faithful. It is 
not that the moneys thus levied were applied 
entirely to the defence of the Ecclesiastical 
States, or even that they were generally levied 
under that pretence ; but in the first instance, 
during the thirteenth century, and afterwards, 
more especially under the Avignon succes- 
sion, a very large proportion was certainly 
a^Dsorbed by the temporal exigencies of the 
See, and the increasing demands and extra- 
vagance of the Court of Rome. The same 
system was continued through the Schism 
and the century which followed it, as far as 
the Popes had power to continue it ; and there- 
fore, when we admire their final success in 
erecting a permanent principality, we shall, at 
the same time, recollect the methods which 

* This system no doubt began soon after the eleventh 
age, when the Popes were so commonly expelled frora 
Rome, to Orvietto, Viterbo, Anagni, &c., and obliged 
to look to all parts of Christendom for their resources. 



POWER, &c. OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



527 



tliey had so long and so vainly employed on 
that object, and the deep disaffection towards 
their Government which those methods had 
every where created. 

II. The Spiritual Supremacy of Rome. — 
It is not necessary to retrace the process, 
by which the spiritual supremacy of Rome 
was engendered and nourished. We have 
observed with sufficient distinctness, how 
equivocal and cu'cumscribed it was in nature 
and dimensions, when it entered into the ages 
of gloom and ignorance, — how it grew and 
dilated in its mysterious passage through 
them ; — how portentous in magnitude and 
majesty it emerged from the cloud. We have 
followed it through its meridian course of 
disastrous glory ; and we have seen that, even 
in its decline, it did not suddenly lose either 
its fierceness or its ascendency. Indeed, 
however strange it may seem, that an author- 
ity, so predominant in its power, so universal 
and searching in its influence, so extravagant 
in its pretensions, should have been at all 
created, and out of materials seemingly so in- 
congruous ; it would have been much more 
strange, had it been easily or hastily extin- 
guished. An authority, which claimed the 
sanction of Heaven, and which stood on 
human imposture; which pleaded the holi- 
ness of antiquity, and which innovated every 
hour ; which combined, in its composition, 
learning with fanaticism, the use of reason 
with its grossest abuse, extreme austerities 
with lawless licentiousness, much true piety 
with much vulgar and impious superstition 
— and which so applied those various qual- 
ities, as at length to acquire an influence in 
the policy of every Court, in the institutions 
of every Government, in the morals of evei-y 
people, in the habits of every family, in the 
bosom of almost every individual — an au- 
thority, so constructed, supported, acknow- 
ledged, and felt, could not possibly fall in 
pieces without a protracted struggle and a 
final convulsion. It was impressed by the 
perseverance of fraud upon credulous, abject 
ignorance ; but so deeply impressed, that, 
before it could be effaced, the substance 
whereon it was engraven must first change 
its nature ; so that ages of gradual improve- 
ment were required to repair the mischief, 
which ages had conspired to inflict. 

For if we examine the extent of this power, 
with respect to the objects on which it was 
more immediately exerted, shall we find any 
department, religious or moral, into which, in 
its triumphant days, it did not penetrate ? In 



the first place, the Pope was the fountain of 
all ecclesiastical legislation. All the Canons 
and Constitutions of the Church were sub- 
ject to him.* He could enact, suspend, abro- 
gate, as might seem good to him, and that, 
not only with the advice or consent of the 
Consistory, or (as it sometimes happened) 
merely in its presence, but in the plenitude 
of his power, and by his own spontaneous 
movement, f At the same time, while he was 
supreme in his dominion over the laws, he 
claimed an entire exemption from their con- 
trol, and found a powerful party in the 
Church to support his claim. 

In the next place, he was the source of all 
pastoral jurisdiction. The final determination 
of every spiritual cause rested with him. He 
was the object of appeal from all the episco- 



* Immediately after burning the Pope's bull, Luther 
published several propositions, extracted from the De- 
cretaJs, among which are the following: — ' that the 
successors of St. Peter are not subject to the com- 
mandment of the apostle to obey the temporal powers ; 
tliat the power of the emperor is as much below that 
of the Pope as the moon is below the sun ; that the 
Pope is superior to councils, and can abolish their 
decrees; that all authority resides in his person; that 
no one has a right to judge him or his decrees; that 
God has given him sovereign power over all the king- 
doms of the earth, and that of heaven; that he can 
depose kings, absolve all oaths and vows; that he is 
not dependent on Scripture, but, on the other band, 
Scripture derives all its authority, force, and dignity, 
from him,' &c. (See Beausobre, Hist. Reform, liv. 
iii.) It is unnecessary to repeat, that the above pro- 
positions were either drawn from the False Decretals, 
or were of subsequent origin. Till the timeofVal- 
entinian III. neither the Eastern nor Western Church 
had any other collection of canons than the ' Code of 
Canons of the universal Church,' compiled by Stephen, 
bishop of Ephesus. In the first year of Justinian, the 
' Collection of Dionysius the Little ' vpas publisiied. 
He was a monk, living at Rome — the same who in- 
troduced the practice of computing time from the 
birth of Christ — a friend, fellow-monk, and fellow- 
student of Cassiodorus. His collection contained the 
fifty Apostolical Canons, the Canons of Clialcedon, 
Sardica, and the African Councils ; and the Decretals 
of Pope Siricius (who died in 398); and it had au- 
thority in the West under the name of ' Codex or 
Corpus Canonum.' Some other collections, of little 
repute, or only partial authority, were published soon 
afterwards. (See Giannone, Stor. NapoL lib. iii. c. 
V.) Then came the forgeries of the eighth age, and 
the pretensions — first proceeding from them, presently 
surpassing them — - though it was scarcely till the 
twelfth century that the new maxims and principles 
came into full operation. 

t De motu proprio. It appears that Bulls pro- 
ceeding de motu proprio were received with great 
hesitation in France. But they were held by the 
high Papists to be as valid as any other Decrees or 
Canons. 



628 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



pal Courts ; and he delivered, confirmed, or 
reversed decisions, according to the arbitrary 
dictates of his justice, or his interest. 

Usurpation of Church Patronage. — The 
apostohcal character of the ministry, perpet- 
uated by the uninterrupted communication 
of the Holy Spirit, was held to centre in the 
successor of St. Peter : and thus not only did 
all sacerdotal sanctity emanate from him, but 
all the offices and dignities of the Church 
were vested in his See. We may observe, 
however, that there was not one among his 
pretensions which cost him so much toil and 
conflict to substantiate, as this. In his ear- 
liest attempts to usurp the ecclesiastical pat- 
ronage he was contented to proceed by sim- 
ple recommendation ; and, as he had already 
great power, his applications were seldom 
despised. Hence arose the practice ; and from 
the practice, the right. The prerogative of 
institution, of which he had gradually de- 
spoiled the Metropolitans for the augmenta- 
tion of his own dignity, was serviceable as 
an instrument of further encroachment. The 
fierce and protracted contest respecting inves- 
titures, between the See and the empire, was 
inflamed by the same design in the former ; 
and when it terminated, the Pope found him- 
self in legal possession of that power of oc- 
casional interference in the collation of ben- 
efices, which it needed no great address to 
improve and extend. Still, time and boldness 
were required to complete the usurpation ; 
and the merit of achieving that work is per- 
haps justly attributed to Innocent III.* Soon 
afterwards the Pragmatic Sanction of St. 
Louis was levelled against it; and in later 
periods it has been obtruded so commonly 
upon our attention, as almost to convert the 
records of Christ's Church into a detail of 
disgusting squabbles about its temporalities. 
A new vocabulary was introduced into the 
history of religion ; and as the magnificence 
of the Court of Rome kept pace with the 
majesty of the monarch, and as its avarice 
emulated his ambition, the field of Reserva- 
tion and Provision] was enlarged with no 



* See Mosheim, Cent. xiii. p. ii. ch. ii. It was 
probably at this lime that a new pretext for this ex- 
tension of the papal authority was discovered : viz. 
that through the Pope's vigilance, the gates of the 
Church might be secured against the intrusion of any 
Heretic. 

f Even by the more moderate and acknowledged 
claims of the Popes, all benefices in the possession of 
Cardinals, or any of the officers of the Court of Rome ; 
those held by persons who happened to die at Rome, 
or within forty miles from it; and all such as became 
vacant by translation, were reserved. The invention 



limit, and the whole patronage of i\\e univer- 
sal Church seemed to be absorbed by the 
cupidity of one man. 

The same power which thus created Car- 
dinals and Bishops, and all other dignitaries, 
presumed by the same right to confirm, cen- 
sure, suspend or depose them ; * so that the 
whole hierarchy of the west was placed at 
its arbitrary disposal, f And though this in- 
ordinate despotism was continually resisted 
and restrained by the princes and parlia- 
ments of Europe, it had no effectual check 
within the Church, nor was there any country 



of mental reservation demanded the more refined in- 
genuity of the sixteenth century ; it is ascribed to 
Leo X., or at least, to his predecessor. Respecting 
provisions, we may refer to the history of our own 
Church, to see with what pertinacity the battle was 
fought, and how the statutes enacted against them 
were perpetually confirmed, and perpetually eluded or 
violated. We may observe, however, that the Kings 
of Europe were not uncommonly neutral or lukewarm 
in this quarrel; the Pontiffs were sometimes found 
more tractable than the chapters, and a concession 
seasonably made to the former might become the 
means of reciprocal advantage. Again, we some- 
times find the Universities on the side of the Pope — 
not from any abstract conviction of his right, but be- 
cause his appointments were often more judicious, 
more encouraging to the hopes of learned men, than 
those of the Ordinaries, who usually chose their own 
relatives or dependents. The Popes had procurators 
established in England, and probably in all other 
countries, to look after their interests ; and the fury 
with which they pursued them during the fifteenth 
century, is strongly depicted by Giannone, lib. xxx. 
cap. 6. 

* The Council of Sardica in 347 (not a General 
Council) allowed a bishop, deposed by his neighbor- 
ing prelates, to appeal to the Bishop of Rome — it 
likewise permitted this last to send legates, to re- 
examine the case together with those prelates. . . . 
These decrees (if they be genuine, which Mosheim 
sees reason to doubt), prove that the power of de- 
position was not then exercised by the Roman bishop, 
but by the provincial synods ; but they also indicate 
a disposition in the western clergy even thus early to 
distinguish the prelate of the imperial city, and to 
confer greater power on him than on any of his 
brethren. This infeirence no one can reasonably dis- 
pute, neither can any one reasonably infer more than 
this from the canons in question. See Dr. Cook, 
Historical View of Christianity, book iii. chap. ii. 

t The object of the ' Oath of Fidelity' to the Pope, 
taken by the higher clergy on their admission to be- 
nefices, was to bind them — that henceforward they 
would be faithful and obedient to St. Peter, the 
apostle, and to the Holy Roman Church, and to the 
Pope and his successors ; that he should sufl'er no 
wrong through their advice, consent, or connivance; 
that they would maintain and promote all his rights, 
honors, privileges, and authorities, and resist and 
denounce all attempts against him. 



POWER, &c. OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



529 



In Which it was not sometimes practically 
felt. 

On the Personal InfaUihility of the Pope. — 
It is more difficult to determine, how far the 
Pope was held at any particular period to be 
personally absolute in matters of faith. No 
doubt, disputed points were perpetually re- 
ferred to his decision, and the decision was 
considered as final. Kut, on the other hand, 
there have been Popes at various times, who 
have incun-ed the charge of heresy from very 
faithful Catholics. Now the very suspicion 
of eiTor presumes the fallibility of the person 
suspected, at least in the opinion of the accu- 
sers; and in the affair of John XXII. and the 
process against Boniface VIII., we have not 
observed that the friends of those Popes de- 
nied their liability to error. Again, in some- 
what later times, in the councils of Pisa, 
Constance, and Basle, we find it a principle 
admitted by both parties, that a Pope might 
be deposed on conviction of heresy ; whence 
we may draw the same inference respecting 
other periods of Papal history. The claim of 
infallibility was not preferred in the delibera- 
tions at Florence, thougli conducted in the 
presence of the Pope and his Court, and en- 
tering very deeply into the subject of papal 
authority ; nor was it advanced at any later 
period in the same century. So that, how- 
ever clearly it might be deduced from the 
general expressions of various bulls and con- 
stitutions, and even though it should have 
been asserted by some individuals and ac- 
knowledged and maintained by others, yet it 
would be too much to account it among the 
authorized pretensions of the Roman See.* 
Howbeit the doctrines which proceeded from 
the chair (ex Cathedra) were seldom disput- 
ed; and the Pontiff might forget the possibil- 
ity of eiTor in the reverence which awaited 
and embraced his most questionable decis- 



* The claim to infallibility is not contained in the 
Creed of Pius IV., compiled out of the Canons of 
Trent, which Roman Catholics consider as the most 
accurate summary of their faith ; and the Universities 
have generally opposed it. But it has been main- 
tained (as a matter of opinion, however, not of faith) 
by many distinguished individuals, among whom the 
most notorious is, perhaps, Bellarmine. It is mor- 
tifying to humanity to observe the geniv^ of Pascal 
stooping to draw elaborate distinctions between in- 
fallibility in matters oi faith and in matters of fact, 
and exhausting itself to prove, that, though the Pope 
does really possess the former, it does not follow that 
he is also invested with the latter^that is, that though 
he cannot err in judgment, he may possibly be deceiv- 
ed by falsehood ! 

Q7 



Again, in the regulation of the moral duties 
of the faithful, the same searching hand in- 
terposed with the same rigorous inquisition. 
A general power of dissolving obligations was 
claimed by the successors of St. Peter, and 
they applied it in various manners, as suited 
their policy, or, it might be, their conscience 
— sometimes in divorcing a prince from his 
queen, sometimes in separating a nation from 
its monarch. The most sacred oaths were 
annulled with the same ease, which dispensed 
with the slightest promise ; and as there were 
many who profited, or might hope to profit, 
by that papal prerogative, and as it was made 
ftimiliar by constant exercise, so were there 
few who cared to question it, however shame- 
ful the ends to which it was sometimes ap- 
plied. 

Penance and Purgatory. — It is the doctrine 
of the Roman Catholic Church that, besides 
the eternal punishments denounced against 
sin, there are also temporal penalties attached 
to it, which are still due to the justice of God, 
even after he may have remitted the former ; 
and that those penalties may consist either of 
evil in this world, or of temporal suffering in 
the next and intermediate condition of purga- 
tory. It is also an article of faith, that a sat- 
isfaction in their place has been instituted by 
Christ, as a part of the Sacrament of Penance, 
and that the jurisdiction of the Church as ex- 
ercised by the Pope, extends to the remission 
of that satisfaction. The act of remission is 
called an Indulgence; it is partial or com- 
plete, as the indulgence is for a stated time or 
plenary, and the conditions of repentance and 
restitution are in strictness annexed to it. 
Through this doctrine, the Popes were, in 
fact, invested with a vast control over the 
human conscience, even in the moderate ex- 
ercise of their power, because it was a power 
which overstepped the limits of the visible 
world. But when they proceeded, as they 
did soon proceed, flagitiously to abuse it, and 
when, through the progress of that abuse, 
people at length were taught to believe, that 
perfect absolution from all the penalties of 
sin could be procured from a human being ; 
and procured too, not through fervent prayer 
and deep and earnest contrition, but by mil- 
itary service, or by pilgrimage, or even by 
gold— it was then that the evil was carried so 
far, as to leave the historian doubtful, whether 
any thing be any where recorded more aston- 
ishing than the wickedness of the clergy, ex- 
cept the credulity of the vulgar. 

We shall recur to this scandal, for it was 
the immediate cause of the Reformation ; but 



aso 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



it is proper to remark that, in the general pic- 
ture which has been drawn of Rome's spir- 
itual despotism and pride, some features had 
already been effaced before the approach of 
Luther. From the 4eath of Boniface VIII., 
the colors had been gradually, though insen- 
sibly, fading away. The dependent Popes 
of France sustained the character of Gregoiy 
VII. and Innocent IV. with feebleness and 
degeneracy. The profligacy and rapacity of 
their Court began to dissolve the hereditary 
spell, and withdraw the sacred veil, which 
had hitherto concealed their real weakness. 
During the Schism, the rival Antipopes railed 
against each other, while they covered them- 
selves with cri'nes ; and the nations who were 
appealed to, as arbiters of the dispute, could 
scarcely fail to detect the unworthiness of 
both parties. In the Councils which follow- 
ed, some principles were advanced and es- 
tablished which, though still too narrowly 
limited by inveterate prejudices, were at least 
subversive of the absolute monarchy of the 
Pontiff. When the Councils were dissolved, 
and the duty of convoking others successfully 
eluded by the Popes, the Court of Rome, lib- 
erated from that terror, once more plunged 
into debauchery, more shameless, yet more 
notorious, than the abominations of former 
days ; and the various scandals of the tenth 
century were surpassed by Innocent VIII., by 
Alexander, and Julius, m an age of compar- 
ative civilization. It is true, that in its pre- 
tensions the See had abated nothing of its 
ancient an'ogance, and we have observed 
what awe it was sometimes capable of inspir- 
ing even in its decay. But the light had bro- 
ken in ; the slow, yet irresistible hand of 
knowledge had commenced its labors; and 
the basis of opinion, on which alone the spir- 
itual despotism rested, was already shaken 
and shattered. 

III. The claims of Rome to universal Tem- 
poral Supremacy. — The effect of successful 
usurpation is to aggravate ambition, and the 
more disproportionate the success to all rea- 
sonable hope and calculation, the wilder are 
the schemes which take their rise from it. 
Tlie spiritual despotism of the Pope transcends 
any exhibition of human power described in 
any history, until we approach the surpassing 
magnitude of his temporal pretensions. The 
design of Gregory VII. was the most daring 
ia>agination of human ambition. To estab- 
lish the Chair of St. Peter as the source of^ all 
power, secular as well as pastoral, civil as 
well as ecclesiastical — to subject all kings and 



all governments to the crosier of an unarmed, 
aged priest — to regulate the politics of the 
world by the annual meeting of a Senate of 
Ecclesiastics, under the eye of that autocrat 
— to dispose of all countries and of all thrones 
— to create monarchs and then to suspend, or 
depose them — to sport, as it were, with all 
that is sublime and mighty in earthly things 
— such was a schente beyond the boldest 
conception of secular pride ; and it was en- 
gendered, where alone it could have found 
any nourishment, in the breast of a monk. 

The temporal supremacy of the Pope was 
projected not in the darkest moment of su- 
perstition and barbarism; it was promoted 
during a period more enlightened than that in 
which it originated ; it reached the height of 
its triumph during the latter part of the thir- 
teenth century, when Frederic II. had given 
an impulse to literature, when Dante was 
earning immortality ; and, but for that French 
intrigue which transplanted Papacy for a sea- 
son into a foreign soil, it might have advanced 
still farther ; it would not, at least, have reced- 
ed so soon. Yet its fate must naturally have 
followed the decline of the spiritual authority 
of the See, since it had absolutely no other 
foundation than that ; and as it was of later 
origin, and more obviously insulting to every 
man's reason, so was its overthrow more 
rapid and more complete. Yet its latest pre- 
tensions were not unworthy of its ancient 
msolence ; and the presumption with which 
it distributed, in the fifteenth centuiy, king- 
doms and oceans, and continents, is recollect- 
ed with astonishment even by the Catholics 
themselves — since the Catholics now for the 
most part admit, that that branch of the Pon- 
tifical authority was an indefensible usurpa- 
tion. 

Nevertheless, it found much support in the 
temporary interests of the great; it held forth 
a plausible pretence in the pacific objects 
which it professed, and it was really instru- 
mental in confeiTing some benefits on man- 
kind. Probably there is no Court in Europe, 
in which the Papal right to dispose of thrones 
has not at some time been virtually recognis- 
ed. It was never disputed by any prince, 
who found his immediate profit in its ac- 
knowledgment — vv^hen the crown was offered 
by the Pontifical hand, the validity of the 
donation was never questioned ; and thus did 
sovereigns sharpen for the chastisement of 
their rivals, a weapon, which was so easily 
turned against themselves. 

In the worst periods of feudal government, 
a mediatory influence over the various chiefs 



POWER, &c. OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



of the European Republic, vested in the head 
of the universal religion, if exercised with 
moderation, vrith disinterestedness, with dis- 
cretion, according to the rules of Evangelical 
charity, might have conferred the most sub- 
stantial blessings on society ; and since the 
Papal interference was sometimes so regu- 
lated, it had not been wholly destitute of ad- 
vantage. Divisions have been healed, wars 
have been prevented, crimes have been pun- 
ished, justice has been honored, tyranny has 
Deen checked, by the arbitrary decrees of the 
Vatican — the Popes were, upon the whole, 
is wise and as virtuous as the princes around 
them ; and when we consider the holy ground 
on which their government professed to stand, 
it is very shameful, that they were not much 
more so. But the good which they conferred 
was confined to evil times, and even then it 
was alloyed with much mischief. The mo- 
tives of their mediation were at least as com- 
monly found in anger or ambition, as in re- 
ligion or philanthropy ; and it may be ques- 
tioned whether the political benefits which 
proceeded from it, such as the establishment 
of a liberal party in Italy, and occasional re- 
straints on kingly despotism, were not rather 
the consequence, than the design, of their 
policy. The means employed by their ambi- 
tion were sometimes lower than the ordinaiy 
level of political immorality. To rouse sub- 
jects against their sovereigns is a detestable 
method of effecting even a beneficial purpose 
— yet it is common and human ; but to arm 
the hands of children against the thrones and 
lives of their parents is a policy suggested by 
the counsels of Satan. 

IV. The Constitution of the Church. — It 
was a position advanced by Pierre d'Ailly, 
that a Council General had no power over 
the Pontifical dignity, which was of divine 
authority, but only over the abuse of that dig- 
nity. ' And on that account (he adds) the 
monarchical system of the Church is temper- 
ed by an admixture of the aristocratical and 
democratical principle.' * In the balance of 
the Roman Catholic polity, the Papal despo- 
tism was, in fact, mitigated by two restraining 
powers — whatever may be the political de- 
nominations properly belonging to them — the 
College of Cardinals and General Councils ; 
by the former as the electors, the constitutional 



* ' Et idcirco status monarchicus Ecclesise regimine 
aristocratico et democratico temperatur.' A position 
laid down by Gerson on the same subject is not at 
variance with this — ' Ecclesiastica Politia ita est 
monarchica, ut non mutari possit in aristocraticuni 
aut democraticam.' 



counsellors and coadjutors of the Pope; by 
the latter as the states-general of the Universal 
Church. 

Rise and Progress of the Cardinals. — Until 
the edict of Nicholas II. in 1059, the name 
of Cardinal *' possessed little dignity or dis- 
tinction, and the body had no existence, as 
an acknowledged branch of the Ecclesiastical 
system. The important share which it then 
received in the election of the Pope was con- 
firmed and extended by the further regulations 
of Alexander III. The consent of two-thirds 
of the body was made sufficient for a legal 
choice ; and the College was at the same time 
enlarged by some considerable permanent ad- 
ditions. To conciliate the higher class of 
the clergy, the priors of some of the principal 
churches were enrolled among the electors — 
the acquiescence of the inferior orders was 
secured by the admission of the cardinal 
deacons — and the civil authorities, who rep- 
resented the interests of the people, were 
appeased by the elevation of the seven Pala- 
tine judges to the same office. Indeed, it is 
from th is time, more properly than from the 
decree of Nicholas, that we should date the 
foundation of the Sacred College. 



* The sixty-first dissertation of Muratori treats 
' De Origine Cardinalatus;' and he arrives, through 
much learning, at the probable conclusion, that the 
term was in Italy originally applied to all, whether 
bishops, priests, or deacons, who were immoveably, 
and in perpetuity, established in a cure or dignity, in 
contradistinction to the Vicarii, or temporary and 
occasional ministers. Parochial churches (originally 
called Baptismal) and Diaconiae (pious houses for the 
reception of the poor, mendicants, infirm, and strang- 
ers) were respectively administered by the priest and 
deacon: and when he was fixed therein for life, he 
was called Cardinal. The term implied the stability 
of the office— its dignity and superiority was associated 
with that, and was a secondary accompaniment. So 
of Bishops. Vacant sees were, originally, often com- 
mended to some one in the interim, ' donee ibi con- 
stitueretur proprius et titularis.' But when the 
permanent prelate was appointed, he was said to be 
incardinated (incardinari) in the see, and became 
cardinal. . . . Respecting the subsequent aggran- 
dizement of the Sacred College, we may mention, 
that Nicholas IV. in 1289, divided the Roman rev- 
enues equally between the Pope and the Cardinals 
(Pagi, Vit. Nic. IV. s. xxii.) ; and that they profited 
by the ultra-papal Decretals of Gregory IX. The 
title of Eminence, in the place of Illustrissiraus, was 
given them by Urban VIII. ; but it is an observation 
of Fleury, (Discours 4me. sur la Discipline,) that 
their frequent appearance in the character of Legates 
a latere, on which occasions they took precedence of 
all ecclesiastical dignitaries, and ruled as the repre- 
sentatives of the Pope, connibuted more than any 
other cause to their exaltation. 



B3^ 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



That event marks an important epoch in 
the history of the Church ; not only because 
it secured the more peaceful election of the 
Popes, and prevented those perpetual broils 
and schisms which arrested the fiiglit and 
dimmed the eye of Papacy ; but also because 
it introduced a new element into the Eccle- 
siastical polity, which gradually expanded, 
and acquired in process of time a great and 
unforeseen preponderance. 

We observe an edict published by Hono- 
rius III. in ]225, for the especial protection 
of the cardinals from all personal assaults 
and offences ; and other proofs are afforded 
of the tenderness with which the monarch- 
popes had begun to regard the Court of St. 
Peter. But the first public occasion, which 
was turned to the aggrandizement of the 
College, and which raised its members to an 
ideal level with mere worldly princes, was 
the first Council of Lyons, held (in 1245) by 
Innocent IV. From that moment they be- 
came essentially distinguished from the rest 
of the clergy in rank and in pride ; and the 
counsellors and associates of that Power 
which overshadowed the majesty of kings,* 
looked down with disdain upon the petty 
bishopsf who occupied the inferior regions of 
the hierarchy. But their prosperity was not 
favorable to their virtue or their concord. 
In the discharge of that very duty, which 
gave birth to their dignity, they disgraced 
themselves and scandalized the Church by 
their dissensions; and instead of promptly 
repairing her loss, they frequendy allowed 
long intervals to elapse, in which she remain- 
ed without a head, and Christ without a vice- 
gerent upon earth. This had been particu- 
larly the case before the election of Gregory 
X. ; and that excellent pontiff accordingly 
undertook to remedy the evil which had 
touched himself so closely. And then follow- 
ed (in 1274) the institution of the Conclave. 



* Louis II. seems, from Pagi (Vit. Nicolai, s. iii.) 
to have been the first emperor who held the Pope's 
bridle; and Nicholas I. (858 — 867) the first Pope 
who exacted that proof of inferiority — ' humillima 
ilia Imperatoris Ludovici erga Nicolaimi Pontificem 
obsenuia refert Anastasius Bibliothecarius.' 

f Episcopelli was the term by which the cardinals 
loved to designate prelates who had not received the 
hat — according to Nicholas of Clemangis. About the 
same time, Pierre d'Ailly in his Discourse De Ec- 
clesicB Auctoritate (Opera Gersoni, vol. i. p. 901) 
takes some pains to make out, that "the cardinals are 
the legitimate representatives of the Apostles, the 

Council of the representative of Christ We 

should never forget that Pierre d'Ailly was a reformer, 
and decidedly opposed to the high-papist party. 



The cardinals, after some ineffectual at- 
tempts to shake off the constraint thereby 
imposed on them, presently turned their at- 
tention to lay such restrictions on the Pon- 
tifical authority, as might still farther enlarge 
the privileges and interests of the College; 
and they proposed to make their right of 
election subservient to this end.* The Con- 
claves of Avignon were the first in which 
i\\Q future pontiff was invited to bind himself 
by that sacred oath, which he never hesitated 
to take, which he never omitted to confirm, 
and which he never failed to violate. The 
introduction of that practice demonstrates the 
power of the Sacred College, as well as its 
ambition ; but in tempting the morality of its 
masters, and exhibiting itself as a fruitful 
nursery for Pontifical perjurers, it did not 
well consult either its own interests, or the 
honor of the holy See, or the stability of the 
Church. It is true that the mysteries of the 
Conclave were not, in those days, very gen- 
erally divulged, nor did they descend, per- 
haps, to the knowledge of those ranks in so- 
ciety, which are most sensible to the scandal 
of great crimes. But as knowledge gained 
ground, and as the reformers of the Church 
multiplied, while its enemies grew more 
powerful, those secret iniquities w^ere brought 
to light, and the tales of former days were 
accredited by the deeds of the existing gene- 
ration. In truth it would seem, that, in the 
general corruption of the hierarchy of Rome, 
the disorders of the Court excited louder and 
more general indignation, even than those 
of the monarch of the Church. 

Relative Power and Interests of the Pope 
and Cardinals. — The relative situation and 
reciprocal influence of the Pope and the 
Sacred College were such, in appearance, as 
to. promise a moderate government under a 
limited monarchy: they were such, in reality, 
as to present, under that show, an imperious 
and oppressive despotism. According to an- 

* The professed object of the oath taken in con- 
clave previously to the election of Eugenius IV. was 
' ad conservandum statum ecclesife Romanae et mon- 
archiam ecclesiasticam cum cardinalium dignitate; 
qui cum sint lumina et ornamenta prope Papam, 
Sedem Apostolicara illnstriantia, et columnae firmis- 
simae sustentantes ecclesiam Dei, cum Romano Pon- 
tifice eadem, ut membra suo capiti, concordia inso- 
hibili debent esse conjunct!.' On the same occasion 
it was stipulated that the formula ' de consilio fratrum 
nostrorum ' should be changed to ' de consensu ;' that 
the Pope should not create new cardinals without the 
consent of the old ; that half the revenues of the 
Church should be paid lo the Coilege, &;c. See 
Pajri, Vit. Ei-senii IV. 



POWER, &c. OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



533 



cient Canons, and the Constitutions of later 
Councils, the Consistory was the permanent 
Senate of this Church ; and its sanction was, 
in strictness, required to give force to all the 
decrees of the Vatican.* It was likewise re- 
stricted by the same laws to a fixed and mode- 
rate number — none were to be admitted into 
it except men of mature age, acknowledged 
learning, approved piety ; and its morality 
(the surest source of ecclesiastical power) was 
provided for by severe injunctions. These 
regulations were, indeed, for the most part 
disregarded ; nevertheless the body did in 
feet contain many elements of strength. It 
consisted of individuals, most of whom were 
in the flower of life, practised in the affairs 
of the world, familiar with courts, possibly 
connected with princes; subtle in the con- 
ception of their designs, unscrupulous in the 
pursuit of their interests. On the other hand, 
the Pope was commonly enfeebled by age. f 
His election was placed entirely in their 
hands ; and by theii- perseverance in attempts 
to make this power the means of abridging 
his authority, they sufficiently manifested 
their inclination to do so. 

Where then was the point of their weak- 
ness ? How was it, that their design was so 
ejQfectually frustrated? Of the reasons, which 
may be mentioned for their failure, the first 
was the con*uption of the College itself; for 
without that, all the various resources of the 
Pope could not have upheld his predomi- 
nance. The second was the power which 
he possessed over the persons and property 
of the Cardinals, which reached to imprison- 
ment, spoliation, torture, and even death, and 
which was not uncommonly exerted. But 
this required at least a pretext for its exercise ; 
whereas that to which we next come, was of 
easy and universal operation. The patronage 
of the Church was placed to a great extent at 
his disposal ; and where menaces might not 
prevail, the most certain method of persua- 
sion remained to him. Lastly, he enjoyed 
the prerogative of multiplying the members 
of his refractory senate, and thus creating a 
majority subservient to his views — for the 
laws, which had been enacted lO restrain that 
power, do not appear at any time to have 
been seriously observed. By the dexterous 
application of these various means, the Pon- 
tiff was enabled to command with great cer- 
tainty the suffrages of the Consistory. 



* The Cardinals were the Brothers of the Pope, 
and edicts were published by their counsel. 

t The average reign of the Popes during the first 
fifteeo centuries was of about seven years. 



General Councils. — Notwithstanding the 
restraints which the Cardinals endeavored to 
impose upon the Papal authority, they were 
zealously united in its defence, whenever it 
was assailed from any other quarter ; because 
their own dignity was essentially involved in 
the majesty of the See. This was sufficiently 
proved by the proceedings of Constance and 
Basle : and on the same principle it became 
the object of those two Councils to reform 
the Court, no less than the Chair, of St. Peter. 
The real extent of the lawful power possessed 
by those august bodies was furiously contested 
both in that and succeeding ages ; nor has it 
yet ceased to be a matter of speculative differ- 
ence among Roman Catholics. Again, the de- 
crees which they published for the reformation 
of the Vatican were, for the most part, eluded, 
or openly outraged. But the effects which 
they really produced on the destinies of Pa- 
pacy, though less immediate, were more dura- 
ble, and far more extensive, than theu* authors 
had contemplated. The association of pow- 
erful and learned laymen in ecclesiastical 
deliberations, the habit of fi-ee discussion, the 
popular constitution of the assemblies, espe- 
cially the last, the public promulgation of 
anti-papal principles, and the practice of con- 
tending with Popes and deposing them, pro- 
duced a deep impression in every quarter of 
the Catholic world. Bome alone might fail 
to comprehend the warning, or affect to des- 
pise it; and she reaped the fi-uits of her 
blindness or perversity. For the truth is, that 
the springs which were then opened, had 
they been allowed by the Papal policy to take 
the course originally marked out for them, 
would but have cleansed away some of the 
corroding abuses of the See, and thus increas- 
ed its strength; but being dammed up and 
diverted by a short-sighted opposition, they 
were indeed repressed for the moment — yet 
they presently broke forth in another quarter 
with redoubled violence, and finally swept 
away the mansion, which they were at first 
intended to purify. 

Various Principles and Instruments of the 
Roman Church. — The sketch which is here 
presented of the general constitution of the 
Roman Catholic Church, and of its tendency 
to decline during the two centuries which 
preceded the Reformation, should be filled up 
by some of the less preceptible portions of the 
fabric ; that we may not wholly overlook the 
subordinate machinery, which alone enabled 
it to subsist so long. First, then, let us men^ 
tion that popular principle in its construction, 
by which it threw open its benefices and dig 



534 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



iiities, even the Apostolical Chair, to every 
rank in society. It appealed to the ambition 
of all mankind : nor was this any faithless 
lure, to excite the industry of the faithful, 
and then to elude their hopes ; so far other- 
wise, that several of the most eminent and 
honored aipong the Pontiffs were of ignoble 
and even unknown origin. As long as the 
level of ecclesiastical morality approached at 
jail near to the pretensions of ancient purity ; 
as long as virtue and piety were held requi- 
site for high offices, no less than talents and 
learning — so long the emulation awakened 
among Churchmen was serviceable not only 
to the prosperity of the Church, but to the 
general welfare of society, and the general 
interests of religion. But when, in the first 
stage of sacerdotal corruption, other paths 
were discovered of ascending the spiritual 
pyramid;* when the bigot or the parasite 
was found to reach the summit more surely 
than the man of holy and humble, yet upright, 
industry — then it became probable that men 
so promoted would throw scandal on the 
Church ; and it was certain, that they would 
confer no benefits on mankind. But when 
at length, in days of deeper iniquity, the most 
odious vices formed, as it were, the morals 
of Rome, ecclesiastical ambition became very 
closely connected with anti-Christian princi- 
ples, and ayarice, licentiousness, and perfidy, 
too frequently prepared the way to the throne 
©f St. Peter. Howbeit, the talent and in- 
genuity of men were still stimulated by the 
splendid prospect, and all the energies of the 
mere intellect f were still exercised and abus- 
ed in the service of the Church. Nor yet 
were they always abused — ^the love of letters 
was sometimes a passport to the most elevated 
dignities, and the instrument which was des- 
tined to overthrow the See was sometimes 
employed to illustrate and support it. Nicho- 
las V. and Pius II. eminently proved the great 
advantage which the democratical principle 
might confer upon the church, even in its 
worst age. But the occasional success of ge- 
nius, of even learning, was insufficient for the 
support of a religious establishment. The 
springs of morality were poisoned. The vices 



* It is said, that the tops of pyramids are accessible 
only to two descriptions of animals — the eagle and the 
serpent. Both have found their imitators in the his- 
tory of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy. 

t The great mass of business, carried from all 
quarters to Rome, so as to make it for such matters 
Ihe school of Europe, drew thither men of talents and 
mbition, and gave them occupation, and consequently 
^•ngaged them in the defence of the system, by which 
they profited. 



of the ecclesiastics were those least pardon^ 
able, and least pardoned, in the ecclesiastical 
character. The contrast between the de- 
meanor of the Hierarchy and its professions 
and pm*poses was too violent and too manifest. 
The tutelary spirit of piety had deserted the 
temple, and its gates were thrown open to ia- 
vite the invasion of the Reformer, 

The hand of arbitrary power must some- 
times be seen as well as felt, in order that its 
commands may always be obeyed. And the 
Bishop of Rome soon discovered the policy 
of visiting the more distant communities of 
the faithful by envoys and emissaries. In 
earlier ages, the pomp and haughtiness of his 
Legates sufficiently represented the pontifi- 
cal presence. They awed the assemblies of 
the great, and insulted the dignity of princes. 
In succeeding times, when reason and heresy 
raised their heads, and it became necessary 
to exert a more direct and searching influence 
over the people, the Mendicants started into 
existence, and spread like a cloiid over the 
face of Europe. These men were zealous 
and indefatigable ministers of a master, 
whom, if many served from interest, many 
revered with honest enthusiasm. They prac- 
tised great austerities; they preached with 
fervor, sometimes with eloquence ; above all, 
they eagerly embraced and appropriated the 
scholastic erudition of the day : and thus it 
was that by feeding the false appetite for fal- 
lacies and subtleties, they converted learning, 
which was the natural enemy of Papacy, into 
its useful instrument. Among the accidents 
(if accident it can properly be called) which 
conspired to prolong the dominion of Rome, 
the most fortunate was assuredly this, that 
the first efforts of reviving reason were so 
perplexed and tortuous, as to be capable 
of serving falsehood no less effectually than 
truth. 

The Scholastic system was in due season 
supplanted by a better— but the influence of 
the Mendicants fell still earlier into decay: 
because they insensibly departed from the 
show of moral excellence, which had recom- 
mended them to popular favor ; because the 
Pope had gradually converted them into the 
instruments of his cruelty, and the represent- 
atives of his avarice. It was thus that they 
lost their hold on the affections of the vulgar. 
For the lowest classes of mankind, though 
they may sometimes judge wrong, will al- 
ways feel right; their principles may be 
shaken by the example of their superiors, 
but they v/ill always tend to rectitude ; and if 
they ever show favor to any crjtne or base? 



POWER, &c. OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



535 



ness, it is because they are deceived, not 
because they are depraved. 

The discipline of the Church of Rome 
practically permitted the utmost latitude of 
rigor and laxity. In the same community, 
under the same government, within the walls 
of the same monastery, Hcentiousness was 
tolerated and austerity encouraged. The 
lordly Prelate transcended the pomp of secu- 
lar luxury ; the genuine disciple of St. Fran- 
cis disclaimed all right even to the use of 
earthly possessions. The Cardinal and the 
Carmelite were united by the same ministry, 
by devotion to the same master, by the same 
professional hati-ed of heresy. But this start- 
ling inconsistency was not without its use, 
nor perchance without its design. For since, 
in the diversity of the human character, the 
vulgar may either be dazzled by pageantry, 
or moved to reverence by mortification and 
humility, so also the exhibition of the one 
was a guarantee against contempt, that of the 
other against envy and reproach. So that 
the Church, in this respect truly universal, 
had space and occupation for every character 
and every faculty ; whilst it nourished a mul- 
tiform and incongruous progeny, who con- 
futed (while at the same time they confirmed) 
the most opposite accusations. The poverty 
of the Mendicant, and the piety of the Mis- 
sionary, redeemed in public estimation the 
wealth and vices of the Hierarchy. 

Policy of the Vatican. — We pass over the 
maxims of policy usually ascribed to the 
Vatican — ^to confound the marks of filial and 
feudal obligation ; to accept respect as obe- 
dience, and oflTer counsels as commands; to 
obscure the limits of temporal and spiritual 
jurisdiction ; * to keep all disputed rights in 



* Though, in the progress of this work, the author 
has purposely abstained from any particular notice of 
'the ecclesiastical affairs of England, in the belief that 
they are intended to form the subject of a separate 
history, yet the following remarks on the nature of 
one branch of spiritual jurisdiction, as exercised in 
this kingdom, having been kindly furnished him by a 
legal friend, are too valuable not to be accepted and 
inserted with gratitude. 

* It is asserted in several of the old law books, that 
the spiritual jurisdiction within the English realm is 
derived from the king, and that such jurisdiction, 
when exceeded, is subject to the control of the king's 
temporal courts. The latter assertion is of course 
true at present ; the former perhaps relates to a ques- 
tion of words rather than of fact. If the Church in 
early times claimed the authority, and the king as- 
sented to the claim, the result might be stated as an 
act either of obedience or of favor on the part of the 
prown. 

' With respect to one particular subject matter of 



suspense and perplexity, so that the greater 
craft might never want pretexts for encroach- 
ment; to crush the obsthiate and gain the 
mercenary; to plunder the subject without 



ecclesiastical jurisdiction, the wills of deceased per- 
sons, and the disposition of the goods of those who 
died intestate — its origin has been the occasion of 
much controversy. The question relates simply to 
personal property. A freehold interest in land was, 
in early times, with a few exceptions, not subject to 
the will of the dying owner. The superior lord's 
rights, as they existed during the vigor of the feudal 
institutions, would have been prejudiced by permitting 
such a power of devising. The restriction was only 
to be evaded by a transfer of the property, during the 
owner's life, to a person who was to hold it subject 
to particular purposes to be declared by will ; and the 
courts of equity, by a proceeding which seems to have 
originated with the ecclesiastical chancellors, com- 
pelled the party so holding to apply the estate as the 
will directed, treating the matter as a question of 
conscience. The statute passed in the thirty-second 
year of the reign of king Henry VIII. first gave the 
direct power of devising freehold interests in land. 
But a devise deriving its validity from the provisions 
of this statute has been always considered as a con- 
veyance of the property, not a designation of the heir. 
It prevents the land from being inherited at all. This 
distinction, although it may appear rather technical, 
leads to many practical results of importance; and it 
is a point in which the English law differs from the 
civil law. But it is here sufficient to stale that de- 
vises of freehold estates are in no way the subject 
matter of ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Even where a 
Avill contains a disposition of both realty and person- 
alty, the authority of the spiritual com'ts operates only 
so far as the will affects the personalty. 

' The present authority of the spiritual courts over 
the personal property of deceased persons amounts to 
this. If there be a claim to establish a will, it is to be 
proved before tlie spiritual court; that is, the spiritual 
court determines whether it be a valid will of the de.- 
ceased. The recognition of the validity is technically 
expressed by saying that the executor proves the will, 
or obtains probate, which is granted by the court. 
The authenticity of the a\ ill, as to personalty, cannot 
be directly questioned in the temporal courts, after 
probate has been granted; nor can it be asserted 
there, before pi-obate is granted. If there be no exe- 
cutor named in the will, or if the executor named will 
not or cannot act, the spiritual court gives the admin- 
istration (or disposal) of the effects to an administra- 
tor, who is to administer according to the directions 
of the will. Again, if there be no will, the spiritual 
court invests an administrator with the power of ad- 
ministering. 

' This jurisdiction of the spiritual courts 5s certainly 
very ancient. Authorities have been produced to show 
tliat, by the Saxon laws, the probate of testaments (^) 
was given by the old county courts. The bishop and 
the sheriff sat togetlier in these courts, as presidents. 
A charter of William the Conqueror separated the 

' (a) Originally, the form of bequeathing personal pro- 
perty extended only to a part 3 tlie law regulated the dis- 
tribution of the remainder 



536 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



offending the vanity of the prince ; to manage 
by treaties those who had been insulted by 
bulls ; to provoke war and mediate peace — 
such were the ordinary rules of its govern- 



ecclesjastical court from tlie civi! ; giving to the former 
the cognizance of suits prosecuted pro salute animce. 
But testamentary questions are not expressly men- 
tioned. In the second year of the reign of Richard 
the Second, the Jaw of William the Conqueror was 
established and confirmed ; and it was directed by 
the king's charter that no matters of ecclesiastical 
cognizance should be transacted in the county courts. 
This re-enactment seems to furnish evidence of the 
spiritual authority having fallen into desuetude, so far 
as regarded the courts. Whether or not it had been 
originally understood, at the time of William's char- 
ter, that wills were matter of spiritual jurisdiction, it 
is clear that the question had been raised before the 
time of Richard the second. For by a charter of 
king Henry the first, the king's tenants (who were 
the suitors in the county courts) were enabled to dis- 
pose of their personalty for the good of their souls. 
It can scarcely be doubted that this was effected by 
the activity of the clergy; and, even if we could be- 
lieve that they had been at first unconcerned in the 
matter, it was quite certain that they would instantly 
apply such an enactment to their own purposes. Pro- 
bably, therefore, the charter of Richard the second 
was at once interpreted to apply to testaments. And, 
on the whole, it seems that this is the epoch to which 
tve ought to assign the undisputed jurisdiction of these 
courts in testamentary matters. This history of the 
origin of the power explains and accounts for the 
opinions of njost of our old lawyers, that the probate 
of wills came to the ecclesiastical courts, not by ec- 
clesiastical law, but by devolution from the temporal 
law of the realm, or, as they express it, by the custom 
of England. And it receives strong confirmation 
from the fact that, by the local custom of some par- 
ticular manors, acknowledged by the English law, 
the probate of wills and the granting of administra- 
tion belongs to the court baron or manor court. And 
a power of the same sort belongs, in some boroughs, 
to the mayor, as to the goods of the burgesses. 

' That the disposal by will of a dying man's goods 
is a matter relating to the good of his soul, is a truth 
in no other sense than that in which every earthly 
act has a relation to the spiritual welfare of the agent. 
But a will, being frequently an act performed shortly 
before death, might, by a natural association, be con- 
nected most closely with the eternal destiny of the 
testator. Besides which, the Roman Catholic doc- 
trines asserted the dependence of the fate of the de- 
parted soul upon the intercession of the living. Now 
this intercession might be purchased from the clergy, 
by an application of the goods of the deceased. From 
these causes, the will was asserted by the ecclesiastics 
to be a matter o^ peculiarly spiritual interest. When 
this was acknowledged, it must have been, according 
to priestly logic, a very plain inference that the dis- 
posal of the goods of a man who left no will, was a 
matter in which the clergy, for the sake of his eternal 
interests, were bound to interfere. It was beyond 
the skill of tlie priests, or at any rate of those whom 



ment, and they are best exempliiied m the 
exploits of its most honored champions. But 
there is one peculiarity in the construction 
of its power, to which sufficient attention is 

they bad to influence, to distinguish between the mo- 
tive and the result; so that a man, whose property 
had been applied to pious purposes without his own 
consent, was thought to derive some merit from the 
application. Again, it was thought highly important 
that a part of the property should be applied to the 
performance of religious rites, for the good of the 
soul of the deceased; the clergy were the persons 
most fitted to ensure such an application. Hence the 
ordinary (or spiritual judge) had the absolute disposal 
of the intestate's property ; and this, according to 
Lord Coke, was a power previously exercised by the 
kings of England. But, in the thirteenth year of the 
reign of Edward I. a statute was passed (commonly 
called the statute of Westminster the second,) by one 
of the provisions of which the ordinary was bound, as 
far as the goods extended, to satisfy the debts of the 
intestate (b). Hence, says Lord North, what was 
formerly found very beneficial to the ordinaries, began 
to be very troublesome, which obliged them to put the 
administration into other hands, taking security to 
save them harmless from suits. This, however, did 
not entirely put an end to the ordinary's trouble ; for 
the persons named by him Avere considered merely as 
his servants or attorneys. But a statute, passed in 
the thirty-first year of the reign of Edward III. pro- 
vided tliat tlie ordinary should depute the next and 
most lawful friends of the intestate to administer his 
goods ; and it gave the minister so appointed power 
to act in his own right. A statute, passed in the 
twenty -first year of Henry VIII., enacted similar 
provisions for the case of a will, where the executor 
should refuse to act. The power of the ordinary was 
thus limited to deputing an administrator; but he had 
still some choice in the selection ; for he was entitled 
to elect as he pleased where persons of equal proxim- 
ity to the deceased made claim. The ordinaries are 
said to have availed themselves of this power, by apr 
pointing such as they expected to find most obsequi- 
ous ; and they further derived an advantage from 
calling the administrator to account for the overplus, 
which they insisted upon his applying to pious uses 
for the good of the deceased's soul. At last, the tem- 
poral courts of law decided that the ordinary, after 
granting administration, could not exercise any au- 
thority over the administrator in his disposal of the 
property. This shifted the dangerous power to the 
hands of the administrator absolutely. In the twenty- 
second year of the reign of Charles II. a statute was 
passed to prevent thjs mischief. By this act, the 

' (b) Cum post mortem alicujus decedentis intestati, et 
obligati aliquibus in debito, bona deveniant ad ordinarium 
disponenda, obligetur de catero ordinarius ad responden- 
dum de debitis quatenus bona defunct! sufficiunt, eodem 
modo quo executores respondere tenerentur si testamen- 
tum fecisset. Cap. 19. Lord Coke says that this was 
only an affirmance of the common law (2nd Inst. 397). 
It however was so far a new enactment that it put a de- 
cisive end to any question on the point. Many enact- 
ments of the same statute are clearly intended to settle 
disputed rights. 



POWER, &c. OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



537 



not always directed. Every one has per- 
ceived, how it towered above all earthly prin- 
cipalities, and veiled its sublime front in the 
most inscrutable mysteries of the spiritual 
world; but few have obsei-ved the real secret 
of its strength, which lay in the devotion of 
the lowest ranks of mankind. This general 
conquest over the affections of the vulgar was 
no doubt greatly facilitated by the general 
ignorance ; but it was achieved through the 
zeal of the inferior clergy : and if in some 
degree ascribable to the peculiar character 
assumed by the Romish priesthood, it was no 
less effectually advanced through their ple- 
beian condition and humble manner of life. 

Mediatorial character assumed by the Romish 
Priesthood. — According to the literal inter- 
pretation of the New Testament, Christ is 
the only sacrificing priest, as he is also the 
only sacrifice ; thus, likewise, is he the only 
mediator between God and man. Hence it 
followed that the proper character of the 
ministers of his religion is essentially differ- 
ent from that of the Jewish or Pagan priests. 
The prerogative of the latter was to offer the 
sacrifice to God, and to intercede with him 
for the sins of the people. It is the office of 
the former to interpret and dispense his word, 
to be the stewards of his mysteries, and to 
point out the only path through faith to sal- 
vation — and such were the earliest ministers 
of the Christian Church. But it was not 
very long before the elder* msensibly assumed 
the loftier office of the Hiereus, or Sacerdos, 
and affected the expiatory, and, at the same 
time, the mediatory character. Such were 
the priests of the Eastern Church — usalrai. 
Mediators — no less than those of the West- 
ern ; and we are at no loss to perceive what 
an access of reverence and authority accrued 
to them through the change. They were 
supposed to be alone initiated in the myste- 



niethod in which the administrator is to distribute the 
personalty is pointed out. By these successive steps, 
the power of the spiritual authority has been almost 
reduced to the exercise of a limited discretion in the 
appointment of a deputy, wiio is to act according 
to prescribed rules. The ecclesiastical courts have 
ceased, for some ages, to beany instruments of power 
to the Church, for good or for evil. Their share in 
the distribution of justice is very limited; but they 
are still characterized by the peculiarity of their forms 
of process ; and by their total departure from the 
rules of evidence which prevail in the courts of com- 
mon law.' 

* The original meaning of the word Priest (Pres- 
bytes) is ' Elder.' This subject is very well treated 
by Archbishop Whately, in his ' Errors of Roman- 
ism,' book ii. 

68 



ries of the faith — they were supposed to be 
in more immediate communication with its 
divine founder — they were supposed to influ- 
ence, if not actually to administer, the judg- 
ments of Heaven. But we must also observe, 
that, if such a character was well calculated 
to overawe an ignorant age, or the ignorant 
classes in any age, it was sure to be stripped 
off, whenever any intellectual independence 
should be exercised, and to be accounted 
among the impostures fabricated by an artful 
priesthood for the delusion of mankind. 

Advantages of a Plebeian Clergy. — We 
shall readily acknowledge, that all sacerdotal 
influence is vicious and dangerous, except 
that which is acquired by the religious and 
moral excellence of the priest : yet even the 
highest qualities will ofl:en miss that end, 
when the condition of the pastor is very far 
removed above that of his flock. And thus 
was it the profoundest policy of the Roman 
Church to maintain a faithful ministry of the 
same origin, the same language, almost the 
same habits with the people. The ecclesias- 
tical chain extended through every gradation 
of society, till it was folded round the Apos- 
tolical throne ; but it was that lowest link, 
which, being fixed in a substantial support, 
gave firmness and tenacity to the rest. To 
possess some habits of familiarity widi those 
intrusted to his guidance ; to approach them 
without constraint, to be received without 
diffidence ; to have the same thoughts, the 
same expressions, the same sympathies; to 
observe the birth of sin ; to watch the work- 
ings of remorse ; to distinguish the moments 
proper for censure, or consolation ; to be near 
at hand in times of doubt, or sickness, or do- 
mestic calamity — these, and such as these, 
are advantages peculiarly belonging to a 
plebeian clergy. Such an order of pastors, 
under the superintendence of a vigilant hier- 
archy, may at all times be made serviceable 
to the best purposes of religion ; and it 
diffused many spiritual blessings, even in the 
most secular ages of Rome. But to the 
Church — the external and human establish- 
ment — it was the very origin of strength, 
and principle of vitality: it was the root 
which spread underground in secrecy and 
silence ; while nations and their princes 
worshipped under the golden branches, and 
gathered the bitter fruit which sometimes fell 
from them. 

Serviceable abuses. — The very corruptions 
in the ecclesiastical system were for a season 
serviceable in rivetting its influence. Auric- 
ular confession, the various abuses of penance. 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



the adoration of the Host and the attiihutes 
ascribed to it, all furnished additional instru- 
ments to the clergy; and as long as they 
were used with moderation, extended their 
dominion. But it is ever the mistake of the 
usurper to despise the peo})le, whose confi- 
dence he has deceived or insulted ; and the 
error is seldom discovered till the moment 
for correcting it has passed by. It was thus 
with the Hierarchs of Rome. They increas- 
ed the measure of degradation and imposture, 
till they exhausted the affection, and then the 
patience of mankind. And it was the last 
excess of their wickedness and folly to make 
the inferior clergy their accomplices, and 
thus to poison the only wholesome fountain 
of their own authority. 

Popular foundation of the Roman Despotism. 
— The above outline of the constitution of 
the Roman Church represents it not such, 
perhaps, as it is sometimes painted in the theo- 
ries of its advocates ; but such as it is really 
and long existed in its practical operation on 
society. Nor will it seem strange to any 
reflecting mind, that that Government, which 
was, in appearance, and in fact, the most per- 
fect despotism ever conceived by the mind 
of man, should be found at the bottom to rest 
on a popular basis. Even in civil govern- 
ments there are instances of the same anoma- 
ly ; but in an empire, essentially and peculiar- 
ly the empire of opinion, the support of the 
multitude was not so much the only source 
of strength, as the only principle of existence. 
If the Roman Church had been more evan- 
gelical in doctrine, more consistent in disci- 
pline, more moderate in pretension, it might 
have appealed with gi*eater safety to the 
reason of mankind. But as it appealed to 
their ignorance, to their earliest and deepest 
prejudices, so was it, that it urged the irre- 
sistible predominance of authority — the in- 
violable holiness of antiquity, — all those 
principles and all those motives, which awe, 
when they do not irritate, the human under- 
standing. Nevertheless, the appeal, howso- 
ever insidiously made, was still an appeal to 
the mind: and thus was it seductive and 
universal. And so long as it found hearers 
and believers ; so long as it retained its hold, 
by whatsoever means, on the devotion of the 
people; the dominion of Rome was not less 
substantial, and more secure, than if the sword 
had raised or upheld it. But from the mo- 
ment that the spiritual bond was loosened, the 
mere worldly fabric, having no longer any 
element of coherence, subsided in progressive 
decay and dissolution. 



Section II. 

On the (I.) Spiritual Character, (II.) Discipline^ 
and Morals of the Church. 

I. The Doctrine of the Roman Church. — 
The Roman Catholics assert with great truth, 
that their Church has preserved, through the 
most perilous times, the essential mysteries 
and tenets of the Christian faith. It is with 
reverence that we have received them from 
her hands, and with gratitude that we ac- 
knowledge the inestimable obligation. Yet 
the most zealous Catholic must be contented 
to share that praise with the schismatics of 
the east. The same treasure has been guard- 
ed with the same fidelity by the Church of 
Greece ; and would thus have been equally 
perpetuated, if th^ purity of the Roman creed 
had been corrupted by the barbarian con- 
quest. But while those riyal churches may 
divide the merit of having transmitted the 
apostolical doctrines to the latest generations, 
there is this difference in the manner of that 
tradition — the one has transmitted them such 
as she received them from the highest anti- 
quity, not daring to violate by any important 
innovation the integrity of the pristine faith ; 
the other augmented her confession by some 
articles, which were left by the discretion of 
early times to the liberty of private judgment. 
We have endeavored (in the Thirteenth 
Chapter) to indicate the sources whence 
many of those innovations proceeded. We 
shall now remark upon one or two others, 
which, though of distant origin also, did not 
acquire any general, or at least any veiy per- 
ceptible, prevalence till a later age.* 

.Gradual changes in the Penitential System. — 
According to the oiiginal system of penance, 
it was inculcated, that transgressions could 
be expiated by prayer, fasting, and alms — 
there was no period in the history of the 
Church, in which pious works were not held 
efScacious to redeem sin, and imposed for 
that purpose, either directly, or by a partial 
substitution for bodily mortifications. To 
this circumstance many holy structures owed 
their origin, many poor-houses and hospitals 
— the Xenodochia, Nosocomia, Gerontoco- 
mia, &c., of the ancient establishment ; and 
these worlcs were considered satisfactory to 

* It was a general, but not quite correct, opinion 
of the early reformers, that the Scholastics had in- 
vented the new Dogmas, and the Monks the new 
practices. But it is quite certain, that the immediate 
causes of the insurrection against Rome were the 
later corruptions in her doctrine — just as most of the 
edicts of Constance and Basle were levelled against 
the later innovations in her discipliae. 



ITS SPIRITUAL CHARACTER, DISCIPLINE, &c. 



539 



God. This system was gi-adually corrupted, 
and fell, especially in the western nations, 
into great disorder; when Theodore of Tar- 
sus, Archbishop of Canterbury, published, 
about the year 680, his celebrated Peniten- 
tial. By the instructions herein delivered, the 
clergy were taught to distinguish sins into 
various classes, and to judge them according 
to their nature, to the intention of the offen- 
der, and other circumstances. The Peniten- 
tial likewise pointed out the penalties proper 
for every sort of offence ; prescribed the 
forms of consolation, exhortation, absolution, 
and set forth the duties of the Confessor. 
(Mosb. Cent. vii. p. ii. ch. iii.) this new disci- 
pline, though of Greek origin, was eagerly 
embraced in the Latin churches, and it was 
immediately coi'rupted. The method of re- 
demption of penance was presently reduced 
to a regular system : in the place of so many 
days of fasting, so much alms were to be 
given ; or so many psalms sung, or so many 
masses celebratecl, by others, who were to be 
rewarded for the office ; or so much money 
to be paid down. The number of the Pen- 
itentials was increased, and their character 
altered, according to the caprice of individual 
confessors; and, in spite of some attempts* 



* Muratori (Dissertat. 68,) fronj whom several of 
these remarks are borrowed, cites the follojving as 
the 26th Canon, Concil. II. Cloveshoviensis, A. D. 
747. ' Sicuti nova adinventio, juxta placitum scili- 
cet proprise voluntatis suae, nunc plurimis periculosa 
consuetude est, non sit eleemosyna porrecta ad min- 
uendam sed ad mutandam satisf actionem per jeju- 
nium et reliqua expiationis opera a Sacerdote Dei 
indicta,' it is ordained, thai alms are to be so offered, 
that the person of the Penitent may not be wholly 
spared. The vicarious recitation of Psalms was at 
the same time prohibited, as well as other abuses. 
This Council was held by the Archbishop of May- 
ence, not forty years, perhaps, after the death of 
Theodore. About twenty years earlier, Gregory II. 
(Epist. 13.) addressed to Leo the Isaurian the fol- 
lowing vigorous description of ecclesiastical, as con- 
trasted with civil, discipline. ' Ubi peccaverit quis 
et confessus fuerit, suspendii vel amputationis capitis 
loco, evangelium et crucem ejus cervicibus circurapo- 
nunt, eumque, tanquara in carcerera, in secretaria 
sacrorumque vasorum seraria conjiciunt, in Ecclesiae 
Diacpnia, et in Catechumena ablegant, ac visceribus 
eorum jejunium oculisque vigilias et laudationem ori 
ejus indicunt. Curaque probe castigaverint, probeque 
fame afflixerint, turn pretiosum illi Domini Corpus 
impartiunt et sancto ilium sanguine potant; et cum 
ilium vas electionis restituerint ac immunem peccati, 
sic ad Deum purum insonteraque transmittunl. Vides, 
Imperator, ecclesiarum iraperiorumque discrimen, 
&c.' (The passage is cited by Giannone, Stor. Ital. 
lib. iii. cap. vi.) It was not till the eleventh age, 
that the practice of flagellation became common, and 



to repress the abuse, pecuniary redemption 
became more and more common, and pres- 
ently almost every sort of penance had its 
fixed price in gold. It may seem needless to 
add, that the clergy (the Servi Dei) easily 
proved themselves to be the properest objects 
of these eleemosynary contributions, and that 
a great proportion of the wealth, so expended, 
flowed almost directly into the treasuries of 
the Church. 

Indulgences. — These, however, were only 
corruptions of the ancient penitential system, 
they did not effect its entire destruction ; but 
that result was afterwards brought about by 
the abuse of indulgences. An indulgence, as 
a mere relaxation of canonical penance, exist- 
ed as early as the days of Cyprian ; and it was 
not till the council of Clermont, that the dis- 
charge of a single duty was substituted for all 
that was due, or might hereafter be due, to 
the penal authority of the Church. When 
people thenceforward found it so easy to re- 
lease themselves at once from the ancient bur- 
den of redemption, they became clamorous 
to receive, what the Pope, on sufficient con- 
sideration, was never reluctant to grant. We 
shall recur to this subject immediately : in the 
meantime, it is very true, that there existed 
from time to time many ecclesiastics, even in 
the worst age of the Church, who exclaimed 
against the ahuse of that papal prerogative, 
— against the indiscriminate distribution and 
open venality of indulgences. But we have 
not perceived, that any argued on the false 
pnnciple on which they were founded ; it was 
not then made a reason for their condem- 
nation, that they disparaged the efficacy of 
Grace ; and perverted, if they did not wholly 
overthrow, the doctrine of salvation through 
the merits of Christ alone. 

The existence and nature of an inteiTnediate 
state naturally awakened the speculations of 
the eai'ly Christians; but the subjects were 
long left open to the curiosity, the vanity, or 
the piety of contemplative individuals — these 
were not restrained by any ecclesiastical edicts, 
and impunity yet attended the profession of 
opposite doctrines. Among the Greeks the 
question was not afterwards pressed to any 
practical system or inference. It is true, in- 
deed, that a certain opinion was selected and 
sanctioned as that most probable, and was 
apparently inscribed among the authorized 
tenets : but it was at no time recommended 



it was then that St. Dominicus,surnamed LoricatuSy 
the friend of Peter Damiani, acquired his celebrity. 
He could discharge by stripes in six days the penanc§ 
of a bundled years. 



540 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



to the peculiar reverence of the faithful ; still 
less was it converted into an engine of eccle- 
siastical government. But during the iron 
ages of the Roman Church, the same inex- 
plicable question assumed a much more defi- 
nite and durable shape. Differing from the 
Greeks, who considered the immediate abode 
of the departed to be one of obscurity and 
discomfort, the Latins boldly lighted the pe- 
nal fire of purgatory, and gave a substance, 
a locality and an object to the timid and dis- 
trustful speculations of the early Christians. 

Doctrine of Purgatory. — It is the modern 
doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church * 
' that there is a purgatory ; and that the souls 
imprisoned there are aided by the prayers of 
the faithful, and the acceptable sacrifice of the 
altar.' But in this matter, it is not so impor- 
tant to ascertain what has been, at various 
times, the outward profession of the Church, 
as to remark the consequences which have 
practically flowed from the dogma, and influ- 
enced the happiness and morality of mankind. 
For the history of the Church is not a lifeless 
record of its Canons and Confessions, but a 
display of their operation, whether for good 
or for mischief, whether in their use or in 
their abuse, upon the Christian community. 
The consequence, which presently followed 
from the establishment of a place of tempo- 
rary punishment, or purification, for departed 
eouls, was, that the successor of St. Peter 
assumed, through the power of the keys, 
tinlimited authority there. By indulgences. 
Issued at the discretion of the Pope, the sin- 
ner (in the theory, the repentant sinner) was 
released from sufl^ering, and immediately 
passed into a state of grace. As long as these 
indulgences were granted with discrimination 
and reserve,! the ill effects, which they occa- 

* Founded on the Canons of Trent. — It is frequent- 
ly asserted to be the doctrine of that Churcli, that 
the fund, whence the above forgiveness is drawn, is 
composed of the supererogatory merits of the saints, 
(added to those of Jesus Christ,) which are inex- 
jhaustible; and such, indeed, it is clearly laid down 
by St. Thomas Aquinas (see Mosheim, Cent. xii. p. 
ii. c. iii.) Modern divines disclaim this opinion, as 
at variance with the great doctrine of justification — 
and tliis is not the only instance of salutary change, 
which has purified the bosom of the Roman Catholic 
Church during the last three centuries. — May such 
changes be multiplied! 

f Baronius (Ann, 847. s. iv.) boasts the modera- 
tion of the indulgences granted in those days, and 
instances one (triura annorum et trium quadragena- 
rum) given under Leo IV. JEven as late as the 
eleventh age there are proofs (as Muratori observes) 
of similar discretion in the directors of the Church. 
And it is proper to mention, that Gregory tlie Great, 



sioned, do not often meet the eye of the his- 
torian. But as soon as- they were turned into 
mere instruments of papal ambition, and as 
such were not only promiscuously scattered 
over the world, but also extended in character 
to a plenary remission, they became simple 
manifest means to poison the morality of the 
faithful. 

Thenceforward, their nature could scarcely 
be further corrupted ; for the only proof, which 
was now required of the sinners spiritual 
mortification and amendment, was his willing- 
ness to perform a single act. But on the char- 
acter of that act, that is, on the ohjec.t of the 
indulgence, it still depended, whether the 
subversion of the principle of evangelical re- 
pentance was to be made subservient to the 
seeming advantage of the world, or obviously 
instrumental in aggravating its misery. 

The object of the indulgence was changed 
repeatedly ; yet never so changed, as to take 
the guise of philanthropy. First, it was the 
recovery of the Holy Land and the extirpation 
of the Infidel. Then from the general foe of 
Christ it was turned against the spiritual ad- 
versaries of the Catholic Church ; from the 
spiritual adversaries of the Church it descend- 
ed to the temporal enemies of the Pope. It 
next assumed a more innocent shape (if su- 
perstition could ever be innocent,) and sum- 
moned the obedient pilgrims to enrich, on 
stated Jubilees,* the apostolical shrines of 
Rome. Lastly, it degenerated into a mere 
vulgar, undisguised implement for supplying 
the necessities of the pontifical treasury, f — 
in his Chapter on Purgatory (Dialogorum, lib. iv. 
cap. xxxix.), expressly limited its operation to venial 
and very trifling offences (de parvis minimlsque pec- 
catis hoc fieri posse credendum est,) such as mere 
vain and leisurely discourse, immoderate laughter, 
or an error in unimportant matters proceeding from 
ignorance. He adds, moreover, that thus much is 
certain — that no one will obtain any purgation even 
from the least offences, unless he merit, by his good 
works here, to obtain such remission there. 

* In the Jubilee of 1300 ' Papa (Boniface VIII.) 
innumerabilem pecuniahi ab iisdem recepit; quia die 
et nocte duo Clerici stabant ad Altare Sancti Petri 
tenentes in eorum manibus rastellos, rastellantes 
pecuniam infinitam.' — Gulielmus Astensis Ventura 
(an eye-witness) Chronicon Astense, cap. 26. ap. 
Muratori. Again, in the Bull of Clement VI. for 
the jubilee of 1350 are these words — ' Et nihilominus 
prorsus mandamus AngelisParadisi, quatenus animam 
illius a Purgatorio penitus absolutam in Paradisi 
gloriam introducant.' See Giannone, lib. xvii. cap. 8. 

t It should be recollected, tliat the sale of indulr 
gences was faintly countenanced by the corresponding 
enormities of civil legislation, according to which, in 
somewhat earlier times, every crime had its price. 
The Church in every age should, in some degree, be 



ITS SPIRITUAL CHARACTER, DISCIPLINE, &c. 



641 



and it was in this last form, that it at length 
aroused the scorn and indignation of Europe. 

The profane and even blasphemous expres- 
sions, by which the emissaries of the Vatican 
recommended their treasures to popular cre- 
duHty were tacitly permitted by the authori- 
ties of the Church ; yet we shall not detail 
them here, nor impute them to any others, 
than the individuals who uttered them — they 
may repose in the same oblivion. But it is 
proper to transcribe a specimen of the in- 
dulgences which were publicly sold in the 
beginning of the sixteenth century, because 
they were the authorized productions of the 
Church. The following is the translation of 
that which was circulated by Tetzel: — 

'May our Lord Jesus Christ have mercy 
upon thee and absolve thee, by the merits of 
His most holy passion. And I, by his author- 
it3^, that of His blessed Apostles, Peter and 
Paul, and of the most Holy See, granted and 
committed to me in these parts, do absolve 
thee first from all ecclesiastical censures, in 
whatever manner they have been incurred ; 
and then from all thy sins, trangressions, and 
excesses, how enormous soever they may be, 
even from such as are reserved for the cog- 
nizance of the Apostolical See.* And as far 
as the keys of the Church extend, I remit to 
you all punishment which you deserve in 
purgatory on their account ; and I restore you 
to the Holy Sacraments of the Church, to the 
unity of the faithful, and to that innocence 
and purity which you possessed at baptism ; 
so that, if you should die now, the gates of 
punishment shall be shut, and the gates of 
the Paradise of delight shall be opened. And 
if you shall not die at present, this Grace 
shall remain in full force when you are on the 
point of death. In the name of the Father, 
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.' This 
indulgence, in spite of the ambiguity of one 
or two expressions, is nothing less, when fair- 
ly interpreted, than an unconditional permis- 
sion to sin for the rest of life ; and as such it 
was assuredly received by those classes of the 
people, for which it was chiefly intended, and 
whose morality is peculiarly confided to the 
superintendence of the clergy. And thus was 



judged according to the principles of that age, — yet 
in such wise, that we never lose sight of that one 
great and unchangeable standard, by v/hich the ac- 
tions of a Christian ministry must, in every age, be 
measured. 

* The translation given by Beausobre (Hist. Re- 
form, liv. i.) here differs slightly from that published 
by Dr. Robertson (Hist. Charles V. b. ii.) ; but not 
so as to make any important change in the sense of 
the whole passage. 



it, that the destiny of the Church was accom- 
plished. 

Private Masses. — However easy the acqui- 
sition of pardon (for the moderate price of 
indulgences placed them within the reach 
of the lowest orders,) still many neglected to 
profit by the facility, and were accordingly 
consigned to the penal fire. Yet even thus 
they were not removed beyond the power and 
mercies of the Church.* It was inculcated, 
that the prayers of the living were efficacious 
I in the purification of those departed souls ; 
j but that their release was most speedily se- 
I cured by the sacrifice of the altar. Hence 

■ arose in early times f the practice of oflfering 
I masses, both public and private, for that pur- 
I pose ; and, as these too had subsequently their 
: price in gold, the piety of the sun'ivors was 
I taxed to redeem the transgressions of the dead 
{ — so various were the devices of the Church, 

to render tributary the weaknesses, the virtues, 
1 even the natural affections of the faithful. The 
j sale of private masses was a fruitful source of 
I revenue to the clergy, especially to the mon- 
astic orders, and that likewise was one of the 
: abuses first proscribed by the eloquence of 
j Luther. 

j The Elevation of the Host, &c. — When In- 
: nocent III. gave the sanction of a General 
I Council to the Roman doctrine of the Eu- 
; chai-ist, and distinguished it by the name of 
j Transubstantiation,t he not only secured its 

* Gerson, however, (De Indulgentiis, vol. ii. p. 
j 351,) admits, that it is a question ad utramque 

■ partem pr oh ahilis, whether the keys have such power 
I in purgatory, as to remit the punishment of a venial 
1 fault or excommunication, committed or incurred 
I during life. This doubt of the Chancellor must have 
; made him unpopular in the monasteries. He asserts, 

in the same place, without any hesitation, — ' lodul- 
gentise ad ptxnas ex corruptione naturre non extendunl.' 

f We find it proclaimed by the Protestants at 
Augsbourg (1530,) that there is no instance of pri- 
vate masses in ecclesiastical history earlier than the 
time of Gregory the Great. Mosheim is contented 
to assert, that manifest traces of them may be found 
in the eighth century, though it be difficult to decide 
whether they were instituted by public law, or in- 
troduced by private authority We are not 

aware of the existence of any earlier public regula- 
tion on this subject, than the 43d Canon of the Coun- 
cil of Mayence, held in 813, and this is expressly 
prohibitory,—' No priest shall say mass alone.* 

X The following is a part of the celebrated Canon 
(Can. i. Lat. Concil. IV.) in question — ' Una est 
fideliura Universalis Ecclesia, extra quam nullua 
omnino salvatur. In qua idem ipse sacerdos et 
sacrificium Jesus Christus; cujus corpus et sanguis 
in Sacramento altaris sub speciebus panis et vini 
veraciter continentur, trans sub stantiatis pane in cor- 
pus et vino in sanguinem, potestate divina,' &c &c 



542 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



universal reception in the west, but also coun- 
tenanced the superstitious practices which 
flowed from it. It appears to have been dur- 
ing his pontificate, that the custom was intro- 
duced of elevating the Host after consecration. 
The use of the bell to signify to the people to 
prostrate themselves, while the Holy Sacra- 
ment was passing, is ascribed to an ordinance 
published in 1201, by Guy Par^, the legate of 
the same at Cologne, And that it may be 
shown how early this practice was supported 
by the direct authority of the See, and how 
widely it was thought expedient to extend it, 
we may mention that Honorius, the successor 
of Innocent, addressed an epistle to the Latin 
prelates of the east, in the Patriarchal of An- 
tioch, in which he instructed them to oblige 
the people to incline, on the appearance of 
the Host.* In that age, and at that distance 
from the centre of orthodoxy, it was not held 
advisable to inculcate the necessity of absolute 
genuflexion. A simpler act of devotion was 
deemed sufficient to recognise the divinity of 
the consecrated elements. 

The Retrenchment of the Cup. — The suffi- 
ciency of the Sacrament administered in one 
kind only is by many considered as an imme- 
diate inference from the doctrine of transub- 
stantiation, since the bread, when converted 
into the body of Christ, of necessity contains 
his blood ; so that, the object of the sacrifice 
being thus satisfied, the communication of 
the cup may be safely retrenched, as a vain 
and superfluous ceremony. At what pre- 
cise period this change in the p-adice of the 
Church (it was maintained to be no more than 
that,) was introduced, we cannot pronounce 
with certainty ; f but its antiquity was pleaded 
by its defenders at Constance and Basle, and 
it may be ascribed, without any great error, 
to the beginning of the thirteenth century. 
We may consider it as completing the list of 
those peculiar obsei-vances, which the Church 
of Rome has thought proper, on her own in- 
fallible authority, to impose upon her adher- 
ents. Probably the motive for this innovation 
was to add solemnity to the mystery, by ex- 



* Fleury, 1. Ixxviii. s. 24. The Institution of the 
Festival of the Holy Sacrament or Body of Christ, 
another early consequence of the universal establish- 
ment of Transubstantiation, is generally ascribed to 
Robert, Bishop of Liege — who is said to have been 
moved thereto by the pretended revelations of a fanat- 
ical woman, named Juliana. The event took place 
in the year 1246. Mosh. Cent. xiii. p. 2, chap. iv. 

t We have not observed that it was formally and 
universally established by the highest ecclesiastical 
authority, till it attracted the attention of the Council 
of Constance. 



eluding the profane from perfect initiation, 
and at the same time to exalt the dignity of 
the priesthood, by giving them some exclu- 
sive prerogative, even in communion at the 
Lord's table. Nevertheless, even with that 
view its policy was extremely questionable ; 
it was founded on the ignorance of preced- 
ing ages ; it had no foresight of the character 
of those which were to come. And thus it 
proved, that, after the lapse of some few 
generations, men were rather shocked by 
the public, practical disregard of one of the 
plainest instructions delivered in the Gospel, 
than edified by the spectacle of sacerdotal 
usurpation. The innovation was too rash, 
too openly at variance with an express com- 
mand, intelligible to the lowest classes of the 
vulgar, and sacred with all who thought then* 
Bible more venerable than their Church. 
Accordingly we have observed, that the de- 
privation of this privilege, so clearly granted 
by Christ to all believers, was the grievance 
which united the discordant sects of the Hus- 
sites—the restoration of the cup was the 
manifest, incontestable right, round which 
they rallied. To this extent too, they were 
successful ; and their success afforded the 
first example of any usurpation having been 
wrested from the hands of Rome by the open 
rebellion of her subjects. 

Prohibition of the Scriptures. — Neither was 
there any one among the peculiar tenets or 
observances of Rome, which so taxed the in- 
genuity ofher advocates, as the retrenchment 
of the cup. This perplexity is attested by 
the records of Constance and Basle ; and it 
deserves particular remark, that Gerson, in 
his very elaborate treatise against the Double 
Communion, discloses the source of his diffi- 
culty in this simple complaint. 'There are 
many laymen among the heretics who have 
a version of the Bible in the vulgar tongue, to 
the gi-eat prejudice and offence of the Cath- 
olic faith. It has been proposed (he adds) to 
reprove that scandal in the committee of re- 
form.' That scandal was as old as the heresy 
of Peter Waldensis ; but the practice which 
it oflfended certainly grew up in much more 
distant ages, nor was it peculiar to the Church 
of Rome. As early as the seventh century 
the appropriation of the Scriptures to the use 
of the priesthood was a practice generally 
established throughout the east,* and the La- 
tins speedily adopted (if they had not already 
enforced) a precaution so necessary for pre- 
serving the unity of the Church and con- 
cealing its abuses. It was authorized by the 
^ee Chapter XXVI., p. 479. 



ITS SPIRITUAL CHARACTER, DISCIPLINE, &c. 



543 



Council of Toulouse in 1229; but the spirit 
of independence nevertheless gained ground. 
From the time of Wiclif the unhallowed veil 
w^as gi-adually withdrawn ; curiosity was more 
keenly excited, as it had been more tyranni- 
cally repressed ; the invention of the press in- 
creased the facility of possessing the sacred 
oracles ; and before the preaching of Luther, 
the scandal, which had been deplored a cen- 
tury earlier by the orthodox reformer of 
the Church, had made very general progress 
amongst the educated classes, in almost every 
nation in Europe. 

False Miracles. — Those prodigious impos- 
tures, which in the eyes of Laurentius Valla * 
surpassed the impiety of the Pagans, and 
which were ascribed by Gerson to the phan- 
tastic somnolenby of a decrepit world, were 
continued with unresti'ained temerity, even 
to the days of Erasmus. The impostures 
were the same, which had so long been em- 
ployed to delude the people of Christ — but 
the people were changed. A spuit of in- 
quiry was spreading over the surface of Eu- 
rope, and it was seen and felt by all, except 
the monks and bigots, to whom alone it was 
dangerous. But these persevered in the same 
blind path of habitual fraud and momentary 
profit, which at length conducted them to the 
precipice, whither it had always tended. 

Certain other unscriptural practices, long 
inherent in the Romish system, never had 
flourished with greater luxuriance, than at 
the beginning of the sixteenth century. The 
abuse of images had been carried at no pe- 
riod to a more unpardonable extent. The 
popular adoration of the saints had never de- 
viated farther from the professed moderation 
of the Churchf — relics had never been ap- 



* De Donatione Constantini. < Nostri Fabula- 
torcs passim inducunt Idola loquentia; quod ipsi 
Gentiles et idolorum cultores non dicunt, et sincerius 
iiegant, quam Christiani affirmant.' The passage of 
Gerson is, — ' Mundiis senescens palitur phantasias 
falsorum miraculorum, sicut homo senex phantasi- 
atur in somno; propterea sunt habenda miracula 
valde suspecta.' Both these passages are cited by 
Semler. The detection of the artifices practised 
upon Jetzer at Berne, for the confirmation of the 
Dominican opinion respecting the immaculate con- 
ception, created a notorious scandal, which assisted 
in preparing the path for ZuingJius. 

t The following is the doctrine of modern Roman 
Catholic Divines: — 'That the saints reigning with 
Christ offer up their prayers to God for men: that it 
is good and useful suppliantly to invoke them and to 
have recourse to their prayers, help and assistance, 
to obtain favors from God, through his Son, Jesus 
Christ, oui- Lord, who is alone our Redeemer and 
Savior.' Alas! ask the peasant of Romagna or the 



proached with a reverence more superstitious, 
or one more directly encouraged by the priest- 
hood.* The pomp and order of the ceremo- 
nies had been at no time more entirely at va- 
riance with the character of a spiritual reli- 
gion. Indeed, some of the festivals which 
were instituted or revived during the fifteenth 
century, seem designedly established to turn 
away men's minds from the substance of 
Christianity to vain formalities, or wicked 
fables. And in this place it will be proper to 
instance, more particularly, in what manner 
the highest ecclesiastical authorities were sup- 
plying the spiritual necessities of the faith- 
ful, at the very moment when the cry for re- 
formation was resounding (in various notes 
indeed, but with general concord) from one 
end of Europe to the other. 

Later Festivals, Disputes, Controversies, &cc. 
— The first regulation for the ' Exposition of 
the Holy Sacrament ' was published in 1452, 
by the Pope's Legate in Germany, at a Coun- 
cil held at Cologne ; and the expressions of 
the edict f are entirely worthy of its object. 
If a comet appeared (as in 1456,) or the 
country was ravaged by inundation or pesti- 
lence (as happened twenty years later,) the 
Pope of the day immediately pressed to offer 
his indulgences to all who should celebrate 
the feast of the Holy Sacrament, or of the 
Lnmaculate Conception — to all who should 
thrice repeat the Lord's prayer, or the Ange- 
lic Salutation. About the end of the year 
1480 Sixtus IV. was invited to settle a dispute 
between the inhabitants of Perugia and Sien- 
na, on a very remarkable subject. The former 
were accused of having obtained fraudulent 
possession of the nuptial ring of St. Catha- 
rine, the hereditary property of the ]a:tter, her 
compatriots. The object was holy ; and its 
sanctity was enhanced (as a grave historian J 



Sicilian mariner for his explanation of the doc- 
trine! 

* We refer the reader to Beausobre's account 
(Hist. Reform, lib. iv. p. 243) of the holy contents 
of the Church of All Saints at Wittenberg, which 
had been most profusely enriched by the bulls of 
Julius 11. and Leo X. The whole number of relics 
exceeded 19,000, divided into twelve classes, accord- 
ing to the dignity of the saints. There were bulls 
to the effect ' that all who visited this Church on 
certain days, might retain all property dishonestly 
acquired, to the amount of twenty-five golden ducats; 
and that any one who doubted the validity of such 
indulgences.was ipso facto excommunicated, without 
power of oitsolution even by the Pope himself, and 
in articulo mortis.'* 

t See the continuator of Fleury, lib. ex. s. 97. 

+ Raynaldus, ann. 14S0, n. 44. See Semler, cent. 
XV. cap. ii., and Bzovius, ann. 1480. 



544 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



informs us) by its various virtues, frequently 
experienced by the faithful, especially that 
of reconciling conjugal differences. This 
quarrel was prolonged for some time under 
Sixtus and his successor. 

In the 'Book of Conformities' between 
the life of Jesus Christ and that of St. Fran- 
cis, the fanatic is exalted to the level, if not 
above the level, of the Saviour. To complete 
the resemblance, the former carried about 
with him the marks of the five wounds of 
Christ ; and the belief in these stigmata was 
enjoined to all the faithful by Alexander V. 
But, in the age following St. Francis, the 
same miraculous impressions were claimed, 
on the same authority, by the female impos- 
tor of Sienna.* And when Catharine was at 
length canonized by Pius II., an office was 
instituted in her honor, of which the hymns 
affirmed that she had received the stigmata. 
This was to offer an unpardonable indignity 
to the Franciscans — ^for they were jealous of 
the glory of their patron, f and asserted his 
exclusive pretension to that intimate sympathy 
with Christ. Immediately the Dominicans 
rose in defence of St. Catharine. The office 
was, nevertheless, denounced to Sixtus IV. ; 
and that Pope presently published an edict, 
prohibiting any one, under severe penalties, 
fi'om representing the stigmata of St. Catha- 
rine in painting ; but he seems afterwards to 
have retracted his prohibition. These matters 
took place about the year 1483 — it was the 
same wliich gave birth to Luther. 

About the year 1050, a daily office was 
instituted to the blessed Virgin, distinguished 
by seven canonical hours, in a form anciently 
used in honor of divine majesty ; and in tho 
course of the next hundred years the r*^'re- 
rence so paid grew into worship. Among 
the attributes early | ascribed to her, was ex- 
emption from original sin ; hut this opinion 
was for some time confined to the breasts of 

* It is perhaps proper to mention that the Domin- 
icans likewise claimed the stigmata for their patron; 
but they were compelled to admit, that his extreme 
humility had prevented him from disclosing them. 

t Earlier in the same century, an opinion was 
propagated ' that those who die in the habit of St. 
Francis, and making profession of the third order, 
remain only one year in purgatory; because the saint 
descends thither once a year, and takes away all 
those of his order to heaven with him.' This 
proposition was not beneath the notice of the Council 
of Basle — on the contrary, it was solemnly condemned 
(May 19, 1443) in the forty-fourth or forty-fifth ses- 
sion. 

X As early as the ninth century — some ascril^e the 
origin of the opinion to Paschasius Radbertus. 



a few individuals — it had no place in ecclesl^ 
astical ceremonies, or the arguments of the 
learned.* At length, however, about the year 
1136, the Canons of Lyons ventured to intro- 
duce it into the offices of their Church. St. 
Bernard immediately opposed that innova- 
tion, and attacked the indiscreet zeal of those 
ecclesiastics. But in the following age, the 
subject was found to open too large a space 
for disputation, to escape the polemical zeal 
of the scholastics — it became, on the contrary, 
their favorite field of controversy. And since 
the Dominicans ranged themselves on the one 
side and the Franciscans on the other, f the 
contest was heated and perpetuated by mo- 
nastic jealousy. But it was reserved for the 
Council of Basle to establish the doctrine, 
and to excommunicate all who should preach 
the contraiy. A feast was then instituted in 
honor of the Immaculate Conception, and it 
received in 1446 the official confirmation of 
Sixtus IV.J Yet not thus was the controversy 
composed, nor even the show of concord res- 
tored between the contending orders. 

Without closely pursuing the inexhaustible 
subject of monastic dissension, we may men- 
tion that a violent dispute arose in this age 
between the Canons regular and the hermits 
of St. Augustin, respecting the dress assum- 
ed by the original monks of that father. The 
clamor ascended to the Apostolical chair and 
commanded the attention of Sixtus IV. He 
published a Bull, in which he wisely enjoined 
peace to both parties — wisely, but vainly; — 
for the controversy (as it was called) continued 
for some time longer to disturb the harmony 
of those holy brethren. 

A difference, respecting the kind of wor- 
ship, which is due to the Blood of Christ, 
first arose at Barcelona, in 1351, between the 
Dominicans and Franciscans. It was renew- 
ed at Brixen 5 in 1462. James a Marchia, 



* See Padre Paolo, Hist. Concil. Trident, lib. ii. 

t Semler (Sec. xiv. cap. 1) mentions 1384 as the 
year in which the controversy on the Immaculate 
Conception broke out between the rival orders at 
Paris. In 1387 the faculty censured John de Mon- 
tesono for maintaining the less exalted opinion — that 
is, the opinion of St. Bernard and the Dominicans. 
Nevertheless, the war continued to rage. 

^ The bull of Sixtus is given by the continuator 
of Fleury, lib. cxv. s. 102. 

§ Semler, cent. xv. cap. ii. While such were the 
subjects on which monastic absurdity was exhausted, 
a very different description of nonsense was in vogue, 
proceeding more directly from the scholastic method 
— the following may serve as a specimen. One Jean 
de Mercceur was condemned in 1346 for errors, 
among which were the following: ' (1) Jesus Christ, 
through his created will, may have willed something. 



ITS SPIRITUAL CHARACTER, DISCIPLINE, &c. 



545 



a Franciscan, publicly maintained, that the 
blood, which Christ shed on the cross, did 
not belong to the divine nature, and conse- 
quently was not an object of worship. The 
Dominicans were roused to fury by an asser- 
tion so derogatory to the Redeemer; and the 
preacher was immediately summoned before 
the Inquisition. Pius II. made some ineffec- 
tual attempts to suppress the controversy ; 
but, finding his authority insufficient for that 
purpose, he at last submitted the question to 
a commission of divines. Howbeit, both par- 
ties were so highly inflamed, that the doctore 
were unable to arrive at any decision. At 
length the Pontiff published a reasonable de- 
cree, 'that both opinions might be lawfully 
maintained, until Christ's vicegerent should 
find leisure and opportunity for examining 
the question ' — and so the matter rests at this 
moment. 

In 1492, some laborers, repairing the foun- 
dations of the Church of the Santa Croce 
at Rome, discovered what was immediately 
proclaimed to be the original Inscription on 
the cross of Christ. The belief was propa- 
gated, that it had been sent to Rome by St. 
Helena, mother of Constantine ; and though 
there was no authority for this tradition, and 
though the pious Catholics of Toulouse pre- 
tended to have possessed the true inscription 
undisturbed for many ages, Alexander VI. 
pronounced (four years afterwards) the au- 
thenticity of the Roman title, and recom- 
mended it by particular indulgences to the 
devotion of the faithful. On the 29th of May 
in the same year an ambassador from Bajazet 
arrived, bearing, as a present to the Pope, the 
head of the true lance. All the clergy went 
forth in procession to receive it, and the Pon- 
tiff assisted in person at the miserable mum- 
mery. Raynaldus likewise assures us (on 
the authority of Jacobus Rosius) that the 
sponge and the reed were presented on the 
same occasion : such were the offerings with 
which the Infidel insulted the superstition of 
Christendom, and found his ready agent and 
most zealous accomplice in the Pope. 

But while the spiritual guides of the faith- 
ful were thus degradingly employed — while 
absurdity and imposture seemed triumphant 
in the Church, and the monks and the clergy 

which has never come to pass. (3) In whatsoever 
maaner God wills, he wills efScaciously, that it come 
to pass. (4) God wills, that such a one sin and be 
a sinner, and he wills it by his will, at his free plea- 
sure. (5) No one sins in willing otherwise than 
God wills, that he will,' &c. More may be found in 
Fleury, lib. xcv. s. 37. 

69 



were lending, in rivalry, their aid to nourish 
them — a far different spirit was growing up 
among those who had sought their instruction 
elsewhere. Many pious Laymen had already 
explored the forbidden treasures of Scripture. 
They had long ago abhorred the vices of the 
ecclesiastical system ; they now discovered 
that whatever in it was wicked was likewise 
unfounded in truth. They advanced with 
increasing confidence towards evangelical 
perfection, just as the Churchmen were rush- 
ing most wildly in the opposite direction, 
and castmg wisdom and piety, as if in scorn 
and detestation, behmd them. Yet was there 
some reason even m this their madness. The 
superstitions of Rome were closely connected 
with her authority, and these exerted on each 
other a reciprocal and potent influence. The 
superstitions enslaved the consciences, and 
thus commanded the riches of the faithful; 
and so they ministered to the Papal power — 
while, on the other hand, that power estab- 
lished and canonized the abuses : and it had 
so long been efficient in protecting them, 
that to many it seemed capable of sustaining 
them for ever. 

II. On the Discipline and Morals of the 
Church. — The severe edicts of Gregory VII. 
against the concubinage of the clergy, and 
the disorders which followed them, in no 
very dissolute age of the Church, sufficiently 
prove that a law, which offended the prin- 
ciples of nature, could not command ob- 
servance, even though professional zeal and 
worldly interest and morality itself pleaded 
against its violation. And if the severity of 
that Pontiff for the moment abated the scandal, 
it was never wholly removed, but continued 
sometimes to elude, and sometimes to defy 
the unremitted exertions of Popes and Coun- 
cils. Insomuch that, considered only as an 
instrument of ecclesiastical policy, it would 
seem that the celibacy of the clergy haa 
produced less advantage to the Church of 
Rome by the exclusive spirit which it en- 
courages, and the popular influence of which 
it facilitates the acquisition, than it has done 
mischief by the reproach and shame to which 
it has given unceasing occasion.* 



* The following Canons of a Council held at 
Toledo in the year 400, sufficiently show the practice 
of the Church of Spain, nearly 80 years after the 
Council of Nice. Canon I. ' Married deacons or 
priests who have not preserved continence with their 
wives shall not be promoted.' Canon VII. ' If the 
wife of a priest has sinned, he may bind her in his 
house, and make her fast and chastise her , , . he 
should not, however, eat with her until she has dono 



546 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



&ener(d Demoralizafion. — Early in the 
twelfth age, the general relaxation of disci- 
pline and morals was deplored by St. Bernard, 
and it increased in despite of his eloquent 
denunciations. From that time forward the 
Reformation of the Church, in its Head and 
its members, became a subject of frequent 
mention, and of constant hope or apprehen- 
sion, according to the sanctity or the world- 
liness of individual Churchmen. At the 
Council of Vienne, the particulars of eccle- 
siastical coiTuption were boldly exposed, but 
iraperfecdy remedied. During the exile at 
Avignon the pestilence increased ; it was 
inflamed by the schism, which succeeded ; till 
at length, whatever still remained of learn- 
ing and excellence in the Church, combined 
against its further progress. It is superfluous 
to repeat the names or transcribe the indig- 
nant expressions of those Reformers. The 
ti'Uth of their testimony has never been dis- 
puted ; * and one of the few circumstances in 
the history of the Roman Catholic Church, 
which has escaped all controversy, is that of 
its demoralization. The fathers of Constance 
and Basle having failed to repair the discipline 
©f the Church, it received no improvement 
«Furing the interval which succeeded ; nor 
were the examples of Innocent VIII., Alex- 
ander VI., or Julius II., well calculated to 
re-establish the authority of the Canons, or 
restore the model of ancient purity. 

Cardinal Ximenes. — If there was any coun- 
try, which at that time had escaped the gene- 
ral degradation, the exception may have been 
formed by Spain : and Spain is chiefly indebt- 



penance.' Canon XIX. ^ If she be the denighter 
©f a bishop, priest, or deacon,' &c. And again, ' the 
■widow of a bishop, priest, or deacon, who marries 
again, shall not receive communion, except on her 
death-bed.' On this subject Guizot has remarked, 
that the necessity of recruiting an unmarried clergy 
from the ranks of the laity was one reason for the 
failure of the Papal scheme of universal monarchy. 
To have secured its success (he adds,) the clergy 
ought to have been a distinct caste, bringing up their 
own children to their own profession. But there is 
much to be said against this opinion. A caste pro- 
ducing itself is a much more separate and distinguish- 
able object for an enemy's aim, than a body which is 
incessantly recruiting itself from the mass. 

* La discipline ecclesiastique (says Bossuet) s'^etoit 
Eelacl:iee pai* toute la terre : les desordres et les abus 
portes jusqu'aux environs de I'autel faisoient gemir 
les bons, les bumilioient, les pressoient h. se rendre 
encore meilleurs — mais ils firent un autre effet sur les 
©sprits aigres et superbes.' Histoire des Variations, 
lib. xi. s. 294. We might also refer to the celebrated 
avowal made (in 1522) by Adrian VI. at the diet of 
N.urembera;. 



ed for that distinction to the morose, monastic 

austerity of Cardinal Ximenes. That haugh- 
ty Churchman revived the image of the spir- 
itual champions of early days. Under the habit 
of a Franciscan, he nourished unbounded am- 
bition, and more than pontifical insolence,* 
As regent of the kingdom, he possessed great 
secular authority ; but his religious profession 
was ever nearest to his heart, and it was his 
favorite boast, ' that he could bind the gran- 
dees to their duty by his cord, and crush their 
pride with his sandals.' The object, on which 
he was most ardently bent, was the conver- 
sion of the vanquished Moors. His impa- 
tience permitted' no method, except compul- 
sion; and no fewer than fifty thousand are 
related to have submitted to baptism, and 
made their heartless professions of conformity. 
The triumph was applauded ; the tyrant was 
feared and imitated ; and his severe court 
presented a remarkable contrast to the licen- 
tiousness of Rome. In the opposite extremi- 
ties of the moral scale the evangelical Chris- 
tian will discover, perhaps, an equal departure 
from the will of the Saviour. That selfish 
arrogance, which swells and hardens under 
the garb of religion, is scarcely Jess at variance 
with the spirit of the Gospel, than positive 

sensual sin Yet both were the inevitable 

produce of an ecclesiastical system, which 
was compelled to maintain its hold on the 
affections of men, by oftering, at the same 
time, encouragement to their fanaticism, and 
impunity to their vices. 

Benefits confetrsd by the Church, — Yet 
should we be very unjust to the Roman Cath- 
olic Church, if we should allow it to be sup- 
posed, that she opened no receptacles for the 
nurture of true excellence — that in her gene- 
ral institutions, especially in her earlier ages, 
she has overlooked the moral necessities of 
man — the truth is far otherwise. We have 
repeatedly observed, how commonly^ in sea- 
sons of barbarism, religion was employed in 
supplying the defects of civil government 
and diffusing consolation and security. The 
Truce of God mitigated the fury of private 
warfare, by limiting the hours of vengeance, 
and interposing a space for the operation of 



* On one occasion Ximenes opp>osed the levy of 
tentlis in Spain, though commanded by Leo X., under 
the pretext of a Turkish war. The Cardinal (should 
we not rather say the Regentl) informed the Pope, 
that, unless on the urgency of some very pressing 
occasion, he would never allow the clergy of Spain, 
under his government, to become tributary. See 
Beausobre, Hist. Reform, liv. i. It should be men- 
tioned that Ximenes published a Polyglott Bible^ 
Cont. Fleur. 1. 119, s. 142. 



ITS SPIRITUAL CHARACTER, DISCIPLINE, &c. 



547 



justice and humanity. The name of the 
Church was associated with peace * — and it 
was a prouder position, that when siie tram- 
pled on the necks of kings. The emancipa- 
tion of the Serfs was another cause, equally 
sacred, in which her exertions were repeated- 
ly employed. In her interference in the con- 
cerns of monarchs and nations, she frequently 
appeared as the advocate of the weak, and 
the adversary of arbitrary power. Even the 
much abused law of Asylum f sei-ved through 
a long period as a check on baronial oppres- 
sion, rather than an encouragement to crime. 

The duty of charity, during the better ages 
of the Church, was by no means neglected 
by the secular clergy, while it was the prac- 
tice and ofl&ce of the monastic establishments. 
And even the discipline so strictly mculcated 
by the earlier prelates, however arbitrary in 
its exercise and pernicious in its abuse, was 
not unprofitable in arresting the first steps 
and restraining the earliest dispositions to sin. 
Confession and penance, and the awful cen- 
sures of the Church, when dispensed with 
discretion, must have been potent instruments 
for the improvement of uncivilized society. 

Principles of Monachism. — The original 
principles of monachism were entirely guilt- 
less of the evils which flowed from it in later 
ages. In the East, it was the passion for 
retirement and contemplation which chiefly 
contributed to people the mountains and wil- 
dernesses with holy recluses. In the West, 
it was rather a desire of association for useful 
purposes, which caused the construction of 
so many monasteries — schools were connect- 
ed with their establishment, and whatever 
impulse was given to the human understand- 
ing proceeded from them. In both, they were 
effectual in drawing off" from the virtual ex- 
ercise of paganism tiiose nominal proselytes. 



* The ' Peace of the Church ' was first proclaimed 
early in the eleventh century. The particular edict, 
which was more formally promulgated at the Council 
of Cl&rmont, prohibited all private warfare from sun- 
set every Wednesday till sun-rise on the Monday 
following, so that four days a week were sanctified 
from acts of violence. On this occasion, we cannot, 
perhaps, give the Pope much credit for his motives ; 
but our question is not with motives, but with facts. 

t This subject was made a matter of legislation in 
the Theodosian and Justinian codes. It drew a de- 
cree from Boniface V. in the seventh century; and in 
the eighth the Lombard Kings passed some laws to 
deprive the worst description of criminals of such 
protection. The Abbots and Bishops were command- 
ed, under severe penalties, to give up such fugitives 
into the hands of civil justice. Consult Giannone, 
lib. V. cap. vi. 



extremely numerous in all ranks of the laity, 
who concealed, under the profession of Chris- 
tianity, a lingering aflfection for the hereditary 
superstition. It is, indeed, true, that such an 
institution could not have originated, except 
in a very peculiar and unhappy condition of 
society ; that it took root and flourished in 
general demoralization, and public and pri- 
vate misery. But on the other hand, it is 
equally true, that it operated for some ages 
with great efficacy in abating the evils out of 
which it sprang. 

The rule of St. Benedict was well calculat- 
ed to improve the generation to which it was 
delivered ; and the retreats which he opened 
gave security and employment to multitudes, 
in the most calamitous period of Christian 
history. No self-torture or maceration was 
prescribed to his disciples by that reasonable 
legislator — those were the inventions of the 
later and more depraved ages of the Church, 
when the fanaticism of some was found requi- 
site to counterbalance the profligacy of others. 
These changes insensibly took place, as the 
monks departed step by step from the inde- 
pendence of their original profession ; first 
throwing off" the character of laymen, and 
obtaining admission into the ranks of the 
clergy, by which they became subject to se- 
vere oppression from the bishops ;* and then 
gradually escaping from that yoke to the 
more indulgent, but not less arbitrary, despo- 
tism of the Pope. Nevertheless, even during 
the decline of the monastic principles, some 
sparks of former virtue were revived by the 
frequent reformation of the old orders and 
the establishment of new — some remains of 
pristine excellence were very long preserved 
amid the ruins of the system. 

Mendicants distinguished as Missionaries, — 
If we have been compelled on many occa- 
sions to notice the vices of the Mendicant 
orders, and to observe how soon they became 
the zealous agents of the Holy See in all its 
worst practices and projects, so should we 
not forget, that the same were for sometime 
the most active ministers of the Church, in 



* See Guizot (Hist. Moderne, Le^. 14. and 15.) 
from whom some of the above observations are bor- 
rowed. It is perhaps too hastily asserted in chap. 
xix. (p. 311) of this work, that ' as late as the 
eleventh age the monks were, for the most part, lay- 
men.' The change had taken place earlier; and 
though the distinction, such as it now exists, between 
the monks and the lay brethren, was then first estab- 
lished, it seems probable, that the greater part of the 
monks were already ecclesiastics, and that the lay 
brothers were introduced, for the discharge of the 
inferior and more laborious offices. 



MB 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



the discharge of its holiest ofBces. It is not 
without reason, that Roman Cathohc writers 
vaunt the disinterested devotion of the early 
Mendicants — how assiduous they were in 
supplying the spiritul wants of the poor, how 
frequent in prisons and in hospitals, how for- 
ward to encounter the fii*e or the pestilence ; 
how instant on all those occasions where the 
peril was imminent^ and the reward not in this 
world. They were equally distinguished in 
another, and not less righteous, duty, the pro- 
pagation of Christianity among remote and 
savage nations. We have noticed in a former 
Chapter the method, by which the Gospel 
was introduced into the North of Europe, 
before the middle of the eleventh century. 
In the twelfth, we observe Boleslaus, Duke 
of Poland, opening the path for its reception 
in Pomerania by the sword ; and in like 
manner, both the Sclavonians and Finlanders 
were prepared for conversion by conquest. 
Again, Urban III. consecrated Mainhard, an 
unsuccessful missionary, Bishop of the Livo- 
nians, and proclaimed a holy war against 
them; the Bishop conquered his See, and 
promulgated at the head of an army the 
tidings of evangelical concord. The same 
methods were pursued by Innocent III. But 
from that time forward we find much more 
frequent mention of pious missionaries, whose 
labors were directed to accomplish their great 
work by legitimate, or, at least, by peaceful 
means. It may be true, that some of them 
were satisfied with mere nominal conversions, 
and that others had chiefly in view either 
iheir own advancement, or the extension of 
the papal sovereignty. But there were like- 
wise many, who were animated by the most 
admirable motives, and whose exertions^ if 
they failed of complete success, failed not 
through any want of disinterested devotion. 

The missions of the thirteenth and four- 
teenth centuries were principally directed to 
the North of Asia. In 1245, Innocent IV. 
sent an embassy composed of Dominicans and 
Franciscans to the Tartars; and a friendly 
communication was so maintained, that the 
envoys of Abaca, their king, were present, in 
1274, at the second Council of Lyons. Nich- 
olas III. (in 1278) and Nicholas IV. (in 1289) 
renewed those exertions. John of Monte 
Corvino, a Franciscan, was distinguished dur- 
ing the conclusion of the century by the suc- 
cess of his labors ; * and in 1307, Clement V. 
erected an Archiepiscopal See at Cambalu 
(Pekin) which he conferred upon that mis- 



* He is recorded to have translated the Gospels 
aed Psalms into the language of the Tartai's. 



sionary. Seven other Bishops, also Francis- 
cans, were sent to his support by the same 
Pope ; and this distant branch of the hierarchy 
was carefully nourished by succeedmg Pon- 
tiffs, especially John XXII. and Benedict XII. 
It is certain, that the number of Christians was 
not inconsiderable, both among the Chinese 
and Moguls, as late as the year 1370, — and 
they were still increasing, when they were 
suddenly swept away and almost wholly ex- 
terminated by the Mahometan arms.* How- 
beit, the disastrous overthrow^ of their esta- 
blishment detracts nothing from the merit of 
those who constructed it ; and it must not be 
forgotten that the instruments in this work 
were Mendicants, and, for the most part, 
Franciscans. But during the following age 
(the fifteenth,) there are no discoverable traces 
of the same spirit ; nor can we refer with any 
satisfaction to the compulsory proselytism of 
the Moors of Spain, or to those spiritual con- 
quests which immediately follov/ed the dis- 
coveries of the Portuguese and Spaniards. 

When we reflect on the various excellen- 
ces ascribed in the preceding paragraphs to 
the Papal system, we cannot fail, however 
unwillingly, to make two observations ; first, 
that they had declined and almost disappeared 
before the conclusion of the fifteenth century ; 
next, that the greater part of them were only 
adapted to times of civil anarchy or general 
ignorance. But are we therefore to suppose, 
that, even during the reign of Alexander VI., 
the great Christian community of the west 
was wholly destitute of religious instruction, 
or of examples of sacerdotal piety ? that the 
practice of moral justice, or even of Evange- 
lical righteousness, was entirely confined to 
the sectarians of Bohemia, or of the Alpine 
valleys? The prospect is not quite so gloomy ; 
the destinies of man were not thus abandoned 
by his Creator. 

Mysticism a source of piety. — (1.) Under 
the respectable name of Mysticism much 
genuine devotion was concealed, and many 
ardent and humble aspirations poured forth 
before the Throne of Grace. Since the intro- 
duction of the supposed works of Dionysius 
into the west (in the ninth century,) the flame 
has ever continued to burn with more or less 

* It is certain (says Mosheim) that we have rro 
account of any members of the Latin Church residing 
in Tartary, China, or among the Moguls, later than 
the year 1370 ; nor could we ever learn the fate of 
the Franciscan missionaries, who had been sent 
thither from Rome. Yet some doubtful records may 
seem to prove, that there were Nestorians in Cbina 
a5 late as the sixteenth age 



ITS SPIRITUAL CHARACTER, DISCIPLINE, &c. 



549 



of intensity or languor, of purity or the con- 1 
trary, according to the principles of the age, 
the policy of the Church, and the character 
of the prevalent literature. In the tenth and 
eleventh centuries, we may search, indeed, 
almost in vain for any useful records of the 
piety of the Mystics — in the latter, some 
traces, which they have left, ai-e strongly 
marked by visionary enthusiasm, and bear 
no comparison with the more rational de- 
votion of Anselm. In the twelfth, the age 
of Abelard and his scholastic disciples, they 
faintly * opposed the progress of that barren 
system of speculative morality, which grew 
out of the theology of the Schoolmen, and 
which spread with such freezing prevalence 
in the succeeding century. Yet, while those 
heartless te?ichers (the ' Patriarchs of Pedan- 
try ') were classifying the duties of man, dis- 
tinguishing moral from theological virtues, 
minutely subtilizing and dissecting, and sub- 
dividing their subdivisions — while they were 
creating subjects for angiy dispute, rather 
than holy meditation, and laboring in vain to 
resolv^e the difficulties which themselves had 
created, the Mystic Moralists formed an op- 
posite, and not inconsiderable, party in the 
Church. They ventured openly to combat 
the positions of the Scholastics ; and they 
were followed by those with whom religion 
addressed the affections, rather than the rea- 
son, and who more wilingly abandoned 
themselves to an ardent emotion, than en- 
gaged in an intellectual controversy. Thus 
numerously supported, they commanded the 
respect of theu* adversaries ; and some of 
these even deigned to write commentaries on 
the Book of the Areopagite. 

Though not less opposed to the fashionable 
'casuistry' of the fourteenth age, they were 
then less active, or at least less prominent ; it 
is probable that they employed that interval 
in the purification of their own system, and 
in cleansing away those fanciful absurdities 
which had covered it with dishonor and ridi- 
cule. At least, in the fifteenth century, they 
again came foi-ward with the show of a far 
more rational piety than had heretofore distin- 
guished them : insomuch, that the Platonists 
of the day strove to reconcile the warm de- 
votion of the Mystical scheme with the plau- 
sible ingenuity of the Scholastic, and thus 
to construct a new and more perfect method 
of moral theology. It is unquestionable that 
they comprehended, together with the Pla- 
tonists, many individuals of deep and ardent, 



*Mosheim (Cent. xii. p. ii. chap, iii.) mentions 
tlve names of a few of their works. 



though, it might be, misdirected, piety,* and 
of the purest simplicity of moral conversation. 
Yet the age in which they flourished was de- 
fective in expositions of Scripture ; the Ora- 
cles of Truth were insufficiently consulted, 
or injudiciously interpreted, even by the best 
among the servants of the Church ; and the 
Bookjf by which her pretensions were so soon 
to be tried, was studied most successfully by 
her enemies. The merits of the Mystics 
were not sufficient either to reform, or to 
preserve, the declining establishment. Their 
sublime aspirations after the Divine presence 
removed them too far from the ordinary 
sphere of human action. In the abstract 
contemplation of the attributes of the Deity 
they lost the power of influencing the coun- 
sels of men; and their warm imagination 
was not controlled by that firm and temperate 
judgment, which is as essential for the good 
government of churches, as of empires. 

Virtues and Piety of the inferior Clergy, — 
(2.) The real heroes of Ecclesiastical history 
are those, whose belief and life are regulated 
by the laws of Christ ; and the very circum- 
stance, which constitutes their excellence, 
ensures their obscurity. They are not with- 
out their reward even in this world — but it 
is not in the enjoyment of renown, or in the 
hope of worldly immortality. It is in silence, 
that they perform their offices of charity ; it 
is in secrecy, that they fulfil the commands 
of their Master ; it is in humility, that they 
exalt their fellow creatiu'es ; and as soon as 
their peaceful course of usefulness is over, 
they disappear, and leave no sort of trace or 
record of their virtues. It is to the proud, the 
turbulent, the ambitious, to the fanatic or the 
hypocrite, that the pages of the annalist are 
principally consecrated ; and those whose life 
has been an insult to their religion, stand far 
more prominent in the Ecclesiastical picture, 
than those who have loved and obeyed it. 
It is not, that many have not existed, even in 
the worst ages of tlie Church, whose almost 
spontaneous piety has supplied its laws and 



* Among the Mystics, Mosheim places Thomas k 
Kempis, Lam'entius Justinianus, Vincent Ferrier, 
Savonarola, Bernard of Sienna. Among the Platon- 
ists, John Gerson, Nicholas Casanus, Dionysius the 
Carthusian, and others, 

t The Bible Divines, who had been declining from 
the thirteenth century, were now become nearly ex- 
tinct. Books of Sentences and Sums of Schoolmen 
were the principal objects of study; and when, in 
1515, Eiasmus published his edition of the New 
Testament, and thus ' laid the egg which Luther 
hatched,' tlie clergy exclaimed against the act as 
dangerous, if not impious. 



550 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 



corrected its abuses, and repaired, as far as 
their private influence extended, the ruins of 
its discipline — under whose sacred guar- 
dianship the treasures of hfe have been faith- 
fully dispensed, and whose example has 
given sanction to their instructions. It is not, 
that even monastic depravity has not been 
redeemed by thousands of instances of mo- 
nastic excellence. But it is, that the vices 
have been registered and blazoned, while the 
opposite qualities have either attracted no 
notice, or have generally been so exaggerat- 
ed, as to revolt our reason and belief Among 
the numerous progeny of saints, so venerat- 
ed by Catholics, so proscribed by Protestants, 
there have been some examples of pure 
Evangelical holiness ; there have been some 
cardinals who have dared to deviate from the 
rule of profligacy ; there have been many pre- 
lates, eminent for learning and integrity, as the 
History of National Churches and General 
Councils sufficiently demonstrates. But such 
characters were far more common among 
the humble and undistinguished pastors, who 
were free from the vanity, the enthusiasm, or 
the ambition, which so often lurks beneath 
the garb of celebrated sanctity. Yet the eye 
of the historian is fixed by the austere and 
wonder-working Saint, by the pompous Pre- 
late, and the intriguing and rapacious Car- 
dinal, while it overlooks the plants which 
flourish in the lower regions of serenity and 
fi'uitfulness. Notwithstanding, it is scarcely 
too much to affirm, that it was the zeal and 
piety of the inferior clergy, which so long 
supported the cumbrous machinery of the 
Court and Prelacy of Rome. It was their 
vhtues, which sustained the vices of their 
superiors ; it was their humble piety, which 
enabled mitred apostates so long to outrage 
the name of Christ. And it was not till the 
poison had descended to the extremities of 
the system, and communicated even to the 
village pastor some portion of its hierarchical 
malignity, that the Church of Rome reeled to 
its foundation, and by its weakness and de- 
pravity invited and justified the rebellion of 
its children. 

Section III. 

On various Attempts to reform or subvert the 
Church. 
I. — An attentive consideration of the facts 
and remarks advanced in the preceding sec- 
tions will show, that in almost every partic- 
ular, whether of internal polity, or ghostly 
authority, or doctrinal purity, or discipline, 
or morals, the Church of Rome stood lower 



at the end of the fifteenth century than at any 
preceding period. There was one circum- 
stance only in v/hich it had gained ground. 
The temporal power of St. Peter had been 
exalted into a durable monarchy, and the 
limits of the sacred patrimony extended and 
secured, during the last decay of the spiritual 
fabric. The era of Boniface VIII. was prob- 
ably that, in which the various pretensions 
of the See combined with the greatest effect 
for its aggrandizement. Its territorial do- 
mains were then respectable ; its clergy were 
generally exempt from civil jurisdiction ; its 
divine right to worldly power was not uni- 
versally disputed ; its abuses were compar- 
atively inoffensive; its domestic enemies 
were almost harmless. Then commenced its 
downfal ; and it was precipitated through 
two centuries of progressive calamity and 
disgrace. Its constitution, which by the co- 
operation of the Pope with the Cardinals and 
General Councils presented the means of 
regeneration, was suspended and perverted 
by Eugenius IV. and the succeeding pontiffs. 
In the pageantry of its ceremonies, in the 
character of its festivals and its controversies, 
it receded farther and farther fi-om the so- 
berness of reason and the simplicity of the 
Gospel : and its moral degeneracy kept pace 
with its other deprivations. On the other 
hand, the general principles of society were 
improved, and the laity had begun to shake 
off" the deep slumber of obedience and con- 
formity. The corruption was universal, the 
danger imminent; many even among the 
prelates of the Church were not insensible to 
either ; and some, who might perhaps have 
tolerated the scandal, were moved by the 
peril. Thus there grew up a large party 
within the Church, who proclaimed the ne- 
cessity of Reform. 

JVature of the Reform attempted by the 
Churchmen. — The necessity of some reform 
having aroused the wisest and most virtuous 
among the churchmen, questions might nat- 
urally have gi'own up among them, to what 
extent, and on what principles their work 
ought to be conducted ? Yet on this sub- 
ject no important difference appears to have 
arisen. A sacred barrier was placed before 
them which separated that, which might be 
touched, from that, which was inviolate ; and 
it was guarded by irresistible prejudices. On 
this side lay the field of discipline and tem- 
poralities — on the other were the mysterious 
regions of Faith, embracijig all that mass of 
mingled truth and superstition, which the 
Infallible Mother had imposed with equal 



VARIOUS ATTEMPTS TO REFORM, &c. 



551 



rigor, as equally holy, upon her believing 
children. Into the former space the Fathers 
of Constance and Basle entered with some 
boldness of upright determination; but it had 
been sacrilege and heresy to have invaded the 
latter. Hence it arose that the most danger- 
ous wounds were not examined, perhaps not 
even suspected. ' In a mortal disease lenitives 
were administered and oil applied ; ' * and if 
some outward impurities were feebly reme- 
died, their inward causes were purposely 
covered from all inquiry with a venerable 
veil. Thus, while all the genius and learning 
of the Church were combined to repress 
the abuses of Pontifical power — while the 
Pontiff was essaying every art in defence of 
those abuses — while anathemas were inter- 
changed, and the contending parties seemed 
to be emulating each other's rancor — no 
question was for a moment started as to the 
legitimacy of that power. It was thought 
much to deny the infallibility of the Pope, to 
contest his absolute despotism ; but his su- 
premacy was as sacred as the Church itself, 
and the Church was identified with the re- 
ligion. In this delusion both parties were 
equally sincere ; and though tlie high Papists 
were certainly the farthest removed from any 
consideration of Gospel truth, it must be 
admitted, that their opponents were almost 
equally destitute of evangelical principles. 
The Church was the exclusive object, to 
which their education, their interests, their 
prejudices, their enthusiasm, their very piet}^ 
attached them. Within it whatever was holy 
and righteous was concentrated. Without 
it, all was blindness and rebellion and blas- 
phemy ; and their belief was not so much, that 
the Church was founded on the Bible, as that 
the Bible was comprehended in the Church. 
From men with such principles, it was to 
be expected, that those who pleaded Scripture 
as an independent testimony of truth — that 
those who spoke even of ti-ulh as independent 
of ecclesiastical authority, would meet with 
no sympathy, and little mercy. Accordingly, 
their advances towards reform were made 
in the very bosom of orthodoxy. The most 
frivolous superstitions were rather encour- 
aged, than restrained ; no innovation was 
introduced, which could have startled the 
bigotry of the most rigid Romanist. Nothing 
was even remotely intended for change, ex- 
cept the discipline. Yet even this depart- 



* The Bishop of Segovia addressed this expression 
to the Fathers of Trent, who, under still more dan- 
gerous circumstances, were following the same policy. 
See Padre Paolo, b. vi. 



ment presented ample employment for the 
hand of the reformer, had he entered upon 
his work honestly and fearlessly. Howbeit, 
even on this ground, unhallowed as it was 
by any spiritual prejudices, those fathers did 
not penetrate, in their boldest attempts, to the 
roots of the evil. They confined their hos- 
tility to the abuses which were of modern 
origin. Their veneration for antiquity, that 
professional reverence for established prac- 
tices, which so strongly characterized the 
clergy of that Church, forbade them to search 
very deeply or very generally. They endeav- 
ored, indeed, to correct some disorders, which 
had notoriously grown up during the two or 
three preceding ages ; it was a specious object 
to abolish the corruptions of Avignon, to re- 
pair the ruins of the schism ! But they were 
awed by the holy obscurity of earlier times ; 
and the clumsy forgery of a monk of the 
eighth century arrested the most enlightened 
among the doctors of Constance and Basle^ 

Nevertheless, the schemes of the reformers, 
though bearing no propoitioji to the real 
emergencies of the Church, were wise as far 
as they went, and calculated to prolong the 
existing system. Had they been cordially 
carried into effect, some useful improvements 
would have been introduced, some unpopular 
scandals removed; the most distinguished 
ecclesiastics would have rallied round the 
Pope, and the laity would have respected, for 
a certain time, the concessions and the union 
of the clergy. But even this imperfect result 
did not take place. It has been shown with 
how great pertinacity the Pope and his profli- 
gate adherents fought the battle of corruption, 
and defended every abuse, which was fraught 
with present profit, and future and early de- 
struction.* In the struggle which divided 



* It might seeem unnecessary to fortify this position 
by any authority. Yet the opinion of one of the most 
clear-sighted prelates, who have ever adorned and 
defended the Roman Catholic Church, may not by 
some be thought superfluous. * C'est ainsi (saya 
Bossuet) que dans le quinzieme siecle le Cardinal 
(Julien), le plus grand homme de son temps, en 
deplorait les maux, et en prevoyait la suite funeste: 
par ou il semble avoir predit ceux, que Luther allait 
appreter k toute la Chrestiente, en commencant par 
I'Allemagne; et il ne s'est pas trompe lorsqu'il a 
cru, que la Reformation meprisee, et la haine 
redoublee contre le Clerge allait enfanter une 
sects plus redoutable d VEglise, que celle des 
Bohemiens. Elle est venue cette secte sous la con- 
duite de Luther; et en prenant le titre de Reforme, 
elle s'est vantee d'avoir accompli les voeux de toute 
la Chrestiente, puisque la reformation estoit desiree 
par les peuples, par les docteurs, et par les prelate 
Catboliques.' Histoirfi des Variations, liy, i. 



552 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, 



the Church, the policy of the hour prevailed. 
The unity of power and design, the keen 
sense of personal interest, the tyranny of in- 
veterate prejudice, gave the triumph to the 
less virtuous, the less provident, even the less 
numerous party ; and after the fathers of Basle 
had reluctantly dispersed, and their creature 
Felix V. resigned the name of Pontiff, the 
bark of St. Peter was urged forward by a gale 
of unruffled prosperity, until suddenly, and 
soon, and in the moment of most exulting se- 
curity, it was dashed against the rocks and 
shattered irreparab!3^ 

A circumstance, which may have suspend- 
ed the downfal of the Church, was the ele- 
vation of two Popes (Nicholas V. and Pius 
II.), whose reputation and pursuits were in 
harmony with the popular passion for reviving 
letters. Their personal qualities concealed 
for a moment the vices of the system, and 
substituted in public observation the splendor 
of a literary court. Again, the overthrow of 
the Eastern Empire, and the danger of Turk- 
ish invasion, became powerful instruments 
for diverting attention from ecclesiastical 
grievances: and the clamor for reform was, 
for awhile, drowned in specious appeals to 
the policy of princes, and the enthusiasm 
of their subjects — but for awhile only. The 
spirit of the age, when once decided and 
pronounced, can neither be long eluded, nor 
safely resisted. A little time may be gained: 
the progress of improvement may be slightly 
retarded ; but it will presently spring forward 
the more rapidly, as it has been the longer 
held back. Now, the preceding century (the 
fourteenth) was one of mixed and conflicting 
principles ; it had not assumed any marked 
or definite character; and thus the Church 
inarched safely through it, with all its de- 
pravity on its head. But in the fifteenth, the 
principles of society were fixed ; the general 
voice of Christendom proclaimed the necessi- 
ty of reformation ; the high-church dominant 
I)arty presumed to disobey, or, with equal 
impolicy, descended to evasion ; and through 
their own perversity they fell. And whether 
it was, that they were too blind to see their 
danger, or too obstinate to sacrifice their 
vices, they fell by a fate, which few will 
affect to deplore, and which none can deem 
undeserved. 

Ilowbeit, since the secession of the Protes- 
tant communities, a gradual though tardy 
reformation has been virtually accomplished 
in the bosom of the Roman Catholic Church. 
Its most extravagant pretensions have been 
generally withdrawn; and if no important 



change has been introduced into the body of 
its doctrine, yet the abuse of some of its tenets 
has been in some places mitigated; and its 
discipline has been every where amended 
and purified. When it had lost the half of 
its dominions, it turned itself to improve and 
preserve the rest — from the blow which clejfl 
its triple crown, it first began to learn the 
wisdom of moderation ; and to discover in 
sackcloth and ashes, that its wisest counsellors 
and truest friends had ever been those, who 
had warned it to repent and amend. 

II. Attempts to trace the continuity of.Jhe 
Protestant opinions to the Apostolical times. — 
Several learned and pious Protestants have 
attempted to trace the uninterrupted descent 
of their doctrines, or at least of some essen- 
tial portion of them, even from the apostolic 
times. Great ingenuity and research have 
been employed for this purpose, partly to 
make it thus manifest, that the Almighty, 
while he permitted so much iniquity to be 
perpetrated in his name, did still nourish in 
secret his true and perpetual Church ; partly, 
that the perpetual succession of the ministry 
might not seem wanting to the reformed 
communities; partly, because the reverence 
for antiquity, especially in ecclesiastical mat- 
ters, has a powerful, perhaps an undue, influ- 
ence on the greater part of mankind. For " 
these reasons very much has been written 
about the ' Lutheranism which was prevalent 
before Luther;' the unbroken series of Wit- 
nesses of the truth;' the unceasing protesta- 
tions which have been silently breathed in all 
ages, against the abuses of Rome.* 

* This subject has been treated by Bossiiel, in 
the eleventh chapter of his Variations, eloquently, 
learnedly, and of course not impartially: and thus, 
while he has unquestionably established many of his 
positions, he has advanced others which are untena- 
ble. (1) Respecting the Albigeois. He has estab- 
lished that they were wholly distinct from the Vau- 
dois: and that they held many opinions which are 
condemned by all Protestants. But he has failed in 
proving their Manichean origin — still more their 
Manichean doctrines — for to make out this identity 
he has invented so many marks or characters of 
Manicheism, wholly unconnected with its original 
and only true mark, the doctrine of the two princi- 
ples, as to embrace under that name errors entire- 
ly dissociated from it. He calls them indeed new 
Manicheans, and admits that ' they had softened 
some of their errors.' But they had parted with the 
characteristic error, or, in fact, they had never held 
it. For the same reason he has failed in confounding 
them with the Catharists, Bulgari, &o., who were 
the real descendants of the Paulicians. (2) Respect 
ing the Vaudois. He shows the great uncertainty 



VARIOUS ATTEMPTS TO REFORM, &c. 



555 



It is unquestionable, that so early as the 
beginning of the twelfth century, some of the 
Protestant opinions were openly professed, and 
atoned for by death. And it is equally certain, 
that, from the preaching of Peter de Bruis to 
that of Luther, there have subsisted in some 
quarter or other of the western community 
various bodies of Sectaries,* who were at open 
or secret variance with the Church of Rome 
— who rejected, according to their respective 
principles, in part or in whole, her tenets, or 
her ceremonies, or her ministry. It may be 
doubted, whether the Albigeois, in spite of 
the crusades of Innocent, and the Inquisition 
of Toulouse, were ever entirely extirpated. 
The Vaudois were certainly preserved through 



perhaps the entire vanity, of their claims to a sepa- 
rate descent from the Antenicene Church. He shows 
that, at their first appearance, their differences with 
Rome were less numerous and important than they 
became afterwards: that they adopted some new 
opinions after their union with the Protestants: that 
they were the same with the Leonists and the Insab- 
bates. But he does not establish his assertion, that 
they were founded by Peter Waldo of Lyons. (3) 
Respecting the Bohemian Brethren. He rightly 
supposes, that the Hussites were not descended from 
the Vaudois ; and that the ' Brethren ' made some 
doctrinal concessions on their union with the Lutlicr- 
ans. But when he asserts that Huss had no doctrinal 
difference with the Church, except on the single 
communion; and that the same was the only subject 
of disaffection with the Calixtiues; he has not fairly 
represented either the one or the other. The ' here- 
sies ' of Huss were less bold and numerous than those 
of Wicliff; those of the Calixtines than those of the 
Thaborites; and that respecting the cup was the 
most publicly professed; but it was associated with 
others less notorious. In the meantime, we must 
admit, that he has, in our opinion, established his 
two leading positions; viz., that the Protestants fail 
in their attempts to prove an uninterrupted succes- 
sion; and that those whom they claim as their ances- 
tors differed from them in numerous points of doc- 
trine. We might notice some rash assertions on less 
important points — but our readers are aware that 
they should be cautious in following Bossuet on his 
own unsupported assertion — on ih^iparole, ' toujours 
eloquente ' (as Voltaire truly says of it) ' et quelque- 
fois trompeuse.' 

* It might seem scarcely necessary to remark, that 
we have frequently, in the course of this work, used 
the word Sect in its original and proper sense — of a 
body of men united by certain tenets, — the sense in 
which Tertullian used it (Apol. cap. v.) when he 
called the whole Christian community hanc Sectam. 
Only it is a common error to connect with this term 
the idea of cutting off, and thus to attach a degrad- 
ing notion to it. In the same manner, the term 
Heresy (in its origin equally inoffensive,) we have 
commonly applied to those, whom the church has 
denounced as heretics — without any reference what- 
ever to the natiu-e of their opinions. 
70 



the perils of four centuries of oppression. The 
ashes of WiclifF were not lost in their rough 
descent into the ocean ; and the spirit, which 
rose out of the funeral flames of Huss, sur- 
vived to expand m the bosoms of his com- 
patriots. 

From this short catalogue we have pur- 
posely excluded innumerable denominations 
of heresy, of which there were scarcely any 
which did not, in some one respect, or in 
more than one, anticipate the Confession of 
Augsbourg. The various forms of Mysticism 
were universally opposed, in their progress as 
in their origin, to the outward pageantry of 
the Roman Church. The spiritual Francis- 
cans, who questioned the omnipotence of the 
Pope, and denounced the corruptions, no less 
than the wealth, of the Clergy, are even plac- 
ed by Mosheim among the forerunners of the 
Reformation. At least, it is certain, that their 
continued insubordination, combined with 
such high pretensions to sanctity, had its effect 
in preparing the downfal of Papacy ; and thus 
they may properly be numbered among the 
instruments appointed to divide its strength, 
and betray its fortress by intestine discord to 
the foe without. 

Again, among the sects, which we have 
mentioned as the more genuine precursors of 
Luther and Zuinglius,* there was not one 
which furnished in all respects a faithful mo- 
del for their more perfect reformation. There 
were points on which they differed from each 
other. There were points on which they dif- 
fered both from Roman Catholics and Protes- 
tants. There vvere even points in which they 
agreed with the former, and fell far short of the 
subsequent doctrine of the latter. But there 
were also many articles of essential impor- 
tance, on which they opposed, with premature 
independence, their reason and their Bible, to 
the abuses and even to the authority, of the 
Church. 

Such were the sects, from which the Pro- 
testants claim their descent, and to which they 
are justly grateful for having prepared their 
path, and set the example of non-conformity. 
But they sprang up before their season ; their 
imperfect lights were unable to preserve them 
fi-om error; curiosity and knowledge were 



* Semler (Secul. xv. cap. iv. p. 218) enumerates 
a variety of opinions hostile to the Church, in the 
design to show that Luther was not so much the first 
who came into the design of vindicating the public 
Christian religion, as that he trod in footsteps clearly 
traced before him — so that those are in error, who 
consider the Reformation as a political, rather than a 
religious, movement. 



654 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



yet too scantily distributed among the mass 
of the people to give them a substantial foot- 
ing there; and thus they fell before the es- 
tablished despotism, and shed their precious 
blood, both as an eternal testimony against 
the Church, and as the seed of more enlarged 
principles in a happier age. 

The Vaudois. — In our journey back towards 
the apostolical times, these separatists conduct 
us as far as the beginning of the twelfth centu- 
ry ; but when we would advance farther, we are 
intercepted by a broad region of darkness and 
uncertainty. A spark of hope is indeed sug- 
gested by the history of the Vaudois. Their 
origin is not ascertained by any authentic re- 
cord ; and being immemorial, it may have been 
coeval with the introduction of Christianity. 
Among their own traditions there is one, 
which agrees well with their original and fa- 
vorite tenet, which objects to the possession 
of property by ecclesiastics. It is this — that 
their earliest fathers, offended at the liberality 
with which Constantine endowed the Church 
of Rome, and at the worldliness with which 
Pope Sylvester accepted those endowments, 
seceded into the Alpine solitudes; that they 
there lay concealed and secure for so many 
ages through their insignificance and their 
innocence. This may have been so — it is not 
even very improbable, that it was so. But 
since there is not one direct proof of their 
existence during that long space ; since they 
have never been certainly discovered by the 
curiosity of any writer, nor detected by the 
inquisitorial eye of any orthodox bishop, nor 
named by any Pope or Council, or any Church 
record, chronicle, or memorial, we are not 
justified in attaching any historical credit to 
their mere unsupported tradition. It is suffi- 
cient to prove, that they had an earlier exist- 
ence than the twelfth century ; but that they 
had then been perpetuated through eight or 
nine centuries, uncoramemorated abroad, and 
without any national monument to attest their 
existence, is much more than we can venture, 
on such evidence, to assert. Here then the 
golden chain of our apostolical descent dis- 
appears ; and though it may exist, buried in 
the darkness of those previous ages, and 
though some writers have seemed to discern 
a few detached links which they have dilli- 
gently exhibited, there is still much wanting 
to complete the continuity.* 



* The claims of the Protestant Mountaineers in 
Pauphine appear to be somewhat stronger than those 
of the Vaudois; because (as has been mentioned) 
neither the worship of images, nor tlie pontifical 
jurisdiction was established in France, so early as 



The Alhigeois. — When we turn to the his- 
tory of the Albigeois, we find there still less 
to flatter our hopes, or encourage our pursuit. 
For if we adopt the more probable opinion 
respecting the origin of that sect — that it was 
engendered by the contrast, so perceptible 
even to the least instructed, between the cha- 
racter of the Church and the first principles 



in Italy — probably not till the middle of the ninth 
century. Now, as soon afterwards as the year 1025 
we have records of the existence, at Arraa, of certain 
erroneous opinions, which were supposed to have 
proceeded from ' the Alpine borders of Italy.' In 
this case, the interval of silence is reduced to rather 
less than two centuries: and though this space will 
seem to many sufficient to destroy all historical ground 
for asserting an unin,terrupted succession, nevertheless, 
upon the whole, we are disposed to consider it as 
very probable, that on the sides and under the brows 
of those desolate mountains there may have existed 
in every age a few obscure peasants, whom all the 
innovations of Rome have never reached. Different 
persons will attach different degrees of importance 
to this result — we therefore refer the curious reader, 
with great pleasure, to Mr. Gilly's ' Memoirs of 
Neff,' where the subject is argued with learning and 
earnestness. At the same time it is proper to men- 
tion what those opinions really were which were 
condemned at Anas in 1025; lest it should be sup- 
posed, that they were at variance only with the 
Roman Catholic Church, and strictly in accordance 
with apostolical truth. (1.) It was asserted, that 
the sacrament of baptism was useless, and of no 
efficacy to salvation. (2.) That the sacrament of 
the Lord's Supper was equally unnecessary. (It 
would seem that the objections of the heretics on this 
point went beyond the mere denial of the change of 
substance.) (3.) That there was no peculiar sanc- 
tity in churches, (4.) nor holiness in the altar. (5.) 
That the use of bells, &c., to summon the people to 
worship, was objectionable. (6.) That the sacred 
orders of the ministry were not of divine institution. 
(7.) That the Church rites of sepulture are to be 
ascribed to the avarice of the clergy. (8.) That 
penance was altogether inefficacious. (This appears 
to have been an inference from their denial of the 
efficacy of baptism.) (9.) That alms, vicarious 
penance, &c., are of no use to the dead (which in- 
volved the denial of purgatory.) (10.) That mar- 
riage in general was contrary to the evangelical and 
apostolical laws. (11.) That saint-worship is to be 
confined to the apostles and martyrs — not extended 
to the confessors, i. e. holy men, not martyrs. (12.) 
That church music is reprehensible. (13.) That the 
cross is not an object of worship, (14.) nor the 
Saviour's image on the cross, nor any other image. 
(15.) That the orders of the hierarchy are objection- 
able. (16.) That the doctrine of works (Justitia) 
supersedes that of divine grace, and every man's 
hope of salvation lies in his own deserts (see Labbaei 
Concil. torn. xix. p. 423. Ex Dacherii Spicileg. 
2 ed. vol, i. p. 607.) So mixed and various is the 
substance of those opinions, to which learned writers 
on this subject appeal with so much satisfaction. 



ITS TREATMENT OF HERETICS. 



5o5 



of Christianity — its birth must at least have 
succeeded the manifest corruption of the 
Church ; nor is there any evidence to prove 
it more ancient, than the twelfth or perhaps 
eleventh century. If, on the other hand, we 
should identify those Dissenters (as some have 
done) with the Catbari, the Gazari, Paterini, 
Publicani, and others of the same age, who 
were collateral branches of the Paulician 
family, we are not, indeed, any longer at a 
loss to trace the succession to very high an- 
tiquity. It is also true, that the contempt of 
images, the disbelief in transubstantiation, and 
some other protestant principles, were faith- 
fully perpetuated in that heretical race. But 
these attractive characteristics were tainted, 
more or less deeply, by the poison of Man- 
ichseism : and since it is our object to establish 
a connexion with the primitive Church, we 
shall scarcely attain it through those, whose 
fundamental principle was unequivocally re- 
jected by that Church, as irrational and im- 
pious.* 

Mysticism. — If the claim again be reduced 
from a succession of sects to a series of pious 
individuals, who in every age of the Church 
may have secretly protested against its abuses 
and its workUiness, it becomes equally im- 
possible to prove its existence, and to deny its 
probability. The aspirations of mysticism, 
sometimes degraded into absurdity, sometimes 
exalted into the purest piety, have unques- 
tionably pervaded and warmed every portion 
of the ecclesiastical system, from the earliest 
sera even to the present. Its perpetual exist- 
ence alone shows, that in private bosoms, 
and especially in the abstractions of the mon- 
astery, a disaffection towards the ceremonies, 
towards the grosser abuses, and perhaps to- 
wards some of the sacraments of the Church, 
has been unceasingly nourished, even within 
its own precincts. But the names of these con- 
templative and unambitious individuals are, 
for the most part, lost in oblivion ; and even 
if they were not so, the truth of the Protes- 
tant principles would gain little assurance, 

* Manes, a Persian, (the pretended Paraclete,) 
propounded his system, for reconciling the Magian 
with the Christian opinions, in the third century. 
The system was, indeed, original, in as far only as it 
was a new application of the doctrine of the two 
principles — but the doctrine itself had been (as we 
have seen) employed by the Gnostics for the corrup- 
tion of Christianity, long before the time of Manes. 
It is for this reason, that we have not bestowed that 
attention on tiie system of the Persian fanatic, which 
it usually receives from ecclesiastical writers. It may 
suffice to refer the ordinary reader to Mosheim, cent, 
iii. p. 11. chap, v., and Bayle, Article — Manicheens, 



and their dignity little increase, from so slen- 
der, imperfect and precarious a connexion 
with the apostolical purity. 

Upon the whole, then, it seems impossible 
to establish on historical ground the theory 
of an uninterrupted transmission of the or- 
riginal faith from the primitive times to those 
of Luther. Indications of its occasional ex- 
istence may be discovered, but no proof of 
its continuity. Yet is this no disparagement 
to those faithful witnesses, who were called 
into existence in the iron days of the Church. 
They bequeathed to their more fortunate suc- 
cessors their principles and their example. 
Nor were they in their own times without 
influence, nor even without peril to the pon- 
tifical predominance. Innocent III. did not 
despise their infancy : he beheld it, on the 
contrary, with such anxious apprehension, as 
to divert the engine, with which he was 
armed for other purposes, to their destruction. 
He knew the real character of his own des- 
potism, and the secret of its weakness ; and 
while, by his clamor for the crusades, he sub- 
dued the understanding of mankind, his own 
deeper penetration taught him, from what 
quarter the storm must really issue, which 
would finally overthrow his throne : and in 
the lineaments of that little cloud, which 
raised its prophetic hand in the horizon of 
heresy, he read the denunciation of future 
wrath, and heard the distant murmur of ad- 
vancing reason. 

III. On the treatment of Heretics hy the 
Church. — It was not till the Popes had estab- 
lished their authority in most of the Courts 
of Europe, that the principles of persecution 
were displayed in their full extent, or the 
practice attended with much barbarity. The 
previous efforts of Alexander III. and Ca- 
lixtus II. betrayed the disposition and show- 
ed the sting — but it was not yet armed and 
poisoned. The execution of the mystics of 
Orleans, at a still earlier period, was perpe- 
trated by the king and the bishop, without 
any excuse of pontifical interference. In fact, 
the unity of the Church was not protected 
by the authorized use of the sword, until the 
reign of Innocent III. His great power en- 
abled him not only to turn a casual storm 
against a particular sect of the heretics of the 
day; but to engage the temporal weapon, by 
a general and perpetual edict, in the service 
of the spiritual. 

The third Canon of the Lateran council, 
held by that Pontiff, contained an injunction 
to the effect, ' that temporal lords be admon- 



556 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



ished, and, if necessaiy, compelled by cen- 
sures, to take a public oath to exterminate 
heretics from their territories. If any one, 
being thus required, shall refuse to purge his 
land, he shall be excommunicated by the Me- 
tropolitan and his suffragans ; and if he shall 
give proofs of still further contumacy, the 
Pope shall absolve his subjects from their 
fealty*. . .' Of Roman Catholic writers, those 
who would willingly cleanse their Church 
from the stain of blood, and those who dis- 
approve of its claims to temporal authority, 
are equally perplexed by this edict. But 
while there are some who affect to doubt its 
genuineness ; while others affirm, that it was 
directed only against feudatories, not against 
the supreme Lord ; others, that it was dic- 
tated by Innocent to a council so servile, as 
even to impeach its authority; others again, 
that it was only levelled against the contem- 
porary heretics, whose detested Manicheism 
deserved the sentence — a more plausible ex- 
cuse may be alleged in the consent or silence 
of the princes and ambassadors, who were 
present at the council. In fact, on Innocent's 
death, which followed soon afterwards, Hon- 
orius, his successor, applied to Frederic II. to 
insert the Canon among the constitutions of 
the empire. He did so. And having thus 
embarked the State in the same conspiracy 
■with the Church, and degraded it, besides, 
to be the mere executioner of the sentences 
of its accomplice, he loaded the former with 
ignominy, and shared without in any respect 
ditninishing the guilt of the latter. 

Henceforward, the ecclesiastical and civil 
authorities legally and systematically co-op- 
erated in the destruction of many bold and 
virtuous spirits, who for three successive 
centuries asserted, under different forms and 
names, the private right of reading and inter- 
preting the Gospel. Henceforward, the se- 
cular arm was ever in subservient attendance 
on the decisions of sacerdotal barbarity ; and 
it was in this subordinate ministry of an in- 



* The words are these: — ' Si vero Dornimis Tem- 
poralis requisitiis et moiiitus ab ecclesia terram suam 
purgare neglexerit ab hac heretica foeditate, per 
metropolilanos et cgeteros episcopos comprovineiales 
exconimunicationis vinculo innodetur. Et si satis- 
facere contempserit infra annunn, significetiir hoc 
sumrno pontifici: et extiinc ipse vassallos ab ejus 
fidelitate denuntiet absolutos, et terram exponet ca- 
tholicis occupendam . . . salvo jure, domini principa- 
lis, dummodo super hoc ipse nullum praestet obsta- 
culum, nee aliquod impedimentum opponat: eadem 
nihilominus lege servata circa eos, qui non habent 
dominos principales.' SeeLabb. Concil. Collect, torn. 
xxii. p. 981, et tseq., et supra chap, xviii. p. 349. 



dependent power, that the real executioners 
found a pretext to proclaim their own unsul- 
lied charity — that their bands, at least, were 
undefiled ; that the Church was merciful and 
long-suffering, and that the penal flames were 
lighted by the vengeance of the temporal 
'powers! 

The Inquisition embodied the principles 
and practice of persecution ; and, notwith- 
standing the abhorrence which it raised in 
some places, it was an engine of good service 
in protecting the Unity of the Roman Catho- 
lic Church. That fatal principle, of which 
the name, at least, and even the seeds may 
be traced to the earliest ages, occasioned more 
than half the crimes that stain the ecclesias- 
tical annals. Every hope of salvation was 
confined to the bosom of the Church ; should 
any dare to abandon that exclusive sanctuary, 
their heritage was eternal perdition — if, then, 
by the fear or endurance of mere temporary 
torture men could be preserved from eternal 
inflictions, was not the office salutary.^ was 
not the duty peremptory ? Alas ! for the pre- 
sumption of those who were sincere in this 
profession. But, if any there were who 
falsely joined the cry, with no further object, 
than to support the system by which they 
profited, there may be pardon reserved for 
them in the mercy of God, but there is no 
term in the vocabulary of crime w^hich can 
express their guilt. 

It would be an insult on human nature not 
to suppose, that among the ministers of the 
Roman Church there were many, who indi- 
vidually abhorred the practice, and softened 
by their private tolerance the rigor of the 
ecclesiastical code. But the high and domi- 
nant party in the Church was always that, 
which stretched the principle of its 'Unity' 
to its extreme length, and pursued the victims 
of that principle with as much severity, as 
the policy of princes and the endurance of 
the laity would permit. As in the thirteenth 
century, so was it in the fifteenth ; as in the 
Lateran, so was it in the halls of Constance ; 
as with Innocent, so with Gerson and Cle- 
niangis, and the reformers of Innocent's 
abuses.* The spirit possessed the Church : 



* It must not be understood that Innocent III. 
deliberately corrupted, or even relaxed, the ecclesias- 
tical discipline — on the contrary, he published many 
excellent decrees for its severer observance — only, 
by unduly aggrandizing papal authority he rendered 
those decrees in effect nugatory. Thus, for instance, 
respecting the abuses of pluralities and non-residence 
— the fourteenth canon of the Third Lateran Council 
(held by Alexander III.) denounced both those prac- 
tices in very strong terms, as in direct violation of 



INDIVIDUAL REFORMERS. 



557 



thence it emanated and swelled the bosoms 
of its ministers ; and the more devoted was 
the individual to the service of that Church, 
the more thoroughly was his soul impregnat- 
ed with the venom. 

It was not, that even these Ecclesiastics 
•were necessarily destitute of private virtues, 
or that they lost, in the exercise of official 
barbarity, all sense of justice and all feeling 
of mercy. They might be compassionate, 
they might even be charitable. It might be, 
that they were only cruel and unjust, and 
tuicharitable, in as far as they were imbued 
with the high ecclesiastical principle — in as 
far as they identified the religion of the Gos- 
pel with their own modification of it — in as 
far as they mistook the interests of their order 
for the honor of Christ. 

A practice sanctified by the authority, and 
enforced by the zeal of the sacred body, 
found innumerable advocates among the laity, 
and it was never in more general favor, than 
at the end of the fifteenth century. Even 
the philosophers of that age were hostile to 
tlie exercise, or perhaps ignorant of the name, 
of tolerance. The Popes pressed with unre- 
lenting rigor the hereditary usage ; and the 
arm of the Inquisition was lengthened, and 
its ingenuity sharpened and refined. In the 
rarit}'- of Christian * victims — for the Hussites 

tlie ancient canons — and added: 'Cum igitur eccle- 
sia, vel ecclesiasticum ministerium committi debuerit, 
talis ad hoc persona qiiaeratur, quae residere in loco, 
et curam ejus per seipsum valeat exercere ' — on the 
penalty of deprivation to the minister, and loss of 
patronage to the patron. Innocent III., thirty -six 
years afterwards, published a canon (the twenty- 
ninth) in the Fourth Lateran, on the same subject. 
Herein, he referred to the law of Alexander, men- 
tioned the little fruit which it had produced, and 
decreed in confirmation of it, ' ut quicunque receperit 
aliquod beneficium habens curam animarum annex- 
am, si prius tale beneficium obtinebat, eo sit jure ipso 
privatus: et si forte illud retinere contenderit, alio 
etiam spolietur.' He added, moreover, that no one 
should hold two dignities in the same church, even 
without cure of souls. But then he concluded with 
a salvo, which Alexander had not interposed, in 
I favor of the Pope's dispensing power j ' Circa sub- 

j limes tamen et literatas personas, qute majoribus sunt 

beneficiis honorandee, cum ratio postulaverit, per 
aedem apostoHcam poterit dispensari.' 
i * It should not, however, be forgotten that the 

Vaudois suffered several severe outrages during this 
period. In 1400 they were attacked in the Valley 
of Pragela and driven to the summits of the moun- 
tains, where many died from starvation. In 1460 
the Separatists in the Val Fressiniere (on the French 
side) were persecuted by a Franciscan, under the 
authority of the Archbishop of Ambrun. Every 
, thing tliat fraud and calumny could invent seems on 



were not victims, but enemies and warriors- 
attention was turned to the perversity of the 
Jews; and Sixtus IV., Innocent VIII. and 
Alexander VI. added to their other offences 
the crime of persecution. Persecution was, 
indeed, at this time almost the only proof 
which the Court of Rome affected to exhibit 
of its attachment to religion. It was become 
the apparent object of the spiritual govern- 
ment ; and the perpetrator of every enormity 
sought atonement for his guilt in the blood 
of the misbeliever. It was become a part 
of ecclesiastical morality; and it was now 
founded not so much on hostility to any par- 
ticular opinion, or any bigoted belief in the 
opposite, as on the determination, that no new 
opinion should be broached with impunity. 
It was not against the results of thought, but 
against the liberty of thinking, that the bolts 
were now really levelled. The rebellion 
was more detestable than the heresy ; and 
the wretches, who dared to plead their Bible 
against their Church, were marked out, not 
for conversion, but for massacre.* The end, 
being holy, sanctified the means ; and in pur- 
suing the details of religious warfare, we 
shall commonly observe, that, if the deeds 
of pure atrocity are equally balanced, the 
superiority in fraud, perfidy and perjury, is 
without any comparison on the side of the 
Catholics. 

IV. Some individual Reformers of the Fif- 
teenth Century. — It is needless here to re- 



that occasion to have been practised against them. 
In 1487 and 1488 fresh bulls were issued, followed by 
military violence. Albert de Capitaneis, Archdeacon 
of Cremona, was deputed by Innocent VIII. to com- 
mand the attack. But the fortune of war appears 
for this time to have favored tlie oppressed. See 
Milner, Cent, xiii. chap, iii, 

* ' On ne voulait point convertir les Bohemiens 
(says Sismondi,) on voulait les trainer sur le bucher,' 
We may plead the authority of that historian for the 
justice of some of these last remarks. See likewise 
Semler, Secul. xv, cap. iii, p. 51, &c. &c. Still it 
should be observed, that a certain latitude of private 
judgment, on certain subjects, was generally indulg- 
ed to the members of the Church, as, for instance, 
to many Mystics; but this was either when the 
' Latitudinarians ' were in themselves deemed inno- 
cent, or when the opinions touched none of the essen- 
tials of the ecclesiastical system, none of the sources 
of dignity, revenue, &c. Thus, for example, in the 
dispute between Luther and Cardinal Carvajal, there 
were two grand subjects of difference, indulgences 
and justification. Luther was disposed to attach by 
far the highest importance to the latter; but the 
Cardinal assured him, that if he would retract his 
error respecting indulgences, the other affair could 
be easily arranged. 



558 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



1 



peat the names of the anti-papal adherents of 
Louis the Bavarian, or of the more eminent 
reformers of Constance and Basle. Nor shall 
we recur to the premature, but not fruitless, 
efforts of Wiclif and Huss. But it is proper 
to make some mention of those individuals 
who were distinguished for their opposition 
to ecclesiastical abuses during the latter part 
of the fifteenth century. These were the 
immediate precursors of Luther; and though 
differing on many matters fifom each other 
and from him ; and though his inferiors 
in evangelical wisdom, in intellectual power 
and personal character, they were not with- 
out their use in preparing the path for his 
triumph. 

John of Wesalia. — In 1479, John of Wes- 
alia incurred, by some opinions unfavorable 
to the pretensions of the hierarchy, the in- 
dignation of the Monastic Orders. He pro- 
nounced indulgences to be of no avail — that 
the Pope, bishops and priests were not instru- 
ments for the obtaining of salvation. He 
spoke with disparagement of the fasts, of the 
holy oil, of pilgrimages, of the Pope and his 
Councils. He advocated the Greek doctrine 
on the procession of the Holy Ghost. More- 
over, he was a zealous Nominalist, at a mo- 
ment when the violence of the rival scholastics 
equalled any recorded display of theological 
rancor. He was brought to trial ; among his 
judges Monks and Realists preponderated ; 
' if Christ (said he) were now present, and ye 
were to treat him as ye treat me, He might 
be condemned by you as a heretic' He was 
pronounced guilty ; and, in spite of a tardy 
retractation, was committed to penitential 
confinement in a monastery, where he pre- 
sently died. 

Joh7i Wesselus. — John Wesselus, of Gron- 
ingen, was more eminent in genius and learn- 
ing, and more fortunate in the circumstances 
of his fate ; since he enjoyed the friendship 
of Sixtus IV., and died in peace (in 1489) 
in his native city. His general attainments 
were such as to acquire for him the title of 
the ' Light of the World ; ' and among the 
numerous witnesses of the truth,* it is he 



* The ' Catalogus Testium Veritatis,' by Flacius, 
is intended, we presume, to contain every name and 
thing which has in any age and by any means done 
any ill to Papacy. Out of the various particulars of 
this Catalogue (which begins with Sacra Scriptura 
and ends with Concilia XV. Seculi,) we select as 
specimens the following names: — Constantine, Greg- 
ory the Great, Bede, Charlemagne, Claudius of Turin, 
Hincmar, Paschasius Radbertus, Otho Frisingensis, 
Nicholaus Orem., Scotus, Occam, Dante, Petrarch, 
Wiclif, Gerson, Ziska, Peter of Luna, iEneas Syl- 



who has been more peculiarly designated the 
Forerunner of Luther. The resemblance 
between them was, indeed, remarkable, not 
only as to the conclusions at which they 
arrived, but as to the steps by which they 
reached them. Insomuch, that Luther him- 
self, in a preface, in which he recommended 
to more general attention some of the works 
of Wesselus, used the following expressions: 
— ' It is very plain that he was taught of God, 
as Isaiah prophesied that Christians should 
be ; and as in my case, so with him, it can- 
not be supposed that he received his doctrines 
from men. If I had read his works before, 
my enemies might have supposed that I had 
learnt every thing from Wesselus, such a 
perfect coincidence there is in our opinions. 
As to myself, I not only derive pleasure, but 
strength and courage from this publication. 
It is now impossible for me to doubt, whether 
I am right in the points which I have incul- 
cated, when I see so entire an agreement in 
sentiment, and almost the same words used 
by this eminent person, who lived in a dif- 
ferent age, in a distant country^ and in cir- 
cumstances very unlike my own. I am 
surprised that this excellent Christian writer 
should be so little known — the reason may 
be that he lived without blood and contention, 
for this is the only thing in which he differed 

from me ' This was WTitten in 1522, 

when Luther had made some progress to- 
wards evangelical perfection. His testimony 
makes it unnecessary to particularize the 
opinions of Wesselus; but we may relate one 
anecdote respecting him, which proves that 
the humble, unambitious spirit of the Gospel 
had penetrated to his heart, and influenced 
his conduct under powerful temptation. 

When Sixtus IV. was raised to the chair, 
not forgetful of his ancient friendship with 
Wesselus, he offered to grant him any re- 
quest. Wesselus replied by a solemn exhor- 
tation to the Pontiff, faithfully to discharge 
his weighty duties. 'That (replied Sixtus) 
shall be my care: but do you ask something 
for yourself.' — 'Then (rejoined Wesselus), I 
beg you to give me out of the Vatican library, 
a Greek and a Hebrew Bible.' — 'You shall 
have them (said Sixtus) ; but, is not this folly ? 
Why do you not ask for some Bishopric, or 
something of that sort ? ' — ' Because I want 
not such things.' — It is recorded, that the He- 
brew Bible, which was given in consequence 

vius, Platina, Trithemius, Wesalia, Wesselus, Savo- 
narola, Machiavel, and above all GermanicB vulgus 
Reasons are alleged under each of these names for its 
insertion in the honorable list. 



INDIVIDUAL REFORMERS. 



559 



of this dialogue, was long preserved in the 
library at Groningen.* 

John Laillier. — John Laillier, licentiate in 
theology, advanced, at Paris, in July, 1485, 
various offensive positions, derogating from 
the power and primacy of St. Peter ; assert- 
ing an equality of ranks in the ecclesiastical 
hierarchy, the uselessness of even pontifical 
indulgences, and the human institution of 
confession. He argued, that the decrees and 
decretals were mere mockeries, that the Ro- 
man Church was not the key of the other 
churches, with other matters of a like nature, 
and he defended his opinions in public dis- 
putation against the doctors of the Sorbonne. 
We find nine of his propositions expressly 
specified, together with the censure affixed" 
to each of them, and we shall here insert two 
or three of the most curious: — Proposition 
(III.) 'Rich saints are now canonized and 
poor saints abandoned ; wherefore I am not 
obliged to believe that such are saints. If 
the Pope receives money, though he should 
mount on twenty scaffolds to canonize a 
saint, I am not bound to believe him such ; 
nor is he, who disbelieves, in sin.' Censure. 
'This proposition is false, offensive to pious 
ears, injurious to the holy apostolical See, 
contrary to the piety of the faithful, — and the 
third part of it, according to the sense which 
it presents, is heretical.' Proposition (V.) 
' The priests of the Eastern Church do no 
sin in marrj^ng; and I think that we, in the 
Western Church, should be equally free from 
sin, if we were to marry.' Censure. ' The first 
part of the proposition in the sense which it 
presents, viz. that the Eastern priests marry 
after taking orders, is false. The second, 
which is the profession of the author's faith, 
makes him guilty of error; if he adds obsti- 
nacy, of heresy.' Proposition (IX.) 'One is 
no more obliged to believe the legends of the 
saints, than the chronicles of the kings of 
France.' Censure. 'This proposition is false, 
and capable of offending pious ears; it dero- 



* ' Hsec nobis erunt curae; tu pro te aliquod pete. 
Rogo, ergo, inquit Wesselus, ut mihi detis ex Bibli- 
olheca Vaticana Grseca et Hebraea Biblia. Ea, 
inquit Sextos, tibi dabuntur — Sed tu stulte; quare 
non petis episcopatum aliquem, aut simile quidpiam'? 
Respondit Wesselus, quia iis non indigeo.' See 
Vita M^esseli inter Vitas Professorum Gronin- 
gens. The story is there related as one, that was 
frequently told by Wesselus himself. Some valuable 
abstracts from the writings of this reformer are given 
by Milner, History of the Church, end of cent. xv. 
and Semler, cent. xv. cap. iv. p. 212 — 219. Bayle 
calls him ' un des plus habiles hommes du quinzieme 
eieclfi.' 



gates from the authority of the Church, and, 
if taken universally, is even heretical.' 

Sentence of condemnation was passed m 
the following year, and the offender was com- 
manded to retract. He did so with perfect 
humility. The Bishop of Paris immediately 
gi'anted him full and unconditional absolution. 
But the faculty, less placable, prohibited him 
from proceeding to his doctor's degree, and 
appealed from the bishop's decision to the 
Pope. Innocent VIII. seems even to have 
surpassed the hopes of his* petitioners; for 
he issued an order that Laillier should be 
thrown into prison. But whether the sen- 
tence was executed, or whether the protec- 
tion of the bishop availed to preserve hira 
from it, does not appear from the records of 
this transaction.* They are sufficient, how- 
ever, to show us, that the theological faculty 
of Paris, notwithstanding the boasted Inber- 
ties of the Church, was very little disposed to 
encourage, or even to endure any evangelical 
truth, which might endanger the spiritual 
despotism of Rome. Nor is this wonderful ; 
since Paris was the very centre and nursery 
of the scholastic system. 

Jerome Savonarola. — Such were the prin- 
cipal Cisalpine f 'witnesses' of that age; and 
their obscurity may be ascribed to their own 
timidity or to the overwhelming power of 
the hierarchy. But Italy, at the same time, 
produced a far more celebrated champion of 
reform ; such a man, so entiiusiastic in his 
piety, so wild in his enthusiasm, so daring in 
his spiritual pretensions, — as might have been 
expected to rise up in that country, where 
the vices of the Church were best known ; 
and among that people, which has seldom 
tempered religious zeal with any discretion ; 
which loves to be addressed through the im- 
agination rather than the reason, and whose 
emotions, if strong, are always violent and 
generally transient. Jerome Savonarola was 
born at Ferrara in 1452, the descendant of 
an illustrious family. His early years gave 



* This account is taken from the continuator of 
Fleury (liv. cxvi. s. 30 — 38) who refers to D'Ar- 
gentre Collectio. Judic, torn. i. p. 308. ann. 1484. 

t Lest Spain should seem to have had no candidate 
for admission into this venerable host, we should 
mention that one Peter of Osma, professor of theolo- 
gy at Salamanca, published some anti-papal and anti- 
ecclesiastical opinions in the year 1479. It is re- 
markable, that the Pope, in condemning, refused to 
specify them, on account of their enormity — ' to the 
end, that those, who already know them, may the 
sooner forget them; and that those, who know theiu 
not, may learn no new sin.' See the continuator of 
Finery, lib. cxv. s. 2, 3. &c. 



560 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



indications of a profound religious feeling, 
and he presently assumed the habit of a Do- 
minican. In 1483 he first felt those impulses, 
which gave the peculiar character to his mis- 
sion ; he began to preach on prophecy, and 
himself assumed the mission of a prophet. 
His first effusions were delivered at Brescia ; 
but in 1489 he desu*ed a more extensive field 
for his powers, and proceeded to Florence. 

Most of the Italian cities were distracted by 
political factions, and none, perhaps, so fierce- 
ly as Florence.* These agitations reached 
down to the lowest classes, and in the bosom 
of the meanest citizen there was a nerve ex- 
quisitely sensible to all appeals, respecting his 
public rights. Thus, whether in the design 
to enlai'ge the range of his influence, or be- 
cause he really shared the popular passion, 
Savonarola combined the politician's with the 
prophet's character,* and made each, as the 
circumstances of the moment required, sub- 
servient to the other. Reforai was the sub- 
ject on which he preached, reform and peni- 
tence — reform in the discipline of the Church, 
in the disorders of the clergy, in the morals 
of the people — reform instant and immediate, 
ere the tempest of divine vengeance, which 
was already impending over Italy, should de- 
scend c'md overwhelm it. He made no ap- 
peals to reason, none to the ordinary princi- 
}>les, or even passions of men — it vi^as in the 
name of heaven, that he commanded them to 
amend ; it was inspiration from above — the 
unerring prescience of imminent calamities — 
which filled him with eloquence, and armed 
his eloquence with authority and terror. It 
was no dew of persuasion that fell from his 
lips — it was the word of an offended God, 
clothed in thunder and hail, announcing the 
approach of desolation. 

At the same time he promised the divine 
protection to the republican party. He de- 
nounced the usurpation of Lorenzo de' Med- 
ici, and refused to acknowledge his power, or 
show deference to his person. He pursued 
with fierce anathemas the luxury and despo- 
tism of the aristocracy ; and his genius was so 
extraordinary and his enthusiasm so resistless, 
as almost to give a color to his claims of su- 
pernatural communications. At least we need 



* ' II vouloit (as a French writer observes) jouer 
a la fois le rule de Jeremie et de Demosthenes.' 
We may recollect that Arnold of Brescia, who, like 
Savonarola, was an Italian, a reformer, and a martyr, 
like him also denounced, in the same breath, political 
and ecclesiastical abuses. And we should remind the 
reader, that Sismondi compares the sort of mixed 
influence, acquired by Savonarola over the people of 
Florence, to that exercised by Calvin at Geneva- 



not discredit the accounts we read of his con- 
trolling influence over the people, and of the 
various acts by which their devotion was dis- 
played. Multitudes believed in his heavenly 
mission ;* and the effect of his moral exhor- 
tations was speedily perceptible throughout 
the city. 'By the modesty of their dress, 
their discourse, their countenance, the Flo- 
rentines gave evidence, that they had embrac- 
ed the reform of Savonarola ; and it was easy 
to forsee (says Sismondi) that the political 
lessons of the preacher would not produce 
less impression on his audience, than his 
moral instructions.' 

The political impression was more violent, 
and proportionally less beneficial. Savona- 
rola had promised the citizens of Florence — 
or they understood him to have promised — 
that a pure theocracy should be substituted 
for their actual government, and that Christ 
himself should deign to rule over them. On 
this, the popular fury rose beyond all restraint. 
It was in vain, that the Pope thundered from 
the Vatican. It was in vain, that the clergy 
refused to bury the bodies of any, who believ- 
ed the announcement of the prophet. The 
people thronged to listen to his sermons ; and 
not unfrequently, when the harangue was 
concluded, rushed forth from the churches 
and assembled in the squares and public 
places, with tumultuous cries of Viva Christo ! 
They would then dance in circles, formed by 
a citizen and a friar placed alternately, and 
commit every kind of absurdity, f 

Savonarola's intei'view with Charles VIII. — 
In 1494, Savonarola conducted the Florentine 
embassy to Charles VIII. at Lucca. It was 
in Charles that his prophecies (as he confi- 
dently declared) were accomplished — Charles 
was the promised minister of vengeance, 

* It seems probable that the enthusiasm for this 
man — we may even call it, the belief in him — was 
not confined to the lowest classes. The story of his 
interview with Benvieni, (told by Nardi, Stor. 
Fiorent. lib. ii., and cited by Roscoe,) proves, at 
least, his authority over those in command. Nardi 
likewise mentions the hesitation, and even apprehen- 
sion, with which the inquisitors themselves made the 
first application of the torture. 

f Roscoe (whom we have consulted with profit on 
the subject of Savonarola) cites from Girolamo Ben- 
vieni, who composed songs for these occasions, the 
following specimen (it can scarcely be a fair speci- 
men) of the popular eflfiisions: — 

* Non fii mai piu bel solazzo 
Piu grande, ne maggiore, 
Che per zelo e per amore 
Di JESU — diventar pazzo — 
Ognun gridi, com' io grido, 
Sempre pazzo, pazzo, pazzo.' 



INDIVIDUAL REFORMERS. 



561 



commissioned to chastise the crimes of Italy. 
The monk presented himself before the vic- 
torious monarch, as the ambassador of a sup- 
pliant city — but he did not lose in the char- 
acter of the monk or of the envoy the con- 
sciousness of his heavenly mission: he did 
not forget, that the man whom he addressed 
was the mere instrument sent to fulfil Ms pre- 
dictions, and accomplish the work of Provi- 
dence. Himself was the prophet of the Lord 
-^he maintained the superiority, communi- 
cated by a nearer intercourse with God, and 
preserved his customary tone of admonition 
and command.* 

In the meantime, the enemies of Savona- 
rola, if less numerous and enthusiastic, were 
more constant and determined than his friends. 
The aristocracy of Florence, supported by 
the Pope and all the superior clergy, were 
patiently watching for the moment to destroy 
him. A ready weapon was furnished by 
monastic dissension : the Franciscans, already 
jealous of the fame of a rival, were eager to 
enter the lists against him. At the proper 
season they commenced their attack — and the 
object, of course, was to withdraw from their 
adversary the only foundation of his strength, 
the confidence of the people. 

It was not by assailing him from the pulpit, 
that this could be eflTected ; his great powers 
and irresistible authority forbade any hope 
of overthrowing him in a field which was 
peculiarly his own. Accordingly, the Francis- 
cans proceeded by a very different method ; 
against the popular impostor they made their 
appeal to the grossest popular superstition. 
A Franciscan challenged Savonarola to go 
through his trial by fire, together with him- 
self The prophet reserved his own person 
for greater occasions ; but a faithful Domini- 
can undertook the ordeal in his place : and 
had he not thus anticipated the general devo- 
tion, a multitude of citizens, of women, and 
even of priests, would have pressed to the 
flames with eagerness, as the substitutes of 
Savonarola. The government gave its sanc- 



* ' Come, come with confidence, come with joy and 
triumph; for the Being who sends thee is even he, 
who, for our salvation, triumphed on the cross. 
Nevertheless, listen to my words, most Christian 
king, and engrave them in thy heart. The servant 
of God, to whom these things have been revealed by 
divine communication, warns even thee, who art 
sent by the Majesty of heaven, that, after his exam- 
ple, it is thy duty to show mercy every where,' &c. 
Such were the opening sentences of the prophet's 
harangue. Sismondi (who displays even more than 
his usual eloquence in his account of this enthusiast) 
has translated the whole address, chap, xciii. 

71 



tion ; the day (April 17, 1498) was fixed for 
the trial ; the necessaiy preparations were 
made ; and the entire population of Florence 
and the neighboring towns and villages 
thronged to the spot, in devout expectation of 
some visible sign of the divine interposition. 
The two parties presented themselves ; the 
flames were kindled — but even then, in the 
presence of the chiefs of the Republic and 
the impatient multitudes, a dispute arose, 
which finally prevented the exhibition. The 
people dispersed, disappointed and irritated. 
It also happened, that the subject of the dis- 
pute had been such, as to raise a prejudice 
against Savonarola. The Dominican, his 
substitute, had, in the first instance, required 
to enter the flames in his sacerdotal habits, to 
which the Franciscans reasonably objected. 
The former then expressed his readiness to 
enter naked, on the condition only that he 
should carry the host in his hand. The Fran- 
ciscans again refused their consent ; and, as 
Savonarola persisted in that condition, the 
ordeal did not take place. Now, besides the 
appearance of some secret design in his per- 
severance in this last demand, the people were 
easily taught to believe that it contained no 
slight mixture of impiety. To commit the 
body of Christ, under any human guarantee 
for its security, to the raging flames, was, to 
treat with irreverence, to profane, nay per- 
haps to expose to destruction, the most holy 
of all things, Savonarola was not, indeed, 
without his advocates ; but it was clear, that 
the popular current had turned. The advan- 
tage was instantly pursued ; the prophet was 
seized, imprisoned, tortured ; and immediate- 
ly on the arrival of two legates from Alexan- 
der VI. he was condemned to death, and ex- 
ecuted. His ashes, according to the usual 
precaution, were cast into the Arno — and it 
does not appear, that his exertions, either re- 
ligious or political, extraordinary as they cer- 
tainly were, and for the time successful too, 
impressed any lasting trace of any description 
even on the history of that city, to which they 
were exclusively confined. 

Reuchlin and Erasmus. — John Reuchlin 
(or Capnio, as he was called,) a German of 
great reputation and integrity, lent his indi- 
rect assistance to the cause of religion by his 
labors for the restoration of learning.* He 



* It was Reuchlin (in the representation) who 
threw down the straight and crooked billets, which 
Erasmus tried in vain to accommodate: then came 
Luther, and set fire to the crooked ones, &c. Reuch- 
lin was honored by the hatred of the monks, who would 
willingly have fixed upon him the imputation of heresy. 



662 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



died in 1522, and received his apotheosis from 
the pen of Erasmus, who had entered on the 
same career with still higher powers and 
greater celebrity. Of Erasmus much need 
not here be said, since his merits and weak- 
nesses are generally known and not improperly 
estimated. His writings rendered the highest 
service to the first reformers — he had already 
stigmatized numerous abuses ; he had reject- 
ed the Schdastic divinity, and recommended 
and facilitated the study of the Bible and the 
Fathers; he had covered with ridicule and 
contempt the vices of the monks, and their 
love for the ignorance in which they groveled. 
By such means as these he had contributed 
to the success of the Reformation, even more 
perhaps than he had himself designed; for 
his predominant passion was that for litera- 
ture ; and though by no means indifferent to 
the interests of religion, he was fearful of all 
great practical changes, and could never shake 
off that irresolute timidity so commonly as- 
sociated with literary habits. 

V. TTie Abuses of the Church especially 
displayed in Germany. — If the oppression of 
Rome was now generally .felt and acknov/- 
ledged throughout Europe ; if the scandals of 
the court were now becoming every where 
notorious, and the vices of the monks and 
clergy had inflamed the general hatred of 
Christendom ; there was no country in which 
either the tyranny or the licentiousness of the 
Church v/as so shamelessly exhibited and so 
deeply detested as in Germany. While the 
first Othos imitated the policy of Charlemagne 
in exalting the sacred order,* they even ex- 
ceeded his generosity ; and some of the lead- 
ing German ecclesiastics became at the same 
time bishops and powerful princes. Nor was 
there any region more pregnant with popular 
superstition, and with the fruits so diligently 
gathered from it by a worldly priesthood. 
From these causes the wealth of the German 
Clergy had grown to an inordinate excess; 
and their secular habits and vulgar vices f 



* Tlieir motive too was the same, to counterpoise 
the power of the barons; and it is a deed, for which 
they are almost invariably praised by ecclesiastical, 
and condemned by civil, historians. 

t The Bavarian ambassador, addressing the Coun- 
cil of Trent in 1562, asserted, respecting the morality 
of his clerical fellow subjects, that there were not 
more than three or four in a hundred who were not 
either secretly or openly married, or living, in a state 
of concubinage (P. Paolo, Hist. Cone. Trident. 
ib. vi.) The saying of Pius H. on this subject, 
that if there were good reasons, for enacting the law 
of celibacy, there were better for repealing it, was 
BOW in every man's mouth- 



are stigmatized in every age of history. The 
proceedings of the Council of Vienne — the 
remonstrance of the Emperor Charles IV. to 
the archbishop of Mayence, and, above all, 
the prophetic denunciations of Cardinal Ju- 
lian, at the Council of Basle, display at the 
same time the immorality and the insecurity 
of the German Church. 

From the time of Gregory VII. the politi- 
cal interests of the empire and the Popedom 
had been at perpetual variance. And not 
only was Italy divided between their conflict- 
ing parties, but even the internal concord of 
Germany had been incessantly disturbed by 
pontifical interference. Its emperors had 
been insulted and deposed; Italian intrigues 
had distracted all' its provinces; children had 
been I'aised up against their parents ; and the 
battles and miseries of four centuries had 
been inseparably associated with the name 
and enmity of Rome. It was the consequence 
of this inveterate hostility, not only to nour- 
ish public animosity, but also to raise up pri- 
vate opponents against the See, who had at 
various times uncloked its abuses and de- 
nounced them to the people. So that, when 
the appointed season at length arrived, the 
prejudices of the lower classes had been in 
a great degi-ee removed ; and they listened 
without repugnance, and frequently with in- 
tense satisfaction, to any thing that reflected 
upon the See or Court of Rome. 

Concordats violated. — The Germans had 
endeavored to protect their Church against 
the pontifical depredators by the Concordats 
of Constance and Aschaffenburg ; and how- 
ever narrow the field of amendment which 
they comprehended, still, had they been strict- 
ly observed, some advantage would have been 
produced, and some irritation allayed. But 
so far were the Popes from any desire to 
correct usurpation, by timely concession, or 
sincerely to conciliate those whom they had 
injured, and whom they ought to have feared* 
that they made it their policy to elude the 
conditions which they had reluctantly accord- 
ed, and to resume in substance the spoils 
which they had in semblance restored. By 
this conduct they not only nourished without 
any remission the prevalent animosity against 
them, but they inflamed it still further, when 
they aggravated former oppressions by recent 
perfidy. There was, indeed, no part of Chris- 
tendom, wherein the whole machinery of the 
apostolical chancery* had worked with such 



* About the time of the Diet of Augsbouig (in 
1518) an archbishop of Mayence declared, during 
lias last moments, that his greatest regret in dying 



ABUSES DISPLAYED IN GERMANY. 



163 



pernicious efficacy as in Germany. The 
privileges of the Jubilee, so fruitful to the See 
which granted, so expensive to the districts 
which enjoyed them, were dispensed during 
the schism principally to that country ; the 
fathers of Cons^tance and Basle published, 
though they failed to remove, its complaints 
and the circumstances of its oppression ; and 
the 'Hundred Grievances'* which were af- 
terwards presented to the Diet of Nuremberg 
(in 1523) formed only a catalogue of heredi- 
tary wrongs, the subjects of perpetual remon- 
strance, and of remonstrance which was per- 
petually despised. • _ 

The People of Germany.— The papal usur- 
pations enumerated in that celebrated doc- 
ument are severally placed under three heads 
— such as tended to enthral the people ; such 
as impoverished and despoiled them ; such 
as withdrew them from the secular jurisdic- 
tian. Thus the interests of the people were 
become the foundation of the remonstrances 
of their rulers ; thus, too, was it in their af- 
fections that the Reformer had fixed his surest 
asylum.f At a somewhat earlier moment 
(on April 1, 1520,) Frederic, Elector of Sax- 
ony, addressed to his Envoy at Rome the fol- 
lowing remarkable expressions : — ' Germany 
is no longer such as it has been ; it is full of 
accomplished men in all the sciences. The 
people exhibit an extraordinary passion for 
reading the Scriptures ; | and if the Court 



was to leave to his poor subjects the burden of buying 
the pallium of his successor. About 27,000 florins 
appear to have been advanced on tliese occasions, 
and it was chiefly levied upon the poor. Robertson 
asserts (Hist. Charles V.) that companies of mer- 
chants openly bought the benefices of different dis- 
tricts from the Pope's agents, and retailed them at 
advanced prices. 

* The Centum Gravamina comprehended the 
following abuses: — Payments for dispensations and 
absolutions; sums of money drawn by. indulgences; 
appeals to Rome ; reservations, commendams, annates ; 
exemptions of ecclesiastics from the legal punish- 
ments; excommunications and unlawful interdicts; 
secular causes tried before ecclesiastical tribunals; 
great expenses in consecrating churches and cemete- 
ries ; pecuniary penance ; fees for sacraments, burials, 
&c. P. Paolo, Hist. Concil. Trident, lib. i. n. 65. 

t On Aug. 23, 1520, Luther wrote to Spalatin, 
•' that he dreaded neither censures nor violence ; that 
he had a safe asylum in the hearts of the Germans, 
and that his enemies should beware, lest, in destroy- 
ing one adversary, they should give birth to many.' 
Beausobre, Hist, de la Reformation, liv. ii. 

X ' The world (said Erasmus in 1521, in his Ad- 
vice to the Emperor) is weary of the ancient theolo- 
gy, which is only a mass of useless questions and 
vain subtleties, in which the sophists exercise their 
ingenuity. The people are thirsting for the doc- 



of Rome shall obstinately persist in rejecting 
the ofl'ers of Luther and in treating the affair 
vi'ith haughtiness, instead of replying to his 
arguments, she must prepare herself for trou- 
bles Vv^liich will hardly be appeased, and for 
revolutions which will be no less fatal to her- 
self than to others.' To this wise admonition 
Leo X. addi-essed a reply, in which he desig- 
nated Luther ' as the most wicked and detes- 
table of all heretics — a man who had no other 
mission than that which he had received from 
the Devil ! ' 

The condition of Germany being such as 
the Elector represented it, and the disposition 
of the Vatican such as is betrayed in the an- 
swer of the Pope, it is not difficult to com- 
prehend the nature or the result of the con- 
flict which followed. On the one side, we 
are led to expect a succession of just demands 
commencing in moderation, and rising in ex- 
act proportion to the contempt with which 
they were rejected — on the other, a fierce and 
selfish determination to maintain the estab- 
lished system in its full hitegrity, without 
distinction of good or evil, of use or abuse, 
of truth or fldsehood, of divine or human 
authority. And the conclusion was such as 
must certainly follow, sooner or later, from 
collision between such principles. 

Conclusion. — When the train is thus pre- 
pared, the moment of explosion will com- 
monly depend on what is called accident; 
and thus it will frequently arrive when it is 
least expected. Thus was it in the begin- 
ning of the Reformation. Never was the 
Court of Rome more confident in the sense 
of security, than at that instant. The various 
heresies which had so long disturbed the 
Church were, for the most part, dismayed and 
silenced ; the complaints and petitions of the 
faithful had long been rejected with insolent 
impunity ; the Council which had last been 
held had effaced by its subservience the 
memory of Basle and Constance; and the 
warnings of Julian Cesarini were despised 
or forgotten. The temporal monarchy of 
Rome was more firmly established than at 
any former period, and her power and influ- 
ence were still considerable in every part of 
Europe — her ecclesiastical agents were never 
more numerous or more zealous in her ser- 
vice. The pillars of her strength were vis- 
ible and palpable, and she surveyed them 
with exultation from her goklen palaces ; but 



trine of the Gospel, and if it shall be attempted 
to close the source against them, they tvill open it 
for themselves by force. ^ This letter is translated 
bv Beausobre. Hist. Ref. li*. iv. 



664 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



she did not so readily discern the moral cau- 
ses which were combining for her dissolution, 
and slowly and secretly sapping the founda- 
tions of her pride. 

The qualities of Leo X., though not des- 
picable, were not calculated for that crisis — 
fond of letters, devoted to pleasure, contemp- 
tuous of morality — ignorant of the science, 
careless of the duties, neglectful even of the 
decencies, of religion; vain, extravagant, 
necessitous and venal, he had not the char- 
acter which could prevent the rebellion, or 
crush the rebel. Tempered in the schools 
of courtly negotiation, the weapons of the 
Vatican were of no service against a popular 
enemy ; and the Pope himself at length con- 
descended to complain,* that ' the present dis- 
ease was not in the princes and great prelates, 
with whom familiarity and interest prevailed, 
but in the people, v/ith whom it was neces- 
sary to use reality, and make a true reforma- 



* Padre Paol<>.HJst» ConciJ. Trident, liv. L 



tion.' In that people, so long the object of 
pontifical contempt and spoliation, new en- 
ergies bed insensibly replaced the incurious 
and servile ignorance of former days. An 
occasion and an instrument were alone re- 
quired to bring them into action. The for- 
mer was furnished by the vices and blindness 
of the Church ; the latter was raised up by 
Providence in the person of Luther. Yet 
Luther himself, endowed as he was with 
great and ardent qualities, was but the voice 
that called the laborers to their office. The 
abuses were so ripe and pregnant, and the 
perception of them so deep and so general, 
that, even had Luther never been born, the 
harvest could not long have needed bold 
and holy ministers to gather it. 'I do not 
doubt, (they are the words of the Reformer 
himself addressed to Melancthon,) that if we 
are unworthy to bring this work to its con- 
clusion, God will raise up others, worthier 
than we are^ who will accomplish it.' 



A CRONOLOGICAL TABLE 



EMINENT MEN, AND OF THE PRINCIPAL COUNCILS. 



Popes. 


Died. 


Eminent Persons connected with 
Ecclesiastical History. 


Important Councila 


Linus - 


. 


78 






Anacletus 


_ - - 


91 






Clement 
Alexander 
Sixtus - 


. 


100 
116 
126 


Pliny the Younger. Ignatius. 
Tacitus. 




Telesphorus 


- 


137 






Hyginus 


_ 


141 


Justin Martyr. 




Pius 


_' 


157 


Polycarp. 




Anicetus 
Soter 

Eleutherus* 
Victor 


_ 


168 
177 
192 
196 

219 
224 
231 


Montanus. 
Pantaenus. 
Irenaeus. 

Ammonias Saccas. 
Clemens Alexandrinus. 




Zephyrinus 
Callistus 
Urban - 


- 


Tertullian. 
Origen. Celsus. 




Pontianus 


» _ - 


235 






Anterus 


_ 


236 






Fabianus 


- 


251 


Sabellius. 


A Synod at Rome 


Cornelius 


_ _ - 


253 


Cyprian. 


against Novatian 


A Schism between Corne- 






(251). 


hus and Novatian. 
Lucius . . - 
Stephen - - - 
Sixtus II. _ - - 


255 
257 
259 
271 
275 
283 
296 


Paul of Samosata. 


Synod at Carthage 
(256), by Cyprian, 
on the Baptism of 
Heretics. 


Dionysius 
Fefix - 
Eutychianus 
Caius 


- 


Manes. 
Porphyry. 


Synod at Antioch 
(269), against Paul 
of Samosata. 


Marcellinus 


_ 


304 






Marcellus 
Eusebius 


- - - 


309 
311 


Lactantius. 




Melchiades 


■ ' ■ 


t314 


Constantine. Eusebius of Cae- 
sarea. Arius. Eusebius of 
Nicomedia. Athanasius. 


Aries (314), against 

the Donatists. 
L [General t.) The 


Sylvester 


- - - 


335 




Council of JVice 

(325). 


Mark - 


- 


336 


f^ nn «!tn n 1 1 n Q 


Synod of Tyre (335), 


Julius - 


- - - 


352 


Martin of Tours. 


against Athanasius. 
Council of Seleucia 


Liberius 


. - - 


367 


Julian. Ainmianus Marcellinus. 


(359), held by the 


A Schism between Liber 




Chrysostom. 


Semi-arians. 


and Fehx. 






Gregory Nazianzenus. 
Basil. Gregory of Nyssa. 
Priscillian. 


Council of Rimini 

(360). 
Synod of Saragossa 

(380) against Priscil- 










lian. 



* The succession of the earliest Bishops of Rome and the duration of their government are involved in inexplica- 
ble confusion. "We have followed Spanheim. 

t The Indlction was a cycle of three lustres, or a revolution of fifteen years. It was instituted by Constantine soon 
after his victory over Maxentius (September 24, 312), and the financial accounts for the payment of tribute were reg- 
ulated by this term. At the Council of Nice the method of Indiction was substituted for that of Olympiads. The 
year of the first Indiction began January 1, 313 ; consequently, to find this Indiction, subtract 312 from the given 
year, or add three to it ; divide the difference, or sum by 15, and the remainder, if any, will be the year of the Indic- 
tion. The Popes still use this cycle in their bulls and diplomas. 

I The Italics designate the Councils held General by the Latin Church. 



5G6 



A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF EMINENT MEN, 



Popes, 


Died. 


Eminent Persons connected with 
Ecclesiastical History. 


Important Councils. 


Damasus _ - - 


385 


Theodosius the Great. 


II. First of Constanti- 


Schism between Damasus 




Ambrose of Milan. 


nople (381), on the 


and Ursicinus 




St. Martin, A. B., of Tours. 


Divinity of the Holy 






Jerome. Jovinian. 


Ghost. 






Vigilantius. 


Council of Milan (390), 






Augustin. Donatus. 


against Jovinian. 


Siricius - - - - 


398 


John Cassian, author of the In- 


Council of Carthage 






stitutions. 


(398), prohibited se- 


Anastasius - - - 
Innocent - - - 
Zosimus _ - - 


402 
417 

418 


Peiagius and Celestius. 
Sulpicius Severus. 


cular studies. 
Conference at Car- 
thage, against the 


Boniface _ . - 


423 


Socrates. 


Donatists (411). 


Schism between Boniface 




Sozomen. 




and Eulalius 




Nestorius. 


in. Council of Ephe- 


Celestine . _ _ 


432 




sus (431 ), against 






Theodoret. 


Nestorius. 


SixtusIII. - - - 


440 


Zosimus. 


Second (False) Coun- 
cil of Ephesus (449). 








Leo the Great 
Hilary - - - - 
Simplicius - - - 
Felix IL 

Gelasius _ _ _ 


461 

467 
483 
492 
496 


Eutyches. 

Sidonius Apollinaris (Bishop 

of Clermont). 
Paulinu^ of Nola. 
Clovis. 
Vigilius Tapsensis. 


IV. Council of Choice- 
don ( 451 ), against 
Eutyches. 


Anastasius II. 

Schism between Symma- 


498 




chus and Laurentius 








Symmachus - - - 


514 


Boethius. 


Orleans (511), convok- 


Hormisdas - - - 


523 




ed by Clovis, chiefly 


John _ - - - 

Felix in. 


526 
530 


Benedict of Nursia. 
Justinian. 


on Disciplme. Oth- 
ers held there, on 


Boniface II. - 


532 


the same subject, in 


A Schism between Boni- 






538, 541, and 549 


face and Dioscoras. 








JohnlL 


535 






Agapetus _ - - 


536 






Sylverius _ - - 


540 






Schism between Sylverius 








and Vigilhis. 






V. Constantinople, 


Vigilius - - - 

Peiagius - _ - 


555 

559 


St. Gregory, Bishop of Toui-s. 


(553) agamst Origen 
and others. On the 


JohnllL - - - 


573 




Resurrection of the 


Benedict 


577 


Isidore of Seville. 


Flesh and Pre-ex- 






John the Faster, Ph. of C. P. 


istence of the Soul, 


Peiagius II. - 


590 


St. Columban. 


Council of Toledo 
(589), against the 


Gregoiy the Great 


604 


St. Austin, Apostle of England. 


Ai'ians. 


Sabinianus - - - 


605 






Boniface III. - - - 


606 






Boniface IV. - - 


614 






Oeodatus - - - 
Boniface V. 


617 
625 


Mahomet, 




Honorius - - - 


638 






Severinus - _ _ 
John IV. 


639 
641 


St. Eligius, Bishop of Noyon. 




Theodore - - - 
Martin - - - 


648 
655 


Fredegarius of Burgundy. 




Eugenius - - _ 


656 






Vitalianus _ - - 


669 






Adi-odatus - - - 


676 






Domnus . - . 


678 






Agatho - - - - 


682 


Heraclius. 


VI. Coyistantinopie, 
(680), against the 
Monotheiites. 



AND OF THE PRINCIPAL COUNCILS. 



567 



Popes. 


Died. 


Eminent Persons connected with 
Ecclesiastical History. 


Important Councils. 


Leo 11. 


684 




Council of Toledo 


Benedict II. - - - 


685 




(682), deposed Vam- 


JohnV. 


686 




ba, King of the Vis- 
igoths. 


Conon - - - 


687 




Constantinople, in 
TruUo (692) (Qui- 


Sergius _ - - 


701 




ni-sextum)* on the 


JohnVT. 


704 




marriage of the Cler- 


John VII. - 


707 




gy, &c. 


Sisinnius _ - - 


707 


The Venerable Bede. 


The last Council of 


Constantine - 


714 


St. Boniface, the Apostle of 


Toledo (696). 


Gregory II. - 


731 


Germany. 




Gregoiy III. - - - 


741 


Leo the Isaurian. 




Zachary^ - - - 


752 


Charles Martel. 




Stephen II. - 


752 


Archbishop Cuthbert. 




Stephen III. - - - 


757 


Pepin, king of France. 


Constantinople (754), 


Paul - - - 


7Q7 


John Damascenus. 


against Images. 


Schism between Paul and 




Paid the Lombard. 




Theophylact. 








Stephen IV. - 


Tl'i 


Cliarlemagne. 


VII. JVlce (787), 


Adrian _ _ _ 


795 


Alcuin. Egmhardt. 


Seventh General, 
for the restoration 


8898 






of Images. 
Aix la Chapelle (789) 
for Reformation. 


Leo III. 


816 




Francfort (794), 
against Image-wor- 
ship. 

Others at Aix la Cha- 


Stephen V. - 


817 


Benedict of Aniane. 


Paschal _ - - 


824 




pelle (m 797, 799, 






Lewis the Meek. 


802, 809, 816, 817 
818, 819). 


Eugenius II. 


827 




Five Councils, held 
m 813, at Aries, 
Mayence, Rheims, 


§888^ 






Tours, and Cha 
Ions. 


Valentine - - - 


827 


Claudius Bishop of Turin. 


Paris (824), on Image 
worship. 


Gregory IV. 


844 


Rabanus Maurus. 








Ansgarius. 


Mayence (848), against 






Paschasius Radbertus. 


Godeschalcus 


Sergius II. - 


847 


R^Ltramn. John Scotus. 
Godeschalcus. Rabanus Mau- 




Leo IV. - - - 


854 


rus. 
Photius raised to see of C. P. 
Charles the Bald. 
Hincmar of Rheims. 




f Benedict - - - 


858 


Lupus of Ferrara. 




Schism. 




Petrus Siculus. 




Nicholas - - - 


867 




VIII. ^ [Latin] Con- 


Adrian II. - 


■ 872 


Anastasius the Librarian. 


stantinople (869), for 






John the Deacon. 


the condemnation of 
Photius. 


JohnVIIL - 


882 




Constantinople (879) 


Martin II. - - - 


884 




held by Photius, 


Adrian [II. - - - 


885 


Alfred. 


called by the Latins 


Stephen VL - 


890 


the False Eighth. 



* Neither the fifth nor sixth general council had published any canons respecting ecclesiastical discipline or re- 
ligious ceremonies. To supply this defect, Justinian II. assembled another in a hall of the Imperial Palace, called 
TrulliLs (Cupola) ; and it was called Gluini-Sextum, as being supplementary to the fifth and sixth. It passed one 
hundred and two laws, of which six are in opposition to certain rites and opinions of Rome ; on which account the 
Latins do not hold it general. Mosh., cent. vii. p. 2, ch. 5. 

t It is to this place that the fable of the female pope, Joan, seems properly to belong. 



568 



A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF EMINENT MEN, 



Popes. 


Died. 


Eminent Persons connected with 
Ecclesiastical History. 


. Important Councils. 


Formosus 


897 






Schism. - _ . 








Boniface VI. 


897 






Stephen VII. 


901 






Schism. 








John IX. 


903 






Benedict IV. - 


906 






LeoV. - . - 


906 






Schism. 








Christopher - - - 


906 






Schism. 








Sergius III. - - - 


910 






Anastasius III. 


912 






Lardo - _ - 


913 






JohnX. 


927 






Leo VI. 


928 


,^ ■• 




Stephen VIII. 
John XI. 


930 
935 


St. Odo, Abbot of Cluni. 




Leo VII. 


939 






Stephen IX. 


943 






MartmllL - 


946 


Frodoard, Canon of Rheims. 




Agapetus II. - 


955 


Otho the Great. 




JohnXIL - 


963 


Bernhard of Thuringia. 




Schism. 




Liutprand, Otho's Legate at C. 




Benedict V. - 


964 


P. 




LeoVm. - 


965 


St. Dunstan. 




JohnXIIL - 


972 






Domnus II. - 


972 






Benedict VI. - 


974 






Boniface VIL 


975 






Benedict VII. 


984 






John XIV. - - 


985 






John XV. - - - 


985 






JohnXVL - 


.995 






Gregory V. - - - 


998 






Schism. 








Sylvester II. - 


1003 






John XVIIL - 


1003 






JohnXIL - 


1009 






Sergius IV. - 


1012 




Council at Orleans- 


Benedict VIII. 


1024 




some Heretics burnt 


Schism. 
John XX. 


1033 




(1017). 


Benedict XL - - - 


1044 






Schism. 








Gregory VI. - - 


1046 






Clement II. - - - 


1048 






Damasus 11. - 


1049 






Leo IX. . - . 


1054 


Michel Cerularius. 




Victor II. 


1057 






Stephen X. - - - 
Benedict X.- 
Nicholas II. - 
Schism. 
Alexander II. 


1058 
1059 
1061 




Council of Nich. if. 
(1059) regulating 
Papal election. 


1073 


Petrus Damiani. 


At Rome, against Ber- 






Lanfranc. 


enger. 


Gregory VIL 


1086 


Berenger. 




Schism. 




Henry IV. of Germany. 




Victor IIL - - - 

Urban IL 


1087 
1099 


St. Bruno. 

Roscellinus. Anselm. 

Peter the Hermit. 


Placentia and Cler- 
mont (1095) orig- 
inate first crusade. 



AISD OF THE PRINCIPAL COUNCILS. 



569 



Popes. 



Paschal II. - 
Schism. 



Gelasius II. ■ 
Calixtus II. - 

Honorius II. - 

Innocent II. - 
Celestine II. - 
Lucius II. 
Eugenius III. 
Anastasius IV. 
Adrian IV. - 
Schism. 

Alexander III. 
Lucius III. 
Urban III. - 
Gregoiy VIII. 
Clement III. 
Celestine III. 



Innocent III. 
Honorius III. 
Gregory IX. 
Celestine IV. 

Innocent IV. 

Alexander IV. 
Urban IV. - 
Clement IV. 
Gregoiy X. 
Innocent V. 
Adrian V. - - 
John XXL - 
Nicholas III. - 
Martm IV. 
Honorius IV. 
Nicholas IV. 
Celestine V. (abdicted) 

Boniface VIIL 
Benedict XL - 
Clement V. - 
JohnXXIL - 

Benedict XIL 



1118 



1119 



1124 



1130 

1143 
1144 
1145 
1153 
1154 
1159 



1181 
1185 
1187 

1188 
1191 
1199 



1216 
1227 
1241 
1243 

1254 

1261 
1264 
1268 
1276 
1276 
1276 
1277 
1280 
1285 
1288 
1292 
1294 

1303 
1304 
1314 
1334 

1342 



Eminent Persons connected with 
Ecclesiastical History. 



Pierre de Bruis. 
Peter the Venerable. 



Abelard. 

Bernard of Clairval. 

Henri the Heretic. 

Otho Frisingensis. 
Gratian of Bologna. 
Peter the Lombard. 
Arnold of Brescia. 
Frederic Barbarossa. 
Thomas a Becket. 
Peter Waldus. 



Dominic. 

Simon de Montfort. 

Francis d'Assisi. 



John of Parma. 
Robert Grossetete. 
Frederic 11. 
Louis IX. of France. 
Robert of Sorbonne. 

Thomas Aquinas. 
Bonaventura. 
Roger Bacon. 

Matthew Paris. 



Philip the Fair 

Dante. 

Louis of Bavaria. 

John Duns Scotus. 

William Occam. 

MarsUius of Padua. 



Important Councils. 



A Lateran Council 
(1111), which can- 
celled Paschal's 
treaty with Henry 

At Worms (1122), on 
question of Investi- 
tures. Calixt. 11. 

IX. [Latin). First 
Lateran Council 
(1123), on Investi- 
tures. Twenty-two 
canons. 

CouncU of Pisa (1134). 

X. [Latin). Second 
Lateran (1139), 
agamst Heretics ; 
for the general 
Reformation of the 
Church. 30 can- 
ons are extant. 

XL [Latin). Third 
Lateran (1179), for 
the aiTangement 
of Papal Election ; 
against Heretics ; 
and for the Re- 
formation of the 
Church.* 
Council of Paris 

(1212). 
XIL [Latin). Fourth 
Lateran (1215), 'un- 
der Innocent HI. 
XIII. [Latin). First 
Council of Lyons 
(1245), under Inno» 
cent IV. 



XIV. [Latin). Second 
of Lyons (1274), 
under Gregory X, 



XV. [Latin). Council 
of Vienne (1311), 
under Clement V. 



* The substance of the principal Canons of the First Lateran is briefly given at page 257. Of the Second, the Ninth 
Canon prohibited Monks and Canons Regular from practising Civil Law or Medicine ; the Thirteenth was directed 
against usurers ; the Fifteenth protected the persons of the Clergy and the right of Asylum. The condemnation of 
Petrus Leonis and of Arnold of Brescia were separate Acts of Legislation. Of the Third, the First Canon ordained, 
respecting papal election, that if the Cardinals should not be unanimous in their choice, two-thirds of the votes, 
and not less than two-thirds, should be sufficient. Of the Fourth, the most important Canons have been mentioned 
in various places. 

72 



570 



A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF EMINENT MEN, &c. 



Popes. 


Died. 


Eminent Persons connected with 
Ecclesiastical History. 


Important Councils. 


Clement VI. 


1352 


Jovanni and Matteo Villani. 




Innocent VI. 


1362 


Petrarch. 
St. Brigida. 




Urban V. 


1370 


John Vl^iclif. 




Gregory IX. 


1378 


St. Catharine of Sienna. 




Urban VI. {Rome.) 


1389 


Theodoric of Niem. 




Clement VII. {Avignon.) 


1394 






Boniface IX. {Rome.) 


1404 






Innocent VII. {Rome.) 


1406 






Benedict XIII. {deposed, 








Avignon.) 


1409 






Gregory XII. {deposed, 




Pierre d'Ailly. 




Rome.) 


1409 


Nicholas de Clemangis. 


Pisa (1407). 


Alexander V. - - 


1410 


John Gerson. 


XVI. {Latin). Con- 


John XXIII. 


1415 


John Huss. 


stance (1414). 


Deposition and Vacancy till 




Jerome of Prague. 




1417. - - - 




Sigismond. 








Poggio of Florence. 


XVII. {Latin). Basle 


Martin V. - - - 


1431 


Leonardus Aretinus. 
Julian Cesarini. 


(1431). 


Eugenius IV. 


1447 


The Cardinal of Aries. 




Schism. 




j^Sneas Sylvius. 
Laurentius Valla. 




Nicholas V. 
Calixtus III. 


1455 
1458 


St. Antoninus, A. B. of Flor- 




Pius II. 
Paul 11. 


1464 
1471 


ence. 
John of Wesalia. 
John Wesselus. 




Sixtus IV. - - - 


1484 


John Laillier. 




Innocent VIII. 


1492 


Jerome Savonarola. 




Alexander VI. 


1503 


Cardinal Ximenes. 


XVIII. {Latin). Fifth 


PiusIIL - 


1503 


Erasmus. 


Lateran, by Julius 


Julius II. - - - 


1513 




II. (1512.) 


LeoX. 




Luther, 





INDEX. 



Abbesses, 324 

Abbots, their office, 311 

Abelard, account of, 270 ; his disputes with St. 
Bernard, 271 

Adamites, the, a sect of Bohemian fanatics, 473 

Adrian I., 195 

IV. (Nicholas Breakspeare) 258 

iElia Capitolina, new city founded by Adrian 
from the ruins of Jerusalem, 30 

./Eneas Sylvius (Piccolomini) espouses the pre- 
tensions of the pope after advocating the im- 
perial claims, 502 ; account of him, 503 ; raised 
to the pontificate on the death of Calixtus III., 
with the name of Pius II., 503. ; convokes the 
council of Mantua for a crusade against the 
Turks, 504 ; an embassy from the East arrives 
at Rome, 504 ; Pius canonizes St. Catharine of 
Sienna, 505 ; discourages attempts at reform in 
the church, formerly advocated by him, 505 ; 
recants his early opinions, 505 ; his exertions 
against the Turks, 506; and death, 506 

Agapse, or Love Feasts, 46 

Ailly, Pierre d', cardinal of Cambrai,an advocate 
for reform in the church, 435 

Albigeois, or Albigenses, sect of, 291, Bossuet's 
error respecting them, 553, note 

Alexander III. excommunicates Frederic Barba- 
rossa, 260 ; encourages learning, 261 

V. (Peter of Candia) elected by the 

council of Pisa in opposition to the two anti- 
popes, 420 ; his death, 421 

VI. (Roderic Borgia, nephew of Calix- 
tus III.,) his infamous character, 511 ; elected 
on the death of Sixtus IV., 512; enters into 
negotiations with Bajazet against Charles VIII. 
of France, 513; his donation of the Indies to 
Ferdinand and Isabella, 513 ; its validity con- 
tested by the Portuguese, 513; he retires to 
the Castle of St. Angelo on Charles's entry into 
Rome, 514 ; is suspected of poisoning Zizini, the 
brother of Bajazet, 514 ; his death occasioned 
by a scheme of his own for poisoning a cardi- 
nal, 515 

Alexandria, introduction of Christianity at, 37 

Ambrose, St., account of, 128 

Ammianus Marcellinus, account of, 115 

Anchorets, 298 

Andrew, St., his relics brought from Greece by 
Palaeologus, 

Angelo, St., cardinal of. See Cesarini. 

Annates, or first year's income of vacant bene- 
fices, disputes relative to, between the pope 
and the council of Constance, 446 ; restored 
after being abolished by the Pragmatic Sanc- 
tion, 521 , note, 

Anselm, his writings, 270, note 

Ansgarius introduces Christianity into Denmark 
and Sweden in the ninth century, 229 

Ante-Nicene Church, 177 

Anthony, St., monachism instituted by, 298; also 
nunneries, 303 

Antioch, church of, 31 

Antoninus Pius, his edicts in favor of the Chris- 
tians, 61 

Marcus, his strict persecution of the 

Christians, 61 ; his character, 62 

Apocrisiarii, papal envoys, 143 

Apollinaris, bishop of Laodiceea, his opinions re- 
garding the Incarnation, 163 



Apostles' Creed, AQ 

Aquinas, St. Thomas, 378 

Arian Controversy, 93; decided by the council 
of Nice, 95 

Arians, divisions among them, 98 ; Semi-Arians, 
98 ; character of the Arians, 102 

Arianism, opposed by Theodosius the Great, 
100 ; spreads among the Goths, 101 ; extirpated 
from Spain by the council of Toledo, 101 

Arius, account of, 93 

Aries, cardinal of, president of the council of 
Basle, 454 ; his death, 501 

Armenians, their negotiations with the pope, after 
separating from the Greek church, 495 ; Leo 
expresses to Innocent IV. a desire for a re- 
union with the Latin church, 496 ; doctrinal 
errors imputed to them by the pontiff, 496 

Arnold of Brescia, an early reformer, 258 ; put to 
death, 259; political as well as religious re- 
former, 516, note 

Artemon, his heresy, 76 

Ascetics, 297 

Asia, the seven churches of, 31 

Asylum, practice of, 547 

Athanasian Creed, 192 

Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, account of, 
97; banished by Constantius, 97; Julian's en- 
mity to him, 114 

Athens, progress of Christianity at, 34 

Avignon, removal of the papal see to, by Cle- 
ment v., 381 ; decline of the papal power at 
this period, 393 ; one of its causes the profligacy 
of the court of Avignon, 394 

Augustin, St., bishop of Hippo, opposes the Do- 
natists, 153; account of him, 154; Erasmus's 
parallel between him and St. Jerome, 155 ; his 
private life, 156; opposes the doctrines of Ce- 
lestius, 160; and those of Pelagianism, 161 
hermits of, a religious order, 391 



Auricular confession established, 228 
Austin, St. introduces Christianity into England, 
133; Jortin's character of him, 134, note 

Bajazet, offer of alliance made to him by Alexan- 
der VI., 513 ; his brother Zizini detained as a 
hostage by Alexander, and supposed to have 
been poisoned by him, 514 

Baptism, sacrament of, 46; efficacy imputed to 
it, 54 

Basil, St., archbishop of Ceesarea, introduces mo- 
nachism into the Greek church, 300 

Basle, council of, convoked, 447; its objects, 447; 
contentions with Eugenius IV., 448 ; its arti- 
cles of reformation, 451 ; final breach with the 
pope, 453; the president, cardinal of St. An- 
gelo, deserts to the pontiff, 453 ; questions as 
to the legitimacy of the council, 453; it deposes 
Eugenius, 454 ; and elects Amadeus, duke of 
Savoy (Felix V.,) 455; and dissolves itself, 
455; general principles of this council and that 
of Constance, 457 

Beghards, a sect so called, 400 

Benedict of Aniane, 227; founds a more rigid in- 
stitution of monachism, 308 
, St., of Murcia, founder of an order of 



monks, 306 ; its rule, 306 

XII. attempts to reform some of the abu- 
ses in the church and the monastic orders. 388 



572 



INDEX. 



Benedict XIII. (Peter of Luna, a Spaniard) elect- 
ed on the death of Clement VII, 414; refuses 
to accede to the measures proposed for healing 
the schism in the church, 415 ; the French 
court withdraws its obedience, 415; persists in 
asserting his authority in opposition to the de- 
cision of the council of Constance, 428; he is 
deposed, 429; his death and character, 430 
Benefices, foundation of, 198 
Benincasa, Ursula, the Ursuline nuns derive 

their title from her, 325 
Berenger, archdeacon of Angers, opposes the 
doctrine of transubstantiation, 247; twice re- 
tracts his opinions, and again returns to them, 
248 

Bernard, St., account of, 269; his writings, 269; 
his disputation with Abelard, 271; his zeal in 
support of papal authority, 271 ; censures ap- 
peal to the see of Rome, 273; declaims against 
the degeneracy of the clergy, 274 ; his char- 
acter, 275 ; his character of the Romans, 279 ; 
preaches against Henry (founder of the Hen- 
ricians), 287; preaches the second crusade, 363 

Bishops, their office and authority in the early 
church, 43 ; their oppressive conduct, 147 ; 
their gradual assumption of power, 190; trans- 
lation of bishops prohibited in the ninth cen- 
tury, 227 

Bohemia, religious insurrection in, 472; sect of 
the Thaborites, 473 ; the Adamites massacred 
by Zisca, 473 ; embassy to the council of Basle 
for the purpose of healing religious dissensions, 
473 ; the Calixtins, 474 ; renewal of the war, 
474 ; the reformers concede most of their 
■claims by the compact of Iglau, 475; the pope 
refuses to agree to the concordat, 475 ; Pogebrac 
deposed by Paul II., 476; sect of the United 
Brethren, 476; the schismatics of Bohemia in- 
vited to enter into a union with the Greek 
church, 494 

Bonaventura, St., theological writer, 379 

Boniface VIII., his ambition and insolence, 348 ; 
his tempora-1 pretensions, 349; lays claim to 
Scotland, 349 ; his disputes with Philip the 
Fair of France, 350 ; publishes a bull against 
him, which the other burns, 351 ; persists in 
summoning the French clergy to Rome, 352; 
his bull Unam Sanctam, 352 ; he is seized by 
the French, 353 ; his singular death,~354 

' IX. (Pietro Tomacelli) elected on the 

death of Urban VI., 412; his avarice, 412; 
permits Cologne and Magdeburg to hold a 
jubilee, 412; promises to resign on condition 
of Benedict XIII. doing the same, 415; his 
government, 416; his death, 418 
* Borgia Rodrigo. See Alexander VI. 

Ccesar, natural son of the preceding, quits 

the ecclesiastical profession and is made duke 
Valentino, 514 ; in danger of being poisoned 
at the same time with his father, 515 ; he pro- 
motes the election of Julius II., 516 

jBourges, council of, which fixes the liberties of 
the Galilean church, convoked by Charles 
VII., 455 ; the Pragmatic Sanction passed by 
it, 456 

Brescia, Angela di, founder of the Ursuline 
nuns, 325 

Bruno, St., founds the order of La Chartreuse, 310 

Bruys, Pierre de, an early reformer, and founder 
of the sect of Petrobrussians, burnt alive, 287 

Burgundians, converted to Christianity, llQ,note 

CJalixtins, sect of reformers in Bohemia, 474 
Calixtus II. appoints a Diet at Worms for set- 
ling the disputes regarding Investiture, 256 



Calixtus III. (Alphonso Borgia.) succeeds Nicholas 
v., 502; introduces the system of Nepotism, 
502 

Calumnies against the early Christians, 65 

Cambalu ( Pekin, ) see of, founded by Clement 
V.,548_ 

Canonization, first instance of, 605 /note 

Canons, regular and secular, 312 

Capucines, order of, 321, note 

Cardinals, college of, 232 ; rise and progress of 
their pov/er, 531 ; Muratori's explanation of 
the origin of the t'tle, 531, note, institution of 
the conclave, 532 

Carmelites, order of, 391 

Catechumens, one of tiie two classes of a congre- 
gation, 53 

Chathari, sect of, 288 

Catharine, St., of Sienna, 324; her fanaticism, 
391; sent on a mission to Gregory XL, 392; 
supports the claims of Urban VL against Cle- 
ment VII., 41P 

Celestine V . ( Pietro di Morone,) the hermit pope, 
succeeds Nicholas IV., 346; his character and 
incapacity, 347; resigns his office, 347; kept 
in prison for the rest of his life by his successor 
Boniface VIII., 348 

Celibacy, 55, note 

of the clergy, 185 

Cesarini, Julian, cardinal of St. Angelo, presi- 
dent of the council of Basle, refuses to transfer 
it to Bologna, 448 ; his zeal for reform in the 
Catholic church, 449; passes over to the papal 
party, 450 ; distinguishes himself at the coun- 
cil of Ferrara, 490 ; killed at the battle of Var- 
na, 493, note 

Charlemagne, his liberality to the church, 149 ; 
his Capitulary for the reform of the clergy, 
150 ; extends their jurisdiction, 194 ; corrects 
the discipline of the church, 225 

Charles Martel,his victory over the Saracens, 136 
the Bald, dispossesses his brother Lothaire, 



with the sanction of the council of Aix-la-Cha- 
pelle, 211 ; Adrian II. endeavors to exclude 
him from his succession, 212 

VIII. of France, alliance against him be- 



tween Alexander VI. and Bajazet, 513 ; he 
enters Rome, 513 ; does homage to Alexander, 
514 ; Savonarola's interview with him, 560 

Chartreuse, or Carthusian order, 310 

Christians, the early, their unpopularity, and the 
calumnies and charges against them, 65, &e. 

Chrysostom, St. John, account of, 130 ; his doc- 
trine, 131 

Church, difference between Eastern and West- 
tern, 144; schism between the Greek and 
Latin churches, 72 ; the Ante-Nicene church, 
176; the church in connexion with the state, 
187; its internal administration, 189 ; general 
benefits derived from the church, 202. See 
Roman Catholic church. Church government, 
41 ; at the beginning of the third century, 52; 
ditto fourth ditto, 85; alterations in it under 
Constantine, and its alliance with the state, 86 ; 
abuses in the church in latter times, 383 

Circumcellions, 152 

Cistercian order of monks, 310 

Claudius, bishop of Turin, a reformer in the 
ninth century, 228 

Clement v., archbishop of Bourdeaux, conditions 
imposed upon him by Philip the Fair, 381 ; re- 
moves the papal see to Avignon, 381 ; appoints 
a council at Vienne to inquire into the conduct 
of the Templars, 382 ; his death and wealth, 
384; 7iote 



INDEX. 



575 



Clement VI. shortens the period of the Jubilee to 
fifty years, 389; his quarrels with Louis of 
Bavaria, 389 ; his profligate character, 390 

— VII. elected at Fondi by tiie cardinals, in 

opposition to Urban VI., 409 acknowledged in 
France, 410 ; his death, 414 

Clergy, origin of the distinction between them 
and the laity, 42; Charlemagne's reform of 
the clergy, 150 ; jurisdiction of the clergy, 193; 
extended by Charlemagne, 194 ; condition 
and morals in the ninth century, 264 ; their 
general immorality, 546 

Clovis, king of the Franks, converted to Chris- 
tianity, 116 

Cluni, monastic order of, founded, 310 

Coenobites, 299 

Communion, the cup forbidden to the laity, 
542 

Community of property among the early Chris- 
tians doubtful, 43 

Conclave, the, institution of, 532 

Concubinage of the clergy, 546 

Confession introduced by St. Leo, 120; estab- 
lished, 228, 286 

Constance, council of, convoked by John XXIII. 
to settle the schism in tiie church and papacy, 
422 ; it declares for the cession of the three 
popes, 424 ; further account of the proceedings 
of this council, 438 ; it appoints a college of 
reform, 439 ; it is dissolved, 446 

Constantine the Great, 82; his character, 83; 
constitution of the church in his time, 85; al- 
terations introduced into it, 86 ; his division of 
its administration, 87; state of Christianity and 
paganism in his reign, 105 ; his edict of tolera- 
tion, 105 

Constantius patronises Arianism, 96 ; removes 
Athanasius, 97; convokes the council of Rimini, 
99 

Controversies, religious, their origin, 92 

Corinth, establishment of Christianity at, 34 

Councils and Synods, origin of, 44 

, Nice, 94 , second ditto, 168 ; Rimini, 99 ; 

Constantinople, 100; Chalcedon, 120; fourth 
council of Carthage, 124; Toledo, 146; Pla- 
centia, 253 ; Clermont, 253 ; the first Lateran, 
257; Vienne, 382; Constance, 422; Ferrara, 
453 

-, general, remarks on, 169 



Creeds, 45 ; the Apostles' Creed, 46 
Cross, sign of, efficacy imputed to, 54 

inscription of the true, pretended to be found 

at Rome, 545 
Crusades, origin of, 253 ; account of, 363 ; St. 
Bernard preaches the second crusade, 363; 
subsequent crusades, 365; those of St. Lewis, 
365 ; causes of the crusades, 366 ; favored by 
the superstitious zeal of the times, 368 ; ob- 
jects of the first crusade, 369; of the others, 
369; policy of the popes in regard to them, 370 ; 
decline of the crusading spirit, 371 ; effects of 
the crusades, 371 ; privileges of crusades, 372, 
note; the crusades productive of intolerance, 
373 
Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, 52 ; his zeal in 
behalf of episcopal power, 52; his martyrdom, 
64 
Cyril, patriarch of Alexandria, opposes the doc- 
trine of Nestorius, 163 

Dcemoniacs, 180 

Damascenus, John, last of the Greek fathers, 

171 
Dancers, sect of, in Belgium, 433 
Dauphine, protestants in, 554, note 



Deacons, their office, 42 

Dead, prayers for, first introduced, 54 

Decretals, papal, 374 ; Gratian's collection of, 

375 ; that of Circa, bishop of Faenza, 376 ; and 

of Gregory IX., 376 

, the false, 195, 242; rejected by the 



Greek church, 483 
Denmark, Christianity introduced into, in the 

ninth century, 229 
Diocletian, his persecution, 64 
Dionysius, bishop of Corinth, his epistles, 35 
Docetoe, sect of, 75 
Dominic, St., 315 
Dominicans, 316, 317 ; their dispute with the 

university of Paris, 318 
Donation of Constantine, the forgery so called. 

195 
Donatists, the, 152; persecuted by Constans, 

152 ; their influence lessened by Augustin, 153 ; 

decision against them by the conference of 

Carthage, 153; their doctrine, 154; frequency 

of suicide among them, 154 
Double procession, the, account of, 174 
Dulcinus, his heresy, 401 ; and death, 401 

Easter, disputes respecting the celebration of, 3& 

Ebionites, their doctrines, 75 

Eclectics, sect of. 54 

Education and theological learning, 262 

Ecclesiastical property, 276 

Egypt, monks of, 299 

Election, papal, independence of, 205 ; regula- 
tions regarding, passed by the second council 
of Lyons, 344 

Eligius, St., bishop of Noyon, specimen of his- 
sermons, 251 

Encratites, sect of, 74 

England, Christianity introduced into, 133 ; spirit^ 
ual jurisdiction in, 535, note 

Ephesus, church of, 31 ; council of, 163 

Epiphanius, bishop of Salamis, 104 

Episcopal government, earliest form of, 43 

Erasmus, 562 

Eucharist, sacrament of, 46 

Euchites, a sect of mystics in the Greek churchy 
480 

Eugenius IV. succeeds Martin V. 447 ; his char- 
acter, 447.; his disputes with the council of 
Basle, 448 ; the intrigues of his legate to thwart 
its measures for reform, 452; he appoints a coun- 
cil at Ferrara, 453 ; is deposed by that of Basle, 
455 

Eusebius, account of, 90 

Eutyches, opposes Nestorius, 164 ; condemned by 
the council of Chalcedon, 165 

Exorcism, 180 

Fathers, the apostolical, 79 

Fehx V. (Amadeus, duke of Savoy) elected ont 
the deposition of Eugenius IV. by the council 
of Basle, 455; but resigns after the election of 
Nicholas V., 455 

Ferrara, council of, convoked by Eugenius IV. 
in opposition to that of Basle, 453 ; deputies 
from the Greek church arrive to settle the 
differences between the two churches, 490 

Festivals, the two first, 45 

Flagellants, the, account of, 402; eight thousand 
massacred by the Teutonic order, 402 

Forgeries, religious, 54, 180 

France, Christianity introduced into, 37 

Francis, St., of Assisi, founder of the Franciscan 
order, 316 ; his stigmata, 544 

Franciscans, order of, 316; dissensions among: 
them, 319 



574 



INDEX. 



Frederic Barbafossa, his jealousy of the papal 
authority, 259; sets up the antipope Octavian, 
259 

II. engages to make a crusade, 336; his 

letter to Henry III. of England, accusing the 
Roman see of rapacity, 336 ; proceeds to Pa- 
lestine, 336; deposed by Innocent IV., his 
former adherent, 338 ; his death and character, 
338 

Frisingensis, Otho, introduces the scholastic 
method into Germany, 378, note 

Galilean church, it independence founded by 
Lewis IX., 362 

Germany, progress of Christianity in, 134 ; the 
abuses of the church particularly displayed in, 
562 

Gerson, chancellor of the university of Paris, 
exposes the vices of the clergy, 436 ; attacks 
the decretals, &c., 438; exhorts to severity 
against the Bohemian schismatics, 455, note 

Gladiatorial games abolished by Honorius, 112 

Gnosticism, 72 

Gnostics, their doctrines, 73 

Godeschalcus, his opinions, 221 ; tried before a 
council at Mayence, 222 

Gospel, the Eternal, account of the vi^ork so 
called, 404 

Goths, early converts to Christianity, 116 

Gratian, his collection of decretals, 375 

Greek church, its history after its separation from 
the Latin, 477 ; persecution against the Pauli- 
cians, 478; heresies imputed to them, 478; 
prevalence of mysticism in the east, 479; 
Euchites, or Messalians, 480; Hesychasts, or 
Quietists, 480 ; the sect of Bogomiies founded 
by Basilius, 481 ; distinctions between the 
Greek and the Latin church, 482; the reverence 
of the former for antiquity, 483 ; dominion of 
the Latins in Constantinople, 484 ; the Latin 
communion established there, 485; the chief 
of the Greek church retire to Nice, 486 ; Latin 
mission to Nice, 487 

Gregory Nazianzen, 128 

— the Great, 138; Jortin's character of him, 

138, note ; maintains the doctrine of purga- 
tory, 140, 186; his reverence for relics, 140; 
canon of the mass instituted by him, 141; 
VII. (see Hildehrand) interdicts the mar- 



riage of the clergy, 235 ; and simony, 236 
excommunicates the Emperor Henry IV., 238 ; 
his temporal usurpations, 240 ; his objects in 
the interna] administration of the church, 242; 
avails himself of the false decretals, 242; his 
double scheme of universal dominion, 243; 
liberated from Henry , who enters Rome, by 
Robert Guiscard, 244; dies at Salerno, 244; 
his character, 245 ; the Latin liturgy estab- 
lished by him, 249 

IX., his splendid coronation, 335; ex- 



communicates Frederic II. for not proceeding 
to his crusades, 336 ; persists in persecuting 
him, 336 

X. elected while in Palestine, 343 ; en 



deavors to reconcile the Greek and Latin church, 
343 ; his death, 344 
IX., St. Catharine of Sienna sent on a mis- 



sion to him, 391 ; violence of the populace, and 
of party in conclave after his death, 406 

XII., Angelo Corrario, titular patriarch 



of Constantinople, succeeds Innocent VII., 
418 ; refuses to heal the schism in the church, 
caused by the pretensions of the antipopes, 419; 
the cardinals convoke the council of Pisa, 419; 
and elect Alexander V., 420 



Hale, Albert, the irrefragable doctor, 3'^9, note 

Henricians, the sect of, 2d7 

Henry IV., emperor, calls a council at Worms, 
which deposes Gregory VII., 238; is excom- 
municated by him, 238; does penance at Can- 
ossa, 239; elects an antipope, Clement III., 
243 ; enters Rome, but is expelled by the Nor- 
mans, 244 ; his misfortunes and death, 244 

v., son of the preceding, quarrels with 

Paschal II , and takes him prisoner, 255 

Heresy, origin of the term, 459 

Heretics, early, their numbers, 70 ; three classes 
of, 72 ; various heretical sects in the twelfth 
century, 287 ; treatment of heretics, 555 ; canon 
of the fourth Lateran council against, 556 

Hermits of St. Augustin, order of, 391 

Hesychasts, or Quietists, sect of, in Greece, 480 

Hierapolis. bishops of, 32 

Hilary, bishop of Poictiers, 104 

Hildebrand, a monk of Cluni, carried to Rome 
by Leo IX., 232 .■ his policy for extending the 
papal power, 234 ; succeeds Alexander II., 
235; See Gregory VII. 

Hincmar, archbishop of Rheims, asserts the inde- 
pendence of the church against Lewis III., 213 > 
his character, 217 

Honorius, gladiatorial games abolished by, 112 

HI., 335 

Host, elevation of the, 542 

Hungary, Christianity first introduced into, 230 

Huss, John, account of, 462; summoned by the 
Council of Constance, 464 ; bis opinions and 
attachment to those of Wiclif, 464.; imprisoned 
by the Council of Constance, 466; accused, 
466; his trial; 467; condemnation, 469; and 
execution, 470 

Iconoclasts, 168 

Ignatius, St., bishop of Antioch, 31 ; his epistle 
to the Smyrnians, 32; his writings, 80 

Images, use of, 139; controversy on, 167; edict 
of Constantine Copronymus against, 168 ; 
restored by the empress Irene, 168; the em- 
peror Michael attempts to discard them, 170; 
their worship restored by Theodora, 170 

Immorality, general, of the clergy, 546 

Incarnation, the. controversy on, 162 

Indulgence, plenary, traffic in, 373 

adopted by Boniface IX., 412; remarks 



on, 529 

Infallibility of the Pope, 529 

Innocent III., his pontificate, 276; lays France 
under interdict, for Philippe Auguste refusing 
to take back his divorced bride, 282 ; excom- 
municates the English king, John, 284 ; impo- 
ses the Saladin tax, 284 ; convokes the fourth 
Lateran council, 285 ; urges Simon de Mont- 
fort against the heretics, 293 ; his death and 
character, 294 ; his policy in regard to the cru- 
sades, 370 ; his apprehension of the mystics, 
555 

IV., excommunicates and deposes 

Frederic II. in the Council of Lyons, 338 ; 
his conduct, 341 ; and character, 342 ; estab- 
lishes the Inquisition in the North of Italy, 
359 

VI., his dispute with the German 



Clergy, 390 

VIII. succeeds Sixtus IV., 510 ; vio- 
lates the engagements made at his election, 
511; pensions his illegitimate children on the 
Apostolical treasury, 511; succeeded by Alex- 
ander VI., 511 

Inquisition, the, 359; the title of Inquisitors first 
given to the emissaries of Innocent III., 358 



INDEX. 



575 



Interdicts, papal, 282, note 
Intolerance of the ancient Romans, 58 
Investiture, 237 ; right of, extorted from Paschal 

II. by Henry V., 255; conclusion of the 

quarrels regarding it, 256 
Irenasus, bishop of Lyons, account of, 81 

James, St., first bishop of Jerusalem, 29 

Jerome, St., account of, 131 ; Erasmus's parallel 
between him and St. Augustin, 155 

Jerome of Prague, disciple of Huss, tried before 
the council of Prague, 471 ; and executed, 471 

Jerusalem, the Latin kingdom of, 484 

church of, 30 

John XXII., succeeds Clement V., after a lapse 
of two years, 384 ; his avarice and rapacity, 
384 ; he extends the power of the Apostolical 
Chancery, 385 ; his contest with Louis of Ba- 
varia, who appoints a new pope, Nicholas V., 
385; John formally charged with heresy, by 
the assembly of Milan, 386; his death, 387 

XXIII., (Baltazar Cossa) succeeds Alexan- 
der V, 421; consents to a council for deciding the 
schism in the church, 422; and abdicates, 425; 
escapes from Constance, 425; is given up by 
the duke of Austria, 426 ; is deposed, 426 ; 
acknowledges Martin V., 432 ; his character, 
432 

Jortin, his character of St, Austin, 134, note; of 
Gregory the Great, 138; note 

Jovinian, his attempt to reform monastic asceti- 
cism, 158 

Jubilee, institution of the, 374 

Julian the Apostate, 106 ; his efforts to restore 
paganism, 107; and to reform it, 107; attempts 
to rebuild the temple of Jerusalem, 108 ; his 
writings, 113 

Julius II., (Julian della Rovera) a candidate for 
the papal crown, with Roderic Borgia, 512 ; 
attaches himself to Charles VIII., 514; succeeds 
Pius III., 516 ; his military character, 517; his 
patronage of the arts, 518; he excommunicates 
a council convoked by same cardinals at Pisa, ' 

519 ; convokes the fifth Lateran council, 519; 
dies, 519; his character and policy, 526 

Justin Martyr, 81 

Justinian, account of, 121 ; his edict against the 
schools at Athens, 125 

Knights of the Hospital, 314 

Templars, 314 

of the Order of the Virgin, 314; note 

Lactantius, his character as a writer, 127 
Laillier, John, a reformer, his disputations with 

the Sorbonne, 559 
Lateran councils, 276; the fourth, 285; the fifth 
convoked by Julius II., 519 ; its canons of re- 
formation, 519; its decree against the press, 

520 ; the council dissolved, 521 

Lay brethren in monasteries, institution of, 311 
Learning, state of, after tlie subversion of the 

western empire, 263 
Leo the Great, 119 ; introduces private confession 

120 
• the Isaurian, (emperor) attempts to abolish 

idolatrous worship, 167 

IX., attempt at church reform by, 232 

X., (see Medici, Giovmmi de) succeeds 

Julius II , 519 ; his decree against the press, 
520 ; he abolishes the Pragmatic Sanction, 520 ; 
degradation of the sacred college, 522 ; Leo's 
unfitness for stemming the reformation, 564 

Lewis the Meek, deposed by his sons, and subject- 
ed to ignominious ecclesiastical penance, 2J0 



Lewis IX., (St.) account of, 355 ; obtains the orig- 
inal crown of thorns, 356; his death, 357 j 
canonized by Boniface VIII., 357 

Libanius, his apology for paganism. 111, note 

Literature, decline of, 122; the clergy interdic- 
ted from secular literature, 124 ; state of 
learning before the tenth century, 224 

> — Christian, in the third century, 56, 



theological, three psras of, 267 



Liturgy, the Latin, established by Gregory VII., 
249 

Lollards, their origin and opinions, 400; horri- 
ble doctrines imputed to them, 400, note 

Louis of Bavaria, his contest with John XXII., 
against whom he sets up another pope, 385 ; 
his disputes with Clement VI., 389; patroni- 
ses the enemies of papacy, 399 

Lyons, first council of, deposes Frederic II., 337; 
second ditto, 344 ; law respecting the election 
of popes, 344 

second council for reconciling the Greek 



and Latin churches, 488 
Lucian, his account of the early Christians, 48 

Mahomet, his conquests, 135 
Manes, his system, 555, note 
Mantua, council of, convened by Pius II., to form 

a crusade against the Turks, 504 
Manuscripts, scarcity of, in the middle age», 

266 
Mark, St., preaches at Alexandria, 37 
Maronites, the, account of, 498 
Marriage of the clergy prohibited, 235 
Martin, St., (pope) carried captive to Constanti- 
nople, 148 

St., (of Tours) 157 

IV., miracles said to be worked at his tomb, 

345 
v., elected during the session of the council 

of Constance, 441 ; he eludes the articles of 

reform proposed by it, 444 
Martyrs, veneration for, 111 
Mass, canon of the, instituted by Gregory the 

Great, 141 
Masses, private, 541 
Mayence, diet of, 455 
Medici, Lorenzo de', excommunicated by Sixtus 

IV., 509 

Giovanni, son of the preceding, made 



cardinal by Innocent VIIL, at the age of thir- 
teen, 511, note; succeeds Julius 11., by the 
title of Leo X., 519 

Melito, bishop of Sardis, his works, 32 

Mendicants, order of, 315 ; their early merits, and 
subsequent degeneracy, 320 ; dispute in Eng- 
land between them and the clergy, 320, note , 
their contest with the cures about confession, 
404 

Metropolitans, decline of their power, 146 

Millennium, opinions regarding, 56 ; general ex- 
pectation of, in the tenth century, 223 

Minimes, order of, founded by Francisco of Pau- 
la, and confirmed by Sixtus IV., 510 

Minorites, or Fratricelli, the, condemned by John 
XXII. as heretics, 397; persecuted by the In- 
quisition, 398 

Miracles, pretended, 40, note; remarks on the 
cessation of miracles, 40 ; ditto false miracles^ 
543 

Miraculous claims of the early church, 40 

Missionaries, the mendicants distinguished as, 
549, 

Monachifem, its origin, and progress in the East, 
297 ; monks of Egypt, 299 ; of Syria, 300 ; 



676 



INDEX. 



early forms of monachism, 302 ; character of 
it in the East, 302 ; introduced in the West, 
304} its prevalence and character there, 305; 
account of the Rule of St. Benedict, 305 ; pro- 
gress of monachism in the West, 307 ; order 
of Cluni, 309; general remarks on monachism, 
326 ; successive reformations in the system, 
327 ; advantages produced by it, 328 ; super- 
stition encouraged by it, 332; the monastic 
orders gradually become dependent on the 
pope, 333 ; their wealth, 334 ; principles of 
monachism, 547 

Monothelites, 166 

Montanists, their doctrines, 78 

Monte Cassino, celebrated monastery of, 307 

Montfort, Simon de, commissioned to extirpate 
the heretics, 293 

Morality of the primitive church, 47 ; begins to 
decline, 53 

Morals, state of, during the fourth and fifth cen- 
turies, 126 

Mosheim, his garbled extracts from St. Eligius, 
251 

Mysticism, prevalence of in the East, 479 ; re- 
marks on, 549 ; the mystics oppose the schol- 
astics, 549 ; mysticism prevails in the Catholic 
church, 555 

Nepotism, system of, 502 

Nero, his persecution against the Christians, 58 

Nestorianism, spread of, 164 

Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople, 163; ex- 
communicated by Cyril and the council of 
Ephesus, 164 

Nice, council of, 94 

Nicholas II., elected in opposition to the Roman 
nobility, &c., 232 ; his edict in regard to future 
elections, 232 

III., 344 

v., (Thomas of Sarzana) elected on 

the death of Eugenius IV., the deposed pope, 
and Felix V. resigns, 455 ; his patronage of 
literature and the arts, 500 ; founds the Vati- 
can library, 500.; makes a concordat vi^itli the 
German church, 500 ; his efforts to recover 
Constantinople from the Turks, 501 ; his death, 
501 

Nogaret, William of, seizes Boniface VIII., 353 

Normans, converted to Christianity, 231 

Novations, sect of, 78 

Nunneries, institution of, attributed to St. An- 
thony, 303 

Nuns, establishment of, 322 origin of the name, 
323, note ; their vov/ of chastity , 323 ; Bene- 
dictme nuns, 323 ; canonesses. 324 ; nuns of 
the hospital, 324 ; of the Holy Trinity, 324 ; of 
St. Dominic, 324 ; of St. Brigida, 325 ; Ursuli- 
nes, 325 

Olive, Pierre d', his w^ork against the Romish 
Church, 404 

Orders, monastic, St. Benedict, 305 ; Cluni, 309 ; 
Cistercian, 310 ; La Chartreuse, 310 ; St. Do- 
minic, 315; St. Francis, 316 

military, 313 ; knights of the hospital, 314 ; 

Templars, 314 ; Teutonic order, 314 

Ordination, rite of, in the early church, 43, 
note 

Orip-en, account of, 51; his theological system, 
5! 

Osma, Peter of, a Spanish reformer, 559, note 

Otho the Great, reassumes the imperial authori- 
ty in regard to papal elections, 206 ; bestov^'s 
ecclesiastical investiture, 237 



Paganism, its decline and fall, 104 ; Julian's at- 
tempt to revive it, 107 ; a decisive blow given 
to it by Theodosius's edict, 110 ; its extinction, 
113 ; its influence on Christianity, 187 

Papacy, elements of, 154 ; the papal principle, 
148 

Papal power, increase of, 195 ; pretensions of 
the popes for interfering w^ith the succession to 
the imperial throne, 213 ; internal usurpation 
of the Roman see, 215 

Papias, the father of traditions, and the origina- 
tor of the doctrine of the millennium, 56 

Paris, University of, 376 

Paschal II., 254 ; his dispute v^^ith the emperor 
Henry V., 255 ; made prisoner by him, 255 

Paul II. succeeds Pius II., 507; diverts the war 
against the Turks to persecution of the Huss- 
ites, 508; discourages literature as dangerous to 
the church, 508 ; his death, 508 

Paulicians, sect of heretics in the Greek church, 
288, 477 ; numbers of them destroyed in the 
reign of Theodora, 477 ; their opinions, 478 

Pelagian controversy, the, 159 

Pelagianism, 161 

Pelagius, account of, 159 

Pepin, his donation to the church, 148 

Persecutions against the Christians : Nero's, 58 ; 
Domitian's, 60 ; Trajan's rescript favorable to 
them, 60; Marcus Antoninus's, 61 ; Severus', 
62; Decius', 63; Valerian's, 64; Diocletian's, 
64 ; indirect advantages of these persecutions, 
69 

Peter, the Lombard theological writer, 378 ; his 
book of the sentences, 378 

Petrobrussians, followers of Pierre de Bruys, 287 

Philip the Fair of France, his disputes with Boni- 
face VIIL, 350 ; he burns the Pope's bull, 351 ; 
conditions imposed by him on Clement V. 
whose election he favors, 381 ; causes all the 
Templars in his dominions to be seized, 382 ; 
and several to be burnt alive, 382 

Photius succeeds Ignatius as patriarch of Con- 
stantinople, 175 ; charges the Romish church 
with heresy, 175 ; deposed and recalled, 175 

Piccolomini, JEneas Sylvius, (Pius II.) see 
JEneas. 

Pilgrimages, 199, note, 366 

Pisa, council of, convened by the Cardinals, to 
settle the schism in the church, 419; it elects 
Alexander V., in opposition to Benedict XIII., 
and Gregory XII. 420 ; character and results 
of this assembly, 437 

Pius II., see JEneas Sylvius. 

Pius III., elected as successor to Alexander VI., 
but dies almost immediately afterwards, 516 

Platonics, new, sect of, 55 ^ 

Plenary Indulgence, 373 

Pliny the younger, his account of the early 
Christians, 33 

Poland, Christianity first introduced into, 230 

Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, 32 

Polytheism, character of, 57; its intolerance 
among the Romans, 58 

Popes, when they first assumed new names on 
their election, 228; regulations as to their 
election, 232 ; which becomes independent of 
the imperial sanction, 233 

Pragmatic Sanction, the, passed by the Council 
of Bourges, 456 ; annulled and afterwards res- 
tored by Louis XL, 509 ; abolished by Leo X.j 
520 

Praxeas, his heresy, 77 

Priscillian, Spanish bishop, put to death, 157 

Priscillianists, the, 157 

Prophets, class of ministers so called, 42 



INDEX. 



577 



Protestantism, attempts to trace its opinions 
back to the apostolical times, 552 ; no histori- 
cal proofs in their favor, 555 

Provincial Synods, 52 

Prussia, Christianity introduced into, by the 
Teutonic order, 315 

Purgatory, belief in, inculcated by Gregory the 
Great, 140, 186 ; disputation on at the Council 
of Ferrara, 490 ; doctrine of, 529, 540 

Radbert, Paschasius, his doctrine of the real pre- 
sence, 220 

Ratramn, appointed to examine the opinions of 
Radbert, 220 

Reform, college of, appointed by the council of 
Constance, 439 

Reformation : attempts at self-reformation in the 
Romish church, 434 ; general complaints 
against abuses, 435 ; council of Pisa appointed 
for measures of reform, 437 ; of Constance, 
ditto, 438 ; college of reform appointed by it, 
439 ; futility of the plan of reform, 441 ; arti- 
cles of reformation, 442, 450 , restrictions upon 
the pope, 450 ; this scheme of reformation elu- 
ded by Martin V., 445 ; council of Basle, 447 ; 
its contest with Eugenius IV., 448 ; its articles 
of reformation, 451 ; final breach with the 
pope, 453; nature of the reform attempted by 
the church itself, 500 

Reformers, early papal, Claudius of Turin, 228; 
Berenger, 248 ; Arnold of Brescia, 258 ; John 
of Wesalia, 558 ; Wesselus, 558.,- Laillier, 559 ; 
Savonarola, 559 ; Reuchlin, 561 ; Erasmus, 502 

Relics, superstitious reverence for, 140 

Reuchlin a reformer, 561 

Revenues of the church, 190 

Riario, Pietro, favorite nephew of Sixtus IV., his 
prodigality, 510 

Roman people, their character in the middle 
ages, 278 

Roman Catholic church, its power and constitu- 
tion, 525 ; secular authority of the popes, 520 ; 
spiritual supremacy of Rome, 520; infallibility 
of the pope, 529 ; his dispensing power, 529 ; 
penance and purgatory, 529; claims of the popes 
to universal temporal supremacy, 530 ; the 
cardinals and conclave, 531 ; relative power of 
the cardinals and the pope, 533 ; general coun- 
cils, 533; various causes of the influence of 
Romanism, 533; policy of the Vatican, 535, 
mediatorial character of the Romish priesthood, 
530 ; power arising to the church from a ple- 
beian order of clergy, 537 ; doctrines of the 
Romish church, 539; penance, 539; indulgen- 
ces, 539; purgatory, 540 ; discipline and morals, 
540 ; benefits conferred by the Roman Catho- 
lic church, 540 

Rome, persecutions at, under Nero, 35; empe- 
rors favorable to Christianity, 51, note 

Rome, church of, authority early claimed by, 50 ; 
causes of the increase of the authority of the 
Roman see, 190 

Russia, Christianity first introduced into, 230 

Sabellius, his heresy, 77 

Saccas, Ammonius, founder of the Eclectics or 
new Platonics, 55 

Sacraments of the primitive church, 40 

Saladin tax, the, imposed by Innocent III. on 
church property, 284 

Sarabaites, a kind of oriental monks, 300 

Saracens, their conquests, 130 

Savonarola, Jerome, Italian reformer, 559; his 
interview with Charles VIII. 560; and execu- 
tion, 561 

73 



Schism of the Roman Catholic church, account 
of, 405 

Schools, Christian, 45 

Scotus, John, appointed to examine the opinions 
of Radbert, 221 

Scotus, John Duns, 380 

Scriptures, the reading them prohibited, 542 

Semi-Arians, 98 

Semi-Pelagians, 162 

Sigismond, recommended as emperor by John 
XXIII., 422; he appoints Constance as the 
place for a council to decide the schism in the 
papal see, and on the two antipopes, 422 ; his 
character, 424 ; opposes John's interest, 425 

Simon Magus, the heresiarch, 73 

Simony, edict against, 236 

Sixtus IV. succeeds Paul II., 508 ; lays Florence 
under interdict, and excommunicates Lorenzo 
de' Medici, 509; his nepotism, 509 ; confirms 
the order of Minimes, 510, his character, 510 j 
and death, 510 

Socrates, the historian, 103 

Sorbonne, Robert de, 376 

Sozomen, Hermias, 103 

Spiritual courts, their j urisdiction , 277, note 
in England, 535, note 



Sylvester II., his encouragement of learning, 225 
originates the scheme of the crusades, 253 

Symeon the Styhte, 118 

Synesius, a platonic philosopher, made bishop, 
112, note 

Sylvius, yEneas. See M,ncas. 

Tartary, Christianity introduced into, 135 

Tatian founds the sect of the Encratites, 74 

Templars, knights, 314 ; council appointed by 
Clement V., to inquire into their conduct, 382; 
Philip the Fair causes all in his dominions to 
be seized, 382 ; their probable innocence, 
386 

Tertullian, account of, 52 

Teutonic order, the, 314 

Theodoret, ecclesiastical historian, 104 

Theodosius the Great, his edict against paganis& 
110 ; compelled by St. Ambrose to perform 
penance, 129 

Theological writers, 377 

TherapeutJB or Essenes, 

Thomists and Scotists, 380 

Tithes, 200 ; the first legally established by Char- 
lemagne, 201 ; their payment not universally 
enforced till the end of the twelfth century, 
202 

Toledo, councils of, 146 

Toulouse, councils of, 293 

Transubstantiation, Radbert's doctrine of, 220 ; 
opposed by Berenger, 248 ; the doctrine of, 
confirmed by Innocent III., 285 

Truce of God, 540 

Turks, exertions of Pius II. against, 506 ; and 
of other popes, 523 

Ulphilas, bishop, spreads the tenets of Arianisra 
among the Goths, 101, 115 

United Brethren, sect in Bohemia, 476 

University of Paris, 370 ; it condemns Aristotle's 
metaphysical works, 378 ; its projects for heal- 
ing the schism in the church, 413 

Urban II., 253 

Urban V. restores the papal residence from Avig- 
non to Rome, 391 

Urban VI., archbishop of Bari, his election, 407, 
arraigns the bishops for their misconduct, 408 ; 
the cardinals cancel his election, 409; his 
cause espoused by St. Catharine of Sienna, 410 ; 



578 



INDEX. 



imprisons six cardinals, 411 ; dies at Rome, 
412 
Ursuline Nuns, 325 

Valentinian I., 110 

Vaudois, or Waldenses, 289 ; crimes alleged 
against them by Rainer, 290, 291, note ; account 
of them, 554; persecutions, 556, note 

Venturius of Bergamo, founder of a sect of fana- 
tics, 

Vienne,, council of, to inquire into the conduct of 
the Templars, &c., 382 

Vigilantius, boldly inveighs against the supersti- 
tious practises of the church, 159 

Virgin, office instituted to the, 544 

Waldenses, the, account of that sect, 289 
Waldus, Peter, account of, 289 ; his death, 292 
Wesalia, John of, a reformer, account of, 558 



Wesselus, John, a reformer, 558 ; designated the 
forerunner of Luther, 558 

White Penitents, a sect of religious enthusiasts 
434 

Wiclif, John, account of, 560 ; his bones dug up 
by order of the council of Constance, 461 ; his 
opinions, 461 ; his doctrines carried into Bohe- 
mia, 462 

Wilfrid, St., 134, note 

Winfrid, an English missionary in Germany, 134 

Ximenes, cardinal, 546 

Zeno, emperor, his Henoticon, or edict of union 

165 
Zisca, heads the insurgent reformers in Bohemia 

473 
Zosimus, the historian, 115 






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